SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/28/2012 9:13:31 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Poor Become Rich
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Mark 10:46-52
Message of the verses: “46 ¶
Then they *came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His
disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of
Timaeus, was sitting by the road. 47
When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say,
"Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" 48 Many were sternly telling him to be quiet,
but he kept crying out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on
me!" 49 And Jesus stopped and said,
"Call him here." So they *called the blind man, saying to him,
"Take courage, stand up! He is calling for you." 50 Throwing aside his cloak, he jumped up and
came to Jesus. 51 And answering him,
Jesus said, "What do you want Me to do for you?" And the blind man
said to Him, "Rabboni, I want to regain my sight!" 52 And Jesus said to him, "Go; your faith
has made you well." Immediately he regained his sight and began following
Him on the road.”
Sometimes
when we read through the Gospels we see things in the different Gospels that
seem to be contradictive, and this section seems to fit into that category. Luke 18:35 says, “As Jesus was approaching
Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the road begging.” Our text from today in Mark 10:46 states, “Then
they *came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a
large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting
by the road.” Dr. Wiersbe points out “There
were actually two cities named Jericho:
the old city in ruins, and the new city a mile away where Herod the
Great and his successors built a lavish winter palace.” When we read this story from Matthew’s gospel
account we read that there were two blind beggars that Jesus healed. “29 ¶
As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him. 30 And two blind men sitting by the road,
hearing that Jesus was passing by, cried out, "Lord, have mercy on us, Son
of David!" 31 The crowd sternly
told them to be quiet, but they cried out all the more, "Lord, Son of
David, have mercy on us!" 32 And
Jesus stopped and called them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for
you?" 33 They *said to Him,
"Lord, we want our eyes to be opened." 34 Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their
eyes; and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him (Matthew
20:29-34).” Perhaps John MacArthur’s
idea about why Mark and Luke only talk about Bartimaeus was because he became
the more prominent one of the two and was greatly involved in the early
Church. He may have been one of the 120
people who meet in the upper room waiting for the Holy Spirit to be given to them,
and that is why his name is given and the other’s name is withheld.
Let’s talk
a bit about Jericho from where it is mentioned in the Scriptures. As I searched for this word in my Online
Bible program I find that Jericho is mentioned 59 times in the Bible. It is mentioned in ten different verses in
the book of Numbers, in three verses in Deuteronomy, in 26 verses in the book
of Joshua, one verse in 2Samuel and 1Kings, in six verses in 2Kings, in two
verses in 1Chronicles and one 2Chronicles, in Ezra once and Nehemiah two times,
in Jeremiah two times, and then we move to the NT where it is in Matthew and
Mark once, and Luke three times and the last mention is in Hebrews where it is
mentioned once speaking of the walls falling down.
When God
destroyed Jericho after the children of Israel marched around it we read in “Jos
6:26 Then Joshua made them take an oath
at that time, saying, "Cursed before the LORD is the man who rises up and
builds this city Jericho; with the loss of his firstborn he shall lay its foundation,
and with the loss of his youngest son he shall set up its gates.’” Then we read in “1Ki 16:34 In his days Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho;
he laid its foundations with the loss of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its
gates with the loss of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the
LORD, which He spoke by Joshua the son of Nun.”
In
searching the internet about Jericho I found this brief, but interesting article
on Jericho and it is found at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vie/Jericho.html.
Jericho is
below Jerusalem and the Jews coming to the Passover and other feasts would go
through Jericho because they walked around Samaria because they thought they
would be deviled if they went through Samaria.
In our next section from the book of Psalms that will begin tomorrow (God
willing) we will begin to study the psalms of ascent and these psalms were
spoken by the children of Israel as they made their way up to Jerusalem. Perhaps Jesus and His disciples and the
others who traveled with Him began to recite Psalms 120-134.
As we look
at the text in Mark we see that Bartimaeus called Jesus by two different names. He called Jesus “Son of David” which is a messianic
title and so he must have known who Jesus was from a study of the
Scriptures. He also calls him Rabboni
which means Master and is only use one other time by Mary in John 20:16 in all
the Scriptures. It seems to me that this
man was not only looking to have his physical eyes opened, but he also had
probably had his spiritual eyes opened earlier, and if not earlier for sure
when Jesus healed his physical eyes for we see that he began to follow Jesus.
We see the
same question that Jesus asked to James, John, and Salome in Mark 10:36, and
that question was “What do you want Me to do for you.” This question seems a bit strange to ask a
blind man but Dr. Wiersbe states that “Jesus wanted to give the man opportunity
to express himself and give evidence of his own faith. What did he really believe Jesus could do for
him?”
Jesus knew
what awaited Him as he traveled up to Jerusalem, and we talked a bit about that
in yesterday’s SD, but Jesus who was doing the Father’s will stopped overnight
in Jericho at the house of Zaccheus, a dreaded tax collector and called him to
a saving faith and then on the way out of Jericho he stopped to heal two blind
beggars of both their physical needs along with their spiritual needs. The Jews of that day probably thought less of
the tax collectors than they did the blind, but not much for they felt that people
who were blind were cursed by God. We
see this in the disciples question of Jesus in the ninth chapter of John, “’Rabbi,
who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?’” This would be the last miracle that Jesus
would do before rising from the dead, although He had two more appointments in
order to call a thief and a Roman Soldier to salvation while on the cross.
In the
remaining chapters of Mark we will see Jesus during the last week of His life
on earth as we will see the suffering Servant crucified for those He came to
save and then be raised from the dead as proof of His payment for their sins.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I see great compassion in this section as it
is even stated in one of the gospel accounts.
Compassion is a part of love and Jesus is love. As I begin to memorize the 13th
chapter of 1Corinthians, the “Love Chapter,” I am trying to see how this
chapter fits into the life of Jesus as I read through the Gospels and then have
a desire to have the Holy Spirit work these qualities into my life.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Trust that God will make a
more compassionate person of me.
Memory verses for the week:
1Cor. 13:1-7
1 If I
speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have
become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all
knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have
love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all
my possessions to feed the poor, and surrender my body to be burned, but do not
have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is
patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag, and is not arrogant,
5 does not act unbecomingly, it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does
not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness,
but rejoices with the truth, 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all
things, endures all things.
9/28/2012 10:52:04 AM
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