Lk. 17:11 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
Lk. 17:12 Then as He entered a certain village, there He met ten men who were lepers, who stood affar off.
Traveling through Samaria during this period of time could be very dangerous. Josephus describes an incident that happened between the Jews and Samaritans that helped to create hard feelings between the two groups. “Now there arose a quarrel between the Samaritans and the Jews on the occasion following: it was the custom of the Galileans, when they came to the Holy City at the festivals, to take their journeys through the country of the Samaritans, and at this time there lay, in the road they took, a village that was called Ginea, which was situated in the limits of Samaria and the great plain, where certain persons from the village fought with the Galileans, and killed a great many of them” (Jos. Ant. 20.6.1 118). Luke doesn’t identify the actual village in his writing.
Sources: Jos. Ant. 20.6.1 118
This particular incident actually occurs at the edge of the village as Yeshua arrives We knows this because of what the Scriptures tells us: “As for the person with a leprous affection, his clothes shall be rent, his head shall be left bare, and he shall cover over his upper lip, and he shall call out, ‘unclean! Unclean.! He shall be unclean as long as the disease is on him, being unclean, h shall dwell apart; his dwelling shall be outside the camp” (Leviticus 13:45, 46)..
Lk. 17:13 And they lifted up their voices and said, “Yeshua, Mater, have mercy on us!”
Lk. 17:14 So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that they went, and were cleansed.
First of all, this is another of the Messianic Miracles (times ten). At other times Yeshua actually laid hands on a leper and cleansed them. This time He doesn’t. No reason is given, but touching a leper doesn’t seem to bother the Lord. Possibly these ten are in a hurry. But He commands them to go show themselves to the priests in obedience to the Mosaic Law.
Lk. 17:15 Now one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God.
Lk. 17:16 And fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks and he was a Samaritan.
Only one out of the ten returns to show his gratitude for Yeshua’s mercy. And yet, the Scriptures say nothing about any of these obeying the Word of God as commanded. Its funny how people want to get the good stuff from the Lord, but when it comes to doing the hard stuff they hesitate. Luke is quick to point out that at least this one individual is a Samaritan, supposedly a non-believer.
Lk. 17:17 So Yeshua answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?”
Lk. 17:18 “Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except for this foreigner?”
It is interesting that Yeshua uses the term “foreigner.” He, like the rest of the Jews, considered the Samaritans as outsiders even though they lived in the Land of Israel. If you study their history, you will see that the Samaritan were actually half-Jews who denied the Mosaic Covenant hundreds of years before when the ten tribes went north and became captured by the Assyrians and inter-bred with Gentiles.
Lk. 17:19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”
There is hope for all of us when God will recognize he faith of one who has deliberately denied His covenants and then repented.
Lk. 17:20 And when He was asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The Kingdom of God does not come with observation.”
Lk. 17:21 “Nor will they say, ‘see here,’ or, ‘see there!’ For indeed, the Kingdom of God is within you.”
The Kingdom of God is not something that you can see. It is something that is established in your heart and is demonstrated by your life.
Lk. 17:22 Then He said to His disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.”
Lk. 17:23 “And they will say to you, ‘Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them.”
Lk. 17:24 “For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under Heaven shines to the other part of Heaven, so also will the Son of Man be in His day.”
Unless people study their ancient history, and very few Christians do, they are not aware of these next events. They think that the Lord was talking about an event in our future, instead of Israel’s future of that day. I quote now from two historians. “And not many days after the feast, on the twenty-first day of the month Aremisium, a certain marvelous vision was seen which passes belief. The prodigy might seem fabulous were it not related by those who saw it, and were not the calamities which followed deserving by such signs. For before the setting of the sun chariots and armed troops were seen by the whole region in mid-air, wheeling through the clouds and encircling the cities” (Eusebius “History,” book 3, chapter 8). “A certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared, I supposed, the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those who saw it and were not the events that followed it so considerable a nature as o deserve such signals, for, before sunsetting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities” (Jos. War 6.5.3 297-299)
Sources: Eusebius, "History," Bk. 3, ch. 8; Jos. War 6.5.3 297-299.
Granted, neither of these two authors mention the Lord being present. But, consider the fact that Josephus was an Orthodox Jew so we could understand why he possibly didn’t mention Jesus being present. Eusebius, although he was a Christian, was writing approximately 300 years after Josephus and was using him as his source. Would the Lord send the armies of Heaven to earth without Him being there to supervise them? What would be the purpose?
Lk. 17:25 “But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.”
Lk. 17:26 “And so it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man.”
Lk. 17:27 “They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.”
Lk. 17:28 “Likewise as it was in the days of Lot: they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built;”
Lk. 17:29 “But on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from Heaven and destroyed them all.”
Lk. 17:30 “Even so it will be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.”
Lk. 17:31 “In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, lt him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back.”
Lk. 17:32 “Remember Lot’s wife.”
Lk. 17:33 “Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.”
Lk. 17:34 “I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the one will be left.”
Lk. 17:35 “Two women will be grinding together; the one will be taken and the other left.”
Lk. 17:36 “Two men will be in the field; the one will be taken and the other left.”
Lk. 17:37 And they answered and said to Him, “Where, Lord?” So He said them,, “Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.”
The Eagle was the symbol of Rome. Yeshua was telling His disciples that one day soon that Israel would be invaded by the Roman armies. Verses 34-36 He is telling them hat approximately half of the population of Israel will be destroyed or sent into captivity in the war that would followed. History would bar this out. Approximately 1,200,000 people would die in Israel and 97,000 would be sent into slavery.
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