Week 17 : Mark 11:27 - 14:42

Before partaking of the last Passover, the Lord prepared His disciples for what was to come after His death and resurrection. Starting in Mark 13, He prophesied concerning the destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem (at the hands of Titus and the Roman army in 70 A.D.). Then He prophesied concerning the rising up of many claiming to be the Messiah, to deceive and lead many astray. Wars would follow, both civil wars and international wars; these will continue until the consummation of this age, at the end of the great tribulation. The disciples would be persecuted, some to death.

Having given His disciples many prophecies concerning the end times, He then gave them a charge:

But you, beware.... Beware, be alert.... Watch therefore.... Watch!
(Mark 13:23, 33, 35, 37)

He also gave them the parable of the fig tree. In Mark 11:13-14, Jesus had cursed the fig tree, signifying the nation of Israel, for its lack of fruit for Him, and the tree withered and died (Mark 11:20-21). Now He prophesied concerning life returning to the barren fig tree; its branch becoming tender, and then putting forth leaves, being the sign that summer is near. From the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, the nation of Israel seemed dead and barren. But the reformation of the nation of Israel in the years after the Second World War, and then the later restoration of Jerusalem to Israel after the 6 Days War in 1967, show that life is returning to the withered tree, and that leaves are beginning to come forth.

Watch therefore, for you do not know when the Master of the house comes, whether in the evening or at midnight or at cockcrowing or in the morning; lest He come suddenly and find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!

(Mark 13:35-37)

Week 16 : Mark 9:7 - 11:26

Having spent some three years mostly in the area around Galilee, far away from Jerusalem, at the beginning of Mark 10, Jesus began His final journey to Jerusalem. He had to return to the holy city for the accomplishing of God's eternal plan. As the Lamb of God (John 1:29), He had to be offered to God at Mount Moriah, where Abraham offered Isaac and enjoyed God's provision of a ram as a substitute for his son (Gen. 22:2, 9-14) and where the temple was built in Jerusalem (2 Chron. 3:1). It had to be there that He would be delivered, according to the counsel determined by the Trinity of the Godhead (Acts 2:23), to the Jewish leaders (9:31; 10:33) and be rejected by them as the builders of God's building (8:31; Acts 4:11). It had to be there that He would be crucified according to the Roman form of capital punishment (John 18:31-32 and note; 19:6, 14-15) to fulfill the type concerning the kind of death He would die (Num. 21:8-9; John 3:14). Moreover, according to Daniel's prophecy (Dan. 9:24-26), that very year was the year that Messiah (Christ) was to be cut off (killed). Furthermore, as the Passover lamb (1 Cor. 5:7), He had to be killed in the month of the Passover (Exo. 12:1-11). Hence, He had to go to Jerusalem (v. 33; 11:1, 11, 15, 27; John 12:12) before the Passover (John 12:1; Mark 14:1) that He might die there on the day of the Passover (14:12-17; John 18:28) at the place and the time foreordained by God.

I still find it incredible that there is so much detail contained in the verses cited above, yet they prove beyond all doubt the sovereignty of God in His move. Everything - the time, the place and the method of execution - were all prophesied hundreds or thousands of years in advance. Daniel prophesied that the Messiah would be killed 483 years after the proclaimation of the Israelites' return to Jerusalem from captivity, on the fourteenth day of the first month of the Jewish calendar, that is, the Passover. Just as was the case when the magi came to seek the birth of the King-Saviour, the religious establishment, who should have known all the details and should have been actively looking for this One, instead were blinded by their knowledge.

The place of His death was typified by Abraham's offering of Isaac on Mount Moriah, another name for Mount Zion, the highest peak of the mountains on which Jerusalem was later built.

The manner of His death was foretold in Number 21:8-9; when in the wilderness, the Israelites complained against God and Moses, and God sent fiery serpents amongst them which killed many men. Moses then interceded for them, and God commanded Him to make a bronze serpent, and to lift it up on a pole, that if someone were bitten and then looked upon the bronze serpent, they would be saved. This is revealed in John 3:14-15 as one of the highest prophecies concerning Christ:

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, That everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.
(John 3:14-15)

When Christ was incarnated, He came only in the likeness of the flesh of sin, not having any sin in Him. Similarly, although the brass serpent looked like a serpent (the expression of Satan), it did not have the venom (the sin). Jesus was a genuine man, and although He looked like sinful Man, there was no sin in Him. By being lifted up, that is, crucified, He became our salvation from sin and sins. If we behold Jesus, if we receive Him, then by His blood, we are saved from every sin (1 John 1:7).

