Luke 4:22 And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?

Picking up where we left off yesterday, we see the reaction from the congregation where Jesus has just announced that they were witnesses to prophecy fulfilled. If I were to put this in today’s language it would sound like this; “Who does he think he is?”

Jesus was respected as a fellow Jew. His perfect life was no threat to the locals who had known Him all their lives. But now He has spoken the truth which they in no way were ready to accept, much less from one of their own. Prophets had been quite in Israel for 490 years. They were not used to hearing one speak as a prophet. Only a prophet could unravel the mysteries of the Word.

Luke 4:18-19 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

Israel was looking for the Anointed to come, but certainly not this carpenter they had known all His life. He didn’t fit their image of what a Messiah would be, a King. But they had only heard the scriptures read to them. They had no one to speak the truth to them out of scriptures to recognize who Jesus truly was. But Jesus had been reading the scriptures His whole life. When He read the scriptures He recognized Himself in the Word. What constraint He showed not to have said anything like this before the appointed time.

But now the time has come.

To be continued.