Lent Gospel: Adulteration – Day 17 – Mark 8:1-21

Lent Gospel is a campaign for people to read through the whole of Mark’s Gospel during Lent, in 40 short readings. Helpful notes on each day's reading are available from www.usefulbible.com/lent-gospel; and you can download the whole series in PDF or Kindle format (it's free - just right-click on the links then select ‘save as...’ to download). Of course, it doesn’t have to be for Lent... why not begin now?

 

 

Last part: Liberation – Day 16 – Mark 7:24-37

Adulteration – Day 17 – Mark 8:1-21

Adulteration

·       Read: Mark 8:1-21

Unscrupulous traders used to add sawdust to flour and water to milk. It’s called adulteration. Lower the quality, increase the profits.

During the Passover festival, Jews still bake their bread without yeast. They go to great lengths to ensure that there is no yeast in their homes that could get into their bread.

Jesus warned his disciples carefully. The God-given faith of the Bible was being adulterated.

Two groups were responsible. The Pharisees were trying to add tradition to the recipe. Herod and his supporters were trying to weaken the faith with liberal ideas taken from Greek and Roman philosophies.

But what God gave was pure. He had provided enough food to satisfy this crowd, as he had done before.

And what God gave was sufficient. God had done this miracle twice to show that he would always look after his people.

So the disciples did not need to worry about the shortage of bread. Instead, they should watch out for anything that might adulterate the things that God had supplied.

Next part: Confession – Day 18 – Mark 8:22-38

Index: Lent Gospel: Reading Mark's Gospel for Lent

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© 2012, Keith Simons.