To The Word – Day 103

₁The LORD says,

₉All those who make idols are worthless, and the gods they prize so highly are useless. Those who worship these gods are blind and ignorant — and they will be disgraced. ₁₀It's no good making a metal image to worship as a god! ₁₁Everyone who worships it will be humiliated. The people who make idols are human beings and nothing more. Let them come and stand trial — they will be terrified and will suffer disgrace.

₁₂The metalworker takes a piece of metal and works with it over a fire. His strong arm swings a hammer to pound the metal into shape. As he works, he gets hungry, thirsty, and tired.

₁₃The carpenter measures the wood. He outlines a figure with chalk, carves it out with his tools, and makes it in the form of a man, a handsome human figure, to be placed in his house. ₁₄He might cut down cedars to use, or choose oak or cypress wood from the forest. Or he might plant a laurel-tree and wait for the rain to make it grow. ₁₅A person uses part of a tree for fuel and part of it for making an idol. With one part he builds a fire to warm himself and bake bread; with the other part he makes a god and worships it. ₁₆With some of the wood he makes a fire; he roasts meat, eats it, and is satisfied. He warms himself and says, “How nice and warm! What a beautiful fire!” ₁₇The rest of the wood he makes into an idol, and then he bows down and worships it. He prays to it and says, “You are my god — save me!”

₁₈Such people are too stupid to know what they are doing. They close their eyes and their minds to the truth. ₁₉The maker of idols hasn't the wit or the sense to say, “Some of the wood I burnt up. I baked some bread on the embers and I roasted meat and ate it. And the rest of the wood I made into an idol. Here I am bowing down to a block of wood!”

₂₀It makes as much sense as eating ashes. His foolish ideas have so misled him that he is beyond help. He won't admit to himself that the idol he holds in his hand is not a god at all.

₂₁The LORD says,

₁₄The LORD says to Israel,

₂₀The LORD says,

₁The LORD says,

₅The LORD says to Babylon,

₁Not long afterwards Jesus was walking through some cornfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, so they began to pick ears of corn and eat the grain. ₂When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Jesus, “Look, it is against our Law for your disciples to do this on the Sabbath!”

₃Jesus answered, “Have you never read what David did that time when he and his men were hungry? ₄He went into the house of God, and he and his men ate the bread offered to God, even though it was against the Law for them to eat it — only the priests were allowed to eat that bread. ₅Or have you not read in the Law of Moses that every Sabbath the priests in the Temple actually break the Sabbath law, yet they are not guilty? ₆I tell you that there is something here greater than the Temple. ₇The scripture says, ‘It is kindness that I want, not animal sacrifices.’ If you really knew what this means, you would not condemn people who are not guilty; ₈for the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

₉Jesus left that place and went to a synagogue, ₁₀where there was a man who had a paralysed hand. Some people were there who wanted to accuse Jesus of doing wrong, so they asked him, “Is it against our Law to heal on the Sabbath?”

₁₁Jesus answered, “What if one of you has a sheep and it falls into a deep hole on the Sabbath? Will you not take hold of it and lift it out? ₁₂And a human being is worth much more than a sheep! So then, our Law does allow us to help someone on the Sabbath.” ₁₃Then he said to the man with the paralysed hand, “Stretch out your hand.”

He stretched it out, and it became well again, just like the other one. ₁₄Then the Pharisees left and made plans to kill Jesus.

₁₅When Jesus heard about the plot against him, he went away from that place; and large crowds followed him. He healed all those who were ill ₁₆and gave them orders not to tell others about him. ₁₇He did this so as to make what God had said through the prophet Isaiah come true:

₂₂Then some people brought to Jesus a man who was blind and could not talk because he had a demon. Jesus healed the man, so that he was able to talk and see. ₂₃The crowds were all amazed at what Jesus had done. “Could he be the Son of David?” they asked.

₂₄When the Pharisees heard this, they replied, “He drives out demons only because their ruler Beelzebul gives him power to do so.”

