Six ways to encounter God here
A passage is not only to be understood; it is to be lived with. Choose how you want to meet God in Matthew 11:21, and Living Bread opens it right there.
The passage in its setting
Meeting God in a verse begins with hearing it where it lives, in the flow of Matthew 11. Read it slowly, and let the focal verse settle into its own context.
19 The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.
20 Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not:
21 Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
22 But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you.
23 And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
The web of Scripture around it
Where this passage echoes across the Bible, from the cross-reference graph, 14 connected Scriptures. Each one is a door to meet God there too.
- Ezekiel 3:6
Not to many people of a strange speech and of an hard language, whose words thou canst not understand. Surely, had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee.
- John 12:21
The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.
- Matthew 15:21
Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.
- Job 42:6
Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
- Mark 6:45
And straightway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people.
- Luke 9:10
And the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they had done. And he took them, and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida.
- Acts 12:20
And Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon: but they came with one accord to him, and, having made Blastus the king’s chamberlain their friend, desired peace; because their …
- Mark 3:8
And from Jerusalem, and from Idumaea, and from beyond Jordan; and they about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they had heard what great things he did, came unto him.
- Mark 7:31
And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.
- John 1:44
Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
- Jude 1:11
Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
- Mark 8:22
And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him.
- Matthew 11:22
But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you.
- Matthew 18:7
Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!
More to meet God in Matthew
How it points to Christ
Every Scripture ultimately leads to Jesus. See how the whole Bible points to Him in Christ in all Scripture, then meet Him for yourself.
