Luke 4:14-21 The Scroll of Isaiah
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: June 29, 2018 Luke 4:14-21
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 Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
(Understanding the Text / Revelation of God) Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit and returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. The Spirit is a big part of the New Testament story, yet we don’t see His manifestations in the way that they did nowadays. Why? Are we just used to His presence and don’t know about a time before He was with us continually? Were things very different before Pentecost? Or are things very different now from what they were in the years after Pentecost? I see subtle workings of the Spirit in my fellow believers and myself now, but I do not see direct guidance the way the Bible talks about it.
Jesus became famous in Galilee. Part of that would have been because of the incident with the baptism and John’s testimony. It says that Jesus taught in synagogues and was uniformly praised. At this point, He is an up and coming rabbi with wisdom, charisma, and the endorsement of the most respected religious leader of the time. He is thought to be the Messiah, but if not, He is still good to listen to.
He was traveling around visiting synagogues and He came to His own hometown. Was it just one of many towns on the circuit that He was traveling, or did He come to visit His family and maybe pick up some clothes or something else? Anyway, the people of Nazareth had heard that He was getting famous, so they invited their hometown visiting celebrity to read the scripture for the day. According to The Desire of Ages, Jesus had often read in Nazareth’s synagogue before, and people had enjoyed His lessons. The SDA commentary says that Jesus left Nazareth in the fall of A.D. 27 and that this visit probably took place in the late spring of 29. Half of His public ministry was already in the past. Thus, verses 14 and 15 pass over a lot that happened in Jesus’ early ministry. There would be one more recorded visit to Nazareth in A.D. 30, probably in early spring, about a year later.
They gave Him the book of Isaiah to read. Jesus not only spoke the common Aramaic language but also read Hebrew. The SDA commentary says that the lesson of the day was always read in Hebrew. It also says that by this time, Hebrew was a more or less dead language. Jesus opened the scroll up to read the verses that said “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” This was Isaiah 61:1-2. The SDA commentary points out that Luke would have used the Septuagint to write the verses down in Greek. In the Septuagint of Luke’s day, a portion of this verse is missing. The commentary also says that Jesus probably asked for the scroll of Isaiah and then when it was delivered to Him spent quite a while unrolling one side and rolling the other up in order to reach it as it would have been at the end of the scroll. Therefore, it was obvious to the onlookers that Jesus was looking for a specific passage. They probably waited with anticipation wondering what He would say to them. Then, He only read two verses before sitting down. He stopped short of reading the next part which was a favorite of Jews “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;” (Isaiah 61:2). The year of the LORD, but no day of vengeance was mentioned. They would have been shocked. What was going on? They knew His teaching and had enjoyed listening many times before. Now, He took a long time opening the scroll, read 2 verses, and sat down. When the silence had extended long enough, He calmly announced that they were seeing this text fulfilled. Essentially, He was telling them that He was the Messiah. When I first read this, I pictured Jesus going and sitting down among the listeners, but the SDA commentary says that “Custom required a standing posture for the public reading of the Law and the Prophets. But for the sermon which followed the reading, the speaker was seated in a special seat sometimes called ‘the chair of Moses.’ This chair stood on a raised platform near the lectern. Often, perhaps usually, Christ sat while preaching and teaching (see Matt. 5:1; Mark 4:1; Luke 5:3; John 8:2), a custom also followed, at least occasionally, by His disciples (see Acts 16:13).”
The Spirit of God had indeed settled upon Jesus and He had been following the Spirit’s leading. What does the Spirit do? Gives power to announce to the poor that there is good news, gives freedom to captives, gives sight to the blind, and sets free the oppressed. The Spirit proclaimed that the year that had been looked forward to for so long was finally here. As I read, I was thinking of the year of Jubilee and the SDA commentary also compares the Year of the LORD to Jubilee.
(Application / Prayer) My application for myself is that the Spirit was necessary for Jesus’ ministry, and it is necessary for my own work for God. I need to listen for His voice and follow His commands. I’m not very good at listening; I will need to learn to listen better. There is too much else in my head trying to drown Him out.