Man, your sins are forgiven you

In Matthew and Mark, it was written that Jesus began His Ministry in Galilee then called the four fisherman after that, to be His disciples. They were Simon, Andrew, James and John. If Luke's book is in chronological order, then from previous chapters we see that Peter already knew Jesus who stayed in his house and healed his mother-in-law. Then in the this chapter when Jesus went onto Peter's boat and taught, Peter knew Jesus but was not yet a disciple. Here we see Peter's faith in Jesus increasing and he obeyed Jesus by throwing the net as Jesus asked, even if Peter is the more experienced fisherman. When they brought in the enormous among of fish, Peter called Jesus Lord, perhaps beginning to have an idea that Jesus is no ordinary man. From this miracle, the four fisherman started following Jesus.

Jesus healed a leper and asked him to tell no one but the priest and to make an offering, just as the law of Moses taught. But the news was spread and many came to Jesus to be healed. In another gathering, Jesus' reputation as a healer is already widely known. A paralytic was carried by his friends to Jesus. The Pharisees were there perhaps to find fault with Jesus. Jesus healed the man by proclaiming that His sins are forgiven. This would build up the case for the Pharisees later to charge Jesus with blasphemy.

Jesus also called on a tax collector to follow Him. The tax collector was so overjoyed that he threw a feast inviting Jesus and his other tax collector friends. The Pharisees again tried to find fault in Jesus associating with dishonest people such as tax collectors. Jesus response was that it is the sinners who needed forgiveness and repentance from Him.

The Pharisees again tried to damage the credibility of Jesus and questioned why other religious groups, including John the Baptist whom they did not agree with anyway, fast often but Jesus' disciples do not fast. Jesus spoke correctly that His disciples do not fast because the person whom fasting is directed to is God, and Jesus is there with them already. In other words, Jesus is revealing Himself to be God. After that, Jesus explained to His disciples that when He is no longer with them, then they would fast. Jesus also told the parable of wine skins that new should not be mixed with old. Also that people who tasted the old wine will find it hard to give up for the new wine. Here Jesus means our old nature before Christ and new nature after knowing Christ.





Luke 5
Four Fishermen Called as Disciples

1 So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the word of God, that He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, 2 and saw two boats standing by the lake; but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. 3 Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat.

4 When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

5 But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” 6 And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. 7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”

9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” 11 So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him.

Jesus Cleanses a Leper

12 And it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

13 Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him. 14 And He charged him to tell no one, “But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as a testimony to them, just as Moses commanded.”

15 However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities. 16 So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.

Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralytic

17 Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.[a] 18 Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him. 19 And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus.

20 When He saw their faith, He said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”

21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

22 But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? 23 Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise up and walk’? 24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the man who was paralyzed, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”

25 Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. 26 And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen strange things today!”

Matthew the Tax Collector

27 After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” 28 So he left all, rose up, and followed Him.

29 Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house. And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them. 30 And their scribes and the Pharisees[b] complained against His disciples, saying, “Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

31 Jesus answered and said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

Jesus Is Questioned About Fasting

33 Then they said to Him, “Why do[c] the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?”

34 And He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35 But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.”

36 Then He spoke a parable to them: “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one;[d] otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.[e] 39 And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately[f] desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’”[g]

Lord Reminded Solomon to Walk in His Ways

Te LORD appeared a second time to once again lay down the covenant promises of blessings and curses. The content of this covenant has been repeated many times in the Bible and yet we see man failing to uphold it. Essentially God requires Solomon and us in general to live according to his ways including this commands, statutes and judgement and He will continue to defend the throne of Israel. But if the king and the people forsook God, then they will be removed from the land, to such a degree that people will ask why God did such a thing to his own people - and the answer would be because they had forsaken God.

It is interesting that the chapter records the disagreement between Hiram and Solomon. When the Temple was completed, as well as the Palace, Solomon gave Hiram some land. But Hiram was not pleased with the land and told Solomon about it. At this stage, it is unsure what the full consequence of this agreement was.

A few other points was that Solomon seemed to have established a temporary peaceful relationship with Egypt, especially through the union of Pharaoh's daughter and Solomon. In addition it was mentioned that the local inhabitants of the land which Israel had not destroyed completely, they went into forced labour for Israel. These people included: Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

1 Kings 9

God’s Second Appearance to Solomon

 1 And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD and the king’s house, and all Solomon’s desire which he wanted to do, 2 that the LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3 And the LORD said to him: “I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built to put My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. 4 Now if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, 5 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’ 6 But if you or your sons at all turn from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight. Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 8 And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and will hiss, and say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?’ 9 Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore the LORD has brought all this calamity on them.’”

Solomon and Hiram Exchange Gifts
 
10 Now it happened at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD and the king’s house 11 (Hiram the king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress and gold, as much as he desired), that King Solomon then gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. 12 Then Hiram went from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, but they did not please him. 13 So he said, “What kind of cities are these which you have given me, my brother?” And he called them the land of Cabul,[a] as they are to this day. 14 Then Hiram sent the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold.

Solomon’s Additional Achievements
 
15 And this is the reason for the labor force which King Solomon raised: to build the house of the LORD, his own house, the Millo,[b] the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. 16 (Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and taken Gezer and burned it with fire, had killed the Canaanites who dwelt in the city, and had given it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.) 17 And Solomon built Gezer, Lower Beth Horon, 18 Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land of Judah, 19 all the storage cities that Solomon had, cities for his chariots and cities for his cavalry, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.
20 All the people who were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel— 21 that is, their descendants who were left in the land after them, whom the children of Israel had not been able to destroy completely—from these Solomon raised forced labor, as it is to this day. 22 But of the children of Israel Solomon made no forced laborers, because they were men of war and his servants: his officers, his captains, commanders of his chariots, and his cavalry.
23 Others were chiefs of the officials who were over Solomon’s work: five hundred and fifty, who ruled over the people who did the work.
24 But Pharaoh’s daughter came up from the City of David to her house which Solomon[c] had built for her. Then he built the Millo.

26 King Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Ezion Geber, which is near Elath[d] on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. 27 Then Hiram sent his servants with the fleet, seamen who knew the sea, to work with the servants of Solomon. 28 And they went to Ophir, and acquired four hundred and twenty talents of gold from there, and brought it to King Solomon.