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APRIL 10
said, “You do not know what manner of spirit
you are of. For the Son of Man did not come
56
9:51 steadfastly set His face to go to Jeru- to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” And
salem. This begins a major section of Luke’s they went to another village.
Gospel. From here to 19:27, Christ’s face was set 57 Now it happened as they journeyed on the
toward Jerusalem, and Luke’s narrative is a trav- road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will
elogue of that long journey to the Cross.This was follow You wherever You go.”
a dramatic turning point in Christ’s ministry.After 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes
this, Galilee was no longer His base of operation. and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of
Although 17:11–37 describes a return visit to Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Galilee, Luke included everything between this 59 Then He said to another, “Follow Me.”
point and that short Galilean sojourn as part of
the journey to Jerusalem.We know from a com- But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury
parison of the Gospels that,during this period of my father.”
60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their
Christ’s ministry, He made short visits to
Jerusalem to celebrate feasts.Nonetheless,those own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom
brief visits were only interludes in this period of of God.”
ministry that would culminate in a final journey 61 And another also said, “Lord, I will follow
to Jerusalem for the purpose of dying there. You, but let me first go and bid them farewell
Thus Luke underscored this turning point in who are at my house.”
Christ’s ministry more dramatically than any of 62
the other Gospels, by showing Christ’s determina- But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put
tion to complete His mission of going to the Cross. his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for
the kingdom of God.”

DAY 9: How should we respond to all forms of religious persecution?
Luke 9:51–56 show us Jesus’ response to persecution. The Samaritans were descendants of
Jewish mixed marriages from the days of captivity. They were rivals of the Jewish nation and had
devised their own worship, a hybrid of Judaism and paganism, with a temple of their own on Mt.
Gerizim.They were considered unclean by the Jews and were so hated that most Jewish travelers
from Galilee to Judah took the longer route east of the Jordan to avoid traveling through Samaria.
The fact that Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem for worship implied rejection of the temple on
Mt. Gerizim and a contempt for Samaritan worship.This was a strong point of contention between
Jews and Samaritans (see John 4:20–22), and the Samaritan village would not take Him in (v. 53).
James and John, whom Jesus nicknamed the “Sons of Thunder” (Mark 3:17), then suggested they
call down fire from heaven as Elijah once did (v. 54).To which Christ “rebuked them”(v. 55).
Christ’s response to the Samaritans exemplifies the attitude the church ought to have with
regard to all forms of religious persecution. The Samaritans’ worship was pagan at heart, plainly
wrong.Compounding that was their intolerance.Yet,the Lord would not retaliate with force against
them.Nor did He even revile them verbally.He had come to save,not to destroy,and so His response
was grace rather than destructive fury (v. 56). Nonetheless, Christ’s words of disapproval here must
not be taken as condemnation of Elijah’s actions in 1 Kings 18:38–40 or 2 Kings 1:10–12. Elijah was
commissioned to a special ministry as prophet in a theocracy, and it was his God-ordained task to
confront an evil monarch (Ahab) who was attempting to usurp God’s authority. Elijah acted with
an authority comparable to that of modern civil authorities (see Rom.13:4)—not in a capacity that
parallels that of ministers of the gospel.

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Hivite, and the Jebusite—heard about it, that
April 10 they gathered together to fight with Joshua
and Israel with one accord.
3 But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard
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what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they
Joshua 9:1–10:43
worked craftily, and went and pretended to be
And it came to pass when all the kings ambassadors. And they took old sacks on
9 who were on this side of the Jordan, in the their donkeys, old wineskins torn and mend-
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hills and in the lowland and in all the coasts of ed, old and patched sandals on their feet, and
the Great Sea toward Lebanon—the Hittite, old garments on themselves; and all the bread
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the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the of their provision was dry and moldy. And
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