Matthew 8:14-17 The Mother-in-law
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: February 21, 2019, Matthew 8:14-17
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”
(Understanding the Text) Matthew does not try to place events in chronological order. He has a different kind of logic. First, he presented an overview with scriptural proofs of the Messiahship of Jesus. Next, he presented the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount, and then he started giving evidence of Jesus’ miracles. According to Luke, the centurion’s servant’s healing took place right after the Sermon on the Mount when they got back into Capernaum which agrees with the timing of Matthew. However, Mark places this miracle of Peter’s mother-in-law as being much earlier in Jesus’ ministry. I think maybe Matthew was organizing by location here. Both of these miracles took place in Capernaum. Maybe, he is also trying to show the miracles where Jesus helped more than just Jewish men since first, Matthew gives the example of a Gentile healing, and then he gives an example of the healing of a woman. I think maybe Matthew is back to proofs also when he points back to Isaiah and says that the healings were fulfillments of prophecy.
From Mark and Luke, I know that this was Sabbath, and they had just returned from the synagogue. “And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her” (Mark 1:29-30). They may have been staying in Capernaum already and left that morning to go to the synagogue, or they may have only entered town that day, gone first to the synagogue, and then to Peter’s home. I think it was the former. Both gospels agree that Peter’s home was in Capernaum.
Matthew says that Jesus touched her hand to heal her. Mark says “And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them” (Mark 1:31). “And he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they appealed to him on her behalf. And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them” (Luke 4:38-39). Luke says that Jesus rebuked the fever as He stood over her. I think that Mark’s account is the most complete, and the other two are leaving out some of what happened. I think Jesus not only touched her hand but actually took it in His own. He may have spoken, or maybe “rebuked” is simply Luke’s way of saying that Jesus healed her of the fever. Luke adds the information that when they first entered the house, someone asked Jesus to heal the woman.
My picture is that they were coming home from synagogue discussing the events that had occurred there and enjoying being with each other. Inside the house, Peter’s wife had been worried that her beloved mother was so sick that she might die. Peter’s wife did not mention the fever to the men before they left for synagogue, but now her worry overflowed. When Peter entered the house, she rushed over to tell him her fears for her mother. Peter had seen many miracles in his time with Jesus, some on the Sabbath, so he and/or his wife asked Jesus to heal her mother-in-law. Jesus and the other disciples walked over to where the old woman was laying down deathly pale and sweaty. Then Jesus reached down and picked up her hand. The onlookers watched in joy as her pale countenance was transformed from a pasty sickliness to ruddy health. Where before the older woman had looked without comprehension at Jesus as He took her hand, now she gazed with intelligent eyes at the people standing around her. Jesus assisted her in rising from her mat on the floor. At this point, she was filled with energy and life. Before aches and pains had crippled her making it difficult to move, but she could now move with freedom. She rushed to serve the men, not because she thought that she had been slacking from her duties, but because for the first time in quite a while, she could move freely without pain, and she felt so full of life that she felt the need to move around and do something. This need prompted her to automatically begin the activities that she had done without thought for many years as a youthful mother. She went to the kitchen to serve food to the hungry boys of the household.
(Revelation of God) This healing is an example of what always happens with Jesus. We are weak and pathetic in our sin-sickness. Jesus heals us and assists us to our feet. Jesus has filled us with such strength and energy that we want to move and do something. That energy flows into service. Some of us do this more naturally than others. As the baby of the family, I did not flow into service naturally and had to learn over years that service was not just important but also a joy to do when a person is full of strength, health, and energy. It gives purpose.
(Understanding the Text) During the day, word of Jesus’ miracle at the synagogue made the rounds of the homes in Capernaum, so anyone with a diseased or demon-possessed friend or family member determined to hurry over to Peter’s house as soon as Sabbath was over and get Jesus to heal them. Thus, as the sun went down, the residents of the house were shocked as the people from all over the city of Capernaum converged on the house. Peter’s mother-in-law needed her new strength to deal with the influx. As the evening darkened they lit lamps, and Jesus healed people until late in the night. Peter’s mother-in-law was at the forefront of many healings that day. When the disciples and Jesus left the town to continue their travels around Galilee, Capernaum was a healthier happier place for many people
The SDA commentary says that Matthew’s scriptural evidence is referring back to Isaiah 53:4. “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:4). However, Matthew is paraphrasing and actually extending the application of this verse outside of its context. The context of Isaiah is our sin, and Matthew applies it to our physical ailments. Why did Matthew feel free to “misapply” verses so much? He was under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so the accusation of sloppy shoddy knowledge of the scriptures is not an excuse. I think maybe in Matthew’s mind, sin was an integral part of physical suffering. I think that in his mind the physical and the spiritual were one, so the verses applied to both the physical and spiritual aspects of a person’s life. In some ways, this is the health message that was given to the Adventist church. We were to emphasize the relationship between the mental, physical, and spiritual and demonstrate that to neglect one causes harm to the other. Our message is a message of wholeness of body, mind, and spirit to combat the Greco-Medieval church ideas of the spiritual realm being totally separate from the physical. I think the Spirit guided Matthew to this application in order for us to have evidence of the oneness of the physical and spiritual in healing and in our lives.
(Application / Prayer) My application to myself is that I need to go to Jesus for healing more often so that I can serve with joy. Service wounds me, which causes me difficulties in serving with joy, but if I appeal to Jesus for healing, He will not only heal the broken places and provide comfort but also give me strength and energy to serve more. I ask for Your healing, comfort, and strength that I might serve You with gladness.