And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
Spoken in his own hometown synagogue on the Sabbath, the saying means that a prophet finds no acceptance among those who have known him intimately in ordinary life and lowly circumstance. He gave it to lay open the secret demand of his hearers that he repeat among them the mighty works heard of at Capernaum for their own proof and benefit. Their familiarity, pride, prejudice, and unbelief closed the channel of blessing, so he was not allowed to labor for a hard-hearted people who felt no need. This was illustrated by Elijah being sent in famine to the widow of Sarepta in Sidon and Elisha cleansing only Naaman the Syrian, though many widows and lepers remained in Israel. To the end of time the principle remains that God specially favors with evidences of his power those who humbly live by the best light they have, even heathen, rather than those with great light whose lives contradict their profession.
Setting in Nazareth
Jesus spoke the saying in the synagogue at Nazareth on the Sabbath, in His own country and hometown where He had grown up among familiar faces and family and was known as Joseph's son and the humble carpenter's son.
He spoke it to answer the hearers' secret, unspoken questioning thoughts, for they wondered at His gracious words yet stumbled over Him and demanded that He repeat in His own country the miracles heard of at Capernaum under the proverb, Physician, heal thyself. In thus reading their minds and laying open what they had not uttered, He revealed their inward state and showed His divine character.
The setting set their expectation against His announced mission, for they looked for the Messiah to appear as a glorious earthly and military ruler to deliver Israel from oppression with wealth, honor, and power, while He came to proclaim salvation and preach good news to the poor. His declared work was to comfort, bless, save, free, heal, and restore the afflicted and oppressed.
At first the people were moved by His gracious words under the influence and witness of the Spirit. Then prejudice, unbelief, and doubt turned them against Him, and their rage grew until a mob drove Him from the synagogue, pushed Him about while quarreling how to silence Him and stop His voice entirely, and tried to throw Him from the hill or precipice of the city and kill Him. Yet divine power and angels guarded and preserved Him until His work was complete, and He passed through the midst of them and went His way out of their sight, they knew not whither.
Reasons for Rejection
Familiarity itself was a central cause of the saying's truth, for people often resist honoring admirable qualities and remarkable worth in one they have known intimately since childhood and who has lived plainly and ordinarily among them in family and work. At Nazareth this reluctance appeared when Jesus declared himself the Anointed One and was received unfavorably, though the Holy Spirit testified that his claim was true, because the hearers were prejudiced by knowing his family and were even ready to throw him over a precipice. The same human tendency readily becomes excited by the claims of a stranger or adventurer while refusing a prophet who grew up among them and whose ordinary life is well known. Because of that unfavorable reception he sought places where people would listen and receive his message.
They stumbled over his humble circumstances, meekness, and plain explanation of the prophets, and over his coming without wealth, honor, or military power. Truth did not languish on his tongue, and he had not received instruction from the religious teachers of the nation, even though he showed perfect knowledge of the Jewish economy as represented in the Scriptures. That combination of lowliness with authority, joined to their pride and prejudice, kept them from recognizing him as Messiah though he came to proclaim salvation and though they later had ample evidence of his miracles and wisdom. His works only deepened the hostility of those unwilling to accept the evidence, until a mob drove him out of the synagogue and pushed him about while quarreling how to stop his voice entirely.
Pride, prejudice, jealousy, envy, criticism, stubbornness, self-exaltation, and self-sufficiency kept them from receiving him and the blessings he offered. With eyes closed against seeing and ears against hearing and understanding darkened against the manifestations of the Spirit, they rejected a message sent by the Lord not because it was error but from familiarity and prejudice. Though they wondered at his gracious words and felt the Spirit's influence, unbelief, prejudice, pride, and stubbornness led them to set aside evidence and spiritual conviction and even to seek to throw him from a precipice. Their jealousy and pride especially resisted his words when he showed from Elijah's and Elisha's ministries that God's help had also reached people outside Israel.
