My Salvation!
November 2017 — Grace & Truth Magazine
My Salvation!
“And, having dismissed them, He departed into the mountain to pray.” —Mark 6:46 JND
The disciples had begged the Lord Jesus to send a surrounding multitude away (v.36). But the Lord, being moved with compassion (v.34), had other plans for this crowd of people. They needed shepherd care; He wanted to feed them. The multitude was so impressed by the miracle of the five loaves and the two fishes that they would at once have made him King (Jn. 6:15). But our blessed Lord knew the heart of the people. There was no true acknowledgement by them that He was the Sent One, and He knew that one day a crowd in Jerusalem would hail Him (Mk. 11:9-10), only to show their real attitude one week later in shouting out, “Crucify Him” (15:14). The Lord knew their hearts as He does ours.
He sent the people away, not to get rid of them but to commune with His Father on their behalf. He had come to do His Father’s will – a will that desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4). Here at the mountainside He prayed and spoke to His Father because He felt the reality of the heart of the multitude.
The book of Isaiah gives so beautifully the feelings of the Lord, expressed when He communed with the One who had sent Him, “And I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent My strength for nought, and in vain: nevertheless My judgment is with Jehovah [the Lord], and My work with My God” (Isa. 49:4). The perfect Servant committed the situation to Jehovah. One day He would in perfect submission lay down His life, not only to restore His people of old but to be a Light to the nations and hear His Father say, “that Thou mayest be My salvation unto the end of the earth” (v.6)!
“I will sacrifice unto Thee with the voice of thanksgiving ... Salvation is of Jehovah.” —Jonah 2:9
By Klaas Rot