Daily Devotional For Friday, January 26, 2024

Today, we come to the third of nine miracles Jesus does, starting in Matthew 8. Take a moment and read Matthew 8:14-15, “When Jesus came into Peter’s house, He saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. (15) He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on Him” (ESV).

When you pray, do you have a consistent attitude of thanking God for Who He is or are there times you thank God you are not like someone else? It is amazing how even in our prayers, we can be condemning of others, sometimes intentionally and other times, unintentionally. 

In this letter written in June 4, 1907 to Samuel Chapman, when John S. Mosby was an attorney at the Justice Department, Mosby furiously attacked the men who supported slavery and racism. Mosby expressed a complex and fascinating set of beliefs about the Civil War at a time when its history was just beginning to be written. Here is a letter he wrote in 1907 when he was 74-years-old: 

“I wrote you about my disgust at reading the Reunion speeches: It has since been increased by reading Christians report. I am certainly glad I wasn’t there. According to Christian the Virginia people were the abolitionists & the Northern people were pro-slavery. He says slavery was “a patriarchal” institution – So were polygamy & circumcision. Ask Hugh if he has been circumcised. Christian quotes what the Old Virginians – said against slavery. True; but why didn’t he quote what the modern Virginians said in favor of it – Mason, Hunter, Wise &c. Why didn’t he state that a Virginia Senator (Mason) was the author of the Fugitive Slave law – & why didn’t he quote The Virginia Code (1860) that made it a crime to speak against slavery, or to teach a negro to read the Lord’s prayer. Now while I think as badly of slavery as Horace Greeley did I am not ashamed that my family were slaveholders. It was our inheritance – Neither am I ashamed that my ancestors were pirates & cattle thieves. People must be judged by the standard of their own age. If it was right to own slaves as property it was right to fight for it. The South went to war on account of Slavery. South Carolina went to war – as she said in her Secession proclamation – because slavery would. not be secure under Lincoln. South Carolina ought to know what was the cause for her seceding. . . . I am not ashamed of having fought on the side of slavery – a soldier fights for his country – right or wrong – he is not responsible for the political merits of the cause he fights in. The South was my country” (Here is the link for his whole letter: https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/inline-pdfs/t-03921-21.pdf).

Believe it or not, every morning, Jewish men during their morning prayers, prayed this: “Lord, I thank Thee that I was not born a slave, a Gentile, or a woman.” What is interesting is that in Matthew 8, Jesus has healed a leper, a slave, encountered a Gentile Roman Centurion and in our passage today, a woman. Immediately, Jews in Capernaum could tell that Jesus was different. Unlike the Jews of His day, Jesus showed compassion, mercy and love to people who were not Jewish. To Jesus, race, physical health, social status nor gender would impact how He dealt with people.

One thing that set these kinds of people apart from the Jews of Jesus’ day was they approached Jesus with an attitude of humility. Mark 1:30 says this: “Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her” (ESV). When Jesus and His disciples got there, people there in the house came and told Him. Luke 4:38 says this: “Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her” (ESV).

We are not sure what caused the high fever, but the text implies that it not only serous, but life threatening because she could not get up and serve. What we know about this time is that only the rich could afford to go to bed whenever they wanted. Most people worked late into the night by candlelight. Physical pain and discomfort were a part of every day life back then, but typically did not keep them from fulfilling their responsibilities. Peter’s mother-in-law was incapacitated physically because she could not get out of bed and emotionally — she could not joyfully serve the Lord and His disciples. 

In some way, Jesus showed the Gospel was still open to the Jews. God had not forsaken His chosen people even though most of them had forsaken Him. In the first two miracles, we see that the kingdom of God was open to Gentiles, but here not closed faithful Jews. This is the Apostle Paul’s belief in Romans 11:2, 5, 24, “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? . . . (5) So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace . . . (24) For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree” (ESV). 

So, here are some questions to consider:

1. Have you ever had a member of the family sick and they felt guilty they could not help? How did you help alleviate their guilt?
2. When was a time you were so sick, maybe even felt close to death, and you could not help your family? Did you feel guilty and if so, did anyone help alleviate your guilt?
3. Did you notice that when Jesus discovered Peter’s mother was sick with this life-threatening fever, He touched her to heal her. What difference do you think it made for Jesus to touch Peter’s mother where in yesterday’s devotional Jesus never made to the house, He simple told the Roman Centurion his child slave was healed?
4. Jewish men every day prayed the pray above. There was pride in their prayers and arrogance in their attitudes. Nowhere had God ever told them to pray this. Do you ever struggle with looking down on certain people due to their race, socio-economic background, their eduction or lack there of, or their neediness or whatever?
5. According to the data, most Americans get less than 7 hours of sleep tonight. Many get less than 6 or even five. In Jesus’ day, this was also true but they worked late into the night with the assistance of lighting as we have today. It was by candlelight. If Peter’s mother was well, this would have been her. Do you think sometimes God allows an illness in our lives to slow us down, to force us to get rest and to focus on Him. Why or why not? Do you believe this has ever happened to you and why?
6. This miracle by Jesus was to heal Peter’s mother so that it would show to Jews of Jesus’ day that God had not forgot His chosen people. The first miracle involved a leper — a social outcast. The second miracle involved a Gentile Roman Centurion —someone Jews believed would rot in hell. Do you ever feel God has forgotten you? If so why? Do you ever forget God? If so, why?
7. Who is in your life that you wish God would heal them as He did Peter’s mother? Most people miss the purpose of healings. They think it is about the healing of the person. It is not. Healings are for us to have an opportunity to give God glory and witness to His mighty power.  In other words, healings are never about people; but about God. Why do you think this is true and how does this change your reaction the next time you learn of a healing by God?