OUR FATHER WHO REIGNS IN ZION

Luke chapter 9 verse 5 says this;

If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”

Leading up this verse, the Lord Jesus had given the disciples power and authority to drive out demons and heal diseases and He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God.

The Lord gave them instructions to follow in case either of two scenarios occured;

If they were welcomed by a town, they were to reside at the first house that offered hospitality for the duration of their stay there and they were not to move from house to house.

The reason for this was that if they stayed overnight a one person's house and then during the day, cast out demons and healed the sick, a hospitality war would erupt as people vied to get the disciples to stay at their houses the following nights to gain proximity to the miraculous power.

Jesus' instruction ensured that the first people who showed hospitality to the disciples prior to miracles manifesting in the town would have the honor of hosting them for their whole stay and the town would avoid the upheaval and hurt feelings that would occur if the disciples moved from home to home when competing offers for lodging were made.

On the other hand, if a town did not welcome them, the Lord instructed the disciples to leave the town and as they left, they were to shake the dust off their feet.

Had the town welcomed them, they would have washed the dust off their feet as Jesus had done for His disciples at the last supper. In the case of the towns that rejected the message of the kingdom of God, the disciples shook the dust of the town from their feet as a way to say that they would  have no part of them in the same way that Jesus said to Peter that he could have no part of Him if he did not let Jesus wash his feet.

The willful rejection of the messengers of God such that they had to shake the dust off their own feet would be used by the prosecutor in the court of judgment against the people of that town because they would have altogether missed the words of the prophet in Isaiah chapter 52 verse 7;

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

Amen.

25