Bible Verse Synopsis 7-6-25
Mark 7
The Scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem now come down to see Jesus and His Disciples. These men saw fault in the Disciples eating with others and unclean hands. The Pharisees washed their hands and many other things in very particular ways. Where is this found in the Word? This has become the custom of the Jews. But a custom adopted from man and mixed with God’s corrupts the Lord’s customs. What are we corrupting of the Lord’s that is meant to be different?
In Verse 5: “Then the Pharisees and Scribes asked Him, Why walk not Your Disciples according to the tradition of the Elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?” This was in reference to the practices that man had created. It was an outward show, not an inward show and the Disciples were doing the exact opposite. In Verses 6-13 Jesus answers them. Jesus calls them hypocrites directly to their face. Verse 7 says: “Howbeit in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” These men worshipped with their mouth but they don’t truly believe it. Verse 8 expounds on this: “For laying aside the Commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things you do.” Verse 9 sums up what Jesus is telling them: “And He said unto them, Full well you reject the Commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition.” Jesus knew the hearts of these men were about themselves and not for the Lord. The traditions they had created, the washing of pots and cups and of hands, were of man. Had they followed the Commandments of the Lord, then they would not be hypocrites! Verse 13 is a perfect cap to Jesus’s retort to the traditions of man: “‘Making the Word of God of none effect through your tradition, which you have delivered: and many such like things do you.” These self proclaimed men of God had twisted the Word to their own benefit and have delivered in blasphemy to the people. Corruption and greed were at the heart of their problems. Have the traditions of man corrupted our view of the Word?
After dealing with the Pharisees and Scribes, how embarrassed they must have been, Jesus turned to the people saying at the end of verse 14: “Hearken unto Me every one of you, and understand.” Jesus gave the people a choice: to listen to Him or the hypocritical Pharisees. The same is present today. We have influences in our lives that pull us away from Christ, just as the Pharisees did in Jesus’s time. Who are those influences in your life? Do you overcome them with the Word?
Jesus continued His teachings to the people in Verse 15: “There is nothing from without a man, that entereth into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.” When the Disciples returned with Jesus to Peter’s house, they asked for Him to explain the parable. Jesus exclaims His displeasure with them in Verse 18: “Are you so without understanding also? Do you not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without enters into the man, it cannot defile him;”. Whatever we consume goes into our belly, not into our heart. What is in our heart is what is issued from our mouth. Verse 23 finishes Jesus’s clarification: “All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” Our hearts are possible of all of these things through man, but through Christ we can overcome our sinful nature and be born again. Have you submitted your heart to Christ and been born again?
Jesus then arose and went deep into the Gentile territory. He went into a house there but He could not be hid. Verse 25 says: “For a certain woman, whose daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of Him, and came and fell at His feet.” She found Him and sought Him out. She was a Gentile with a demon possessed daughter. She believed that Jesus could heal her daughter. In Verse 27 Jesus says: “Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it into the dogs.” Jesus is talking here of the children of God (Israel) receiving Him first, and then the dogs (the gentiles) being second in line. She answered Him in Verse 28 saying: “Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs.” She gave Him her faith and humbly accepted the crumbs. This position of faith allowed her, as a gentile, to receive. Jesus freed her daughter without seeing or touching her. This exemplifies the power of faith. Because of her faith the Lord worked for her from a distance. The Lord can always work for us if we show our faith to Him. How do you show your faith to the Lord? Are you willing to be fed with the crumbs? Will that be enough?
Jesus returned to Israel and a deaf man was brought unto Him. Jesus took the man and his friends to the side from the multitude. He put His fingers in his ears and on his tongue. “And looking up to Heaven, He sighed, and said unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.” The sigh is a recognition of the dilemma of man. Only Christ has the power to relieve us of this dilemma, just as He opened this man’s ears and fixed his tongue. Through Christ our spirit can be fixed, the spiritual can be fixed in the same manner as this man’s physical repair. Our Salvation depends on our spirit being transformed by Christ. Will you accept the Salvation and the transformation that comes with it?