Luke 4:26

But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. BUT UNTO NONE OF THEM WAS ELIAS SENT, SAVE, [ ei-mee (G1508)] - rather, 'but only,' as the same phrase means in Mark 13:32, UNTO SAREPTA - or "Zarephath" (1 Kings 17:9), far beyond the northern border of Palestine, and near to Sidon (see Mark 7:24): UNTO A WOMAN THAT WAS A WIDOW. Passing by all the famishing widows in Israel, the prophet was sent to one who was not an Israelite at all....

14-30 Christ taught in their synagogues, their places of public worship, where they met to read, expound, and apply the word, to pray and praise. All the gifts and graces of the Spirit were upon him and on him, without measure. By Christ, sinners may be loosed from the bonds of guilt, and by his Spirit and grace from the bondage of corruption. He came by the word of his gospel, to bring light to those that sat in the dark, and by the power of his grace, to give sight to those that were blind. And he preached the acceptable year of the Lord. Let sinners attend to the Saviour's invitation when liberty is thus proclaimed. Christ's name was Wonderful; in nothing was he more so than in the word of his grace, and the power that went along with it. We may well wonder that he should speak such words of grace to such graceless wretches as mankind. Some prejudice often furnishes an objection agai...

Verse 26. _UNTO NONE OF THEM WAS ELIAS SENT, SAVE UNTO SAREPTA_] The sentence is elliptical, and means this: To none of _them_ was Elias sent; he was not sent except to Sarepta; for the widow at Sarepta was a _Sidonian_, not a _widow of Israel_. PEARCE. - _Sarepta_ was a pagan city in the country of _Sidon_, in the vicinity of _Galilee_....

SAVE UNTO SAREPTA - Sarepta was a town between Tyre and Sidon, near the Mediterranean Sea. It was not a “Jewish” city, but a Sidonian, and therefore a “Gentile” town. The word “save” in this verse does not express the meaning of the original. It would seem to imply that the city was Jewish. The meaning of the verse is this: “He was sent to none of the widows in Israel. He was not sent except to Sarepta, to a woman that was a “Sidonian.” Dr. Thomson (“_The Land and the Book_,” vol. i. p. 232-236) regards Sarepta as the modern Sarafend. He says that the ruins have been frequently dug over for stone to build the barracks at Beirut, and that the broken columns, marble slabs, sarcophagi, and other ruins indicate that it was once a flourishing city. A large town was built there in the time of the Crusades....

EXPOSITION LUKE 4:1 THE TEMPTATION. The consecration of our Lord in his baptism was immediately followed by what is known as his temptation. It is, perhaps, the most mysterious and least understood of any of the scenes of the public ministry related by the evangelists. It is related at some length by SS. Matthew and Luke, with very slight difference of detail, the principal one being the order in which the three great temptations occurred. In St. Mark the notice of this strange episode in the life is very short, but harmonizes perfectly with the longer accounts of SS. Matthew and Luke. St John omits it altogether; first, because, with the earlier written Gospels before him, he was aware that the Church of his Master already possessed ample details of the occurrence; and secondly, the

BUT UNTO NONE OF THEM WAS ELIAS SENT,.... That is, to none of the poor widows in the land of Israel was the prophet sent, to supply them with food, and relieve them in their famishing circumstances, as might most reasonably have been expected: SAVE UNTO SAREPTA, A CITY OF SIDON; which in 1 Kings 17:10 is called "Zarephath"; and by the Septuagint there, "Sarepta of Sidon", as here. Pliny r speaks of it by the same name, and reckons it to Sidon: UNTO A WOMAN THAT WAS A WIDOW: she is said by the Jews s, to be the mother of Jonah the prophet. Our Lord meant to observe, by this instance, as by the following, that God bestows his favours on persons in a sovereign way, and sometimes upon the most unlikely; as in a time of famine, he overlooked the poor widows in Israel, his peculiar people, and sent his prophet to a Gentile woman in one of the cities of Sid

Luke 4:14. _And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee:_ Ah, dear brethren, if our Lord Jesus needed «the power of the Spirit», how much more do you and I need it! We have no power of our own, but he was the Son of God. He was a divine Teacher, and yet, when he went to his work, it was «in the power of the Spirit.» Tarry, brother, till you have that power; it is of no use for you to go without it. Luke 4:14. _And there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all._ There was a wondrous power about his teaching: «Never man spake like this man.» Perhaps his hearers did not understand what the power was; but they glorified the new Teacher who had come into their midst....

III. THE MINISTRY IN GALILEE -- CHAPTER 4:14-9:50 CHAPTER 4:14-44 _ 1. In the Synagogue of Nazareth (Luke 4:14)_ 2. Unbelief and Rejection of Christ. (Luke 4:22) 3. A Demon Cast Out in Capernaum (Luke 4:33) 4. Peter's Wife's Mother Healed; Many Healed. (Luke 4:38 .) Luke 4:14 And now the description of the ministry of the Son of Man begins. The beginning is in His own city. How all written here is again in a very human manner. He had been brought up in that city and as His custom was “He went into the synagogue,” and as He had

JESUS IN NAZARETH (Mark 1:14 f.*, Matthew 4:12 *, Mark 6:1 *, Matthew 13:53 *). Lk. brings Jesus to Galilee, but, anxious to make the mission begin in His own town, departs from Mk.'s order (though it leads him into difficulty, see Luke 4:23), and puts the rejection at Nazareth (Mark 6) at the beginning of the ministry. The episode is prophetic of the later and larger rejection. And the activity which Jesus is said to have displayed outside Nazareth (Luke 4:23) is prophetic of the spread of

THE BATTLE WITH TEMPTATION (Luke 4:1-13)...