Matthew 12

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^15bBig mobs of people followed Jesus. Some of them were sick, and he made them better.

¹⁶But he told them straight, “Don’t go and tell other people about me.”

¹⁷A long time ago God got his man called Isaiah to write about this in God’s book, and it happened just like that man wrote. Isaiah said,

¹⁸“This is the man God picked to work for him. God loves him, and he makes God very happy. God will put his spirit in him, and he will show everyone in every nation that God is right and fair.

¹⁹He will not fight with anyone or shout at people. Nobody will hear him shouting in the streets.

²⁰Some people are weak, like a blade of grass that is almost broken, and some people can’t help themselves, like a lamp wick that has almost gone out. He will not forget those people but he will help them to get strong. He will keep on being right and fair to everyone, till people, too, are fair to each other,

²¹and people everywhere will believe that he can save them.”

³⁸One day some Jewish law teachers, and other law men called Pharisees, went to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we want to see you do something powerful. This will show us that God sent you.”

³⁹Jesus said, “You mob that are alive today are really bad. You turned away from God. But now you want me to show you something powerful, right? No. I will not do that. The only powerful thing you will see is the same thing that God did to his man called Jonah, a long time ago.

⁴⁰Do you remember that story? Jonah stayed inside a big fish for 3 days. And just like that, I will stay in the ground for 3 days. I am God’s special man from heaven.

⁴¹And, remember, Jonah went to the people that lived in the city called Nineveh, and he told them God’s message. Those people listened to him, and they stopped doing bad things and turned to God. Well, later, on the day when God will judge everyone, that Nineveh mob will get up and tell you mob here that you are wrong. You see, that Nineveh mob took notice of Jonah. And I am greater than Jonah, but you mob don’t take any notice of me. You don’t turn to God, and you don’t stop doing bad things.

⁴²And do you remember the story about the woman that was the big boss of the country called Sheba? She heard about Solomon. He was the big boss of our country. She heard that he was a very wise man, so she came here to listen to the good things he said. Well, later, on the day when God will judge everyone, that woman will get up and tell you mob here that you are stupid. You see, she came a long way from her country just to listen to Solomon. And I am more wise than Solomon, but you mob don’t want to listen to me.”

⁴³And Jesus said, “When a bad spirit goes out of a person, it goes around in dry country looking for a new place to live. But it doesn’t find a good place.

⁴⁴So it says to itself, ‘I will go back to the place that I lived in before.’ Then it goes back to that person, and it finds the place is good, empty and clean.

⁴⁵Then the bad spirit goes out and gets 7 other bad spirits that are worse than itself, and they all go into the person and they live there. Then that person has more bad spirits than he had before, so he is worse than before. Listen, I’m talking about you mob here today. You don’t listen to me, so you are worse now than you were before I came.”