"And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up:

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and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,

The Spirit of the Lord 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, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

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. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." Luke 4:16-21

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"In the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Luke we have the touching record of the Lord's entrance upon His public ministry in this world of sin and sorrow; and we learn, from His own lips, the character of His ministry. Quoting Isaiah's prophecy concerning Himself, He says, 

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted."

The world is full of broken hearts. It may endeavor to cover up its sorrow with a mirth and laughter but, says the preacher, in the book of Proverbs, 

"Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful" (Prov. 14:13). 

Underneath all the outward gaiety of the world there are secret sorrows and broken hearts.

Turning to the Word of God, we discover for our comfort that God is not indifferent to these broken hearts. The Psalmist tells us that God is One that "healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds." Moreover, the Psalmist immediately adds, 

"He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names. Great is our Lord" (Psa. 147:2-5). 

The number of the stars is too great for us to tell; the sorrow of a broken heart too deep for us to fathom; but God can count the stars in heaven and heal the broken hearts on earth. In the greatness of His love He gave His only begotten Son to come into this world to heal the brokenhearted.

When we look at Jesus, we at last see One perfect Man who came into this world to seek broken hearts. The devil, indeed, sought to turn Him from His quest, by offering Him all the kingdoms of this world and their glory. But, refusing the world, its honors, and its riches, He chose to become a poor Man seeking brokenhearted men in order to dry their tears and heal their wounds.

As we trace His path through this valley of tears, in search of broken hearts, we see Him, in the Gospel of Luke, healing the heart of a brokenhearted sinner; binding up the wounds of a brokenhearted saint; and drying the tears of a brokenhearted widow. Moreover, we learn that such was the wickedness and hardness of man's heart that at last His heart was broken. We broke the heart of the One who came to heal our broken hearts.

Thus we discover that hearts are broken by the sins of the sinner, by the failures of the saints, by the death of our loved ones, and above all, by unrequited love."

The Brokenhearted by Hamilton Smith


    "Here we have the passage that our Lord found in the synagogue at Nazareth, as recorded in Luke 4, and which He read, stopping in the middle of verse 2 because there the prediction of His first advent ends. The fact is, of course, that for Israel, as for us, everything depends on His two advents.

The words that were read by our Lord all indicate grace, without any allusion to the law of Moses. There is a veiled allusion to the three Persons of the Godhead. In our Bibles GOD is printed thus in capitals because it is really the great name, Jehovah. So the opening words mention the Spirit of Jehovah, the Lord Jehovah Himself, and the “Me”, who is the Anointed One, or the Christ, who is sent to be the Proclaimer and the Minister of the grace. It is perfectly clear from Exodus 19 that the words of the law were not “glad tidings”. There was “the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.” The tragedy was that when a voice of exceeding grace was heard in the synagogue at Nazareth the people neither trembled nor rejoiced, but rose up with anger to kill the One who proclaimed “the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Hence the necessity of those words which our Lord did not read. The second advent of Christ in power and glory, and in judgment, is foreseen to be a necessity by the prophet here. The glorious state of things predicted will never be established till Christ comes again. He laid the foundations for it in the redemption accomplished at His first advent. He will bring it to pass in power, and with vengeance, at His second advent."

F.B. Hole
Excerpt from Isaiah 61



"The evil that fills the earth is not something imposed on man from without, but something that he generates from within. 

"Out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man" (Mark 7:21-23)

To accept the divine verdict against us is the beginning of all blessing; and it is a great day for us as saints when we cease to expect anything from the flesh within us, and we ratify in our own hearts what God Himself accomplished at the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. There "sin in the flesh" was "condemned;" there "our old man" was "crucified with Him."

We have no faith in human progress, yet we have no despair for we know that all good is found in Christ, and that God now has before Him a new humanity "created in Christ Jesus to good works" (Eph. 2:10). Our faith and hope is centred in Christ and not in ourselves or any other man.

The evidence is in indeed against all faith in man. Yet we are abundantly optimistic as we fix the eye of faith on Christ."

F.B. Hole
Excerpt from Human Nature


"For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18





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I'm a Christian saved by God, by His Sovereign grace. I want to encourage all to read, to hear, to believe, and to feed upon the only Words in all the world that are truly spirit and life, living and active; to know the One True God: God the Father, His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit; Who has graciously given us the Holy Scriptures
“All Scripture is God-breathed..."
2 Timothy 3:16–17; cf., John 3:31-36; John 6:63; John 14:26; John 17:3, 17; Romans 1:1-6, 16-17; 1 Corinthians 2:1-16; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14; 2 Peter 1:20–21; Hebrews 4:12-13. As for the commentaries I post and refer to; with much gratitude, as they have done for me, it is my hope and prayer that they serve to edify all who read them.

Shalom, beccaj
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