from WL Worcester (H Blackmer, ed.), 
The Sower.  Helps to the Study of the Bible in Home and Sunday School
 
(Boston: Massachusetts New-Church Union, n.d.)

Table of Contents
 

 

Lesson 43

Luke 4  In the Synagogue at Nazareth

The Story

Primary and Junior

We have days when things go hard. The world may be beautiful and friends may be kind, but they do not seem so to us. The trouble is that evil spirits are awakening the bad feelings and bad thoughts in us, and happy things are shut out. The conflict between wrong things and good things in us is called temptation; while it lasts we are in a wilderness. Such times came also to the Lord, and much harder temptations than come to us for we have Him to help us, but He was alone and all the evil powers of earth and hell were joined against Him. There was such a time of temptation soon after the Lord was baptized by John at the Jordan. The wilderness of Judea was near by, and we may well believe that the Lord in His temptation turned aside among the barren hills, which would seem to picture the unhappy state of mind. A weather-beaten cliff, Mount Karantel, behind the ruins of old Jericho, has its name (Karantel or Quarantana means forty) from this story of the Lord's temptations, and many hermits have lived in its caves. Read the story of the temptations and notice especially how the Lord answered every suggestion of the tempter with a Divine commandment from the Bible. This is what we should do whenever a suggestion to do wrong comes. We should not delay and reason about it; we grow weaker every moment if we do. We should say, No, shortly and decidedly and repeat the Lord's commandment which forbids the wrong thing, for there is power in the commandments to send evil spirits away and to bring angels near.

A long time had passed since the baptism and temptation, probably more than a year, and the Lord had taught and done many wonderful works in Galilee and Samaria and Judea. (John 1-5) He came again to Nazareth, which had been his home for many years. On the Sabbath day He went with the people to the synagogue. It was their church, a large plain building, probably with a flat roof held up by pillars. There were no seats, but the men sat on the floor, some of the great men perhaps on rugs or cushions. The women no doubt were by themselves, perhaps in the gallery. There was a platform with a desk, and behind it the sacred place where the books of the Bible were kept. Each book was written in columns on a long strip of parchment, with a handle at either end. As it was read the parchment was unrolled from one handle and rolled up on the other. There was prayer and singing in the service, and someone was asked by those in charge to read from the Scriptures the lesson appointed for the day.

On this day the Lord was asked to read. The lesson was from the Book of Isaiah, a beautiful prophecy about Himself and the works of Divine mercy which He came to do. When He had read it, the scroll was rolled up and given to the keeper to put back in its place, and the Lord sat down on the platform as was usual in teaching, and began to speak to the people about the words that had been read. Remember who the people were in the synagogue: those who had been the Lord's neighbors for many years, who had seen Him as a child, and as a man working with the carpenters. At first they were touched by the kindness of His words; but when they thought that one who had lived among them and had been their neighbor now claimed to be working and speaking from the Divine Spirit, in other words, that He was the Heavenly Father living with them, then they were angry.

The Lord told them that it had been the same in the old days. The prophet Elijah was not safe among his own people, but must flee to the house of the poor widow at Zarephath or Sarepta on the seashore between Tyre and Sidon. No lepers from his own people came to the prophet Elisha for healing, but Naaman a stranger from Damascus. So those who should have known and loved the Lord best did not love Him, but simple, Gentile people in other places loved Him more. He did not live any more in Nazareth, but made His home in Capernaum, a busy city of fishermen and farmers and traders by the shore of the Sea of Galilee. "And He preached in the synagogues of Galilee."


1. What wilderness do we think of when we read the story of the Lord's temptations? What does it suggest besides a natural wilderness?

2. What three temptations are mentioned in our lesson?

3. How ought we to answer the tempter?

4. When did we first hear of Nazareth? When did it become the Lord's home? How long was it His home? Where did the Lord live after leaving Nazareth?

5. What prophecy did the Lord read in Nazareth? and what did He say about its fulfillment?

6. Who was Elijah? Where was Sarepta? Who was Naaman?

Spiritual Study

Intermediate

Do you remember other times when the wilderness is associated with temptations? Other times when the number forty is associated with temptations? (Genesis 7:12; Deuteronomy 8:2-4; A. 730, 8098; E. 633)

What words in this story of temptation imply that it was not the only time of temptation which came to the Lord? (Verse 13) What other times of temptation do the Gospels tell us of? (John 6:15; Matthew 26:36-45; 27:46; see also Isaiah 53.) Read of the Lord's temptations in A. 1444; E. 730. We ought to be brave in our little trials which are almost nothing compared with His; and He gives us what help we need.

The temptation to make the stones His bread is the temptation to be discouraged, to give up the effort for heavenly things, and to be content with what is naturally pleasant and easy. The temptation to rule all kingdoms of the earth is the same which makes us wish to be great and to have our own way. The mountain is the mountain of self-love. The temptation of the pinnacle of the temple is the desire to be saved by the Divine power without effort on our part. Jerusalem and the temple suggest intellectual pride, and the assumption of superiority on account of holy things. The story of the temptations describes, as in a parable, many deep and severe trials of the Lord's life, which the disciples could not understand and which we as yet know little of. (A. 1690; E. 617)

Read verse 18 and Isaiah 61:1, and think what is meant by preaching to the poor (Matthew 5:3); by healing the broken-hearted (Psalm 51:17); by preaching deliverance to the captives (John 8:34) ; by restoring sight to the blind (John 9:39-41; Psalm 119:18). Does the acceptable year of the Lord mean that He is more ready to help us at one time than another, or that He can help us more when we are in certain states; when we are humble and obedient? (Isaiah 55:6, 7)

Tell me about Elijah and the widow; about Elisha and Naaman. It is true still, as it was in the days of the prophets and at the Lord's coming that many persons who know little about Him, even those in heathen lands, love Him more and are more ready for heaven than some who call themselves Christians. (H. 324; A. 4844, 9198; E. 475)

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