They demanded signs and miracles for their own benefit and proof, expecting him to perform locally in his own town the works heard of elsewhere at Capernaum. Their questioning of his authority because they knew him as Joseph's son and knew his humble family and background made them like the hard-hearted people who would not receive God's prophets. Their unbelief and lack of a sense of need kept them from receiving his mighty works and the manifestations of God's power. God's power was shown instead to people who had faith and were willing to receive it, while those who reject light and privilege cannot receive it as those who respond with faith and a sense of need can.
Rejection ripened when his pointed words laid bare their corrupt lives, wicked unbelief, and spiritual condition and challenged their pride and favored status, especially by showing that heaven did not favor them above the Gentiles. Though his gracious words were first received under the Spirit's influence, doubt grew into open unbelief when prejudice took hold and when the message was seen not to agree with their views and ideas. People may resist truth when it comes in a way that does not suit their expectations, and rejecting the light turns what was meant to bless them into a stumbling block. That resisted truth cut like a knife, stirred them to try to kill him, and recalled the crowd's rage and attempt to cast him from the precipice.
Elijah and Elisha Examples
To illustrate the saying he pointed to Elijah being sent in the time of famine in Israel to a needy widow in Sidon at Sarepta, also called Zarephath, and to Elisha cleansing only Naaman the Syrian, though there were many widows and many lepers in Israel. The two cases were set side by side to show that God's help went to foreigners when his own people were unreceptive, while many sufferers at home were passed by. Their unbelief and demand for local signs made them like the hard-hearted people who would not receive God's prophets, and God's power was shown instead to those who had faith and were willing to receive it.
In Elijah's day Israel clung to sin and by apostasy, rebellion, unbelief, abuse of privilege, and rejection of the warnings of the Spirit cut itself off from blessing. It was left where God could not manifest His power for them, so the Lord passed by homes and sufferers in Israel. God turned from Israel when its people rejected light and rebelled, and showed favor instead to people in heathen lands who lived up to the light they had received.
The widow at Sarepta lived strictly by the light she had, followed it, opened her heart to greater light, and lived accordingly. Naaman lived faithful to conviction, opened his heart, and did right as far as he could distinguish right from wrong. He was cleansed and enlightened in divine truth.
The examples showed that God's favor and help were not limited to Israel but could reach foreigners and heathens when His own people were unreceptive. By Israel's apostasy in Elijah's day He exposed the true state of the Nazareth congregation as unbelief and self-exaltation like ancient Israel. This laying bare of their condition, and especially the showing that heaven did not favor them above the Gentiles, enraged the synagogue crowd and led them to try to kill Him.
Favor According to Light
The saying means that servants chosen by God for special important work are not allowed to labor for a hard-hearted and unbelieving people, because such unbelief closes the channel of blessing. Those who have hearts to feel and faith to believe are instead specially favored with evidences of His power through His prophets. Israel in Elijah's day clung to sin and by apostasy and rejection of warnings cut itself off from blessing, so the Lord passed by homes and sufferers in Israel to favor a heathen widow at Sarepta or Zarephath in Sidon and to cleanse only Naaman the Syrian, while many widows and lepers in Israel were passed over. The widow lived strictly by the light she had, followed it and opened her heart to greater light, and Naaman lived faithful to conviction and opened his heart, so he was cleansed and enlightened in divine truth because unbelief and abuse of privilege had left Israel where power could not be manifested for them.
To the end of time the saying teaches that even heathen who live according to the best light they have and do right as far as they can distinguish right from wrong are regarded with greater favor than those with great light who make high pretensions to godliness while daily lives contradict profession. Having received much light does not secure favor, and people are accountable for how they respond to the light they have. God regards people who follow the light they have more favorably than those with great light who profess godliness but live contrary to it. The widow of Sarepta and Naaman were therefore more righteous and more worthy of favor than backslidden Israelites who sacrificed principle for convenience and worldly honor. God favors those who respond humbly to the light they have, while those who reject greater light through pride and self-sufficiency close themselves to His help.
