Expository Thoughts
to a request from the person wishing to be healed; secondly, sometimes in response to a request from a friend of the sick person; and, third, sometimes from his own initiative." The leper was healed (Luke 5:12) in response to his own personal request, the centurion's servant (Luke 7:1ff.) in response to the pleading of his master; and the widow's son was raised without anyone asking on his behalf.
15. Began to talk. This fact is mentioned in order to show beyond doubt that the young man was really restored to life. Where there is speech, there must be life.
Let it be observed that we have no record about anything that was ever said or thought by those who were miraculously raised from the dead. Their experience and knowledge are wisely withheld from us.
17. This news about Jesus spread. Poole remarks, "The people here saw his divine power manifestly exerted; for the keys of the clouds, the womb, and the grave, are those keys which their teachers had taught them were kept in God's hand alone."
LUKE 7:18-23
JESUS AND JOHN THE BAPTIST
The message which John the Baptist sent to our Lord, in these verses, is peculiarly instructing, when we consider the circumstances under which it was sent. John the Baptist was now a prisoner in the hands of Herod. "He heard in the prison the works of Christ." (Matt.
11:2.) His life was drawing to a close. His opportunities of active usefulness were ended. A long imprisonment, or a violent death, were the only prospects before him. Yet even in these dark days, we