Religious Leaders Reasoning - Luke 20:5

The beloved physician Luke wrote as Jesus, “taught the people in the temple, and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders, And spoke unto him, saying, Tell us, by what authority do you these things? or who is he that gave you this authority? And he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing; and answer me. The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men?”, and in chapter twenty and verse five of his book Luke shared how the religious leaders, “reasoned with themselves” where we read:

And they reasoned with themselves, saying,

If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then believed you him not?

The verse reads, “And they reasoned with themselves, saying, ...” Luke began with the words, “and they reasoned” or “and the chief priests, scribes and chief of the people reckoned and deliberated” “with themselves” which means “with their own selves”, “saying” or “uttering, declaring and proclaiming” the following words. Luke shared after Jesus posed His question to the “religious leaders”, they “deliberated” to decide how to answer Him.

The verse goes on to say, “... If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then believed you him not?” Luke continued with the words, “if we shall say” or “whether we, religious leaders will utter, declare, proclaim and answer”, “from heaven” which means “out and separate from the region above the sidereal heavens, the seat of order of things eternal and consummately perfect where God dwells and other heavenly beings”; “he will say” or “he, Jesus, will utter, declare, proclaim and ask”, “Why then believed you him not” which means “for what reason and cause did you religious leaders not think him to be true or to be believed or have confidence in him”? Luke shared how the “chief priests, scribes and chief of the people” decided if they answer that John the Baptist's “baptism” came from “heaven”, Jesus would ask them why they did not “believe” in John.

When we meditate upon Luke's words in this verse, we learn how Jesus stumped the “religious leaders” with His first part of the question. The “chief priests, scribes and the chief of the people” were all against Jesus, and they wanted to destroy Him. If they answered that John's baptism came from “heaven”, they knew Jesus would ask them why they didn't have confidence in him. The “religious leaders” will address the second part of Jesus' question in our next verse, but for now let us examine our own lives to discover whether we believe the baptism of “John the Baptist” was from “heaven”. Those who believe and trust that God desired to save them through His Son Jesus should understand this was God's plan from the beginning and yield their lives to Him as their personal “Savior and Lord”.

Next time Luke share how the religious leaders reasoned, “if we say, Of men; all the people will stone us”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

Look for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be Married”, “One Year in the Sermon on the Mount” and the new poetry book "Random Mushrooms Volumes I and II" and the new novel "Elizabeth County" in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com ; http://www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore. All references are from "Strongs Concordance".