Matthew the apostle wrote when Jesus and His disciples, “were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatic, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falls into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?”, and in chapter seventeen and verse twenty of his book, Matthew shares how Jesus' answered, “because of your unbelief” where we read:
And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, Remove from here to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
The verse reads, “And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief:”. Matthew began with the words, “and Jesus” or “and the Son of God, the Savior of mankind and God incarnate whose name means Jehovah is Salvation” “said” which means “uttered, declared and proclaimed” “to them” or “to His disciples”, “because” which means “by means of, the ground or reason by and on account” “of your unbelief” or “of the disciples' unfaithfulness and weakness of faith”. Matthew shared how Jesus told His disciples their “weakness of faith” was the reason they could not cast the “demon” out of the man's son.
The verse continues, “for verily I say unto you, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, Remove from here to yonder place; and it shall remove;” Matthew added the word, “for” or “because, since and on account that” “verily” which means “truly, certainly and surely” “I say” or “Jesus uttered, declared and proclaimed” “unto you” which refers to “Jesus' disciples”, “If you have faith” or “whether the disciples hold, own and possess conviction of the truth, belief and trust” “as a grain” which refers to “like unto a kernel or seed” “of mustard seed” which means “the germinating seed for the name of a plant which in oriental countries grows from a very small seed and attains to the height of a tree, 10 feet (3 meters) and more”, “you shall say” or “the disciples will utter, declare and proclaim” “to this mountain” which means “toward a particular rising above the plain”, “Remove from here” or “pass over from one place to another” “to yonder place” which means “to that place over there”: “and it shall remove” or “and the mountain will be passed over from one place to another”. Matthew shared how the “disciples” would be able to move a mountain if they only “trusted and believed” in the amount of a “mustard seed” which is the smallest of agrarian “seeds”.
Finally the verse says, “and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” Matthew ended this verse with the words, “and nothing” or “and not one thing” “shall be impossible” which means “will be as that which cannot be done” “unto you” which refers to “Jesus' disciples”. Matthew shared how Jesus declared “not one thing” to be beyond the power and ability of His disciples when they have “faith”.
When we meditate upon Matthew's words in this verse, we see how Jesus instructed His disciples concerning their “faith”. They were not to have “faith in faith”, but rather “faith” in God to do the “impossible” before them. God desires to have a relationship with every person who “trusts in, relies upon and clings to” His Son Jesus, and when they submit to His plan of salvation, they shall find power to move the mountains that arise in their lives.
Next time Matthew shares how Jesus tells His disciples, “this kind goes not out but by prayer and fasting”, 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"
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