For a description of the (Y2) reading plan, see the “About” page.
Mark 1
What was Jesus’ message? (See v. 14-15). What does that mean and how does it affect you? We don’t have to get far into Jesus’ story to see that He is the Son of God. The voice from heaven declared it so. That had to have been fairly convincing! But the people were set in their expectations for the promised Messiah. They were waiting for the conquering King who would deliver them from their enemies. This had to have colored what they heard when Jesus came, proclaiming the good news of God. “’The time has come,’ He said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’” (Mark 1:15). I imagine He had them right up until the “Repent and believe” part.
What the people failed to understand is that our true enemy is our own human nature and its propensity toward sin. What Jesus came to conquer is the pride that keeps us from God. He did this by humbling Himself to the point of dying to pay a debt that wasn’t His. When Jesus said “The time has come”, He meant the time for God to put an end to our own futile efforts. When He said, “The kingdom of God has come near”, He meant that God was now stepping in to bridge the gap that we could not bridge. God was now doing what He promised so that He could dwell with us. And all we have to do is “repent and believe the good news”.
Funny thing is, I think people are still getting tripped up with that last part. God’s ways are not our ways. Jesus is nothing that any of us would have made Him to be if we had written the story. So even now He is not what we expect. Thus, God gave us overwhelming evidence to help us overcome our faulty expectations. But I have personally seen pride stand firm in the face of overwhelming evidence. Unless we are willing to drop that pride – repent – and accept what is – believe – we will never receive the good news of Jesus.
1 Sam. 15-16
How does Saul justify his disobedience? What is Samuel’s response? Wow – Saul repeated his folly. I don’t just mean the folly of his disobedience, which was bad enough. What I mean is the pattern of rationalizing his sin by saying that he did what he did for God and, when that didn’t fly, laying the blame on others. Honestly, I think using God to ‘justify’ your bad behavior is worse than the behavior itself. I don’t think Saul ever did take full responsibility for his disobedience. And he seemed more concerned about losing his honor than about his relationship with God. What a contrast to David’s heart!
Speaking of David, I don’t think I have ever stopped to consider how unlikely it was that he should be the one selected to minister to Saul when the evil spirit tormented him. One of Saul’s servants ‘just happened’ to know of David. Did any of them know that Samuel had anointed David to take over the kingdom? I am hard pressed to think that Saul would have liked David so much initially had he known about this. It’s just one more piece in a huge pile of evidence that God’s hand was working out His great plan.