Committed unto the sea

In Mark 4 Jesus and His disciples get into a boat and cross to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

“Go back and read Psalm 89, Psalm 107, Psalm 67, and you’ll see that only Jehovah, the Creator, can calm the raging sea,” explains Jordan. “Jesus demonstrates Himself to be the Jehovah God of the Old Testament by standing and ordering creation to cease the rages and that lake turned into the face of a mirror; totally calm.

“He says to His disciples, ‘Why are you so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?’ There’s their problem. ‘Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.’

“Look what they forgot in verse 35: ‘And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.’

“Where’d He tell them they were going when they got into the boat? To the other side. They get out in the middle of a storm-tossed sea and they’re jumping up and down, yelling at Jesus, ‘What are you doing asleep?! Don’t you care?! We’re fixing to drown!’

“Jesus gets up and says, ‘Peace, be still,’ and everything calms down. Then He says, ‘Don’t you dudes remember what I just told you? Have you forgotten that I told you we’re going to the other side?’

“He’s emphasizing the point, ‘If you drowned out here in the storm my word wouldn’t be true, so if you really understood what I told you and believed it, you know what you’d be doing? You’d be down here sleeping with me because I’m just resting ’til we get to the other side, because that’s where the Father told me we’re going.’

*****

“You ever hear that song, ‘Master, the tempest is raging! The billows are tossing high! The sky is o'ershadowed with blackness. No shelter or help is nigh.’

“They’re crying, ‘We’re dying, Lord, and you’re asleep! How can you sleep?! Carest thou not that we perish?!’

“What a stupid question, but they’re all caught up in their circumstances. He arises and does what only God can do, rebuking the wind and saying unto the sea, ‘Peace.’

“Only God can do that! Once again He demonstrates Himself to be the Messiah. Psalm 89 
said that’s exactly what Israel’s Messiah would do:

[8] O LORD God of hosts, who is a strong LORD like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round about thee?
[9] Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.

“You ever been that way in your life? The winds and the waves are beating; life’s coming over the transom and all of a sudden your ship is full of all kind of garbage?

“I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a storm in a boat where the stuff’s coming over, but it isn’t just water; it’s all the sludge from the sea that comes up.

“Here’s these disciples with the seaweed and the bushes hanging all over them and they’re looking at Jesus and He’s asleep.

“When Jesus says to them, ‘Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?’ I read that and think, ‘Wait a minute, what in the world is He talking about?

“Well, as Paul writes, ‘Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.’ So you 
look back up through the passage in Mark and ask, ‘What did He say to them that they aren’t believing?’

“Look back at verse 35: What do you think they’re going to do? You know why He’s asleep? They aren’t on the other side yet! You say, ‘They didn’t believe what He said to them.’

“My point to you is, God’s Word doesn’t calm the storms until you believe it! The power that’s in that Book stays in that Book until you believe it!

“And you can be just like the storm-tossed, frightened, confused, bewildered, upset, accusing . . .  Imagine saying to the Lord Jesus Christ, ‘Carest not that we perish?’

“What an accusation! He says, ‘Peace, be still.’ He does what He says He’s going to do. The Word of God is where the power of God resides.”

Here’s the lyrics to the classic hymn based on the account:

Master the tempest is raging. Master, the tempest is raging!

The billows are tossing high!

The sky is o'ershadow with blackness,

No shelter or help is nigh;

Carest Thou not that we perish?

How canst Thou lie asleep,

When each moment so madly is threatening

A grave in the angry deep?

Refrain

The winds and the waves shall obey Thy will,
Peace, be still!
Whether the wrath of the storm tossed sea,
Or demons or men, or whatever it be
No waters can swallow the ship where lies
The Master of ocean, and earth, and skies;
They all shall sweetly obey Thy will,
Peace, be still! Peace, be still!
They all shall sweetly obey Thy will,
Peace, peace, be still!

Master, with anguish of spirit

I bow in my grief today;

The depths of my sad heart are troubled

Oh, waken and save, I pray!

Torrents of sin and of anguish

Sweep o’er my sinking soul;

And I perish! I perish! dear Master

Oh, hasten, and take control.

Refrain

Master, the terror is over,

The elements sweetly rest;

Earth’s sun in the calm lake is mirrored,

And heaven’s within my breast;

Linger, O blessèd Redeemer!

Leave me alone no more;

And with joy I shall make the blest harbor,

And rest on the blissful shore.

(new article tomorrow)