Mark 12:18-27 Whose wife is she?
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 25, 2018, Mark 12:18-27
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 some Sadducees, who claim there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and asked him, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no child, he should marry the widow and have children for his brother. There were seven brothers. The first one married and died without having children. Then the second married her and died without having children, and so did the third. None of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died, too. In the resurrection, whose wife will she be, since all seven had married her?” Jesus answered them, “Aren’t you mistaken because you don’t know the Scriptures or God’s power? When people rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels in heaven. As for the dead being raised, haven’t you read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”
(Understanding the Text) Now the Sadducees tried to trick Jesus. This was Tuesday, and Jesus was in the temple. All the groups converged on Him to try to find something against Him. We have been told that the Jewish leaders had met together several times to try to plot against Jesus. “So the high priests and the Pharisees assembled the Council and said, “What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our Temple and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, told them, “You don’t know anything! You don’t realize that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” Now he did not say this on his own initiative. As high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but that he would also gather into one the children of God who were scattered abroad. So from that day on they resolved to put him to death” (John 11:47-53). This Tuesday in the temple seems to have been the culmination of this plotting. First, the high priests, scribes, and elders challenged Jesus’ authority to cleanse the temple. Then, the Pharisees and Herodians ask the tax question. Now, the Sadducees ask the marriage in the resurrection question. Basically, all the components of the Jewish leadership system have come together on this day to each attack from a different angle–one from the religious authority angle, one from the governmental authority angle, and one from the kingdom of heaven angle.
(Understanding the Text / Revelation of God) Here on this sinful earth, God has had to accommodate our sinful ways in order to reach us and save us from death, but in heaven God will no longer accommodate sin. There are many ways that we have corrupted God’s gifts to us including sex and loving relationships. It seems to me that God has decided that we would not be able to separate out the corruption if we continued. Also, we have created so many horrible situations here that those relationships cannot continue in the same way without sin. I am not sure if I am right or understanding fully, but regardless of why, Jesus tells us here that in heaven, we will not have marriage or sex or reproduction. Our new bodies will not be like we have now. They will be without corruption, so they may be like the original bodies of Adam and Eve, but Jesus says that we will be like the angels, so our bodies may be different. The angels sometimes appear with wings, sometimes as men, and in the case of Ezekiel and the cherubim like strange fiery creatures.
(Understanding the Text) According to Card’s commentary on Luke and other commentaries that I have read, the Sadducees only believed in the first five books of the Bible (Moses’ writings). Thus, in order to prove resurrection to them, Jesus uses an example from Exodus. “the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flaming fire from the center of a bush. As Moses continued to watch, amazingly the bush kept on burning but was not consumed. Then Moses told himself, “I’ll go over and see this remarkable sight. Why isn’t the bush burning up?” When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from the center of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” He said, “Here I am.” “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Remove your sandals from your feet, because the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God” (Exodus 3:2-6). Jesus uses a logic here that I have a hard time understanding. He says that God is a God of the living. I don’t know where this principle comes from. He also says that by God saying that He is the God of the ancestors, it means that the ancestors are alive to God. Luke tells us this. “Even Moses demonstrated in the story about the bush that the dead are raised, when he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, because he considers all people to be alive to him.” (Luke 20:37-38). Some Christians say that this shows that these men are with God now, but it does not say that. It says that they are alive to God. This can be interpreted to mean that God remembers who we are so that He can resurrect us when Jesus returns. It could also be interpreted in other ways. This is why we have to take all the scriptures together to get a fuller understanding. I think that the only thing I can get by taking this passage alone is that Jesus was using it as proof of resurrection of the dead to people who believed only in Moses’ writings and refused to believe that the dead were resurrected. Jesus’ logic here is something that I will have to wait to understand until after more study.
(Application) Jesus does not argue about doctrine with people very much, but He does here. “Aren’t you mistaken because you don’t know the Scriptures or God’s power?” With the Pharisees, Jesus points out that they are misunderstanding because they are looking at outer forms instead of looking at the loving spirit of the law and the prophets. He tells them that they are wrong not because of the outward form of what they say but because they are not following the true meaning of what they said. However, here with the Sadducees, Jesus tells them that they are simply wrong about the whole belief. Jesus gives two reasons for their wrong belief. They do not know the scriptures, and they do not know God’s power. They might be outraged because they read the scriptures daily, but there is a difference between reading and knowing. Personally, I think they are like a lot of cynical skeptics in the church today who claim to know the scriptures because they read them when they were young, but they do not study them now. I know that I have had to change my thinking on a number of scriptures that I knew with a youthful understanding but now understand differently because I have more maturity, life experience, and a higher-level critical reading ability. The other accusation is actually more serious in my eyes. They did not believe in and had never experienced God’s power. I see many so-called Christians today who read the scriptures without seeing the true meaning simply because they do not understand that God has miraculous power to act today both on a macro scale in the world and on a micro scale in people’s lives.
(Revelation of God / Application) One other thing that I think that I can get from this passage is that we are very real to God even when we are no longer living. God does not forget us even temporarily. Each of us is known to God in an intimate way down to our DNA. Thus, if God remembers me that well after I am dead, how can I doubt that He knows me intimately right now when I am alive? Yet, I do doubt too often. The problem is that my perceptions and belief do not align with the reality that I am known and important to God and that He does not distractedly put me on the backburner until He needs me. He is constantly working with me to transform me into the best me that I can be. He cares and does not forget me or place me on the low priority list. I need to remember that my perceptions are not the reality of who God is and how He thinks of me.
(Prayer) Help me to always remember that You are constantly with me and aware of me. Give me faith in Your power and desire to work in my life. Protect me from cynicism and foster childlike faith in me. Above all, help me to know You intimately.