Knowing The Word in Matthew 12:9-14

A Man with a Withered Hand

9 He went on from there and entered their synagogue. 10 And a man was there with a withered hand [lifeless]. And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse him. [The man was not in emanate danger of death, so the Pharisees reasoned that healing should be done on a different day.] 11 He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” [Jesus points to the inconsistency of the Pharisees’ own practice.] 13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. [What is the symbolism of Jesus healing on the Sabbath?] 14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him. [This is the first mention of the plan to kill Jesus. It illustrates the irreconcilable differences between the radical ideas of Jesus in obeying the will of God and the Pharisees’ rule-bound religious practices.