Mar 3 outline:
Mar 2:23-3:6, What is lawful on the Sabbath;
Mar 3:7-12, A great multitude came to Him and He healed them
Mar 3:13-19, He chose and appointed twelve disciples
Mar 3:20-22, The multitude crowded them/ His own people + scribes defamed Him
Mar 3:23-27, A kingdom + house divided/ the parable of the strong man’s house
Mar 3:28-30, The unforgiveable sin
Mar 3:31-35, His family sought him/ He who does My Father’s will is My family
Mar 3:7-4:2 chiastic structure:
1a) Mar 3:7-11, Jesus withdrew to the sea + a great multitude + He healed them and cast out demons;
1b) Mar 3:13-19, He chose and appointed twelve disciples;
1c) Mar 3:20, The multitude gathered to Him, so that they could not even eat bread;
1d) Mar 3:21, His own people tried to lay hold of Him, for they said, He is out of His mind;
1e) Mar 3:22, The scribes from Jerusalem said, He casts out demons by the ruler of demons;
central axis) Mar 3:23-27, A kingdom + house divided (repeated parallelism for emphasis);
1a) Mar 3:23-24, How can Satan cast out Satan? A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand;
shim1b) Mar 3:25, And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand;
2a) Mar 3:26, If Satan is risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end;
shim2b) Mar 3:27, No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man;
2e) Mar 3:28-30, He who blasphemes the Holy Spirit does not have forgiveness, because they said, He has an unclean spirit;
2d) Mar 3:31, His brothers and His mother came, and sent to Him to call Him;
2c) Mar 3:32, The multitude sitting around Him said, Your family is outside seeking You;
2b) Mar 3:33-35, He looked at His disciples: Whoever does the will of God is my mother, my sister, my brother;
2a) Mar 4:1-2, Jesus by the sea + a great multitude + He taught them in parables.
We learn from the central axis, that the enemy binds the strong man in order to plunder the house (or household, the persons in the house). The strong man is the father and husband. The story the ancient Hebrew pictographs tell of ab, the Hebrew word for “father,” is that he is the strong one of the house (ab = aleph, the ox or strong one + bet, the house or family). He is the one who has to be bound, if the enemy will plunder the household or family. If he is not bound, guess what? The family and house is safe from plunder!
The repeated parallelism of the central axis reveals something else about the enemy’s strategy. His preferred method of binding the strong man, of shackling the father so that he is ineffective in protecting his family, is by dividing his house against itself. How does he accomplish that? Through us, the wives.
One of the first things the Scripture says about married couples is:
Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Gen 2:24
UNITY! A united house is a strong and protected house against the enemy. The enemy attempts to lead wives into disunity through unforgiveness; lying to us about the motivations of our husband’s hearts in day to day occurrences so that we charge them with wrongdoing; withholding love or affection; taking offense; bearing grudges; focusing on the negative in them (or the speck in our brother’s eye) to turn us into complainers if possible, instead of focusing on the positive in them (and the log in our own eye) so that we remain appreciative and grateful praisers.
Now I am speaking to the women: ladies, if we are doing any of the above, we are playing into the enemy’s hands and helping him bind our husbands, instead of being the help meet that God intended us to be for him, by loving him, encouraging him, and appreciating his hard work and his sacrifices for his family’s behalf! If this applies, let us confess our part in bringing disunity to our home, and repent, and seek the Lord’s help to be the agent of UNITY in our homes!
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