₂₅Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he said to them, “Any country that divides itself into groups which fight each other will not last very long. And any town or family that divides itself into groups which fight each other will fall apart. ₂₆So if one group is fighting another in Satan's kingdom, this means that it is already divided into groups and will soon fall apart! ₂₇You say that I drive out demons because Beelzebul gives me the power to do so. Well, then, who gives your followers the power to drive them out? What your own followers do proves that you are wrong! ₂₈No, it is not Beelzebul, but God's Spirit, who gives me the power to drive out demons, which proves that the Kingdom of God has already come upon you.

₂₉“No one can break into a strong man's house and take away his belongings unless he first ties up the strong man; then he can plunder his house.

₃₀“Anyone who is not for me is really against me; anyone who does not help me gather is really scattering. ₃₁And so I tell you that people can be forgiven any sin and any evil thing they say; but whoever says evil things against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. ₃₂Anyone who says something against the Son of Man can be forgiven; but whoever says something against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven — now or ever.

₃₃“To have good fruit you must have a healthy tree; if you have a poor tree, you will have bad fruit. A tree is known by the kind of fruit it bears. ₃₄You snakes — how can you say good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. ₃₅A good person brings good things out of a treasure of good things; a bad person brings bad things out of a treasure of bad things.

₃₆“You can be sure that on Judgement Day everyone will have to give account of every useless word he has ever spoken. ₃₇Your words will be used to judge you — to declare you either innocent or guilty.”

₃₈Then some teachers of the Law and some Pharisees spoke up. “Teacher,” they said, “we want to see you perform a miracle.”

₃₉“How evil and godless are the people of this day!” Jesus exclaimed. “You ask me for a miracle? No! The only miracle you will be given is the miracle of the prophet Jonah. ₄₀In the same way that Jonah spent three days and nights in the big fish, so will the Son of Man spend three days and nights in the depths of the earth. ₄₁On Judgement Day the people of Nineveh will stand up and accuse you, because they turned from their sins when they heard Jonah preach; and I tell you that there is something here greater than Jonah! ₄₂On Judgement Day the Queen of Sheba will stand up and accuse you, because she travelled all the way from her country to listen to King Solomon's wise teaching; and I assure you that there is something here greater than Solomon!

₄₃“When an evil spirit goes out of a person, it travels over dry country looking for a place to rest. If it can't find one, ₄₄it says to itself, ‘I will go back to my house.’ So it goes back and finds the house empty, clean, and all tidy. ₄₅Then it goes out and brings along seven other spirits even worse than itself, and they come and live there. So when it is all over, that person is in a worse state than he was at the beginning. This is what will happen to the evil people of this day.”

₄₆Jesus was still talking to the people when his mother and brothers arrived. They stood outside, asking to speak with him. ₄₇So one of the people there said to him, “Look, your mother and brothers are standing outside, and they want to speak with you.”

₄₈Jesus answered, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” ₄₉Then he pointed to his disciples and said, “Look! Here are my mother and my brothers! ₅₀Whoever does what my Father in heaven wants him to do is my brother, my sister, and my mother.”

₁That same day Jesus left the house and went to the lakeside, where he sat down to teach. ₂The crowd that gathered round him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it, while the crowd stood on the shore. ₃He used parables to tell them many things.

“Once there was a man who went out to sow corn. ₄As he scattered the seed in the field, some of it fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ₅Some of it fell on rocky ground, where there was little soil. The seeds soon sprouted, because the soil wasn't deep. ₆But when the sun came up, it burnt the young plants; and because the roots had not grown deep enough, the plants soon dried up. ₇Some of the seed fell among thorn bushes, which grew up and choked the plants. ₈But some seeds fell in good soil, and the plants produced corn; some produced 100 grains, others sixty, and others thirty.”

₉And Jesus concluded, “Listen, then, if you have ears!”

₁₀Then the disciples came to Jesus and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?”

₁₁Jesus answered, “The knowledge about the secrets of the Kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. ₁₂For the person who has something will be given more, so that he will have more than enough; but the person who has nothing will have taken away from him even the little he has. ₁₃The reason I use parables in talking to them is that they look, but do not see, and they listen, but do not hear or understand. ₁₄So the prophecy of Isaiah applies to them:

₁₆“As for you, how fortunate you are! Your eyes see and your ears hear. ₁₇I assure you that many prophets and many of God's people wanted very much to see what you see, but they could not, and to hear what you hear, but they did not.

