Hanging on His Words

Tuesday - April 12th

Devotionals for Passion Week 2022

Scripture to Read Today: Luke 19:47-48

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The leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.

Luke 19:48

Today we continue daily devotionals around the final days of the first coming of Jesus Christ to earth. Each devotional this week will include a text of Scripture to read (simply click on the link at the top of this page to read Luke 19:47-48 for today's devotional) and some thoughts I have written to help us in our walk with Christ based on the Scripture for the day.

As I grew up in a Christian home, my parents and others shared God's Word with me regularly. I can't remember when I got my first Bible. It seemed I had one from the time I was born. In the church and time I was growing up, we went to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. If you include summer VBS (Vacation Bible School) and other Children and Student ministries, I had regular exposure to God's Word throughout my formative years.

After completing a four-year Bachelor's degree in Bible and Theology and a three-year Master's Degree in Theology and Biblical Languages, you would think I had enough Bible for a few lifetimes. I still find joy in God's Word. Even as I have been preparing for this weekend's Easter sermon, I've discovered a few nuggets God has for my life that I had not noticed before.

As much as the Scriptures have brought joy to my life, I have found great satisfaction seeing other people discover the blessing of the Bible for themselves. Adults who come to Jesus as Savior having little or no background in God's Word overflow with joy when they discover it. Their enthusiasm for the Word causes me to dig deeper and spend more time taking in the words of Scripture with greater joy!

There are seasons in my life that I cannot get enough of what God has to say through His Word. It quenches the thirst of my soul during a season of spiritual drought. It nourishes my spirit during times of spiritual weakness and weariness.

On the third day of the final week of Christ's ministry before His crucifixion, Jesus taught in the Temple courts. Tuesday of Passion Week found Christ with people revealing God's truth to those who would listen. This was His pattern every day that week, according to Luke 19:47. The passage tells us that as Jesus did this, it further irritated the religious leaders who felt his teachings undermined their control over the Jewish people. As Christ taught on Tuesday, the religious leaders wanted to kill Him even more. They had to eliminate Him to hold onto their positions of power.

The final statement related to Jesus and what He was doing on Tuesday of Passion Week indicates why the Jewish leaders could not initiate a plan to eliminate Him. It simply says, "They could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words" (Luke 19:48).

Did you catch that? The people were in the way. Why were they in the way? The leaders in Jerusalem saw how the people hung on every word Jesus said. They could not take action against Jesus because those who heard Him discovered joy and had their thirst quenched as He shared God's truth with them.

They hung on every word from God the Son - the living Word of God!

As you open God's written Word, the Bible, do you approach it desiring to hang on every word? Take one step back. Are you opening God's Word for yourself throughout the week? If you are reading this, I hope you stopped to read the passage suggested for reading at the top of this devotional page.

We cannot hang on the words God has for us in the Scriptures unless we are opening it and reading it for ourselves. We may not have the Living Word of God walking among us in human flesh today, but we have the written Word of God and the Spirit of God to guide us in it.

As we open God's Word and read it, we should seek to hang on its every word - because every word is from God!