The Gospel of Mark (Part Seven)

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 <div class="label">4</div><div class="s1">The Parable of the Sower</div><div class="p"> 1Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water&#8217;s edge. 2He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: 3&#8220;Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 9Then Jesus said, &#8220;Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 10When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. 11He told them, &#8220;The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables 12so that,</div><div class="q1"> &#8220;&#8198;&#8216;they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,</div><div class="q2"> and ever hearing but never understanding;</div><div class="q1"> otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!&#8217; # 4:12 
 Isaiah 6:9,10 &#8221;</div><div class="p"> 13Then Jesus said to them, &#8220;Don&#8217;t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? 14The farmer sows the word. 15Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. 20Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop&#8212;some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.&#8221;</div><div class="s1">A Lamp on a Stand</div><div class="p"> 21He said to them, &#8220;Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don&#8217;t you put it on its stand? 22For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. 23If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 24 &#8220;Consider carefully what you hear,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;With the measure you use, it will be measured to you&#8212;and even more. 25Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.&#8221;</div><div class="s1">The Parable of the Growing Seed</div><div class="p"> 26He also said, &#8220;This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28All by itself the soil produces grain&#8212;first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.&#8221;</div><div class="s1">The Parable of the Mustard Seed</div><div class="p"> 30Again he said, &#8220;What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. 32Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 33With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. 34He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.</div><div class="s1">Jesus Calms the Storm</div><div class="p"> 35That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, &#8220;Let us go over to the other side.&#8221; 36Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, &#8220;Teacher, don&#8217;t you care if we drown?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 39He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, &#8220;Quiet! Be still!&#8221; Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.</div><div class="p"> 40He said to his disciples, &#8220;Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 41They were terrified and asked each other, &#8220;Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!&#8221;</div>
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 <div class="label">4</div><div class="s1">Abraham Justified by Faith</div><div class="p"> 1What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? 2If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about&#8212;but not before God. 3What does Scripture say? &#8220;Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.&#8221;#4:3 Gen. 15:6; also in verse 22</div><div class="p"> 4Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. 5However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. 6David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:</div><div class="q1"> 7&#8220;Blessed are those</div><div class="q2">whose transgressions are forgiven,</div><div class="q2">whose sins are covered.</div><div class="q1"> 8Blessed is the one</div><div class="q2">whose sin the Lord will never count against them.&#8221;#4:8 Psalm 32:1,2</div><div class="p"> 9Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham&#8217;s faith was credited to him as righteousness. 10Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! 11And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 12And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.</div><div class="p"> 13It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, 15because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.</div><div class="p"> 16Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham&#8217;s offspring&#8212;not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17As it is written: &#8220;I have made you a father of many nations.&#8221;#4:17 Gen. 17:5 He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed&#8212;the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.</div><div class="p"> 18Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, &#8220;So shall your offspring be.&#8221;#4:18 Gen. 15:5 19Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead&#8212;since he was about a hundred years old&#8212;and that Sarah&#8217;s womb was also dead. 20Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22This is why &#8220;it was credited to him as righteousness.&#8221; 23The words &#8220;it was credited to him&#8221; were written not for him alone, 24but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness&#8212;for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.</div>
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 <div class="label">32</div><div class="s1">Jacob Prepares to Meet Esau</div><div class="p"> # In Hebrew texts 32:1-32 is numbered 32:2-33. 1Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2When Jacob saw them, he said, &#8220;This is the camp of God!&#8221; So he named that place Mahanaim.#32:2 Mahanaim means two camps.</div><div class="p"> 3Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. 4He instructed them: &#8220;This is what you are to say to my lord Esau: &#8216;Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now. 5I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 6When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, &#8220;We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 7In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups,#32:7 Or camps and the flocks and herds and camels as well. 8He thought, &#8220;If Esau comes and attacks one group,#32:8 Or camp the group#32:8 Or camp that is left may escape.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 9Then Jacob prayed, &#8220;O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, &#8216;Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,&#8217; 10I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. 11Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. 12But you have said, &#8216;I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 13He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau: 14two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, &#8220;Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 17He instructed the one in the lead: &#8220;When my brother Esau meets you and asks, &#8216;Who do you belong to, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?&#8217; 18then you are to say, &#8216;They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 19He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds: &#8220;You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. 20And be sure to say, &#8216;Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221; For he thought, &#8220;I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.&#8221; 21So Jacob&#8217;s gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.</div><div class="s1">Jacob Wrestles With God</div><div class="p"> 22That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob&#8217;s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26Then the man said, &#8220;Let me go, for it is daybreak.&#8221;</div><div class="p">But Jacob replied, &#8220;I will not let you go unless you bless me.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 27The man asked him, &#8220;What is your name?&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;Jacob,&#8221; he answered.</div><div class="p"> 28Then the man said, &#8220;Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel,#32:28 Israel probably means he struggles with God. because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 29Jacob said, &#8220;Please tell me your name.&#8221;</div><div class="p">But he replied, &#8220;Why do you ask my name?&#8221; Then he blessed him there.</div><div class="p"> 30So Jacob called the place Peniel,#32:30 Peniel means face of God. saying, &#8220;It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 31The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel,#32:31 Hebrew Penuel, a variant of Peniel and he was limping because of his hip. 32Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob&#8217;s hip was touched near the tendon.</div>
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