Those who reject light and privilege cannot receive power as those who respond with faith and a sense of need can. Power is shown instead to people who have faith and are willing to receive it, including a needy widow in Sidon in Elijah's time and Naaman the Syrian in Elisha's time, while many in Israel were passed over. Blessings went to people who were open to faith, while unbelieving Israel was passed by.
Wider Applications Today
The same refusal of evidence and resistance to the Holy Spirit seen at Nazareth can occur among God's own people. Some carried the spirit of unbelief home with them to Battle Creek. At Minneapolis some whose hearts were touched by God at first received the message, but when they saw it did not agree with their views they doubted it. Their course recalled the Nazarenes who heard gracious words under the Spirit's influence and then in prejudice, unbelief, rage, and attempt to cast Jesus from the precipice rejected Him.
The principle applies also to Paul, who was rejected by fellow believers and church leaders at Jerusalem. Bitterness, envy, and jealousy kept them from recognizing his special call to preach to the Gentiles and hindered his work. Such hostility from professed believers can obstruct a faithful servant, deprive the church of blessing, and help bring about circumstances that end his labor sooner than God ordained. God did not miraculously undo those consequences, though He had not decreed that Paul's labor should end so soon. After the minister dies, those who rejected him may finally recognize what they lost.
Refusing the light God sends through His chosen messengers and trusting one's own judgment instead is refusing Christ Himself. The rejection at Nazareth exposes unbelief that refuses a message sent by the Lord not because it is error but from familiarity and prejudice, with eyes closed against seeing, ears against hearing, and understanding darkened against manifestations of the Spirit of God. Admitting doubt can drive the Spirit of God away and leave the heart open to Satan's suggestions. That course ripens into wrath that thrusts Christ out to destroy Him, as at Nazareth where He passed through and went His way under angelic guard, and the same pattern appears when people who acknowledge a message as from the Holy Spirit later reject it and spread falsehoods. Such spiritual blindness under the ruler of darkness is dangerous because it calls the work of the Spirit of God the work of Satan.
The rejection explains why His work was confined to so small a circumference in Palestine and was not extended to the surrounding heathen nations. Those nations were not prepared for His work. Devoting His time to the conversion of the Gentile world would have closed the door by which He could bear His message to the Jewish nation. Jewish prejudice against Him was already strong, as seen when His discourse at Nazareth so enraged the people that a mob drove Him from the synagogue, pushed Him about while quarreling how to silence Him entirely, and would have killed Him if divine power had not preserved Him until He passed from their sight to a place they did not know.
The Nazareth rejection belonged to a whole life of persecution and insult, from being driven from Bethlehem by a jealous king to being condemned without cause at Jerusalem. It came despite three years of public self-denying and benevolent labor and a life of purity, suffering, and devotion known to all. He healed the sick, restored sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf and speech to the dumb, fed the hungry, comforted the sorrowful, walked on the waves and stilled them by a word, cast out devils who confessed Him, broke the sleep of the dead, and held thousands by wisdom. Yet He could not reach hearts blinded by prejudice and hatred that stubbornly rejected the light, though He had come to save them, so that three years was as long as the world could endure its Redeemer, and with His few faithful followers He had to seek temporary asylum in a strange city.
Natural closeness and fleshly ties profit nothing unless one believes in Him and accepts Him as personal Saviour. Faith and doing God's will make a believer more closely related to Him in a saving sense than kinship does. His work is both to comfort and to restore by reproof, including correction even when warnings are disregarded or unwelcome. Teachers must study and understand God's Word and apply its eternal lessons to their own lives, or they are not prepared to teach others. After an initial rejection a renewed opportunity to receive the truth may come, so people must guard against letting prejudice and pride harden their hearts into final rejection of the message that would save them.
