The book of Mark's Gospel could be called "action-packed". From verse 10 in this first chapter we find Christ back in Galilee once more. In fact up to the end of chapter nine, Mark recounts mostly stories which took place around the Sea of Galilee and the surrounding areas. Then the scene shifts to Jerusalem and Judea leading up to the crucifixion of Christ. The last one-third of Mark's writings deals with only the last week of Christ's life. Here in this first chapter, Christ comes face to face with demons. Thirty-five times in this Gospel, demons or Satan are mentioned. They sought to oppose Christ in every possible way and had a cruel hold on so many people at that time. Notice in verse 25 and verse 34 Christ would not allow the demons to speak even though they might be acknowledging Him as the Son of God. Why was this so? One possible explanation could be that Christ would not allow them to speak in case it gave the impression that He was on their side and that they simply did what He told them to do. Later some of the Pharisees said this - that Christ cast out demons because He was in league with Satan. Christ rebuked that thought in very strong words (See Mark 3:22-30). We are not told how long the demon had possessed the man in this story. On at least one occasion Christ cast out a demon which had control of a boy. There are those today who deny the existence of demons. Their explanation of this "miracle" is that Christ knew there was no such thing as demons but He went along with the prevailing view of that age and called mental illness, demon possession. Those of us who believe the Word of God take this story as being absolutely accurate and trustworthy. We do not know what happened to this man in his later life. The fact that he was in the synagogue when this miracle took place may mean that he had some leaning toward the worship of the true God. Did he believe in Christ in the days which followed? It could well be. When Christ has done His work in a person's life, the next step is to follow Him. |
沒有留言:
張貼留言