FAITH CAPSULE: Pay attention to distance and closed ones which represents crowd and multitude.

Mark 2:1-12

Crowd/multitude should not be one’s partner in expected end of journey. Crowd/multitude’s specialty is to delay, deny or discourage one to arrive at the expected end of journey.
A paralytic man expected healing at Jesus’ visitation at Capernaum. It is written, “…it was heard that He was in the house.  Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door.” (Mark 2:1-2) The paralytic man avoided crowd/multitude as recorded, “And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.” (Mark 2:4) Identify your crowd/multitude and not be denied from getting to expected end.
Crowd/multitude which the Israelites could not disengage denied and derailed the Israelites from getting to God’s Promised Land. At the time the Israelites started journey to God’s Promised Land, bible recorded, “Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children.  A mixed multitude went up with them…”  (Exodus 12:37-38) Mixed multitude became the baggage for the Israelites. A mixed-up multitude is unholy mix-up to deny and derail man from arriving at expected end.
At the time of Israelites’ departure, dangerous of carrying multitude was not glaring. The Israelites’ mixed multitude among them was the effect of negatively. It is written, “Now the mixed multitudes who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!” (Numbers 11:4-6) Crowd/multitude is an agent of evil to deny and derail journey. Are you one having crowd/multitude as baggage in your journey of life? Mixed multitude was a baggage for the Israelites provoking complaint against God.
God responded to the Israelites complaint as stated, “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me.  Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you:  The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above.  Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in.” (Numbers 14:27-30)
This year, it is not too late to avoid crowd/multitude as your partner. Pay attention to distance and closed ones which represents crowd and multitude.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to deny crowd/multitude in your journey of life.