Luke 9:10
"And the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they had done. And he took them, and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida," Luke 9:10. The apostles had been walking with Christ and learning from Him. They watched Him work miracles, and they heard His doctrine. They observed how He treated others. They were in training. In Luke 9:1-6, Christ sends the apostles out. It is time for their training to be put to the test (Luke 9:6). One question is how will the people respond to them; another question is how will the apostles respond to their own labours? If we are not careful both can affect our walk with the Lord. Success or failure in our eyes is not always the same as it is in the eyes of God. Usually, we view success by numbers. We often equate blessings with success. We use terms like, "If God is in it, then it will prosper". Then we start using Scripture out of context to fit this narrative. Some of the popular out of context verses are Philippians 4:13, Jeremiah 29:11, and Isaiah 54:17.
"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me," Philippians 4:13. People use this verse for everything in life, mainly good things. There are those who say all means all things all the time. That really leads to some major problems. If "all" means all things all the time, then anything you can think of would fit. This would also include sinful things. I hope we see the problem with taking this verse out of context. So, what is Paul making this application to? If you back up to the previous verses (10-12), we see that no matter what state the Lord has Paul in, he is content in that state. Paul writes this letter to the Philippians from prison. He is content with being in prison because his trust is in the Lord. His joy is in the Lord, not his circumstances.
"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end," Jeremiah 29:11. Ahhh, yes, What comforting words written to a people who are in Babylonian captivity. God's people have rebelled against Him, so He has raised up Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian's to kill, afflict, defeat, and carry off His people into captivity for 70 years. At the end of the 70 years God will bring some of them back to Jerusalem (Ezra and Nehemiah). If you read Ezra and Nehemiah you will see that they had much opposition, but God remained faithful. Most people take Jeremiah 29:11 out of context and make it seem as if when you are serving God nothing bad will happen to you. I wonder if these people have ever read the whole book of Jeremiah?
"No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD," Isaiah 54:17. There are 41 words in this verse, but most people only know the first 9. This is truly a great verse. The promises of this whole verse are very comforting. No one and nothing can separate us from the love of God. Turn to Romans 8:28-39. When kept in context, Isaiah 54:17 causes us to look forward to the day we leave this world and are in Christ's presence in heaven.
Why look at these Scriptures when we are looking at refreshment and rest from our labor? Scripture out of context will give us the wrong expectations. Wrong expectations are usually unrealistic expectations. Unrealistic expectations will cause us to quit when those expectations are not met. Though the disciples walked with Jesus and heard Him teach, they did not apply everything they heard. Sometimes they only heard part of what Christ said. Turn to Matthew 16:21-23. The disciples did not hear the last part of verse 21, "and be raised again the third day." Did this have an affect on them? "And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not," Luke 24:11. What a different expectation they would have had if they had heard and believed all that Jesus Christ had said. Even after Christ shows Himself to the disciples, after Thomas said, "My Lord and my God", even after these events, the disciples were so discouraged they quit. "Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately: and that night they caught nothing," John 21:3.
If we keep reading John 21, we will see the Lord's faithfulness to His sheep. Aren't you thankful He is faithful, especially when we are not? What was a cause of the disciples ending up where they were? We know they did not believe all of the Scriptures, and they were also tired. On the night Christ was arrested, while He prayed, the disciples fell asleep. They were exhausted. As a result, they took their eyes off of Jesus and was concerned with preserving self; they deserted Jesus.
"And the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they had done. And he took them, and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida," Luke 9:10. The apostles come back excited and on fire. The first time they were sent out was a success. They preached, taught, and worked miracles. They were loved by all. They may not have realized it, but they needed to take the time to rest and be refreshed from their labours. They needed to get alone with Jesus. As we go through the Scriptures, we see that these times of rest and refreshing were not extended periods of time, but were brief. Long enough to rest and reset. Time to get away from the hustle and bustle of ministry and feed upon Scripture, in context (Romans 12:1-2; I Peter 2:1-2). Scripture helps us keep our focus on the Lord. We live looking for His return. This is not easy in that our flesh hates the things of God. This is why we must crucify our flesh. We must make ourselves get up, stop, put down distractions, and spend time with our Lord and Saviour (Mark 4:33-34; Luke 10:38-42).
Our Lord and Saviour is precious to us. We love Him because He first loved us. Though we have not seen Him, we love Him. Before we realize it, our life is over. Where does the time go? How much time do we waste? When was the last time we went aside privately with our bibles and spent time with our Lord and Saviour praying and reading God's Word? Most of the time we are tired because we give ourselves to the things of this world, and we grab these cliché's that sound spiritual, and then we end up with wrong expectations, and if we are not careful, we will be ready to quit. There will be great times, and there will be terrible times in life and ministry, but our Lord and Saviour is faithful, and He is worthy to serve. May the Lord grant us the grace to finish our race for Him. Rest, refresh, and reengage.
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Soli Deo Gloria.
