This is a devotional with my thoughts added to verses from the Bible. I highly encourage you to dig into the word with your own thoughts. The Daily Devotion series is one way to do this. However, I know that sometimes we want to read other people’s ideas about Bible passages, so I am starting the Everyday series. I hope and pray that these posts will draw you nearer to Jesus.
DAY 4–Remember to pray before you begin.
Mark 6:14-31 King Herod and John the Baptist
King Herod heard this, for his name had become known, and he said, “John the Baptizer has risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him.” But others said, “He is Elijah.” Others said, “He is a prophet, or like one of the prophets.” But Herod, when he heard this, said, “This is John, whom I beheaded. He has risen from the dead.” For Herod himself had sent out and arrested John, and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, for he had married her. For John said to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” Herodias set herself against him, and desired to kill him, but she couldn’t, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and kept him safe. When he heard him, he did many things, and he heard him gladly. Then a convenient day came, that Herod on his birthday made a supper for his nobles, the high officers, and the chief men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and those sitting with him. The king said to the young lady, “Ask me whatever you want, and I will give it to you.” He swore to her, “Whatever you shall ask of me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.” She went out, and said to her mother, “What shall I ask?” She said, “The head of John the Baptizer.” She came in immediately with haste to the king, and asked, “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptizer on a platter.” The king was exceedingly sorry, but for the sake of his oaths, and of his dinner guests, he didn’t wish to refuse her. Immediately the king sent out a soldier of his guard, and commanded to bring John’s head, and he went and beheaded him in the prison, and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the young lady; and the young lady gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard this, they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb. The apostles gathered themselves together to Jesus, and they told him all things, whatever they had done, and whatever they had taught. He said to them, “You come apart into a deserted place, and rest awhile.” For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.
John the Baptist had warned Herod not to marry his brother’s wife, but Herod Antipas chose not to listen. The wife’s name was Herodias, and she viewed John as a threat to her position, so she convinced Herod to arrest John and imprison him. However, Herod Antipas knew that John was a prophet of God, so he refused to do more than arrest him. In fact, Herod would periodically summon John to chat with him. Herod enjoyed listening to what John told him and would even try to follow some of John’s instruction, but Herod held back from a total commitment to following God. He still lived an extravagant life and craved worldly power more than he feared God’s power. The truth is that if Herod had truly wanted to follow God, he would have released John from imprisonment and supported his ministry. Herod’s state of balancing on a spiritual teeter totter could not continue indefinitely, and finally, the time came when Satan maneuvered Herod Antipas into having to make a choice between killing God’s prophet or going back on an oath. Herod was faced with making a righteous decision that might lower his social position in the world and murder. He chose murder.
Herod Antipas is an example of the danger of waffling over sides in the battle between God and Satan. At first glance, killing John the Baptist was the deciding moment where Herod turned against God, but in reality, the decision had been made little-by-little over a period of time, and this was just the final step of the downward path. The Holy Spirit had been attempting to reach Herod’s heart, but Herod loved the world more than he cared about God. The pitiful irony is that in the end, all of Herod’s maneuvering and compromising only led to a guilty conscience and exile from power. He lost his position as king eventually, but he had lost something much more valuable long before his dethronement. He lost his chance at living eternally.
The lives of Herod and John the Baptist demonstrate the foolishness of the world’s wisdom. In those few months before John’s death, the contrast between the two men was stark. By the world’s standards, Herod Antipas was favored and full of power. His choices would seem to be the wiser ones. In contrast, John the Baptist was a helpless prisoner destined for death. A worldly onlooker would think that John had previously made a poor decision when he chose to live a life of poverty while denying himself the pleasures of life in order to condemn sin and point to the Messiah’s coming. During those years that John was eating locusts and honey and dressing in a camel robe, Herod had been wearing ornate clothing of the finest materials and dining on the choicest delicacies. However, when looked at from the perspective of true happiness, John had made the better choice. He had the loyalty of people who loved him simply because he was full of the Spirit of God while Herod attracted sycophants and backstabbers. Herod’s own nephew would accuse him of betraying the emperor Caligula, who would then exile Herod to Gaul, where the once-powerful king finally died in obscurity. Ultimately, the lives of Herod and John should be judged not by their deaths, but on whether they will be resurrected to eternal life. Jesus said that there were none who were greater than John among men. In heaven’s eyes John had made the intelligent choices. Even Herod knew that his seemingly clever decisions had led to an unfillable void in his life. The world’s choices are only intelligent if one discounts the resurrection of Jesus. If we do not believe that there is life after death, then grabbing all the power and comfort and pleasure a person can hold makes sense. However, when there is a chance to live forever in sublime happiness, the world’s choices are the height of idiocy.
