Wednesday, Feb 17- Matthew 12:9-14

9Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue,
-From the grainfield into the temple.
-He successfully argued his point and continued to do what he was doing.

10and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"
-Another trap type of question.
-They have no mercy towards the man. This man has a once in a life time opportunity to be healed and they would rather have it not happen because of man made laws and legalism.

11He said to them, "If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?
-I guess this would be a normal occurrence with an obvious answer.

12How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."
-Doing good has a greater value than doing work on the sabbath. From a practical perspective this seems obvious

13Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other.
-Who could argue with a miracle such as this?

14But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.
-Again, the Pharisees didn't care at all that a great thing happened to the man. Their hate consumed them.
-Our hate consumes us sometimes that we become so blind to the practical things of the world. We can't get gripped by our own selfishness, anger, or desires to the point that we become blind. We need to pray that we never fall into this trap.