As Those Who Rejected the Prophet Before Them

Luke 4:25-28 ESV

25 But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, 26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” 28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.

Back in Old Testament times, particularly at the end of the time of the Judges and at the dawn of the age of Kings in Israel, God came to a man named Samuel and gave him a task to carry out.

The people of Israel had clamored for a king, and so God gave them what they asked for: a king. And the king that He gave them was a man named Saul.

Well, Saul had failed miserably as king, and as a result, God had rejected him and his household from serving as kings. Therefore, the task that God had given to Samuel was to go and anoint a new king, a man whom God would choose, a man who was after God’s own heart.

The 16th chapter of 1st Samuel recounts all of this for us. God told Samuel to fill his horn with anointing oil, and to go to the city of Bethlehem to a man named Jesse. Samuel was told that one of Jesse’s sons would be the one whom God would have him anoint as king.

The Scriptures tell us that when Samuel came to Jesse and his sons, that he looked upon Eliab, the oldest, tallest, and most handsome of Jesse’s sons and Samuel thought to himself, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him.”

But when Samuel thought this, the Lord said to him: “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

So, it obviously wasn’t Eliab. So, then Jesse called for his son, Abinadab, and had him pass before Samuel, but the Lord had not chosen him either. Then Jesse had another son, Shammah pass before Samuel, but once again, the Lord had not chosen him.

Jesse had seven of his sons pass by, but it was the same answer for all of them; the Lord had not chosen them to be anointed as the king of Israel.

But the Lord told Samuel that one of Jesse’s sons would be anointed king, so he asked Jesse, “Are all of your sons here?” and Jesse said, “Well, there’s one more, the youngest, I was positive that God would not desire him to be king, so I had him stay out in the field, and tend to the sheep.”

Well, Samuel thought that the Lord may think differently than Jesse concerning his youngest son, especially after God told him that He doesn’t look at the outward appearance, so he told Jesse to have this youngest son brought to him at once. And then he came, a ruddy, handsome young man named David. And when Samuel saw him, God said: “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.”

Isn’t it funny how life is like that sometimes? Sometimes things aren’t always what they seem. And sometimes what we would expect to be the obvious choice is in fact the complete opposite of what we should choose.

Well, as we’ve been working through this series of messages concerning the Lord Jesus’ ministry in His hometown of Nazareth, we see something similar to the example that I just gave concerning David and the other sons of Jesse. And that’s that things aren’t always what they seem.

When someone leaves his hometown and makes a big name for himself elsewhere, when he returns home, he is almost always welcomed with open arms and is received as the hometown hero.

And as this narrative indicates, prior to Jesus returning home to Nazareth, He had been making a big name for Himself all over the region of Galilee.

And so, of course, it would seem that when Jesus returns home to Nazareth, the citizens there are going to welcome Him with open arms and believe everything that He says and follow Him the way that they ought to.

But like I said… things aren’t always what they seem.

Instead, what we read in the three verses prior to our reading for today is that the people of Nazareth did not receive Jesus, because Jesus had grown up around there, and to them, He was just a regular guy.

And because they just viewed Him as a regular guy, they certainly didn’t believe His claims that He came from God, that He was the long-awaited Messiah. No matter what miracle He may perform or what word He may speak, because to them, He was just the carpenter’s son from Nazareth.

And then to their shame, Jesus pronounced that a true prophet is never accepted in his hometown.

But Jesus goes on to tell the people there from His hometown that their rejection of Him isn’t unnatural at all, in fact, He tells them that their rejection of Him is actually pretty consistent with the way that the people of Israel had traditionally behaved when God would send a legitimate messenger to them and the consequences that they faced because of their rejection of God’s messengers.

He gives them two different instances. The first from the time of the prophet Elijah when He says:

*Luke 4:25-26 ESV

25 But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, 26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

In this first instance that the Lord gives, the people of Israel were submerged in what was perhaps the darkest period of their history, during the reign of the wicked king Ahab.

Now, because of Israel’s extreme wickedness at this time and because of their refusal to heed to any of God’s messengers, God withheld the rains and brought a drought upon the land. In fact, it was a drought that lasted for three and a half years.

For three years and six months, there was no rain in the land of Israel. But God ensured that Elijah His prophet was still cared for. God told Elijah to dwell by a brook east of the Jordan and to drink from the water in the brook. And He also assured Elijah that he would be fed too as the Lord would command ravens to bring him food.

But as I said, there was no rain, so, in time, the brook dried up. And because of this, Elijah had to move along in order to survive.

God told Elijah to go to the city of Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, because God had commanded a widow there to feed Elijah.

