June 28
The Continual Burnt Offering" J esus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.” Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them."
How strange it seems at first to read that “He could do no mighty work there,” and that because of their unbelief. There is a sense in which man’s lack of faith shackles divine omnipotence. God has chosen to do for those who believe what, in the very nature of things, He cannot do consistently for those who spurn His Word. The people of Nazareth shut the door of blessing in their own faces by refusing to trust the carpenter as the Anointed of Jehovah. His very lowliness proved a stumbling block to their pride. His holiness was a rebuke to their carnality, and by rejecting His testimony they put up a barrier between Paradise and themselves. “With the humble is wisdom” (Proverbs 11:2). Had they been humble enough to sit at His feet as learners, what lessons of grace and power would have been unfolded to them, and what mighty works would have been wrought in their midst! But they were so self-contented and self-satisfied that His message found no response in their unbelieving hearts, and so they lost the greatest opportunity that they would ever know.
What will it profit, when life here is o’er
Though earth’s fleeting love has been mine,
If, seeking its gifts—I fail to secure
The riches of God’s love divine?
What will it profit? My soul, stop and think!
What balance that day will declare!
Life’s record laid bare, will gain turn to loss,
And leave me at last to despair!
—Grace E. Troy