{"id":4501,"date":"2024-02-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-17T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/reading-plan\/february-17\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T08:07:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T13:07:21","slug":"february-17","status":"publish","type":"reading-plan","link":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/reading-plan\/february-17\/","title":{"rendered":"February 17"},"content":{"rendered":"

Insight from Mark 6:1\u201329<\/span><\/p>\n

The death of John the Baptist does not, at first glance, seem to fit with the parable of the growing mustard seed (Mark 4:30-32), for, with the beheading of John, the kingdom of God appears to be losing to the powers of darkness. John the Baptist is a holy man, yet he is killed by a wicked man. How does this demonstrate growth in the kingdom of God?<\/span><\/p>\n

We must remember that the same thing happened to many of the prophets in the Old Testament and to our Lord and to almost all of the Apostles and to countless others. It is happening today. How do we, as followers of Christ, continue in faith when we see innumerable \u201cdefeats\u201d like this? We must remember that these \u201cdefeats\u201d are not actually defeats. They are victories. When the saints suffer and die, they are demonstrating that they love God more than they love their own lives. The first Adam would not stand against Satan. He would not lay down his life for the sake of his God and King. He would not defend God\u2019s place against Satan and his lies. Adam was to \u201ckeep\u201d the garden (see Genesis 2:15). This means he should have kept evil from it. He did not do this. He loved his life too much to lay it down for the glory of God. The followers of Christ, however, do lay down their lives for the glory of God and for the honor of Christ. That is exactly what John the Baptist is doing in this chapter. He knows that calling Herod to repent of his sin is dangerous, yet he doesn\u2019t give in to fear. He trusts in God, knowing that he will not be put to shame on the last day.<\/span><\/p>\n

The saints (even the Old Testament saints) conquer Satan because of the victory Jesus won on the cross and because of their faith in Christ: \u201cAnd they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death\u201d (Revelation 12:11).<\/span><\/p>\n

It is helpful to consider how Jesus continued when he saw and experienced defeats like this. He did not quit. Instead, even in the midst of great pain (as the perfect man, we must know that the death of this saint deeply saddened Jesus), he continued \u201cfor the joy that was set before him\u201d (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus did not, at this time, save John\u2019s life. But we need to remember, he ultimately did save John\u2019s life (in the same way that he saves the lives of all those who trust in him). He did this when he died on the cross. Jesus didn\u2019t, at least in Mark 6, prevent the injustice against John. He did something greater. He went to the cross so that all injustice might forever be defeated.<\/span><\/p>\n

The death of John the Baptist indicates that his role as a \u201cmessenger\u201d of Christ has been fulfilled. He has announced Christ\u2019s coming, and has served his purpose. However, his ministry continued to influence people in the first century (see Acts 18:25 and Acts 19:3-4). It also continues to impact people today! The suffering and death of a saint is never wasted!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_crdt_document":""},"class_list":["post-4501","reading-plan","type-reading-plan","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reading-plan\/4501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reading-plan"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/reading-plan"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}