What about the women in Herod’s life? What kind of women not only demand a man’s death, but ask for the head on a platter? What kind of woman takes the head of a dead man and presents it to her mother? These actions seem sadistic and macabre, but how much worse are they than much of the entertainment that people enjoy today? What is the effect of movies, video games, and music that glorify atrocities much worse than asking for the head of an enemy on a platter? Many people today are becoming more and more calloused because of their choices of entertainment. Will the time come when people we know would think nothing of demanding the death of an innocent person because of fear, hatred, or greed? As people reject the love of God and cling to their sins, they seem to be able to justify more and more choices that hurt others. Preservation of self and the pleasures of life take priority over integrity and unselfish caring. The big question we need to ask is not what kind of women Herodias and her daughter were. Instead, we need to be asking, “What kind of person am I?”
Jesus loved and respected John, yet He left John in prison to be killed. This fact has troubled many people. However, John chose to be a soldier in a cosmic battle that had raged for thousands of years before he was born. He was not a civilian. He was on the front lines of a war. Even in a lonely prison cell, John was a witness for God. In his death and beheading, John’s testimony screamed out to the world that God’s way is just, and Satan’s ways are evil. John had the privilege of paving the way for Jesus in both life and in death. Only a few short years after John’s murder, Jesus would also die. While John’s death was part of a crucial skirmish in the battle over the control of this world, Jesus’ death would win the decisive victory in the cosmic war. In the end, God asked less of John than He asked of Himself.
We are also soldiers in the war that will continue until the final judgment day. When we are in the service of God and experience bad situations, it does not mean that God does not care for us. It means that there is more going on than we know, and we are part of a battle for our own freedom. We do not comprehend the reasons presently, but the day will come when we will be able to speak with Jesus about His decisions for our lives face to face. When that time comes, one truth we will never doubt is His deep love for us. When we are called to serve in painful circumstances, our prayer should be to have the humble fearless heart of John the Baptist and to be able to see God’s love for us in even the most difficult circumstances.
DAY 5–Remember to pray before you begin.
Mark 6:31-33 Rest for a While
He said to them, “You come apart into a deserted place, and rest awhile.” For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. They went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. They saw them going, and many recognized him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to him.
To provide rest, Jesus took the disciples away to a deserted place. The Lake of Galilee is surrounded by hills, so the crowd could look down and see the boat and where it was heading. By now, Jesus’ little boat full of twelve men would have been recognizable to many people. Someone watching from the shore could have seen the boat’s direction and rushed off to be able to meet Jesus when he reached the shore. How did people traveling on foot around the lake beat a boat traveling straight across to the other side? Maybe, the exhausted disciples took their time rowing, or maybe, they stopped to fish along the way and have some peace and quiet just drifting on the water. Whatever the reason, the boat’s progress was slow compared to the mob rushing around the lake to meet Jesus on the other side. When the disciples came ashore, they would have been shocked to be greeted by larger crowd than they had just left on the other side of the lake.
Jesus cared that his disciples were overworked and needed some time to rest and recuperate. God does not expect us to work for Him constantly without free time to heal and take care of ourselves. He wants us to be healthy and joyful. He has promised to provide for our needs in multiple locations in the Bible. He does not just use us and abuse us. Jesus cares for us and loves us. We can count on Him to provide us with rest and recovery if we ask.
When the disciples pushed their boat away from shore, they thought that they would escape the crowd as they often had before. Their expectations were wrong. That seems to be the pattern when serving Jesus. We will often be surprised that small insignificant actions and careless words turn out to have profound significance while plans that we thought were essential to Jesus’ ministry turn out to be insignificant. God may call us to service during our time off, or He may give us an unexpected break just when we need it. For this reason, we should make the most of the time we have because our expectations of the future will usually turn out to be wrong.
DAY 6–Remember to pray before you begin.
Mark 6:34-37 How can we feed them?
Jesus came out, saw a great multitude, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things. When it was late in the day, his disciples came to him, and said, “This place is deserted, and it is late in the day. Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages, and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat.” But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” They asked him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give them something to eat?”
The disciples and Jesus had left one side of the lake and intentionally planned to land in a deserted place far away from villages so that they could have some time alone to rest. However, when they pulled into shore and got out of the boat, a large crowd was waiting for them. The people must have been watching from a hill and once they were sure where the disciples’ vessel would land, the excited boat trackers began approaching Jesus’ little group. Thus, when the disciples first pulled the boat in, they may not have seen lots of people, but by the time everything was tied up and they were ready to get out, the throng of people had become visible.
