Luke 12: 54- 59
Your Day In Court
54 Then He also said to the multitudes, “Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it is. 55 And when you see the south wind blow, you say, ‘There will be hot weather’; and there is. 56 Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time? 57 “Yes, and why, even of yourselves, do you not judge what is right? 58 When you go with your adversary to the magistrate, make every effort along the way to settle with him, lest he drag you to the judge, the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. 59 I tell you, you shall not depart from there till you have paid the very last mite.”
As we begin to take a look at today’s Scripture verses let us also look at what the apostle Matthew wrote regarding the same teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew 16:1-4, “Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; 3 and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. 4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed.
I do not know about you but if I just took a look only at today’s verses it would appear that the Lord was displeased with all those people who have been with Him as He traveled the paths throughout Israel. For if we look at verse 1 we read,
54 Then He also said to the multitudes,
Please notice however, that the verse says, ‘The He also said to the multitudes.’ The apostle Matthew tells us who He was speaking to at first – ““Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven.”
Can you see what’s going on here? These antagonists snuck out of their holes to test the Lord. Their intentions were not to ‘Test’ Him to verify His credentials on being the Messiah, but to entrap Him so that they could accuse Him as a phony.
Our Lord responds to these true religious phonies – “. 2 He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; 3 and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. 4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed.”
Now here please notice the last verse of Matthew’s – ‘And He left them and departed.’ So, what does this mean to us?
Apparently after being confronted by the religious hypocrites, He responds to these guys while teaching all those around who have observed this conflict. He responds back to the Pharisees and then to teach a truth He includes the multitude. Then after He has given His response which the multitude along with the religious attackers that He Is confronting, He goes on His way.
So, knowing this let us take a look at our Lord’s comments.
“Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it is. 55 And when you see the south wind blow, you say, ‘There will be hot weather’; and there is. 56 Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?
Remember that our Lord Jesus Is commenting to the Pharisees and Sadducees who have tried to trap Him. Our Lord Jesus has now turned His concentration back on the crowds who have been drinking in His words, even if they have failed to fully understand them. He draws their attention to weather signs which they use in order to know what weather to expect. A cloud rising in the west will be coming in from the sea and will therefore contain a large quantity of water which is just waiting to fall once it is affected by land. Thus such a cloud regularly indicates rain.
In response to these religious spies He has turned to the crowds and takes up the fact that all people can detect the signs that indicate what the weather will be, but fail to gather the signs, such as those just mentioned, that reveal that the time of salvation is here. They are knowledgeable about the heaven above, and yet they are unable to discern the real heavenly signs, the ones that really matter, such as His own words, wonders and signs, and what has been described in the previous passage, the likelihood of our Master and King Jesus suffering at the hands of His enemies, the effects on family life of His message which will be a fulfillment of prophecy, and the fire of judgment that is inevitably coming on them in fulfillment of Scripture.
But our Lord Jesus considers that if they can take the trouble to note the signs of changing weather, they might also have taken the time to note the signs occurring through His ministry which are fulfillments of Old Testament prophecy, and thus have recognized that the last days were there. They were all ‘experts’ on the weather. Why were they not equally experts in interpreting the Scriptures? The very words are a strong indication to them to wake up and recognize that this was the Lord’s acceptable time.
Here is a scary charge by our Lord against the religious group. He calls them ‘Hypocrites.’ They make a great play of being ‘the people of God’, but inwardly they are more interested in the weather. Their profession is simply on the whole an act, for they do not live it out.
This is something I am very scared of, if I am just playing church, then I need to get out. Either our Lord God Is real or this is just one big joke.
I believe that the bible is totally true. I believe in the Blessed Holy Trinity. I believe in God, that He always was, is, and ever shall be God. I believe that our God Is composed of there Holy individual Ones Who Are totally equal and of the same essence. I believe in Adoni Yahweh – Father God; our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Adoni Yeshua, Who came and paid the death sentence for us on the cross and Who now Is at the right hand of our Heavenly Father. I also believe in the Holy Spirit.
Their failure to observe the signs that reveal the presence of the time of opportunity, explains why they do not see what is the right course for them to take and make in view of His coming. They are failing to recognize the urgency of the situation. They are failing to make the right judgments.
So we understand how our Lord illustrates their position by utilizing the example of an urgent situation with which all were familiar.
57 “Yes, and why, even of yourselves, do you not judge what is right? 58 When you go with your adversary to the magistrate, make every effort along the way to settle with him, lest he drag you to the judge, the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. 59 I tell you, you shall not depart from there till you have paid the very last mite.”
Our Holy Ruler depicts their response to Him in terms of debtors who are in danger of being dragged before pagan courts where they will be shown no mercy and it because they have refused to seek conciliation with their creditors. If only they had put in some kind of effort and admitted their debt, and had come to some kind of agreement with their creditor before they came in front of the magistrate all would have been well, and arbitration before a Rabbi might well then have solved the problem.
Israelite law was notoriously favorable towards debtors. We read in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 15 “At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts. 2 And this is the form of the release: Every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release it; he shall not require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called the LORD’s release. 3 Of a foreigner you may require it; but you shall give up your claim to what is owed by your brother, 4 except when there may be no poor among you; for the LORD will greatly bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance— 5 only if you carefully obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe with care all these commandments which I command you today. 6 For the LORD your God will bless you just as He promised you; you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you. 7 “If there is among you a poor man of your brethren, within any of the gates in your land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, 8 but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs. 9 Beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,’ and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing, and he cry out to the LORD against you, and it become sin among you.
Our Lord teaches that if they do not do what is smart then they may be dragged before a civil court, and once they reach the civil courts, because by their refusal to conciliate they have in essence rejected God’s word as the measure by which to be judged and can no longer look to it, they will experience the courts full severity.
It is clear that the creditor has chosen this approach as being more effective, for both methods were available in the Palestine of that day. The result will be that the whole process of the civil law will go into motion and they will end up in prison. By his obstinacy in refusing to be reconciled the debtor has put himself beyond mercy. The ‘magistrate’ is the court official who introduces the case, the ‘judge’ is the one officially appointed to give the verdict, and ‘the officer’ is the one who carries out the verdict.
In the same way if only they will come to agreement with Him before Judgment Day comes, then they will save themselves from having judgment made against them there. But if they refuse they simply bring on themselves their own fate.
For if they do not come to agreement with Him let them be sure that every sin will have to be accounted for, they will be made liable for their whole debt. This is not an indication that eventually they will be able, as it were, to find a way out of their final punishment, for it is clear that in their case their final debt can never be repaid. It is only in earthly situations where debts can hopefully some time in the future be paid off so that a way of final escape can be seen as possible. But the heavenly court will be uncompromising. As they have failed to respond to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, it will demand from them every last sin. The phrase is really declaring that such a possibility of release is out of the question. It will never happen.
The earthly hope of being saved from the debtor’s prison would be the arrival of a kinsman redeemer to pay his debt for him. But those who have failed to conciliate with Jesus have forfeited their Kinsman Redeemer.
