Pick your battles…the strategic retreat

There is a lot of wisdom in this passage.  The Pharisees were plotting against Jesus and even though He could have confronted them and defeated them, He chose the strategic retreat because now wasn't the time for confrontation. 

Matthew 12:9-16(NKJV)

Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue. 

And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—that they might accuse Him.

Then He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? 

Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 

Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other. 

Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him.

But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there. And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all. 

Yet He warned them not to make Him known, 

Pick your battles….good lesson to learn!