Dividing Fire and Divining The Times

This is the Bible study page for the Thursday Night Bible Study meeting June 30 to study Luke 12:49 through 59.  This passage has the feel of being disjointed and difficult to understand as organized.  Spend the time with it though to get the sense of why these three pieces are interrelated to each other and to what just preceded them.

For this passage it will be helpful to read all of chapter 12, and perhaps ahead into chapter 13 to get a better sense of the context.  Different translation may shed some light on details within the passage, but reading around this passage may help in overall understanding of these details.  I recommend doing both.  Make notes with observations and questions before looking at commentaries.

After you have worked through this passage yourself, go back through with the questions below:

• Jesus has just been talking about His "appearing" or His "return".  His disciples are possibly wondering when He might leave, and Jesus says that He has a "baptism" to endure and something about bringing fire on the land.  Putting those two things together, what do you think Jesus means? What do you think the disciples understood or thought about it?
• Jesus begins discussing how He has come and it will result in family division.  Throughout Acts (the other half of Luke's account), households convert together (Cornelius in Acts 10, the Philippian Jailer in Acts 16).  Households in the Ancient Near Eastern cultures were much more enmeshed than in our culture today.  How do you think Jesus means this effect, and what do you think it will look like?  What do you think this means for the structure of the Early Church which was founded on groups of households?
• Within the family structure Jesus says will become divided because of Him, He mentions mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws.  What do you think is the significance of that here?  Why include that in Jesus' claim that households will become divided?
• Jesus switches to criticizing the crowd for being better able to predict weather than the times.  What about the times do you think Jesus is referring to?  What do you think that has to do with divided families, Jesus' "baptism" or "fire", or even going to court for damages?
• Finally Jesus brings up the topic of going to court for damages.  I surmise it's about "damages" (or some sort of debt) because of the punishment relating to "paying back".  But there also seems to be the underlying assumption that the party really is guilty of the damage/debt.  What do you think this is about?  Why "make friends" or "give work to be freed from him"?  What problem do you think Jesus is trying to fix with this lesson?
• How does freeing one self from the punishment of being sued relate to family division and predicting the "times"?  What do you think this has to do with Jesus' "baptism" or the fire He is bringing?
• If you've read ahead, and reviewed was came before, what do you think this passage or these elements have to do with what's going on when Jesus says them?

This should be plenty to keep us occupied for a time.  Remember to seek out the things in this passage that the Holy Spirit wants to use in your life to change you.  What snaps you "awake"? If you're honest, what action(s) do you need to take to respond to what the Spirit reveals?

See you all Thursday!