So, when Elijah arrived at Zarephath, he beheld a widow gathering sticks. Elijah knew that this had to be the widow who would care for him, so he asked her for a littler water and a morsel of bread. The widow responded by saying that she only had a very small portion of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug.

She told Elijah that because that was all of the sustenance that she had, she was going to prepare the tiny bit of food that she had left so that she and her son could eat it because after that there was nothing left, and so she knew that she and her son would then starve to death.

But Elijah told her that if she would first make a little bit of food for him, and then after that went and prepared the meal for she and her son that God would ensure that the little bit of food that she had for she and her son would last them and sustain them throughout the entire drought.

This didn’t sound rational, but she believed that God could indeed do this, so she did as Elijah commanded. And the result was just as Elijah predicted: The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, and she and her son survived the drought.

Now, what Jesus says here is that there were certainly starving widows in Israel during this time. And of course, we would expect the people of Israel, God’s chosen people to believe that He could provide for them; but they didn’t. And because of this, Elijah was not sent to an unbelieving Israeli widow, instead, he was sent to a believing Gentile widow from Sidon.

But Jesus gave another instance of the consequences that the people of Israel suffered as a result of refusing to believe in the Lord’s power. This instance came during the time of Elisha; Elijah’s student and successor. We read of this in verse 27 of our reading, where it says:

*Luke 4:27 ESV

27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”

Naaman was the commander of the Syrian army, and thus from a Gentile nation. He suffered terribly from leprosy but was told by a servant girl whom he had captured from Israel that his leprosy would be cured if he were to consult Elisha the prophet.

So, Naaman set out for Israel in order to consult with Elisha.

Well, much to Naaman’s annoyance, the prophet wouldn’t come and meet Naaman himself, probably because of the fact that he had leprosy and Elisha didn’t want to become unclean himself. Instead, Elisha sent a messenger to Naaman and told him to wash himself in the Jordan River seven times in order to be rid of his leprosy.

Eventually, Naaman done this, and just as Elisha told him, after dipping himself in the Jordan the seventh time, his leprosy was gone!

Now, as the Lord says, there were many lepers in Israel at this time, lepers that were among God’s chosen people. And one would expect them, as the chosen people of God, to believe that God could heal their leprosy, but they didn’t believe it. And because they didn’t believe it, they didn’t approach God to heal them, as Naaman the Gentile did.

Well, in the same way, the people of Nazareth were from Jesus’ hometown and were expected to receive Him, just as the people of Israel were expected to receive God’s prophets. But just as Israel did not receive God’s prophets, neither does Nazareth receive Jesus.

They refused to believe that He was Who He said He was. And so just as God gave blessings to people outside of Israel in the times of Elijah and Elisha, so do people from cities other than Nazareth experience the blessings and miracles of Jesus.

Jesus had performed miracles in other towns and villages in Galilee, but they believed that He was Who He said He was, and for that reason they experienced the Lord’s blessings.

Well, the Nazarenes refused to believe, and because of that, there were no miracles or blessings to be given to them.

You see, though it was Israelis who persecuted and killed the prophets of God, by this time in Israel’s history, the people rightly recognized that killing God’s prophets was extremely wrong. But now, Jesus is standing here before these Nazarenes, those from His hometown, and He’s telling them that they are just like those who came before them who killed God’s prophets.

So, at hearing this, the people were not exactly thrilled, in fact, they were downright angry. The last verse of our reading today tells us this where it says:

*Luke 4:28 ESV

28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.

They were more than angry… they were filled with wrath! They were beside themselves and uncontrollably mad.

They despised the fact that Jesus had just told them that they were just like those who killed the prophets because they didn’t believe Him just like their forefathers didn’t believe the prophets.

But even though they were mad at Jesus for this, little did they realize that reacting the way that they were reacting was also in line with the way that those who killed the prophets reacted when they told them their God-given prophecies.

Their forefathers, those who killed the prophets responded to their prophecies in wrath, though the prophets were sent by God. but Jesus is here, and He wasn’t just sent by God, He came from God, in fact, He is God! And just like their forefathers wanted to kill the prophets, so do these Nazarenes want to kill Jesus.

You know, I hate to say this, but I think that a lot of us can be like these Nazarenes sometimes. So often, we hear the truth, but it’s not a truth we like, so rather than accept the truth, we despise it. It’s like we want to crucify Jesus all over again for telling us the truth.

And the greatest truth is found in this Book. But I’m going to tell you what, sometimes when I read the truths in this book, I kind of get uncomfortable. Sometimes when we read the Bible, we say to ourselves, “You know, I kind of wish that wasn’t there.” But it is, it’s there, and whether we like it or not, it’s truth.

So, beloved, let us not be like those from Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth, let us not despise and hate the truth. Instead, let us accept and learn to love the truth!

Amen?