And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Gen. 3:14–15) This week’s reading tells of Jesus’ dealings with some of the Pharisees that He encountered during His Galilean ministry. We shall see later how that Jesus had similar confrontations with the Pharisees of Jerusalem, the last of these taking place shortly before His crucifixion. The passage cited above from the book of Genesis is a prophecy of the enmity that existed between Jesus, the promised Seed of woman (Gal. 4:4) and the Pharisees, to whom Jesus referred as the seed of the devil (John 8:44). We know that the heel of this Seed was bruised when Jesus was crucified just outside the city of Jerusalem. This was, however, a wound from which our Lord was able to recover. On the other hand, when Christ walked out of the tomb on the first day of the following week, Satan was dealt the mortal blow that demonstrated God’s power over death and over Satan himself. As Paul wrote in his first epistle to Corinth, “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:57), for it is written: “death is swallowed up in victory” (v 55)!

After reading the text listed below, see if you can answer the following questions about Jesus’ dealings with the Pharisees in Galilee.

Nontrivial Questions (Matt. 12:22–50, Mark 3:14–35, Luke 11:14–54)

1. By whose power did the Pharisees claim that Jesus was casting out devils?
2. According to our Lord, what is it that will either justify us or condemn us?
3. What sign did Jesus say would be given to the wicked generation he was addressing?
4. Who does the Lord consider to be His kinsmen?
5. Jesus gave power to the twelve to do what miracles?
6. What did Jesus abstain from doing that surprised a certain Pharisee with whom He dined?
7. For what purpose did the Pharisees “provoke [Jesus] to speak of many things?”