SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/31/2016 10:50 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Supernatural Sign
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 6:16-19
Message of the verses: “16 Now when evening came, His disciples went
down to the sea, 17 and after getting into a boat, they started to cross the
sea to Capernaum. It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to
them. 18 The sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. 19
Then, when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on
the sea and drawing near to the boat; and they were frightened.”
As we begin
to look at these verses in John’s gospel we have to remember that it was Jesus
who sent His disciples away to go to the other side of the lake. “Immediately He made the disciples get into
the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the crowds away
(Matthew 14:22).” Why do you think that
He would send His disciples away, especially knowing that they would run into a
storm that was very powerful. Perhaps we
need to see this situation through the eyes of the disciples. When Jesus taught the crowds from the sermon
on the mount he also taught them what we know as the Lord’s prayer and in that
prayer are the words “thy kingdom come,” and perhaps His disciples thought that
this day was coming very soon as the crowd wanted to make Jesus King after He
fed all of them in the previous verses from John chapter six. We have already discussed why it was that
Jesus would not do as the crowd wanted Him to do, for all they wanted was a
king who could provide for their physical needs and were not looking for a king
who would take care of their spiritual needs for they thought that those have
already been taken care of. So Jesus
sends them out into the storm and perhaps because of the storm the disciples
will not think so much about their physical needs that they wanted in a
king. One thing we need to remember is
that Jesus sent them out into a storm that He knew was coming, or even perhaps
caused to come. How many storms has our
Savior sent us out into?
Mark 6:45
gives us their destination “Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the
boat and go ahead of Him
to the other side to Bethsaida, while He Himself was sending the crowd
away.” MacArthur writes “Apparently,
they were planning to meet Jesus there before crossing the lake to the western
shore (Matt. 14:34; Mark 6:53). ‘When
even came, the disciples went down to the sea, and after getting into a boat,
they started to cross the sea to Capernaum. Evening’ here refers to the second
evening (cf. Ex. 12:6 where ‘at twilight’ lit. reads ‘between the two evenings’),
from sunset to dark. They waited at
Bethsaida until it had already become dark.
Then, ‘since Jesus had not yet come to them’ the disciples reluctantly
returned to their boat and took their voyage to Capernaum, on the northwest
shore.”
In our
study of the book of Mark we spoke about the configuration of where the Sea of
Galilee is located and the fact that it is 700 feet below sea level. Now surrounding it are hills and they rise
abruptly to about 2,000 feet above sea level so that makes the sea some 2700
feet below the tops of the hills. As the
winds come through the hills they drop nearly 3000 feet to the surface of the
sea or lake as it perhaps should be called.
These are ideal conditions to cause a storm to come up very quickly and
also to give the lake very strong storms, for the cooler air rushes down the
slopes and then strikes the surface of the lake with a great force and this
causes the water to churn up and cause whitecaps and this would be very
dangerous for the small boats that were used on the lake.
We see that
the disciples were caught in one of those harsh storms as we read “the sea
began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing.” One thing we need to be reminded of is that
many of the disciples of Jesus were seasoned fisherman and made their living
catching fish on this lake so they surely had seen storms before, but perhaps
not like this one. MacArthur writes of
their straining at the oars, “The disciples had left for Capernaum sometime
between 6:00 and 9:00 PM (John 6:16), and according to Matthew 14:25 and Mark
6:48 it was now the fourth watch of the night (3:00 to 6:00 AM). During those
long, dark, exhausting, stressful hours, they ‘had rowed’ only ‘about three or
four miles.’
As we noted
in our SD which actually came from Mark’s gospel Jesus was up on the mountain
praying according also to Matt. 14:23; and Mark 6:46. We have to believe that Jesus was praying for
His disciples as they struggled at the oars against this might storm that He
had sent them out into. These seasoned
fishermen were frightened so this shows that this storm that Jesus sent them
out into was fierce. It is good to know
that our Savior prays for us when He sends us out into a storm, for He is all
knowing and all powerful and is our Great Shepherd who cares for His sheep.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: When Jesus sends me out into a storm He is
teaching me something, and He is praying for me, and He will never leave me nor
forsake me.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Trust the Lord to see me
through the storms of life He sends me into that I will come out being closer
to Him.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth.”
Today’s Bible question:
“What happened to the Egyptians who tried to follow the Israelites
through the Red Sea?
Answer in our next SD.
3/31/2016 11:32 AM
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