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Lesson OneServant of God, Servant of All (Mark 2–7)18 Activities2 Assessments
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Lesson TwoGood News and the Son of God (Mark 1, 8–9, 11–12, 15, 16:1–8)14 Activities
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Lesson ThreeSecond Exodus (Isa 40–41, 61, Jer 31)15 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson FourProphet and Son of Man (Deut 18:18, Dan 7:13–14, Mark 10, 13–14)14 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson FiveAuthor and Audience14 Activities1 Assessment
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Course Wrap-UpCourse Completion1 Activity1 Assessment
Participants 28
In | Workbook: Old Testament Background to Exorcism in Mark 5
Grab your Workbook Journal!
[Record your answers in the workbook provided at the beginning of this course.]
The story in Mark 5 of Jesus’ exorcism of a demon-possessed man recalls the passage in Isaiah where God criticizes Israel as a people who “defied me on the hills,” and:
who sit among the graves
and spend their nights keeping secret vigil;
who eat the flesh of pigs
The reference to “keeping secret vigil” can be interpreted as meaning “living in the tombs,” as it is in the King James Version, and the rest of the passion has obvious allusions to the exorcism story. But the most compelling parallel to this NT passage may be in Exodus, where the Israelites are delivered as the demon-possessed man is delivered in Mark.
| Mark 5:1-20 | Ex 14:1–15:22 LXX and Related Passages |
| They came to the other side of the sea. (5:1) | Israelites pass through the sea. (14:22) |
| No one had been able to tie him up; no one had the power to subdue him. (5:3-4) | The power of Pharaoh is destroyed; the power of God is glorified. (14:28; 15:4; 15:6, 13) |
| “Son of the Most High God” (5:7) | “This is my father’s God…and I will exalt him.” (15:2) |
| The pigs…choked to death in the sea. (5:13) | The Egyptians are drowned. (14:28-30; 15:19) |
| Those who had been grazing the pigs ran away. (5:14) | The Egyptians ran away. (14:27) |
| And they were afraid…and they began to plead with him to go away. (5:15, 17) | The nations heard and shook. Trembling took hold of them. (15:14-16) |
| “Go…and announce … what great things the Lord has done for you.” (5:19) [He began to proclaim in the Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him. (5:20)] | Israel saw the great hand, the things that the Lord had done to the Egyptians. (14:31) [“For this reason I have kept you alive … in order that my name might be announced in all the earth.” (9:16)] |
Source: Joel Marcus, Mark 1–8: A new translation with introduction and commentary, 2000, p. 349.
Not only does the exorcism present Jesus as a greater Moses, it tells us something of the deliverance Jesus brings in the “Second Exodus.” Jesus came to deliver us from greater danger—from sin and evil. He came to heal our individual afflictions and struggles. Not even the most extreme problems, like demon possession, can withstand His sovereignty and power.
- From what kinds of inner afflictions do people you know need deliverance?
- In your workbook, reflect on how the deliverance the “Second Exodus” provides is greater than the deliverance provided by the first Exodus.