Luke 11:27-32

content/bible_journal/luke_11:27-32.md

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+title = "Luke 11:27–32"
+date = "2022-12-11"
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+
+### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Lk11.27-32)
+
+While Jesus was talking about demons and the state of people's souls, a woman
+calls out a blessing on His mother. It seems to me like an odd time for it, but
+perhaps she really enjoyed what Jesus was saying. Or maybe she was trying to
+change the subject. In any carse, Jesus responds by saying it is better to be
+blessed by keeping God's word.
+
+Jesus moves on to address the insincere requests for Him to perform a sign.
+It's hard to tell if this was immediately after the previous teaching, later
+that day, or some other time. All we know is "when the crowds were increasing."
+(_v. 29_) He tells them that the only sign they would get is the sign of Jonah,
+alluding to the three days the prophet spent inside the fish, cut off from the
+world. In the same way, Jesus would spend three days in a tomb to then emerge
+preaching a message of repentance.
+
+However, the queen of Ethiopia and the men of Ninevah from Jonah's time will
+both rise up and condemn the Jews of Jesus's day at the time of judgement. Each
+of them responded to God's message correctly, and they did not have as much
+knowledge and resources available to them as the Jews did. King Solomon did not
+perfectly follow God's commands in acquiring wives and wealth, to his
+detriment, but the queen of Ethiopia still came a great distance to learn the
+wisdom God had given him. Jonah was a rebellious, racist prophet, and yet the
+Ninevites listened to God's call for repentance through him. How bad will it be
+for the Jews who heard the very Son of God Himself speak directly to them and
+reject Him?
+
+How bad will it be for us, who have the entirety of Scriptures translated into
+our native languages, updated every few years, with instant access to it and
+also to the writings of the greatest minds who have studied it for _millenia_,
+and still don't pay attention to it?
+
+* * *
+
+Have mercy on us, for we deserve all the judgements You have promised.