Matthew
12:9-12,13; Mark 3:1-4,5; Luke
6:6-9,10
Dear
Reader, as we work through Christ’s 40 specific miracles … and he must have done thousands (John 21:25) …
Christ
was leading Israel to bring to mind, ‘parallel’ and similar miracles
from the
Old Testament, that occurred centuries earlier.
In
essence Christ says “Oh Israel, call
to mind similar miracles from your history, and I want you to
remember the
context in which they occurred. Indeed, I AM Jesus Christ (John
8:28;
Exodus 3:14), JEHOVAH ALMIGHTY GOD manifest in the flesh (1Timothy
3:16) … and
the miracles I do will be a ‘re-enactment’ and reminiscent of the past.
In
doing so, I will be fulfilling the scriptures, as in the mouth of two
or three
witnesses every word may be established (Matthew 18:16) … that and you will know that I am Lord
(Jesus Christ) God” (Ezekiel 13:9 + 12 other references
in
Isaiah).
Christ’s
thousands of miracles have a ‘hidden’
underlying message for the wise and astute Jewish mind.
The
first mention, and indeed following
examples of the word ‘withered’, is one of famine, no
food, no
life, destruction and desolation (Genesis 41:23; Isaiah
15:6;
Lamentations 4:8) because of self- righteousness, disobedience
and
rebellion.
Indeed,
adding to the meaning of desolation
and destruction, we have king Jeroboam II ending up with a
dried up withered
hand. He was about to burn incense at Bethel, one the two false
altars, erected
in self-righteousness, disobedience and rebellion by his
ancestor
Jeroboam I … the true altar being at Jerusalem … when a
man of God from
Judah appeared, and spoke a prophecy condemning his altar.
Whereupon,
Jeroboam II, in raising his hand against God’s man, it became dried up
and
withered … such that he couldn’t bring his arm back … let alone his
hand
(1 Kings 13:4).
So
in the
synagogue, Christ, in healing the withered hand, is a symbolic act
reminiscent
of that which occurred with Jeroboam II centuries earlier. The scribes
and the
Pharisees were to be reminded that they were raising their hand against
JEHOVAH
God in his flesh, Jesus Christ, with their worship at their condemned
altar of self-righteousness,
disobedience and rebellion.
LESSONS:
1.
The
healing takes place right in the
heart of Christ’s opposition in the synagogue. Christ was not
opposing
the laws of the Sabbath (Matthew 5:17) but simply the misuse of them
(Matthew
12:11-12). Dear Reader as we are reminded, love, not the enforcement of
the
letter of the law, is the fulfilment of the law (Romans 13:8, 10;
Galatians
5:14; James 2:8).
Christ
said
that people are more important than sheep as 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?”
(Matthew
12:11).
2.
The
hard hearts of the scribes and
Pharisees, as well as having no compassion for the withered man, have
absolutely no idea, that the withered hand before them represents their
condemned
altar of self-righteousness,
disobedience and rebellion.
Like
the man of God with Jeroboam II, only
Christ has the power to break this strong hold if they would repent.
3.
Christ asks the man to do the impossible
… but not with Christ (Matthew 19:26) as Christ “..
saith he to
the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth;
and it was
restored whole, like as the other.” (Matthew 12:13).
To
stretch
forth his hand would require him moving his arm as well as with
Jeroboam II. It
was an act of the man’s belief and faith in such that obedience to
Christ’s
words manifested the healing.
4.
The accusations against Christ, by
the scribes and the Pharisees, was always around breaking the laws of
the
Sabbath, but these were merely a smokescreen … the real issue was
Christ’s
popularity and their loss of power.
Harley
Hitchcock
April
2023
www.
AustralianBibleMinistries
.com
