Thursday, Feb 5- Mathew 9:27-34

27As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!"
-2 men looking for mercy. what an amazing picture of desperation for some kind of hope. Many people in life end up at this point some how searching for some kind of answer.

28When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?"
"Yes, Lord," they replied.
-Jesus doesn't immediately turn around and answer them, but they follow him indoors.
-Jesus questions these guys asking them about their faith.
-Do we believe a lot of the things we ask of him?
-If not we need to grow win faith.

29Then he touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith will it be done to you";
-Here's an amazing statement. He doesn't just heal them, but he does it according to their faith. It's interesting that he chooses to do it this way, this time. Makes you wonder what would've happened if they had half faith, if that's even possible.

30and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, "See that no one knows about this."
-Maybe Jesus needed a break? He was stern about this, but this type of information would naturally leak out quickly.

31But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region.
-They didn't do a good job obeying, but it would be hard to.

32While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus.
-Another case was brought to Jesus. This muteness was attributed to demon possession. Different than other cases where physical ailments were not attributed to demonic influence. Not everything is a demon.
-I don't necessarily know how we make the diagnosis that something is demonic or natural, but we must keep our eyes open for this possibility.

33And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, "Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel."
-In this case it wasn't just a simple healing, but a exorcism was necessary.
-This was truly miraculous stuff he was doing to get this type of reaction.

34But the Pharisees said, "It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons."
-Poor logic by the Pharisees.
-Jesus says in other scriptures a kingdom divided against itself will fall.
-We have the same power to drive out demons when necessary.