Daily Dose of Hope
May 23, 2025
Day 5 of Week 8
Scripture - Matthew 4:12-25
Prayer: Holy God, We come to you today with expectancy. We need to hear your voice. We need to feel your presence. Lord Jesus, we know that we are weak. Our lives are incomplete and empty without you. Our world is nothing without you. Help us go through this day remembering that we belong to you. With your Spirit in us, we have power. With your Spirit in us, we can be bold and courageous. We give you our day, Lord. Amen.
Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, a Deep Dive into the Gospels and Acts. Happy Friday, everyone! Today, we are finishing up Matthew, chapter 4.
Jesus’ public ministry begins after his time in the wilderness and after the arrest of John the Baptist. We don’t know how Jesus felt about John’s arrest, as Matthew doesn’t give us that information, but we know they were first cousins and may have been close. We also know that John’s arrest foreshadows Jesus’ own.
The Scripture for today says that Jesus moves from Nazareth to Capernaum. Could it have been John’s imprisonment that led Jesus to move? We don’t really know. Capernaum was a fishing town on the Sea of Galilee and it becomes Jesus’ base of operations. It’s strategic location also allowed Jesus to reach a wider audience and travel more easily. Matthew points out that what Jesus was doing was also a fulfillment of prophecy from Isaiah 9. Remember, Matthew is weaving in this theme of Jesus as the Messiah from the line of David, the one who the Jews have been waiting for.
Next, Jesus begins to call his first disciples. I think it’s hard for us to imagine how abruptly these four men responded to Jesus. While there was probably more back story here that we aren’t privy to, the reality is that they left everything to follow Jesus. They left all human sources of security, all human goals and aspirations to respond to a call by God. They left their jobs and probably their families to respond to a call, and did so as far as we can tell, without hesitation or doubt.
Could we do the same? God calls each and every one of us but we still hold on to various aspects of the world. How often do we fully and completely let go of everything to simply follow Jesus? This is the demand of the kingdom of God–turn away from the kingdom of the wor
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