The Word To Live By: 3-2-26
Phil Waggoner
And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they implored Him to leave their region. Matthew 8:34
The Word To Live By: Let me set the stage for this action from the whole city. To begin the chapter, we see Jesus proclaiming the will of God is to heal by saying it and healing a man with leprosy in front of a big crowd. The crowd follows Him to Capernaum and He heals a non-believer’s child because of “His great faith.” Then He went to Peter’s house and healed Peter’s mother-in-law. (Some men say that’s why Peter denied Him. 😊) I’ll quote verse 16 because it’s such a beautiful picture of who Jesus is. “When evening came, they brought to Him many who were demon possessed and He cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.” The crowd was getting bigger and it was getting later so Jesus said, “Take me to the other side of the lake.” Now, here’s where it gets really interesting. Jesus falls asleep in the back of the boat. This was a big boat. There were at least 12 men plus Jesus in the boat and there was a sleeping compartment. A boat-sinking storm came up and they woke up Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” I think He was a little perturbed at them because they had been witnessing miracle after miracle through faith all day long and He expected them to do something about the storms that came up in their lives. Anyway, He shut the storm down and when they got to the other side in the country of the Gadarenes, there were two men who were crazy violent, taking care of a herd of pigs. Obviously, this was a country of non-believers. (Jewish law forbid the handling of pork in any form.) We know from the other Gospels that these men became believers, but what I want you to see is that the region ran Jesus out because they thought He was ruining their economy. Don’t judge Jesus people by what you see and perceive they are doing because it doesn’t line up with your “religion”. Judge God by what you see Him doing in the Gospels.
Read through the Bible in a year: Matthew 9:1-17; Leviticus 3-4; Proverbs 20;
Read through the New Testament and Proverbs: Proverbs 2, Mark 3:1-18, 2 Corinthians 1
The sum of Thy Word is Truth Psalm 119:160