This week we have been talking about Jesus of Nazareth and other Prophets of the Old Testament mentioned by Jesus. We continue by asking why Nazarites rejected their local Messiah who had worked miracles like these Old Testament Prophets. What do you know about the two Prophets of the first book of Kings Jesus mentions?
Read the conclusion of this 2-part post from 2014 to learn more.
Last time in Nazareth of Jesus – Rejected by your hometown (from a 2017 post) we mentioned a few prophets from the Old Testament. These men of God would have been familiar names in the hometown of Jesus Christ, but we are a little less familiar with many of these other prophets in this year of our Lord 2021.
Other Prophets before Jesus
The Lord reads from the scroll of Isaiah and tells Nazarenes of other Prophets they know well, like Elijah and Elisha.
I have written from the Old Testament Prophets many times before. Amos, in a recent series and from the Lamentations of Jerimiah provide connection to our contemporary challenges of ‘Christian’ life. We have also just read of Jesus’ testimony of ‘the sign of Jonah’ and those to who the LORD sent John in Nineveh [well to the east of this map].
In two posts we will summarize these Old Testament Prophets with a little more context.
Is it the Nazareth of Jesus? OR was this ‘Son of Man’ someone from an OTHER place?
Throughout the Gospels [GOOD NEWS] we hear the Lord Jesus called ‘JESUS OF NAZARETH.’ And of course we know from Scripture that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, taken to Egypt by Joseph and Mary and finally settled in Nazareth after Herod’s death. So here in his home church (synagogue) Jesus is welcomed at first, but then rejected after reading Scripture and applying its truth.
“Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your ears.”
Jesus Christ reading Isaiah in Nazareth
The crowds of Jews interspersed with gentiles had received Jesus well at first and initial reaction to the Lord at home seemed certain to confirm this local gaining fame throughout Galilee. So like the earlier prophets, Jesus preached with the authority of the Spirit of God.
From Nineveh to Nazareth
Last time we looked at the Prophet Jonah who was called to GO PREACH to the world of the gentiles in Nineveh. (Jonah would have loved to preach in his home church, but the LORD commanded him to preach repentance to those the Jews hated.)
Yes, centuries before, Jonah finally relented to the LORD’s will and preached to Nineveh. Then THEY REPENTED!
Here in first century Nazareth however, Jesus will not be accepted for obeying the LORD’s will as the Son of Man reads scripture of an earlier Prophet Isaiah to Jews who thought they knew him.
“No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! All the miracles that we heard were done in Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’”
But He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown.
.. And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and brought Him to the crest of the hill on which their city had been built, so that they could throw Him down from the cliff..
What had been Jesus’ message to them?
REPENTANCE! The same preaching which the LORD commanded to Nineveh and here as Jesus points out, to Syria in the time of Elijah.
