Mark 9:18 Study Bible: and wherever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth, and wastes away. I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they weren't able."

◄ Mark 9:18 ►

Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked Your disciples to drive it out, but they were unable."

Study Bible

Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground.

This phrase describes the violent nature of the demonic possession affecting the boy. The term "seizes" indicates a sudden and forceful attack, suggesting the demon's control over the boy's physical body. This reflects the spiritual warfare theme prevalent in the Gospels, where Jesus confronts and overcomes demonic forces. The act of being thrown to the ground signifies the destructive intent of the demon, highlighting the severity of the boy's condition and the need for divine intervention.

Luk 8:29 For Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out…
Luk 4:35 But Jesus rebuked the demon. “Be silent!” He said.…
Mat 17:15 “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures…

He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid.

These symptoms are indicative of a severe physical and spiritual affliction. Foaming at the mouth and gnashing of teeth are often associated with epilepsy, but in this context, they are attributed to demonic influence. The rigidity of the boy's body suggests a loss of control, emphasizing the demon's power over him. This description underscores the helplessness of the afflicted and the necessity of Jesus' authority to bring healing and deliverance.

Luk 9:39 A spirit keeps seizing him, and he screams abruptly.…
Act 7:54 On hearing this, the members of the Sanhedrin were enraged,…
1Sa 25:37 In the morning when Nabal was sober, his wife told him…

I asked Your disciples to drive it out, but they were unable.”

The disciples' inability to cast out the demon highlights their lack of faith and understanding at this point in their ministry. This moment serves as a teaching opportunity for Jesus to emphasize the importance of faith and prayer in spiritual warfare. It also foreshadows the greater empowerment the disciples will receive after Jesus' resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This failure contrasts with Jesus' authority and power, reinforcing His unique role as the Son of God who has dominion over all spiritual forces.

Luk 9:40 I begged Your disciples to drive it out…
Mat 17:16 I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not heal…

Persons / Places / Events

1. Jesus
- The central figure in the Gospel of Mark, who is approached by a desperate father seeking healing for his son.

2. The Father
- A man who brings his demon-possessed son to Jesus after the disciples fail to heal him.

3. The Son
- A boy suffering from a severe condition caused by an unclean spirit, manifesting in seizures and physical distress.

4. The Disciples
- Followers of Jesus who were unable to cast out the demon from the boy, highlighting their lack of faith or understanding at that moment.

5. The Crowd
- A group of onlookers witnessing the interaction between Jesus, the father, and the disciples, representing the public's interest in Jesus' ministry.

Teaching Points

The Power of Faith
This passage underscores the necessity of faith in overcoming spiritual challenges. The disciples' inability to cast out the demon serves as a reminder that faith is crucial in spiritual warfare.

Jesus' Authority
Jesus demonstrates His supreme authority over evil spirits, reinforcing the belief in His divine power and the importance of relying on Him in times of need.

The Role of Prayer
The disciples' failure points to the need for prayer and dependence on God. In subsequent verses, Jesus explains that some spiritual battles require prayer, highlighting its importance in the life of a believer.

Compassion and Desperation
The father's plea to Jesus reflects a heart of desperation and faith. Believers are encouraged to bring their burdens to Jesus, trusting in His compassion and ability to intervene.

Bible Study Questions

1. What does the father's approach to Jesus teach us about how we should bring our concerns and struggles to God?

2. How does this passage challenge us to examine the strength and focus of our faith in difficult situations?

3. In what ways can we apply the lesson of the disciples' failure to our own spiritual lives, particularly in areas where we feel powerless?

4. How does understanding Jesus' authority over evil spirits impact our view of spiritual warfare today?

5. Reflect on a time when prayer played a crucial role in overcoming a challenge in your life. How can this passage encourage you to deepen your prayer life?

Connections to Other Scriptures

Matthew 17:14-20
This parallel account provides additional details about the disciples' inability to cast out the demon and Jesus' teaching on faith as small as a mustard seed.

Luke 9:37-43
Another parallel passage that emphasizes Jesus' authority over unclean spirits and the importance of faith.

James 5:15
Discusses the prayer of faith and its power to heal, connecting to the theme of faith in Mark 9:18.

Ephesians 6:12
Highlights the spiritual battle against evil forces, relevant to the struggle against the unclean spirit in the boy.