Because of His love for humanity, Jesus’ immediate reaction was compassion for the crowd rather than irritation. He rejoiced that the people were drawn to Him even though they did not understand even the basics of heaven. These lost sheep were searching for some unknown objective and running toward it not knowing what they were racing to find. Jesus saw that the people were open to learning, so He taught them. How could He resist such eager students when He was the ultimate Teacher?
At the end of the day, the disciples advised Jesus to send the crowd away so that they could find food. The people had rushed so quickly to try to reach Jesus that they were not well-provisioned. Even if they had brought a little food with them, it would have been eaten earlier in the day. The disciples were acting righteously in thinking of others’ needs, but they may have also been feeling the emptiness of their own stomachs. They had been hungry earlier because of a different crowd. They had been filled as they ate on the lake, but now after a long day with this new crowd, they were hungry again.
The disciples were planning for the people to find their own sustenance when Jesus shocked them. He told His twelve students that they were to provide the people with food. The disciples considered their own limitations and knew that the only way for them to supply the people with a meal was to purchase it. However, even if they found someone to buy from, they were without the necessary funds to fulfill Jesus’ command. How often do we consider the job that Jesus has put in front of us and despair of being able to carry out His commands? Just like the disciples, we focus on our own limitations instead of God’s provision.
This was a new area of miracles. If there had been a sick invalid or a demon-possessed madman, the disciples would have known what to do; Jesus had shown them how to heal and given them power. If the problem had dealt with their own personal welfare, they would have felt confident; they had just come back from the journey Jesus had sent them on where all their needs had been supplied. Now, however, Jesus was telling them to supply the needs of others. The only solution that they could focus on was the money that they did not have rather than looking to their Lord for a miracle.
Unfortunately, today, we still focus on finances. We become discouraged when we are faced with a problem without the funds necessary to buy a solution. For example, many times there are few outreach programs for the community because church members have not given enough. In these situations, we overlook the fact that it is not money that we need; it is the power of God. We must trust Him to deliver whatever is necessary so that we can distribute it appropriately. We must also have faith that God will supply our own necessities at the same time. When God provides, whatever we give to others will not diminish our own strength and sustenance.
DAY 7–Remember to pray before you begin.
Mark 6:37-44 Twelve baskets and 5,000 men
But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” They asked him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give them something to eat?” He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go see.” When they knew, they said, “Five, and two fish.” He commanded them that everyone should sit down in groups on the green grass. They sat down in ranks, by hundreds and by fifties. He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke the loaves, and he gave to his disciples to set before them, and he divided the two fish among them all. They all ate, and were filled. They took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and also of the fish. Those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.
The disciples divided the crowd into groups of hundreds and fifties. According to the math, there were at least 52 groups of people sitting on that mountainside. The disciples received supplies from Jesus, filled up their baskets, and approached the people to distribute the food. They handed out food and then gave the people more food and kept on delivering even more bread and fish to the groups of seated diners until everyone was satisfied. When all the people were full, the disciples picked up the leftover pieces and found that they had more than when they had started.
We always say that Jesus fed the 5,000, which is true; however, Jesus did not view the situation as if He were feeding the hungry multitude by Himself. He told the disciples, “You feed them.” Thus, as far as Jesus was concerned, the disciples were the ones who fed more than five thousand people on that mountain. God has not changed His attitude today. He sends His followers out to provide for the hungry multitudes. He still multiplies the sustenance, but He commends His followers for being good and faithful stewards of His resources, as if we are somehow responsible for His miraculous provision.
Jesus took it for granted that He would provide the supernatural power to multiply the food just as God always provides the miraculous force that we need to do His will. Thus, the reason that Jesus said that the disciples were feeding the crowd was because they were the intermediaries between the power of God and helpless humanity. This is always our duty. We must bring God’s power into the lives of the needy around us. We must distribute the bread from heaven that we receive to those who are ignorant of how to approach God for themselves.
The Bible tells us that the hungry crowd ate and were satisfied. While this was miraculous, it should not have been surprising because the God who provided for a rebellious multitude in the wilderness for forty years, could easily supply one meal for a much smaller crowd. We must never forget that God is never stingy when He provides our food. He gives us enough to satisfy us with more left over. He does not want anyone to be left out of the banquet. He has more than enough resources to bestow on all who approach Him. Like our Savior, we also should never be stingy in handing out a meal to others. We should give everyone enough to satisfy them whether it is physical food or spiritual bread. If we reach the end of our supplies, we can always confidently approach God for more.
Who is the crowd that we are supposed to feed today? Maybe, it is our friends in a Bible study group. It could be our fellow church members or our families. How about the people we interact with on social media? Our co-workers may need to be fed. Regardless of the recipients who need sustenance, we will never be able to meet their needs unless we persistently return to God in prayer and fill up our baskets with manna from His word. We can never feed the crowd without first receiving what we need from Jesus.