This Day Is This Scripture Fulfilled

"And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. 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. And He closed the book, and He gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on Him. And He began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." (Luke 4:16-21)

There is an interesting backdrop to this story in Luke chapter 4. Jesus had just been in the wilderness for forty days of fasting. While He was there, Satan tried to divert the Lord from the purpose that He had been sent to fulfill. Of course, Satan failed in his attempts, and Jesus returned out of the wilderness "in the power of the Spirit," and entered into Galilee.

At the time Galilee was one of three provinces in Palestine - Judea and Samaria were the other two. It was referred to as "Galilee of the Gentiles" because of the large percentage of Gentiles that inhabited the area. To say that the "purer" Israelites of Judea looked down their noses at the Galileans, and felt superior to them, would be an understatement. When Nathaniel was first told by Philip about Jesus, his comment was, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" This was the area where Jesus grew up and Nathaniel knew this.

Jesus began to preach and work miracles in Galilee, and word of His ministry spread quickly throughout the region. It was at this point that He came to His boyhood home of Nazareth. As was His habit (and as He had no doubt been doing His whole life), Jesus went to the synagogue in Nazareth on the Sabbath day. It was customary, after the reading of the Law, for the minister, or attendant, to deliver a portion of one of the Prophets to someone to read and exhort on it. This they did with Jesus.

It was no coincidence that Jesus read where He did. He found the place in Isaiah that prophesied of His ministry. The verses that He read fortold how God had anointed Christ to bring the gospel of salvation to the poor, to comfort the broken hearts, to deliver the captives, to restore sight to blind eyes, to liberate the downtrodden, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. When Jesus was finished reading, and had sat down, all of the eyes of those who were present were fixed on Him. It was then that He spoke these simple, but profound words, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."

What power is contained in these words! Today - this very moment - God is prepared to fulfill His promises to you! God is announcing that the time, the time of your acceptance before God, is now. Your healing, your deliverance, and your very salvation, are yours to receive. Could there have been a greater message preached to these Jews of Nazareth? Could God's invitation to them have been any clearer? With just nine words Jesus said it all.

God is also speaking today, and is fulfilling His promises to us. His Word comes to us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it unto you." (John 16:12-14) He speaks to us a word in season which has the potential to change our lives. Like a sower casting seed on the ground, God plants His Word into our hearts and minds. It is up to us to believe, however, and allow that Word to grow and mature in us. We often feel like we are waiting for God to move in our life when it is He Who is waiting for us to believe in the Word that He has already spoken to us.

Paul tells us, "We then, as workers together with Him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (For He saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)" (2 Corinthians 6:1, 2) Now is the time frame in which God operates. Man would procrastinate, but God is ready now. We may think that we have to do this thing and that thing before we can be accepted by God, but now is the accepted time.

One would think that those who were at the synagogue in Nazareth on that day would have flocked to Jesus to be healed, delivered, and saved. Instead, they began to reason against Him in their hearts. "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)

The people in Capernaum had no problem believing Christ for miracles, but the people of Nazareth were crippled by their own unbelief. Jesus called them out by saying to them, "Ye will surely say unto Me this proverb, Physician, heal Thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Thy country. And He said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country." (Luke 4:23, 24) We need to understand what God is speaking to us today, and trust in it, despite what friends, family, or others may say or think. Those closest to us may sometimes be our biggest detractors.

What Jesus said next to the Jews was what sent them over the edge. "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) By saying this, Jesus was rebuking not only their unbelief, but also their prideful prejudices and bigotry. They thought themselves better than other Galileans - holier and closer to God; but, in reality, they were placing themselves beyond God's blessings. They were jealous to think that God would bless others who they felt were unworthy, but it was these very souls whom God found to be open and receptive to the gospel. As Isaiah had prophesied, it was the "poor" to whom Christ had come to preach the gospel, for, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:3)

"And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way, and came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days. And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power." (Luke 4:28-32)

Sometimes our faith will inspire hope in others; but there are times, also, when it may evoke hatred and jealousy instead. Either way, we must be a people who receive God's promises, and are not afraid to have them fulfilled in us. Today - this day - God is willing to fulfill His Word in you and me. What is God speaking to you today?