Spoken in his own hometown synagogue on the Sabbath, the saying means that a prophet finds no acceptance among those who have known him intimately in ordinary life and lowly circumstance. He gave it to lay open the secret demand of his hearers that he repeat among them the mighty works heard of at Capernaum for their own proof and benefit. Their familiarity, pride, prejudice, and unbelief closed the channel of blessing, so he was not allowed to labor for a hard-hearted people who felt no need. This was illustrated by Elijah being sent in famine to the widow of Sarepta in Sidon and Elisha cleansing only Naaman the Syrian, though many widows and lepers remained in Israel. To the end of time the principle remains that God specially favors with evidences of his power those who humbly live by the best light they have, even heathen, rather than those with great light whose lives contradict their profession.
Setting in Nazareth
Jesus spoke the saying in the synagogue at Nazareth on the Sabbath, in His own country and hometown where He had grown up among familiar faces and family and was known as Joseph's son and the humble carpenter's son.
He spoke it to answer the hearers' secret, unspoken questioning thoughts, for they wondered at His gracious words yet stumbled over Him and demanded that He repeat in His own country the miracles heard of at Capernaum under the proverb, Physician, heal thyself. In thus reading their minds and laying open what they had not uttered, He revealed their inward state and showed His divine character.
The setting set their expectation against His announced mission, for they looked for the Messiah to appear as a glorious earthly and military ruler to deliver Israel from oppression with wealth, honor, and power, while He came to proclaim salvation and preach good news to the poor. His declared work was to comfort, bless, save, free, heal, and restore the afflicted and oppressed.
At first the people were moved by His gracious words under the influence and witness of the Spirit. Then prejudice, unbelief, and doubt turned them against Him, and their rage grew until a mob drove Him from the synagogue, pushed Him about while quarreling how to silence Him and stop His voice entirely, and tried to throw Him from the hill or precipice of the city and kill Him. Yet divine power and angels guarded and preserved Him until His work was complete, and He passed through the midst of them and went His way out of their sight, they knew not whither.
Reasons for Rejection
Familiarity itself was a central cause of the saying's truth, for people often resist honoring admirable qualities and remarkable worth in one they have known intimately since childhood and who has lived plainly and ordinarily among them in family and work. At Nazareth this reluctance appeared when Jesus declared himself the Anointed One and was received unfavorably, though the Holy Spirit testified that his claim was true, because the hearers were prejudiced by knowing his family and were even ready to throw him over a precipice. The same human tendency readily becomes excited by the claims of a stranger or adventurer while refusing a prophet who grew up among them and whose ordinary life is well known. Because of that unfavorable reception he sought places where people would listen and receive his message.
They stumbled over his humble circumstances, meekness, and plain explanation of the prophets, and over his coming without wealth, honor, or military power. Truth did not languish on his tongue, and he had not received instruction from the religious teachers of the nation, even though he showed perfect knowledge of the Jewish economy as represented in the Scriptures. That combination of lowliness with authority, joined to their pride and prejudice, kept them from recognizing him as Messiah though he came to proclaim salvation and though they later had ample evidence of his miracles and wisdom. His works only deepened the hostility of those unwilling to accept the evidence, until a mob drove him out of the synagogue and pushed him about while quarreling how to stop his voice entirely.
Pride, prejudice, jealousy, envy, criticism, stubbornness, self-exaltation, and self-sufficiency kept them from receiving him and the blessings he offered. With eyes closed against seeing and ears against hearing and understanding darkened against the manifestations of the Spirit, they rejected a message sent by the Lord not because it was error but from familiarity and prejudice. Though they wondered at his gracious words and felt the Spirit's influence, unbelief, prejudice, pride, and stubbornness led them to set aside evidence and spiritual conviction and even to seek to throw him from a precipice. Their jealousy and pride especially resisted his words when he showed from Elijah's and Elisha's ministries that God's help had also reached people outside Israel.
