Fri.'s Devo - Nazareth

Read Luke 4:16-22
Mary and Joseph had left Bethlehem and hid out in Egypt for Jesus' safety. When the danger was over they came back and lived in Nazareth. The prophets had said that he would be called a Nazarene which confused the religious people who knew the Messiah should come from Bethlehem. It didn't compute in their land of study. God in his wisdom always hides his truths from the wise and reveals them to babes.
Jesus emerges at the age of 30 and goes first to be baptized, then be led into the dessert to be tempted then comes back to his hometown. He has something to say to them so he entered the synagogue and stood to read. Every Sabbath they would have 7 people read: a priest, a Levite and 5 ordinary Israelites. Everyone who read was handed the scroll and they had to open it, read, then roll it back up and give it to the temple aide. I'm sure they read more than a part of a verse. Jesus found the place they had left off and read it. He stopped just before he got to the part that talked about the vengeance of God because it was not time for that to be fulfilled. He sat down and proclaimed that today that scripture was fulfilled in their ears. The people were shocked - wasn't this Mary and Joseph's son? What happened to him? Tomorrow we will continue this.
Lord, may we be as bold as you were in dealing with our family and our friends that have known us all our lives. May we boldly proclaim who you are in us because we too have the Spirit of the Lord on us and have been anointed to preach the gospel to the poor; heal the brokenhearted, preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.