Mark 10:1-12 Because of your hardness of heart
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: March 5, 2018, Mark 10:1-12
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
Then Jesus left that place and went into the territory of Judea on the other side of the Jordan.
(Understanding the Text) They had been in Capernaum, but they left to go to Judea on the other side of the Jordan. Thus, they had to have traveled for a while in between chapter 9 and chapter 10. What does it mean on the other side of the Jordon? I always think left bank and right bank, but I think here, Mark/Peter is referring to north of the Sea of Galilee and south of the Sea of Galilee. They had been north and then gone to Capernaum. Now, they had gone south to Judea, which was south of Samaria.
Crowds gathered around him as usual, and he began to teach them again as was his custom. Some Pharisees came to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to divorce her.” But Jesus told them, “It was because of your hardness of heart that he wrote this command for you. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘That is why a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, man must never separate.” Back in the house, the disciples asked him about this again. So he told them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”
(Understanding the Text) There were a lot of people around Him. Mark said that this was usual. Jesus naturally drew people to Him. He began to teach the crowds as He usually did. What did He teach them? Was it the same sermon again and again like video preachers, or were there lots of lessons that were not recorded in the gospels?
Jesus was closer to Jerusalem now, so there were more Pharisees in the crowd. They tried to trick Jesus with a question about divorce. When they asked is it lawful, Jesus asked them what Moses said. In this way, He essentially said that they knew the law according to Moses. Now, Jesus told them the heavenly law. He said that Moses let them divorce because of people’s sinful hearts. He told them that this was not the plan that God had at the beginning, but it was an accommodation because mankind was not loving.
(Revelation of God / Understanding the Text) The original plan was one man and one woman uniting together as one unit. This was the way that we were made in God’s image. Family is in God’s image. Thus, divorce and the hardheartedness a husband and wife develop toward each other before divorce is corrupting the image of God. Divorce is a sin, not because of the divorce itself, but it is a sin because of the corruption of the relationship, the brokenness, that preceded the divorce. This lack of love is the sin. The hurting each other is the sin. The reason that a nonbeliever and a believer should not be joined together is because they can never reflect the unity that is found in God. Their relationship is corrupted from the beginning. Thus, not divorcing, but living without oneness and love toward each other is sin and corruption also, which doesn’t mean that I think divorce is right. It means that a lot of sin preceded the adultery sin.
(Application) Jesus’ was constantly showing us that we were far from the ideal of heaven. It was not enough to say I have not physically killed a person. Jesus said that being angry against another makes you a murderer. This world operates on sinful principles that we accept as normal when the heavenly principles are so far away from our worldly normal. God accommodates our sinful ways in order to be with us, but they are not His ways. God would have us be true, faithful, and loving with each other, but we are fallen, and it is not in our nature to be this way. He comes to us as we are, but if we are willing, He works in us to transform us to the ways of the kingdom of heaven. One part of transforming us is to first make us aware of the problems with our sinful ways so that we can look to see the better ways of heaven.
(Understanding the Text) This is a proof-text that gay marriage is not the heavenly way. I only mention this because I recently saw a post claiming that Jesus never talked about gay marriage. However, here Jesus spoke of God’s plan for marriage, which is one man and one woman for a lifetime. Thus, He talked about what marriage should be even if He did not talk about all the possibilities for what it should not be.
The passage says that the disciples asked more about this back in the house. I wonder whose house it was. Maybe, it was Martha and Mary’s house since they were in Judea. It shows that they were staying in a house. Where did so many men sleep? I suspect they slept on the floor.
(Prayer) I ask forgiveness for the corruption I brought to my own marriage and the corruption that I bring to my relationships with other people now. I pray to be transformed into the loving, faithful, true character that is found in heaven. I pray that my character will go beyond the letter of the law to the heart of the law.