Daily Bible Reading 9th July 2026 // Luke 8:22-25
22 One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, 23 and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. 24 And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marvelled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”
Following the parable and the parabolic sayings about the Word, we see in this next incident something of the power of that Word. Again, in a marvellous way, the stories recorded develop from one another in an unfolding way, the one opening up into the next in a profusion of illustration. Here, we have Jesus' stilling of the storm by His Word; then, in what follows, we have three illustrations of how He stills storms in human life: the maniac of Gadara, the woman with the issue of blood, and the raising of Jairus' daughter. Such is the pattern and general outline of what follows. It is almost commonplace - and well-nigh inevitable - to make this story apply to the storms of life, as indeed Luke himself implies, in the structure of the passage in which it is set. But although this is a legitimate application of the miracle, we must not forget that it is true only because something else, and something greater, is also true - the fact of the Lordship and Kingship of Christ. This is the first lesson the miracle teaches, as indeed it is the first lesson all the others teach. Here, then, is the sovereign Lord exercising His Lordship over the elements He made - and when they got out of order, He rebuked them and put them in their place! The miracle, therefore, as we have seen in earlier studies, demonstrates His credentials as Lord. But it also was, surely, a token of what He will one day do when He returns to reign: the whole creation, disordered and broken by the Fall, will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. And the same voice that stilled this disorder of nature is the voice which will set free a groaning creation and make the trees of the field clap their hands, and the desert blossom and flourish as the rose!