READING: Numbers 23-25, Mark 7:14-37
“And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.”
Mark 7:35
I love the way Jesus loves us. The story of the gospel is that He came to the earth and died for us while we were still caught in our sin. Then, He came to us individually to call us to Him. He called the fishermen to leave their boats behind and become fishers of men (Mark 1:16-17). He required Nicodemus, the Jew dependent on his first birth for salvation, to be born again from above (John 3:2). He offered living water to a woman seeking water to quench her thirst (John 4:1-26). Most of us could speak of the unique way He brought the gospel to each of us and saved us.
The graciousness of Jesus is evident in today’s story of His healing a man who “was deaf and had a speech impediment” (Mark 7:32). The man could not have heard Jesus speak words of healing, so Jesus took steps to help him know what He intended to do. First, He put His fingers into his ears, as if to say via His own sign language, “I plan to do something for your ears.” Then, He spit and touched the man’s tongue, again showing him that He intended to take care of this problem. Seeking the Father with great emotion, and intending to show the man that God was the healer, Jesus looked into heaven and prayed for the man’s ears to be opened. Not surprisingly, “his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly” (Mark 7:35).
Putting His fingers in the ears, touching the tongue, and looking into heaven were Jesus’ ways of communicating with a man who could not hear or speak well. Jesus, like He always did, reached down to where the man was, communicated in a way he would likely have understood, and drew him to Himself. That’s a great word to all of us who cannot reach up to God.
Like always, Jesus does all things well.
ACTION STEPS:
- Thank God for coming to you when you could not get to Him.
- Pray by name for someone you want God to reach today.
PRAYER: “Father, thank You for reaching me where I was when You saved me. You’re a great God.”
TOMORROW'S READING: Numbers 26-28, Mark 8