₁₈“Listen, then, and learn what the parable of the sower means. ₁₉Those who hear the message about the Kingdom but do not understand it are like the seeds that fell along the path. The Evil One comes and snatches away what was sown in them. ₂₀The seeds that fell on rocky ground stand for those who receive the message gladly as soon as they hear it. ₂₁But it does not sink deep into them, and they don't last long. So when trouble or persecution comes because of the message, they give up at once. ₂₂The seeds that fell among thorn bushes stand for those who hear the message; but the worries about this life and the love for riches choke the message, and they don't bear fruit. ₂₃And the seeds sown in the good soil stand for those who hear the message and understand it: they bear fruit, some as much as 100, others sixty, and others thirty.”

₂₄Jesus told them another parable: “The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man sowed good seed in his field. ₂₅One night, when everyone was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. ₂₆When the plants grew and the ears of corn began to form, then the weeds showed up. ₂₇The man's servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, it was good seed you sowed in your field; where did the weeds come from?’ ₂₈‘It was some enemy who did this,’ he answered. ‘Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?’ they asked him. ₂₉‘No,’ he answered, ‘because as you gather the weeds you might pull up some of the wheat along with them. ₃₀Let the wheat and the weeds both grow together until harvest. Then I will tell the harvest workers to pull up the weeds first, tie them in bundles and burn them, and then to gather in the wheat and put it in my barn.’ ”

₃₁Jesus told them another parable: “The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man takes a mustard seed and sows it in his field. ₃₂It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it grows up, it is the biggest of all plants. It becomes a tree, so that birds come and make their nests in its branches.”

₃₃Jesus told them still another parable: “The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A woman takes some yeast and mixes it with forty litres of flour until the whole batch of dough rises.”

₃₄Jesus used parables to tell all these things to the crowds; he would not say a thing to them without using a parable. ₃₅He did this to make what the prophet had said come true:

₃₆When Jesus had left the crowd and gone indoors, his disciples came to him and said, “Tell us what the parable about the weeds in the field means.”

₃₇Jesus answered, “The man who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man; ₃₈the field is the world; the good seed is the people who belong to the Kingdom; the weeds are the people who belong to the Evil One; ₃₉and the enemy who sowed the weeds is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvest workers are angels. ₄₀Just as the weeds are gathered up and burnt in the fire, so the same thing will happen at the end of the age: ₄₁the Son of Man will send out his angels to gather up out of his Kingdom all those who cause people to sin and all others who do evil things, ₄₂and they will throw them into the fiery furnace, where they will cry and grind their teeth. ₄₃Then God's people will shine like the sun in their Father's Kingdom. Listen, then, if you have ears!

₄₄“The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man happens to find a treasure hidden in a field. He covers it up again, and is so happy that he goes and sells everything he has, and then goes back and buys that field.

₄₅“Also, the Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man is looking for fine pearls, ₄₆and when he finds one that is unusually fine, he goes and sells everything he has, and buys that pearl.

₄₇“Also, the Kingdom of heaven is like this. Some fishermen throw their net out in the lake and catch all kinds of fish. ₄₈When the net is full, they pull it to shore and sit down to divide the fish: the good ones go into their buckets, the worthless ones are thrown away. ₄₉It will be like this at the end of the age: the angels will go out and gather up the evil people from among the good ₅₀and will throw them into the fiery furnace, where they will cry and grind their teeth.

₅₁“Do you understand these things?” Jesus asked them.

“Yes,” they answered.

₅₂So he replied, “This means, then, that every teacher of the Law who becomes a disciple in the Kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who takes new and old things out of his storeroom.”

₅₃When Jesus finished telling these parables, he left that place ₅₄and went back to his home town. He taught in the synagogue, and those who heard him were amazed. “Where did he get such wisdom?” they asked. “And what about his miracles? ₅₅Isn't he the carpenter's son? Isn't Mary his mother, and aren't James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas his brothers? ₅₆Aren't all his sisters living here? Where did he get all this?” ₅₇And so they rejected him.

Jesus said to them, “A prophet is respected everywhere except in his home town and by his own family.” ₅₈Because they did not have faith, he did not perform many miracles there.