They demanded signs and miracles for their own benefit and proof, expecting him to perform locally in his own town the works heard of elsewhere at Capernaum. Their questioning of his authority because they knew him as Joseph's son and knew his humble family and background made them like the hard-hearted people who would not receive God's prophets. Their unbelief and lack of a sense of need kept them from receiving his mighty works and the manifestations of God's power. God's power was shown instead to people who had faith and were willing to receive it, while those who reject light and privilege cannot receive it as those who respond with faith and a sense of need can.
Rejection ripened when his pointed words laid bare their corrupt lives, wicked unbelief, and spiritual condition and challenged their pride and favored status, especially by showing that heaven did not favor them above the Gentiles. Though his gracious words were first received under the Spirit's influence, doubt grew into open unbelief when prejudice took hold and when the message was seen not to agree with their views and ideas. People may resist truth when it comes in a way that does not suit their expectations, and rejecting the light turns what was meant to bless them into a stumbling block. That resisted truth cut like a knife, stirred them to try to kill him, and recalled the crowd's rage and attempt to cast him from the precipice.
Elijah and Elisha Examples
To illustrate the saying he pointed to Elijah being sent in the time of famine in Israel to a needy widow in Sidon at Sarepta, also called Zarephath, and to Elisha cleansing only Naaman the Syrian, though there were many widows and many lepers in Israel. The two cases were set side by side to show that God's help went to foreigners when his own people were unreceptive, while many sufferers at home were passed by. Their unbelief and demand for local signs made them like the hard-hearted people who would not receive God's prophets, and God's power was shown instead to those who had faith and were willing to receive it.
In Elijah's day Israel clung to sin and by apostasy, rebellion, unbelief, abuse of privilege, and rejection of the warnings of the Spirit cut itself off from blessing. It was left where God could not manifest His power for them, so the Lord passed by homes and sufferers in Israel. God turned from Israel when its people rejected light and rebelled, and showed favor instead to people in heathen lands who lived up to the light they had received.
The widow at Sarepta lived strictly by the light she had, followed it, opened her heart to greater light, and lived accordingly. Naaman lived faithful to conviction, opened his heart, and did right as far as he could distinguish right from wrong. He was cleansed and enlightened in divine truth.
The examples showed that God's favor and help were not limited to Israel but could reach foreigners and heathens when His own people were unreceptive. By Israel's apostasy in Elijah's day He exposed the true state of the Nazareth congregation as unbelief and self-exaltation like ancient Israel. This laying bare of their condition, and especially the showing that heaven did not favor them above the Gentiles, enraged the synagogue crowd and led them to try to kill Him.
Favor According to Light
The saying means that servants chosen by God for special important work are not allowed to labor for a hard-hearted and unbelieving people, because such unbelief closes the channel of blessing. Those who have hearts to feel and faith to believe are instead specially favored with evidences of His power through His prophets. Israel in Elijah's day clung to sin and by apostasy and rejection of warnings cut itself off from blessing, so the Lord passed by homes and sufferers in Israel to favor a heathen widow at Sarepta or Zarephath in Sidon and to cleanse only Naaman the Syrian, while many widows and lepers in Israel were passed over. The widow lived strictly by the light she had, followed it and opened her heart to greater light, and Naaman lived faithful to conviction and opened his heart, so he was cleansed and enlightened in divine truth because unbelief and abuse of privilege had left Israel where power could not be manifested for them.
To the end of time the saying teaches that even heathen who live according to the best light they have and do right as far as they can distinguish right from wrong are regarded with greater favor than those with great light who make high pretensions to godliness while daily lives contradict profession. Having received much light does not secure favor, and people are accountable for how they respond to the light they have. God regards people who follow the light they have more favorably than those with great light who profess godliness but live contrary to it. The widow of Sarepta and Naaman were therefore more righteous and more worthy of favor than backslidden Israelites who sacrificed principle for convenience and worldly honor. God favors those who respond humbly to the light they have, while those who reject greater light through pride and self-sufficiency close themselves to His help.
