Mark 3:22-27 A Divided House
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 10, 2018 Mark 3:22-27
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.
And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, He has Beelzebub, and He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons.
(Understanding the Passage) Peter seems to be listing here the various accusations made against Jesus. Jesus’ sincerity and actions made it impossible to simply say that He was lying or trying to deceive the crowd for gain. After all, He had no fancy home to rest in and traveled from place to place ministering to others. He made no political moves. He gave rather than taking. He was even skipping meals in order to meet other people’s needs. Those are not the actions of someone trying to dupe people. Thus, they had to come up with other actions. First, they tried saying that Jesus was insane. That fooled a few people who had known Him in the past and not seen past His place in their society to see Him, but most people ignored the accusation. Now, the scribes tried a new accusation; they said that Jesus was from the devil and was leading the people away from God.
There were several advantages to this accusation. It could be used to explain the miracles. Jesus had broken numerous religious rules, and by example led others to think it was okay to break senseless Pharisaical rules, so in their minds, He was going against God. Jesus seems to have ignored the accusation of insanity, but He addresses this accusation of being aligned with Satan strongly.
And He called them and said to them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan rises up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end.
Jesus uses logic to counteract the accusation that He was demon-possessed. He says that if He were not only casting out demons but also healing people and speaking of the Father’s love through Satan’s power, he would be actively working against Himself. The actions that Jesus performed directly attacked Satan’s power and purposes, so it made no sense to say that Satan was empowering Jesus to act against Satan. The people could see by this logic that the pure message and miracles of Jesus were untainted with evil and thus, could not have their source in evil. It was foolishness to even suggest it. The only ones who would believe it were the ones who refused to see the truth that Jesus was the Messiah.
No one can enter into a strong one’s house and plunder his goods, except he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house.
I’m not sure what this part means exactly, so I’m going to look at commentaries.
Guzik says “a. How can Satan cast out Satan? Jesus shows that if He is an agent of Satan, and works against Satan, then surely Satan’s kingdom is in civil war and will not stand – Satan won’t work against himself.”
“b. No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods: With this, Jesus answers the charge that He is in league with the Devil. He says, ‘I’m not under Satan. Instead, I’m proving that I am stronger than he is.’”
“c. Unless he first binds the strong man: In this parable Satan is the strong man, who guards what belongs to him. Jesus’ ministry, both in the case of casting the demon out of the man who was mute, and in the broader sense, is defeating this strong man.”
“d. Then he will plunder his house: Jesus looks at every life delivered from Satan’s domination and says, ‘I’m plundering the kingdom of Satan one life at a time.’ There is nothing in our life that must stay under Satan’s domination. The one who binds the strong man and will plunder his house is our risen Lord.”
“i. It’s a reasonable question: what are you doing in Satan’s house anyway? The truth is that because of the sin of Adam, we were born in Satan’s house. Then we also stayed on by our own choice. But when Jesus comes into our life, there is never a reason for someone to be in Satan’s house.”
(Revelation of God) The ideas that I found in Guzik were my original idea but I wanted to make sure that I was on the right track. I like Guzik’s idea that what Jesus is plundering is us. This world was Satan’s house, his playground with prisoners that he tortures and binds, but Jesus came to Satan’s home ground that Satan himself had arranged to build up his own power, and Jesus bound Satan’s power so that He could free Satan’s prisoners. We are the treasure that Jesus plundered from Satan’s house. In God’s eyes, we are the only thing of value that Satan has.
(Application) Many people stay under Satan’s dominion because they treasure money, fables, power, security (false), forbidden pleasures, and familiarity. People don’t realize that they, themselves are the only treasure in Satan’s dominion. People don’t realize that the only way to be the treasure that they can be, is to deny themselves and follow Jesus. In the process, they will shine and become more and more valuable, not for what they can do, but for who they become. The robe of Christ’s righteousness does not just cover them on the outside but permeates them to the cellular level. They remain themselves while becoming the glorious treasures that they should have been except for Satan’s taint.
(Prayer) Thank You for rescuing me from Satan’s house. Help me to never return. Transform me so that all parts of me belong to Your house, and I am not a divided house. Use me to help rescue others from the house of slavery that the devil has confined them in.