18 October

Bible In 365 Days                                          

Mark 8-9

Mark 8

This was the second miracle of feeding. Our Lord knew whence these people came, and was solicitous for them on their long journey home if they departed without food. The miracle was the result.

The warning given to the disciples was consequent on the request of the Pharisees for a sign from heaven. This desire for a sign beyond those given was, and is, a danger. Those who live in unbroken communion with God do not seek for signs, but find them in all the miraculous movements of the most commonplace hours.

Here we have another, and perhaps the most remarkable, of the miracles which were wrought in stages.

The Master was approaching the end of His mission, and He gathered around Him His disciples. He questioned them on the opinions of men concerning Him. He then sought one other testimony, and that from those whom He had chosen. It is this view of the question and answer that reveals the value and preciousness of Peter's confession, "Thou art the Christ." Superior to all the rest, the One to whom all the others were but forerunners. The very Messiah!

Peter's position in what followed was not an altered one. How could the Messiah who was to restore the kingdom do so if the elders of the people rejected and killed Him? The new teaching introduced now for the first time was full of surprise. It is worthy of notice here, as in other in. stances in the last days of Jesus, that all this mistake arose, on Peter's part, from a partial attention to the Master's words. If he had grasped the promise, "after three days rise again," how different must have been his attitude.

Turning from private dealing with His disciples, and addressing them and the multitudes, our Lord laid down the stem, inexorable law of His Kingdom.

Mark 9

Here we see four men who have passed without death into the atmosphere and society of the heavens. One only of the four is there by His own right. Pure and spotless humanity stands in the glory of the unsullied light, and holds familiar converse with the spirits of just men.

We pass from the mountain to the valley. There we see Jesus, the baffled disciples, the father, the departing demon tearing his victim. The majesty and power of the Lord are manifested. Again He led these men through Galilee in privacy, and taught them, and the subject was still the Cross.