Those who reject light and privilege cannot receive power as those who respond with faith and a sense of need can. Power is shown instead to people who have faith and are willing to receive it, including a needy widow in Sidon in Elijah's time and Naaman the Syrian in Elisha's time, while many in Israel were passed over. Blessings went to people who were open to faith, while unbelieving Israel was passed by.
Wider Applications Today
The same refusal of evidence and resistance to the Holy Spirit seen at Nazareth can occur among God's own people. Some carried the spirit of unbelief home with them to Battle Creek. At Minneapolis some whose hearts were touched by God at first received the message, but when they saw it did not agree with their views they doubted it. Their course recalled the Nazarenes who heard gracious words under the Spirit's influence and then in prejudice, unbelief, rage, and attempt to cast Jesus from the precipice rejected Him.
The principle applies also to Paul, who was rejected by fellow believers and church leaders at Jerusalem. Bitterness, envy, and jealousy kept them from recognizing his special call to preach to the Gentiles and hindered his work. Such hostility from professed believers can obstruct a faithful servant, deprive the church of blessing, and help bring about circumstances that end his labor sooner than God ordained. God did not miraculously undo those consequences, though He had not decreed that Paul's labor should end so soon. After the minister dies, those who rejected him may finally recognize what they lost.
Refusing the light God sends through His chosen messengers and trusting one's own judgment instead is refusing Christ Himself. The rejection at Nazareth exposes unbelief that refuses a message sent by the Lord not because it is error but from familiarity and prejudice, with eyes closed against seeing, ears against hearing, and understanding darkened against manifestations of the Spirit of God. Admitting doubt can drive the Spirit of God away and leave the heart open to Satan's suggestions. That course ripens into wrath that thrusts Christ out to destroy Him, as at Nazareth where He passed through and went His way under angelic guard, and the same pattern appears when people who acknowledge a message as from the Holy Spirit later reject it and spread falsehoods. Such spiritual blindness under the ruler of darkness is dangerous because it calls the work of the Spirit of God the work of Satan.
The rejection explains why His work was confined to so small a circumference in Palestine and was not extended to the surrounding heathen nations. Those nations were not prepared for His work. Devoting His time to the conversion of the Gentile world would have closed the door by which He could bear His message to the Jewish nation. Jewish prejudice against Him was already strong, as seen when His discourse at Nazareth so enraged the people that a mob drove Him from the synagogue, pushed Him about while quarreling how to silence Him entirely, and would have killed Him if divine power had not preserved Him until He passed from their sight to a place they did not know.
The Nazareth rejection belonged to a whole life of persecution and insult, from being driven from Bethlehem by a jealous king to being condemned without cause at Jerusalem. It came despite three years of public self-denying and benevolent labor and a life of purity, suffering, and devotion known to all. He healed the sick, restored sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf and speech to the dumb, fed the hungry, comforted the sorrowful, walked on the waves and stilled them by a word, cast out devils who confessed Him, broke the sleep of the dead, and held thousands by wisdom. Yet He could not reach hearts blinded by prejudice and hatred that stubbornly rejected the light, though He had come to save them, so that three years was as long as the world could endure its Redeemer, and with His few faithful followers He had to seek temporary asylum in a strange city.
Natural closeness and fleshly ties profit nothing unless one believes in Him and accepts Him as personal Saviour. Faith and doing God's will make a believer more closely related to Him in a saving sense than kinship does. His work is both to comfort and to restore by reproof, including correction even when warnings are disregarded or unwelcome. Teachers must study and understand God's Word and apply its eternal lessons to their own lives, or they are not prepared to teach others. After an initial rejection a renewed opportunity to receive the truth may come, so people must guard against letting prejudice and pride harden their hearts into final rejection of the message that would save them.