“And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, ‘Who can this
be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!’”
As someone who lives and travels on a sailboat to places to
serve God, this passage hits home. Jesus
finished teaching by the sea and then told His disciples ‘let us cross over to
the other side.’ The other side was
where Jesus was to meet the demon possessed man in the country of the Gadarenes. Remember, Jesus was combating Satan’s
emissaries everywhere He went, and was victorious in every skirmish. Now Jesus is heading to a place where Satan
gained a stronghold on the community by investing several troops into the body
of one man. A legion in the Roman army was a
body of soldiers whose number differed at different times, and in the time of
Augustus seems to have consisted of 6,826 men (i.e. 6100 foot soldiers, and 726
horsemen). We do not know the number of
devils in this poor man, but by the description they gave of themselves, we
know that they are: military in nature,
numerous, unanimous (unlike how the Pharisees tried to argue that Jesus drove
out Satan with Satan), powerful, and that there is order among them. They are Satan’s troops, and they are at
risk. Satan employs the wind to stop the
advance of his enemy.
How do you know the wind is working for Satan? Because Jesus rebukes it. A rebuke is what anything or anyone in
creation can expect from Jesus if they do Satan’s bidding. But let us back up.
Jesus had given a command to go to the other
side. When Jesus gives a command to do
His work, is there any reason to believe that He will not make a way for you to
do the work? At the same time, is there
any reason to think that it should all be easy?
We can speak from experience that it will be difficult. We pray that God will put a desire on our
hearts to go where He leads. When He
directs us to a place, we wait until the weather forecast gives us a safe and
comfortable passage. Yet there are times
when the very forecast we got two hours earlier turns out to be completely
wrong. What we thought would be
favorable turns out to be quite difficult, hard on us and hard on the
boat. Now, when that happens, we often
turn to each other and say ‘there is someone at the place we are going that is
seeking the truth!’ I have to admit, I
have asked Jesus to calm the waters and they have not calmed. What does calm is my heart, and my resolve is
strengthened that we are about to approach a stronghold of Satan’s. We are at war, and the enemy does not
want to give up ground.
In this storm, the disciples sound angry or at least
disappointed in Jesus. “Teacher, do You
not care that we are perishing?” (Mark
4:38b) Jesus gets up and calms the wind
and sea. Then two things happen. First, Jesus asks the disciples why they are
fearful and how it is that they have no faith.
Jesus said they would go to the other side. If they believed him, they would have no
fear. Did they have not faith that Jesus
cared? Did they have no faith in the
overall mission? These are questions we
might ask ourselves when we are doing the work of the Lord and fear creeps in.
The Greek word fearful used here, deilos, according to
Strong’s (1169), means timid and is similar to the Greek word deilia, according
to Strong’s (1167), which means cowardice, timidity. Deilia is used in the scripture that tells us
that sort of cowardice and timidity is not of God. “For
God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound
mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7)
Secondly, and very interesting, we are told that the
disciples now ‘feared exceedingly.’ Previously,
they were fearful for their lives because of the weather. Now they no longer feared for their lives,
but instead had fear exceedingly. They
had just witnessed the authority of their Teacher to command creation. They thought they understood who Jesus was,
but this was beyond any experience so far.
The Greek word for feared in verse 41 is phobeo, according
to Strong’s (5399), and includes to be struck with fear, to be seized with
alarm: (a) of those startled by strange sights or occurrences, (b) of those
struck with amazement. That fear in this
verse is modified by the word ‘exceedingly,’ which in the Greek is phobo,
according to Strong’s (5401), which means that which strikes terror. The disciples are getting a new revelation of
Jesus Christ, and it is awesomely terrifying.
The disciples’ respect and reverence for Jesus was reaching new
heights. They stand amazed. You can almost see their faith grow as their
knees shake.
Brothers and sisters, if you are serving God, you will
encounter the enemy. We encourage you to
keep up your faith. If timidity or
cowardice creeps in, remember Who has the real authority. We serve an awesome God whose power is terrifying. Soldier on, and remember, we already know Who
wins this war.
May you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ.
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