physician heal thyself

[Shmanu YAH]

shalom mishpacha, "ALL praises and glory to the Most High YHWH" our creator, our sustanance and from where all true wisdom and knowledge comes, baruk h'shem!

                                                             I pray all is well with you or will be soon.

In this short and simple communication I'd like to explore a passage from the word made flesh that we read in Luke chapter 4 where he responded to the leaders of the synagogue in the hearing of all that were present after he stood up and read. Lets look at Luke 4:16-22, And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. 4:17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaias (Yeshayahu). And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 4:18 The Spirit of YHWH is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 4:19 To preach the acceptable year of YHWH. 4:20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. 4:21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears (Yeshayahu 61:1-2).... we can understand from this several important points, 1- he returned to the place where he was raised to speak to those close to him, his family and friends and asembly leaders ... 2- he kept the shabat in a puposeful way, ->reading the tanak ... and 3- He fulfilled a prophecy spoken by Isaiyah. Now you or I don't seem to have a problem with any of these but do we do the same as he showed us? Do you make it a point to return to the place of your upbringing to remind them of the importance of their spiritual walk?

Yahushua was met with the same type resistance we will be if we stood up in the presence of our life-long associates and accurately spoke the word of Elohym. Those that love tradition and position are the hardest to edify mainly due to stubborness and pride. Lets next look at that response to his speaking, in vs. 4:22- 24 we read: And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son? 4:23 And he said unto them, "Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. 4:24 And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country". ... we see here that they questioned his ability to fulfill the prophecy because he wasn't a "man of renoun" or a man of any reputation by their standards ~ only by what they had heard. Not only did he fulfill a prophecy, he prophesied a upcoming proverb they would speak: "physician heal thyself" meaning he knew they wanted him to prove great works in Natzareth like was done in kphar-nakhum (village-comfort ) aka Capernaum.

One thing many bible scholars have overlooked about the position of a physician is that to be a true physician you have to have compasion on the sick and afflicted in the first place and desire that they may be made whole. Yahushua then gave examples of prophets having to go elsewhere, it's recorded in vs. 25-27, "But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias (Eliyahu), when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; 4:26 But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. 4:27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus (Elisha) the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian".......- check and checkmate!

Are we in this day and age still forced to go elsewhere or do we just run there because of fear of those that know much about you from your earlier days? Is there really any excuse we can't testify our beliefs both near and broad? We understand these passages are not simply about the demand for Yahushua to heal bodies close to home but more deeply about those that are supposed to be in service to YHWH having to overcome criticism from those that know you and all about you "from the jump". "So what" if you came from humble beginnings, "so what" if you wern't the toast of the town, "so what" if you had some problems with the law, "so what" if you made mistakes, "so what" if you had some failures in your life, "so what" if you embarrassed your family or if your family embarrassed you, ... your past is exactly that - your P A S T !

Irregardless of what a few people may want to remember about you , it's more important the positive things you now show the rest of the world aka the majority. Maybe the best way to start is to spiritually and mentally get ourselves healed by focusing on the light ahead instead of the darkness behind us and that comes by dedicating ourselves to the instruction of the most high YHWH. I know many still teach "we aint under the law / torah" but thats only true pertaining to salvation, If a person refuses the instruction / torah of the Almighty they can expect what melek shelomo told us in Proverbs 28:9, "He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination". .... WOW!

Lets finish by looking at the reactions of the natives to Yahushua's speaking, in vs. 28-29 we read: And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, 4:29 And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong....WOW again Is it that serious? ... the townspeople got so angry at their son they threw him out of the city to a highplace so they can toss him headlong maybe hoping to break his neck? ... are they serious? (sounds like some emotions took over) No wonder a question was asked "can any good thing come out of Nazareth?"

So we can now understand from these passages in Luke chapter 4 not to always expect a warm embrace from the folks of your native place but to be prepared for confrontation IF you decide to stand up for the word of YHWH, (at least they won't try to toss you off a hill!) If you look for example at a country like the United States, you will see a nation renoun for wanting to police every country in the world supposedly for the purpose of peace... but has that country really policed itself "from sea to shining sea?" is there no more work to be done within that body?

We as the body of mashiac still know we ourselves individually and collectively need some healing BEFORE we can be joined to the head so lets get busy working on ourselves so that those around us can see who we are and what we stand for - and instead of criticizing us true belivers they will be drawn into watching us and following us as we serve and do the will of the father YHWH.
selah, .... shalom