31 Days of Prayer with Superintendent Wil Nichols, August 27, 2024

STRETCH FORTH

Matthew 12:9 And when he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue:

10 And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him.

11 And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?

12 How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days.

13 Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other.

In our text it was the Sabbath Day, and Jesus goes into the synagogue. A man with a shriveled hand was there.Since the Pharisees were continually looking for some way to accuse Jesus, they could have planted this man in the synagogue to create an incident. The Pharisees raised the question, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? Jesus answered their question, as He often did, with another question. Ifone’s sheep would fall into a pit on the Sabbath, would he not… lift the sheep out of the pit, even though this might be construed as work? An act of mercy toward an animal was perfectly in order. Since people are much more valuable than animals, mercy should be extended toward them even on Sabbath Days. Jesus thus removed any possible objection to what He was going to do, for Scripture did not forbid it and His logic was flawless. His healing the man, however, did not prompt faith in the Pharisees for they went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.

Our thought for this morning comes from verse 13 where Jesus asks the man to stretch forth his hand. When the did as Jesus had asked, his hand was completely healed.

My question for us this morning is, what has Jesus asked us to stretch out on?

This man in the text got his healing by obeying the words of Jesus. If he had disobeyed, he would not have gotten his healing. How many blessings await us because we are either to afraid, insecure or have a lack of faith to stretch out on what God has called us to do?

The Biblical meaning in this text of stretch forth in text is to put forth. But it has another meaning also, which is to extend. For us this morning it means that to do what God has called us to do we may have to extend beyond what is normal. We must extend out of our comfort zone. We need to extend our faith beyond yesterday’s faith.

The Apostile Paul told us, for we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:17).

To stretch forth on our faith means we are going have to start moving by the power of God even when don’t see the light at the tunnel.