Drawing them out to desert places...
[Mark 1:45, 3:7]
I love Mark's Gospel. It's not my favorite, but I love it for its own reasons. All four were necessary. For example, without Luke and Matthew; we would not have a definitive declaration of the Virgin Birth, and without John, it could be possibly argued that Christ was not with the Father from the very beginning. All four Gospels are absolutly necessary to have God's full revelation to us. All four Gospels accentuate different aspects of Christ. Matthew and Luke emphisize Jesus' teachings (sermons, parables, etc.). John focuses on his identity. Mark focuses on ACTION. Not that the other items are left out; just that the events (inparticular the miracles and healings) are more thouroughly divulged. In the course of the narritive, certain principles can be extrapelated to teach us truths about the way that God operates.
On Tuesday morning, I read the first Chapter of Mark. Verse 45 stood out as being particularly important. This is how God reveals things to me in the scriptures. I do not always immediatly know what the significance is; I just know that there is something there deeper than what I might see on face value of the pheonetic symbols that communicate God's Word. Tonight while reading chapter 3, my meditations on Mark 1:45 resolved an answer. Always accepting the possibility that my immagination could be mistaken for the Holy Spirit revelation, I have to remember that the fundamentals of my faith and knowledge make up the border peices of the puzzle and that all other peices must fit with-in that border; and not outside of it. One of the tests that I use is USEFULLNESS. How will this help the Body of Christ? The answer I came to is that this insight will no doubt be helpful, so....
But he went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but was without in desert places: and they came to him from every quarter. Mark 1:45
But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea: and a great multitude from Galilee followed him... Mark 3:7
It is true that God wants us to go out into highways and bid all to come. There is no place on earth that we shouldn't go to spread the good news about God's son. Bars, red-light districts, streets, the "bad" part of town, etc. But our purpose must be to pull them out of these places, not stay there with them. It's about being in the world but not of the world. Once Jesus spoke in the city, it was enough for those who truly wanted to hear what he had to say to come out from the city to desert places to hear him. Those who only wanted to see a show [because his fame had been blazed abroad] would stay in the city. The ones who followed him out of the city did so to HEAR him.
