The FaithOfJesus2 Daily Devotional

Focus:

---

( FaithOfJesus thread begun by rRandyP )

Today's Verse:

kjv@Luke:11:37-54

kjv@Luke:11:37 @ And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat.

kjv@Luke:11:38 @ And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner.

kjv@Luke:11:39 @ And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.

kjv@Luke:11:40 @ Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also?

kjv@Luke:11:41 @ But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you.

kjv@Luke:11:42 @ But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

kjv@Luke:11:43 @ Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets.

kjv@Luke:11:44 @ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.

kjv@Luke:11:45 @ Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him, Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also.

kjv@Luke:11:46 @ And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.

kjv@Luke:11:47 @ Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.

kjv@Luke:11:48 @ Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres.

kjv@Luke:11:49 @ Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:

kjv@Luke:11:50 @ That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;

kjv@Luke:11:51 @ From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.

kjv@Luke:11:52 @ Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.

kjv@Luke:11:53 @ And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things:

kjv@Luke:11:54 @ Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him.

---

Today's notes:

Context:

• Before - Luke:11:33-36 The Lamp of the Body
  
• After - Luke:12:1-12 Warnings and Encouragements
  

Study Resources:

dict:easton washing

G724 ravening/extortion G4189 wickedness/malice

filter:NT-GOSPEL Woe unto you

kjv@Genesis:4:3-11 kjv@2Chronicles:24:17-22

dict:easton Lawyer

Notes:

Context again guides the interpretation. We have gone from the unrepentant heart to the light of the body and the single eye. If light were to be lit in the Pharisee's house what would the upright be shown to heed?

Why would Jesus be invited to the man's table if not to find fault in Him? Jesus uses the occasion to draw out the immediate issues regarding the larger body of darkness, namely that it takes offence to anything light has to reveal of it. Notice that He does not attack the man directly; His focus is on the Pharisee's and lawyers in general. It is almost as to guide the man/men by the hand through the darkness that they surround themselves with and make to the specific/insightful observations about it. If they were wiling to see it so, whatever reproach they were then to feel personally would rather be a good and enlightening thing. That is not how most would react however. Reproach of any kind is typically seen as insult. Yet the observation made is so clearly evident in the general sense it is meant rather as invitation.

The context leads us back to the heart that is unwilling to see, unwilling to accept the signs and evidences, unwilling to change from what it itself has worked so hard as to bolster/prop up and or detest and tear down. It's legalism is become quite superficial and hypocritical and burdensome when revealed by the light of grace; it's history most compacted in hidden guilt. It has no signs or divine confirmations of it's own nor does it need so being immeasurably self justified. Itself bankrupt, it banks upon (confiscates/triangulates) the popularity and divine confirmation of the prophets past for itself by raising memorials presumably to the same as they killed.

As for the previous two distinct bodies darkness and light, the present body of Pharisee/Scribe/Lawyer is tied back (and held accountable to) the actions of men as far back as Cain. Not that they were formal institutions in that time, but that they are of the same ravenous spirit. There is a profit to them in holding others to a burden too grievous to bare, for then others are always beholden to them to do their will. They can't hold themselves to the same however, for there is no one other than God for them to be beholden to. Therefore they make it to appear on the outside that they have mastered the carrying of the weight of the burden by recognition and exaltation of each other within their elite little group.

Their reaction to Jesus is most interesting in that the ploy becomes to provoke Him into speaking out on as many things as they could in order by the rush and volume to catch Him at His own words. We should be aware of the same ploy used against us.

Key Messages:

Declaring Certainty

---

Further Resources:

Comment Board:Luke:11:37-54
index:FAITHOFJESUSDEVOTION - Devotional Index
strkjv@Luke:11:37-54 rwp@Luke:11:37-54 mhcc@Luke:11:37-54
FaithOfJesus2 - Devotion Index

---