Gracious Words

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? (Luke 4:22 KJV)

Jesus had been reading from Isaiah 61:1-2:

And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 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. (Luke 4:17-19 KJV)

After closing the book, he commented on the prophecy:

And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. (Luke 4:21 KJV)

In the next verse His words were described as ‘gracious.’ What happened, then between ‘gracious’ and:

And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, (Luke 4:28 KJV)

Basically, He tells us that life is not fair. He said that some receive help and sustenance, others do not and will die:

But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. (Luke 4:25-27 KJV)

Our bodies fail us, for a number of reasons. Some reach adulthood, even old age, and we die. So do children – innocent, sweet, loving, heroic children – and our hearts are broken during their suffering and the devastating sorrow of their families. There are times we are as those in the synagogue when they heard these things, we are filled with wrath.

We don’t know where to direct this wrath so it often gets tossed back at God. “Why?” The best answer I’ve found was written by a man who lost his wife and realized, God is sovereign, and wrote his thoughts about what happens when God does not heal.

Should the Lord delay His coming, we shall die. No differently than the woman who bought into the serpent’s promise:

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: (Genesis 3:4 KJV)

He lied.

He did not speak to her of God’s sovereignty, and he continues to deny it today as he promises us what he cannot deliver, simply because God is sovereign. That is summed up in the words given by three young men:

If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. (Daniel 3:17-18 KJV)

How do we handle the “But if not ...”?