East of the Jordan

Meditations of the Gospel of Mark

September 16, 2020

East of the Jordan

Then Jesus left Capernaum and went down to the region of Judea and into the area east of the Jordan River. Once again crowds gathered around him, and as usual he was teaching them.

Mark 10:1

Read: Mark 10: 1-16

East of the Jordan. This little tidbit is important in understanding why Mark says the Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus. This is the same region where John the Baptist preached. John challenged King Herod because the King’s wife Herodias had divorced the King’s brother Phillip, so she could marry the King. John essentially charged that King Herod was unfit to be the King of Israel. Mark is suggesting that the Pharisees are trying to draw Jesus into this same discussion in hopes Jesus will meet the same fate as did his cousin John.

Jesus responds to the Pharisees, but not with the details they were hoping for. Those he saves for later when he is alone with his disciples. Jesus is saying that God’s intention is for man and woman to become one through marriage. He also notes that because of the hardheartedness of humans, this standard was often missed, and that even Moses (as well as the Apostle Paul) recognized exceptions to maintaining marital unity. It is also important to note that divorce as the term is used in Jesus’ time can also be understood as abandonment. In a society where women were dependent on their husbands or families for support, when a man divorced his wife it could well leave her destitute.

In the Jewish law, there was not a provision for women divorcing their husbands. For Jesus to include women as divorcing their husbands was a direct reference to King Herod’s wife, Herodias.

My Takeaway: Implicit in Jesus’ referring to God’s intentional will for marriage is that with the coming of the Messiah, God is providing the means for his will to be fulfilled.

“For God is working in you,

giving you the desire

and the power to do what pleases him.”

Philippians 2:13

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2020 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.