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The prophecy predicted that ”My Beloved” would be pleasing to God the Father. The Beloved was and is Jesus. Jesus was to be filled with the Holy Spirit during His ministry, and this has been true (Luke 3:22; 4;1; 4:18). He would not fight for Himself, and even the Gentiles would follow Him - a Jew. This was a remarkable prophecy. Both Jews and Gentiles would seek Jesus. The prophecy was correct.
According to Mark, so many people came that Jesus was crowded. They were trying to touch Him since even a touch could result in healing and relief from demonic possession. Imagine thousands of people trying to get to Jesus. The people were probably pushing and squeezing between one another in order to get to Him.
And He told His disciples that a boat should stand ready for Him because of the crowd, so that they would not crowd Him; for He had healed many, with the result that all those who had afflictions pressed around Him in order to touch Him. Whenever the unclean spirits saw Him, they would fall down before Him and shout, “You are the Son of God!” And He earnestly warned them not to tell who He was. (NASB) Mark 3:9-12 Therefore, Jesus decided to escape. What a picture! A massive crowd of needy people following a divine Savior! A massive crowd trying to get to Him.
Night of Prayer. The crowd believed in Him and so did His disciples. We do not know how many disciples were following Jesus at this time, but there were many more than the twelve, as we will soon discover. Luke tells us that Jesus left the people and went up onto a high hill or mountain to pray.
It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God. (NASB) Luke 6:12 The Greek word which is translated as mountain can also mean “high hill.” We will discover in our next study that this mountain or high hill is the place where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount. The traditional site of the Sermon on the Mount is believed to be Mt. Eremos. It is located near Capernaum just above the “Cove of the Sower.” The hillside can accommodate thousands of people. For example, in 2000 A.D., the hillside was prepared for 100,000 Catholics to observe mass with the pope. This demonstrates that this location would have been a great place for Jesus to have preached to many thousands of visitors and disciples.
What did He pray about when He reached the top of that high hill? While we do not know everything that He prayed about, the gospel of John appears to reveal part of the answer.
You did not choose Me but I chose you . . . (NASB) John 15:16 |
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| Life & Heart of Jesus | |||||