Execution by crucifixion was not the Jewish means of capital punishment, which was death by stoning; instead, it was a method brought in by the Romans, who had occupied the Holy Land. Again, this just goes to prove God's sovereignty, by arranging for the Romans to be in power, that the type in Num. 21:8-9 would be fulfilled (there are many other prophecies that were fulfilled by the Roman occupation - for example, without Caesar Augustus's decree for a census, Joseph and Mary would never have come to Bethlehem to fulfil Micah 5:2's prophecy concerning the place of the Messiah's birth).

So, do you ever find yourself doubting the Word of God? Just read all the above verses, and be restored in your faith - God prepared all these things thousands of years ago, and raised up every situation necessary to bring them to fulfillment. Hallelujah for His Word!

Week 15 : Mark 6:1 - 9:6

In Mark 7:31-37, the Lord healed a man who was deaf and spoke with difficulty. It is a common medical condition that those with significant hearing problems also have problems with their speech, since speaking is based on hearing. However, there is also a spiritual significance to this case; here, the condition signifies one who cannot hear the voice of God, and who is therefore unable to praise Him (Isa. 35:6) and speak for Him (Isa. 56:10).

And He took him aside from the crowd privately and put His fingers into his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, He groaned and said to him, Ephphatha! that is, Be opened. And immediately his ears were opened, and the bond on his tongue was released and he spoke clearly.
(Mark 7:33-35)

Firstly, the Lord dealt with the man in private; He was doing this for the benefit of this one man, as is confirmed by His later charging him not to tell anyone - and not for the benefit of others, that they would see and marvel, or take it as a great sign. The Lord did not care for this sort of method.

Secondly, by dealing with the man's hearing, the man was now qualified to receive God's word, signified by the spittle (something which emanated from the Lord's mouth). When we can hear and receive God's word, we are full of praise for Him, and this issues in our speaking for Him. Do you find it difficult to speak the things concerning God? This is a sure sign that you have problems hearing His Word.

This healing was preceded by the Lord's spiritual feeding of the Syro-Phoencian woman; then immediately after the healing, His disciples were able to feed four thousand. Taken together, these three cases show us that if we are able to hear God's Word clearly, and are then able to speak it, to speak for God and to speak forth God, our speaking will be a feeding, and we will be able to supply many by our speaking.

Week 14 : Mark 2:13 - 5:43

In Mark 2:23-3:6, Jesus seemed to go out of His way to provoke the Pharisees. Firstly, He led His disciples through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and they picked the ears of grain and ate them. Although the picking and eating of the grain was permitted by God (in Deut. 23:25), doing so on the Sabbath was seemingly in violation of the Fourth Commandment (Deut. 5:15); so the Pharisees thought that they had good ground on which to accuse Him.

Yet Jesus's response served only to demonstrate both their hardness of heart, and their lack of knowledge concerning the scriptures. He pointed out how David, when he was being pursued by Saul's men, came hungry to the Tent of Meeting, and ate the bread of the Presence, which was supposedly reserved for the priests alone. Since David and his followers were not held guilty by God for such an act, surely the Lord and His disciples were equally justified. He showed the Pharisees that they cared more for the ritual of the Sabbath, rather than the hunger of the people:

And He said to them, The Sabbath came into being for man; and not man for the Sabbath. So then the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.
(Mark 2:27-28)

As the Son of Man, the very God who had ordained the Sabbath, He had every right to change what He had ordained concerning the Sabbath.

Immediately after this case, Mark goes on to present the second breaking of the Sabbath. Jesus went in to the synagogue, where a man with a withered hand was. The Pharisees were watching Him carefully to see if He would break the Sabbath again; and Jesus called the man to stand in their midst, and told him to stretch out his hand. The man responded to the Lord's life-giving word in faith, and stretching out his hand, it was healed.

Here, Jesus was demonstrating again that He cared more for the condition of His people, even a single member, than any dead ordinance. Sabbath or no Sabbath, the Lord is interested in healing the deadened members of His body (signified by the withered hand). To Him, regulations do not matter; the rescue of His fallen sheep means everything.

The Pharisees, of course, were greatly perturbed by this, and together with the Herodians, sought to kill Him.