YOU were to go to Palestine today and hire a boat on the Sea of Galilee, you might sail all round it, for it is not very big, but you would not find any city called Capernaum; you would find instead a place called Tel Hum, where the ground is strewn with ruins. But even these ruins are full of interest, for maybe these stones mark the very spot where stood the synagogue at Capernaum into which Jesus entered one sabbath day soon after He called Simon and Andrew to follow Him.
The synagogue was the place where the Jews used to meet to worship God and hear the Scriptures read and explained; but as they listened to Jesus that sabbath day they were astonished. His teaching was different from any they had ever heard before, because He taught them as One who had the right to teach, and His words were with power.
There was one poor man in that synagogue who could not listen to Jesus, for he was altogether under the power of an unclean spirit. Instead of listening this unclean spirit made him cry out, "Let us alone; what have we to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art Thou come to destroy us? I know Thee who Thou art, the Holy One of God."
But Jesus could and would set even that poor man free. He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying, "Hold thy peace, and come out of him." And when the unclean spirit had torn the man and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him.
And so Simon and Andrew, and all in the synagogue, learned that not only did Jesus teach with authority, but His commands had such power that even unclean spirits had to obey Him.
Messages of the Love of God 8/24/1975