Mark 13:7-12 Crowds
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: January 7, 2018 Mark 3:7-12
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.
So Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea. A large crowd from Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, from across the Jordan, and from the region around Tyre and Sidon followed him. They came to him because they kept hearing about everything he was doing. Jesus told his disciples to have a boat ready for him so that the crowd wouldn’t crush him, because he had healed so many people that everyone who had diseases kept crowding up against him in order to touch him. Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they would fall down in front of him and scream, “You are the Son of God!” But he sternly ordered them again and again not to tell people who he was.
(Understanding the Passage) It seems that Jesus and the disciples are still around the Capernaum area because the disciples had access to a boat. Either that or they had used the boat to cross to some other area and had it docked. Anyway, Jesus got out of town again and went down by the sea. I think it’s implied here that the reason He was not in a town was because there was such a crowd of people following Him around. The crowd had become so big and bold that they were crowding Him and trying to touch Him to be blessed or healed.
(Revelation of God) Jesus draws people to Him even when they hate Him. I think that the reason so many demon-possessed people came to Him was because even the demons could not stay away. Earlier, I thought of it as Satan sending many of his soldiers against Jesus to test His strength and that might be so, but I think another reason that so many were there was because they could not help but draw near to the one that they once served. They cannot ignore God even in their rebellion. Maybe that’s one reason that Satan hates Jesus. Satan wants to be superior, yet in His heart he not only cannot deny the superiority of Jesus, but Satan himself feels drawn to Jesus. In order to fight that draw, He has built a wall of hatred. Thus, the fallen angels might have not been able to stay away from Jesus when He was here even though they rejected Him as the King of Heaven.
(Understanding the Passage) Again, I am looking at the passage through the lens of Peter’s personality and Mark’s minimalism. Thus, I have to ask myself why Mark included this passage. I think it was partly to show that Jesus’ followers were not only local. At this point in His ministry, word had gone out about Jesus’ miracles and teaching, and people were coming from everywhere-“Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, from across the Jordan, and from the region around Tyre and Sidon” Essentially, they were coming from all parts of the area that traditionally included Israel/Judea. Tyre and Sidon are port cities. Tyre is on the northernmost edge of Galilee while Sidon is in Phoenicia. Peter is telling us that at this point in His ministry, literally all the Jews in the Jewish areas had heard of Jesus, and large numbers were coming to see for themselves if Jesus was the Messiah and/or to be healed. No one in the Jewish regions would be able to say that they were ignorant of the Messiah’s coming.
(Understanding the Passage) Jesus could tell that this was going to be a difficult crowd rather than an orderly crowd. People were crowding up to Him and trying to touch Him. There were many with diseases in the crowd, and they wanted to be healed. Had the woman who was healed by simply touching Him already been healed? Had the fame of that healing gone around so much that people were copying it? Or was touching and being healed a common idea?
This seems to be a picture of chaos. The crowds in the feeding of the 5,000 seemed to be orderly, but these people seem pushy and out-of-control. Jesus can control them to keep them back through His power, but He must not have wanted to display that kind of power yet. He chose a different method as the crowd started to get unmanageable. He sent the disciples up ahead to get the boat ready for Him as He continued to walk at the slower pace dictated by the crowd. When they got to the boat, Jesus quickly got in.
I think He must have been thinking of the crowd’s safety more than His own. He could protect Himself, but the crowd might trample or hurt each other. It has happened at concerts. He knew that if He removed Himself from the immediate situation, they would settle down.
Peter must have been amazed and worried at the behavior of the crowd. He would have also been relieved once Jesus was on the boat where they could just sail away if the crowd got too pushy.
(Application) Jesus draws people to Him. I will not have the capability to draw people to Jesus, but if I lift Him up, He will do the drawing. My job is to know Him and tell others what I know.
(Prayer) Help me to remember that I am not responsible for raising people up from their self-absorption. Teach me the best ways to reveal You to others, and let them see You clearly, so that You can draw them to You.