Mark 8:1-10 A Second Feast
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: February 12, 2018, Mark 8:1-10
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.
In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.
(Understanding the Text) The crowd must have been prepared when they came with food; however, after three days they had used up their food. It was time to send them away, but Jesus did not want them to leave His presence in hunger forgetting their lessons and experiences because of the physical hardship of the trip home. Jesus was teaching His disciples to take care of the followers that they won for Jesus. He was giving the example that they were not to just take care of the crowds’ spiritual needs, but they were to care for their followers in all ways.
(Application) They once again expressed their doubts as to how to accomplish the task that Jesus set before them. They should have known by that time when Jesus said that He wanted to feed the crowd, that He could do it. We today are the same, so we should not judge the disciples. Too often we see the task as too overwhelming even though Jesus has led us in the past.
(Understanding the Text) It says that Jesus got into the boat with His disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha. The internet says that this was also called Magadon near Magdala. It is not on my maps. However, from this information, it would seem that the crowd was fed near the Sea of Galilee. The verses in the previous section indicated that they were on the east side of the Sea of Galilee in the Decapolis area. When Jesus first entered the Gentile area, there was great secrecy, but after the healing of the deaf man, His presence drew crowds and He ended up teaching one crowd for three days near the lake.
I have heard pastors draw the lesson that the message first went to the Jews and the first feeding was for the Jews, but now they were in a Gentile area with Gentiles in the crowd symbolizing the gospel going out to the Gentiles after the Jews were given the message.
I have always thought of the gospels going to the Jews first as being their time of probation after which they would be rejected for the Gentiles, sort of like the judgment idea; however, if things had worked ideally, all the Jews would have accepted the gospel and then begun spreading it to the Gentiles. This was not a judgment but a plan for the spread of the gospel to the world. The cutting off was a result of the Jews’ rejection, but it was not the original plan. The original plan would be that the whole world became the children of Abraham as a result of the witness of the Jews about their Messiah. We now have artificial labels of Jew and Christian, but in God’s eyes, the Jews who worshipped Him before Jesus came are the same group as the Christians who worshipped Him after Jesus came. The church and the ancient Jewish nation were the same representative of Christ’s bride, all saved by the same sacrifice with the same mission to bear witness to the nations.
I wonder where the boat came from. Had they originally come in the boat and left it there while they traveled and now they were returning to it? Had they made arrangements with someone before they left to bring the boat there and meet them at that place at a specified time? Was it a boat that they hired to take them across, or maybe a believer let them use? I tend to think one of the first two.
(Revelation of God / Prayer) For myself, I need to remember that Jesus will provide for me whether it is through prior planning or serendipitous circumstances. He will take care of me. Jesus has compassion on me as much as on the multitude. He feels for me as much as He feels for others. Sometimes it is easier to believe that Jesus loves you than that Jesus loves ME. He does love me. Teach me that You love me and have compassion on me. Help me to truly know Your love is for me as much as anyone else.