May 22

Journey-through-the-Bible-with-us

READING FOR MAY 22, 2024: GENESIS 36, MARK 5, PSALM 44:17                                       GENESIS 36 The genealogy of Esau (nation later known as Edom) is grouped by his three wives and includes Biblical references to descendants Teman and Amalek. (Chart by Surly Curmudgeon)

 

Observations:    

  • Esau married two Canaanite women and Basemath, a daughter of Ishmael--all outside the Covenant. 
  • Esau’s family moved to Seir away from the land of Canaan, which was promised to Abraham. Verse seven suggests the move was made for an economic reason, not influenced by God’s directions. 
  • Many of Esau’s descendants became chiefs, men of worldly success; no spiritual heritage mentioned.
  • Verses 20-30 list the descendants of Seir the Horite who resided in this area before Esau and continued sharing the land with the Edomites. 
  • Verses 31-39 list the kings of Edom. They don’t appear to be part of a family dynasty. 
  • Verses 40-43 list additional chiefs of Edom, all descendants of Esau. 
  • The biblical references accompanying Amalek’s and Teman’s names depict their descendants’ mostly negative circumstances, often as the enemies of God’s chosen people.
  • King Herod, enemy of Jesus at His birth, descended from Esau according to the historian Josephus.
  • The Romans destroyed Idumaea, homeland of the Edomites, in AD 68. The Edomites then largely disappeared as a people group. 

MARK 5 We first read this story of exorcism on February 14, 2024 when studying Matthew 8. In the Matthew account there were two demon-possessed men. Mark’s account just focuses on one of these men. We can’t know why the accounts differ, but their differences do not make them contradictory. By looking at both, we receive a fuller picture. In Mark, we learn about the extent of physical strength, constant screaming, and self-harming of this possessed

man. In Matthew 8 it says people avoided these men. Likely, we would do the same. Jesus,

however, commanded the unclean spirit to leave and asked its name. The demons, named

READING FOR MAY 22, 2024 CONTINUED: MARK 5, PSALM 44:17

Legion signifying many, made a request to Jesus, which He granted. Might this mean that demons are ultimately limited in their actions by what God permits? That was certainly the case in the book of Job. Consider 1 Cor. 10:13: “God is faithful, so He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”  If we really rely on God, then Satan cannot defeat us. In this account we learn that the demons entered a herd of 2,000 pigs that then ran off a cliff into the sea. Try to picture that scene. Who said the Bible is boring?  When the town tragically asked Jesus to leave, He did. Jesus never pushed faith in Him on anyone. Perhaps that should inform our methods of sharing the Gospel. We can, as Jesus told the formerly possessed man, just go to our people and tell what the Lord has done for us. 

The rest of the chapter deals with two intertwined healing storylines: the hemorrhaging woman and synagogue official’s dying daughter. Stop to imagine how many requests for healing come to God simultaneously. Millions? Yet, even in Jesus’s human body He was able to address both of these requests with compassion and unhurried attention. This woman had a chronic condition of 12 years that drained all her finances. Yet, she still had a positive belief in what Jesus could do. Notice Jesus told the woman that her faith made her well.  After learning the official’s daughter had died, Jesus told the father not to be afraid but to believe.  Jesus does not always promise a specific clinical result from our faith, but He does say our faith can make us well and unafraid. In this case, the woman’s bleeding stopped, and the daughter sprang to life. This may not be our experience, but we can be unafraid and well with our soul.

PSALM 44:17 The lament of this Psalm continues with the extra information that Israel did not violate their end of the Mosaic Covenant (Deut. 28) by disobeying God’s commands. Yet, Israel is not experienced the promised blessings of God from this covenant at that moment. This seeming nonresponsive God adds to their pain, but, and a big but it is, does not cause them to “deviate from [God’s] way” (vs.18). They remain persistent in prayer and confident in His power, even as they are perplexed by His actions.  We might pray this prayer today as some of us struggle yet remain faithful in our obedience, as did Job. Paul quotes from vs. 22 when he writes in Rom. 8:36, “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We were regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” Yet with the advantage of living after the cross and resurrection, he adds: “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:37-39).