Yeshua Rejected

Sorry, I'm going to step away from Acts for tonight, but it is tied in with what I've been talking about with regard to the Jews not receiving the Gospel.

Today I worked with Myles helping him read his morning Bible reading. He's reading through the Gospel of Luke. In Luke 4, Yeshua (I'm not going to keep pounding on the Sabbath thing, but it's there too) goes to the Synagogue in Nazareth - his boyhood home - and read the Scriptures. - Oh can I just say I was "so there" when I was reading this. I've read this so many times before, but it wasn't really personal before, but look at this. Yeshua stands up at the front of a room full of his friends, family, relatives, peers, neighbours, those who knew his father, those who knew Mary as an unwed pregnant teen, those who knew him the time he went missing because he was in the Temple in Jerusalem. So Yeshua stands up and reads

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, ~~Remember Yeshua's baptism
for he has appointed me to preach Good
News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim ~~ Authority
that captives will be released, ~~like Moses from Egypt - salvation
that the blind will see, ~~Miracles
that the downtrodden will be freed from
their oppressors, ~~ released from bondage to HaSatan and this world
and that the time of the Lord's favor has come. ~~ After reading this, I nearly stood up and yelled, Look it's him, he's reading about himself.. look, look it's right there about why he came!

He puts the scroll away, and suddenly they all realize what he's read, that he's read about himself. Yeshua then says This scripture has come true today before your very eyes.

Then Yeshua continues in telling them that they won't believe him, that everytime we are asked to believe what's right before our eyes, we don't..

You see, belief in Yeshua has nothing to do with proof, it has to do with faith. We know He's Messiah because he fulfilled the prophecies, but that's not why we believe. We also don't believe because we witness miracles. We believe because we have willing hearts, because we want to believe. Proofs afterward help us understand who he is, miracles give us hope. People don't believe with their eyes, they believe with their hearts.

So, the question about why the Jews didn't believe... those who didn't believe, didn't because they were looking with their eyes, not their hearts. Remember, the eyes in Hebrew are an idiom for the heart.. good eye means a generous person, and a bad eye means a stingy person.

Open my heart Lord, make me see what's in your Word.