For over nine years I was with a ministry that stressed the truth of Mark 3:14, I have never recovered. I firmly believe that in order to best help someone with their walk with God you have to be with them, life to life.
In Mark 3:14 Jesus continues and expands His habit of withdrawing from the masses and essentially doubles down by selecting 12 men into which He will pour His life. He has come to announce the Kingdom of God. He has come to establish a new entity that will be a joining of Jews and Gentiles into a Body to which He will return when it is time to have the kingdom fully present. To do that He focuses His attention on 12 men one of whom He knows will betray Him.
Mark states that the reason was so that they would be “with Him, and that He could send them out to proclaim (my translation, preach is overused for that Greek word).
Now consider the passage I mentioned yesterday, Deuteronomy 17:14 – 20. The King of Israel is to make a handwritten copy of the Law and he is to keep it “with him”. In the Septuagint, the Greek version of the OT, the Greek, with him, is the same as in Mark 3:14. Is this significant? It seems to be.
The Israeli king is to lead the kingdom, to do so in the way his Lord intended. In order to do so he needed to be intimately acquainted with whom he was to represent, he needed to know and fear his Lord. To do that he needed constant exposure to the Word, Law, of his Lord.
The twelve were the foundation stones of the Church. They were the initial leaders, movers, and shakers of that Body. As such they needed to be intimately acquainted with whom they were to represent. They needed to be intimately exposed to His life; and they were for three years.
Do you see the parallel? To know God, to be prepared to lead, one must be really close to God, to know Him well. We can no longer walk with Jesus physically as the 12. But we have more than the Law. We have the prophets, the writings, the Gospels, the Epistles, and Revelation.
We must as the king, be with Him in His Word, daily. That is our chief source of knowing Him well…
Mark states that the reason was so that they would be “with Him, and that He could send them out to proclaim (my translation, preach is overused for that Greek word).
Now consider the passage I mentioned yesterday, Deuteronomy 17:14 – 20. The King of Israel is to make a handwritten copy of the Law and he is to keep it “with him”. In the Septuagint, the Greek version of the OT, the Greek, with him, is the same as in Mark 3:14. Is this significant? It seems to be.
The Israeli king is to lead the kingdom, to do so in the way his Lord intended. In order to do so he needed to be intimately acquainted with whom he was to represent, he needed to know and fear his Lord. To do that he needed constant exposure to the Word, Law, of his Lord.
The twelve were the foundation stones of the Church. They were the initial leaders, movers, and shakers of that Body. As such they needed to be intimately acquainted with whom they were to represent. They needed to be intimately exposed to His life; and they were for three years.
Do you see the parallel? To know God, to be prepared to lead, one must be really close to God, to know Him well. We can no longer walk with Jesus physically as the 12. But we have more than the Law. We have the prophets, the writings, the Gospels, the Epistles, and Revelation.
We must as the king, be with Him in His Word, daily. That is our chief source of knowing Him well…
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