Luke 7:31-35 Playing the Flute
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: July 27, 2018 Luke 7:31-35
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.
“To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’ For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.”
(Understanding the Text) While I get the gist of this, I don’t really understand how it’s related to the previous verses. Is it because Jesus is contrasting the John the Baptist that He had just described with Himself saying that God had sent two different kinds of messages to the people, and they rejected both? Is Jesus exasperated with the people, especially the Pharisees, because no matter who the Father sent, they refused to listen? Maybe, it goes back to the purpose for why Jesus started speaking of John the Baptist to start with. Jesus knew that the people were questioning why John was still in prison and why the Messiah did not free Him. Jesus knew that He needed to focus the people on John’s message that Jesus was the Messiah. He built up a realistic picture of John and said how great he was before saying that the least of Jesus’ new kingdom had a greater message than John. Then there is the reaction where most believed but not the Pharisees, so now Jesus is saying that if they did not believe in John and they did not believe in Jesus, then they were petulant children who complain about everything? I’m not sure. I think I’m just rambling here.
The Cambridge commentary points out that asking what to compare the generation to was just a way that Jesus frequently started a parable and gives the example of Mark 30, which is the beginning of the parable of the mustard seed. The children’s game that Jesus uses here as a parable is a little confusing to me. Were the children trying to play a game and the other children refused to participate? Or was it all part of the game to criticize? The ISV version reduces the translation to a verse as if the children were singing it. “They are like little children who sit in the marketplace and shout to each other, ‘A wedding song we played for you, the dance you simply scorned. A woeful dirge we chanted, too, but then you did not mourn.'” (Luke 7:32). Why did they make the translation into a poem? Was it to keep the feeling of the original Greek because it was poetic? If so, why don’t any of the other translations do this?
(Understanding the Text / Revelation of God) This passage tells a little about the lifestyles of the John the Baptist and Jesus. John the Baptist did not drink wine, which I already knew, but this says that he ate no bread. I did not know that. I know it says that John ate locusts and honey, but I did not think of that as eating no bread. Jesus ate a lot and drank grape juice and maybe wine. He definitely drank some fermented stuff because it just naturally happened to grape juice in those days. Jesus associates the eating and drinking with the tax collectors and sinners. I think He may have eaten at tax collectors’ houses a lot more than the few accounts in the Bible.
When people saw John, they saw a man of abstinence who denied himself many comforts and lived a simple life in the wilderness away from people until his ministry brought him into contact with crowds. John was not gentle and quiet. He roared out his message to wake people up. He spoke out loudly of their sins criticizing their abuse of God’s love. He was not a soft or gentle man. When people saw Jesus, they saw a Man who was constantly surrounded by friends, enjoying them, eating and drinking with them, smiling at them, accepting and being accepted by them. His presence was a delight, and He seemed to delight in many things. There was a peace and joy in Jesus’ presence that was absent in John’s. John’s purpose was to wake the people up out of their self-satisfaction. Jesus chose to woo them with His love and mercy. Guzik says “Jesus points out the hypocrisy of these hardened hearts who criticized both John the Baptist and Jesus Himself. ‘If the message is unwelcome, nothing that the messenger can say or do will be right.’ (Maclaren).”
Jesus condemned the people who did not pay attention to either message. Then, He said that they would see the rightness of John and Himself by the results, just as the Pharisees could be seen by theirs. Jesus’ method was justified because it resulted in repentance in the ones He ate and drank with. John’s method was justified because it resulted in repentance from the ones who came to hear him.
(Application / Prayer) My application to myself is to not look at the style of someone as much as their results. Whether I like someone’s style or not is irrelevant. What is relevant is what end their teachings result in. My other application is not to complain because complaining is childish. I should instead focus on the message and the results, but most of all focus on Jesus. Another application is that I should not worry if people criticize me as an excuse to reject the message, especially, when they have received the message from multiple sources and use different criticisms for each messenger in order to reject the message. It is difficult not to judge or complain. I want to serve You with joy, but to often I see the problems and think critically of other people’s methods. Teach me not to judge and to value others’ efforts even when I don’t agree with them stylistically.