Sermons

Glimpses of the Glory of Jesus	E. Johnson	Mark 9:2-18
The Healing of the Lunatic Youth	R. Green	Mark 9:14-28
Healing of a Demoniac Youth, After the Disciples' Failure	J.J. Given	Mark 9:14-29
Sinful Men May be Looked Upon as Possessed of the Devil	C. S. Robinson, D. D.	Mark 9:14-29
The Afflicted Child	G. R. Leavitt.	Mark 9:14-29
The Afflicted Son	B. L.	Mark 9:14-29
The Cure of the Demoniac Child	A.F. Muir	Mark 9:14-29
The Demoniac	E. Johnson	Mark 9:14-29
The Disciples Nonplussed	C. H. Spurgeon.	Mark 9:14-29
The Dumb Man Possessed with a Devil	L. H. Wiseman, M. A., Joseph Taylor.	Mark 9:14-29
The Evil Spirit Cast Out	Anon.	Mark 9:14-29
The Secret of Power	R. Glover.	Mark 9:14-29

People

Elias, Elijah, James, Jesus, John, Peter

Places

Caesarea Philippi, Capernaum, Galilee, High Mountain

Topics

Able, Becomes, Begged, Cast, Dashes, Dasheth, Disciples, Drive, Expel, Foameth, Foams, Gnashes, Gnasheth, Goes, Grindeth, Grinds, Ground, Lips, Mouth, Pain, Pineth, Pining, Power, Puts, Request, Rigid, Seize, Seizes, Slams, Spake, Spirit, Spoke, Stiffens, Streaming, Strength, Takes, Taketh, Tear, Teareth, Tears, Teeth, Throws, Twisted, Violently, Wastes, Weren't, Whenever, Wheresoever, Wherever, Withering

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Mark 9:18

     4160   driving out
     5132   biting
     5189   teeth

Mark 9:14-27

5658 boys

Mark 9:14-29

5168 muteness
8611 prayer, for others

Mark 9:17-18

     4133   demons, possession by
     5297   disease
     5354   invasions
     5686   fathers, examples

Mark 9:17-19

8744 faithlessness, as disobedience

Mark 9:17-27

     4132   demons, malevolence
     5333   healing
     5669   children, examples

Library

February 2 Evening
One star differeth from another star in glory.--I COR. 15:41. By the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest. And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all.--Be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

Christ's Lament Over Our Faithlessness
'He answereth him and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?'--Mark ix. 19. There is a very evident, and, I think, intentional contrast between the two scenes, of the Transfiguration, and of this healing of the maniac boy. And in nothing is the contrast more marked than in the demeanour of these enfeebled and unbelieving Apostles, as contrasted with the rapture of devotion of the other three, and with the lowly submission and faith of Moses and Elias. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Omnipotence of Faith
Jesus said unto him, If them canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.'--Mark ix. 23. The necessity and power of faith is the prominent lesson of this narrative of the healing of a demoniac boy, especially as it is told by the Evangelist Mark, The lesson is enforced by the actions of all the persons in the group, except the central figure, Christ. The disciples could not cast out the demon, and incur Christ's plaintive rebuke, which is quite as much sorrow as blame: 'O faithless …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Unbelieving Belief
'And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.'--Mark ix. 24. We owe to Mark's Gospel the fullest account of the pathetic incident of the healing of the demoniac boy. He alone gives us this part of the conversation between our Lord and the afflicted child's father. The poor man had brought his child to the disciples, and found them unable to do anything with him. A torrent of appeal breaks from his lips as soon as the Lord gives …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

An Unanswered Question
'What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way?'--Mark ix. 33. Was it not a strange time to squabble when they had just been told of His death? Note-- I. The variations of feeling common to the disciples and to us all: one moment 'exceeding sorrowful,' the next fighting for precedence. II. Christ's divine insight into His servants' faults. This question was put because He knew what the wrangle had been about. The disputants did not answer, but He knew without an answer, as His immediately …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Salted with Fire
Every one shall be salted with fire.'--Mark ix. 49. Our Lord has just been uttering some of the most solemn words that ever came from His gracious lips. He has been enjoining the severest self-suppression, extending even to mutilation and excision of the eye, the hand, or the foot, that might cause us to stumble. He has been giving that sharp lesson on the ground of plain common sense and enlightened self-regard. It is better, obviously, to live maimed than to die whole. The man who elects to …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Salt in Yourselves'
'Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.'--Mark ix. 50. In the context 'salt' is employed to express the preserving, purifying, divine energy which is otherwise spoken of as 'fire.' The two emblems produce the same result. They both salt--that is, they cleanse and keep. And if in the one we recognise the quick energy of the Divine Spirit as the central idea, no less are we to see the same typified under a slightly different aspect in the other. The fire transforms into its own substance …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'This is My Beloved Son: Hear Him'
'And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son: hear Him.'--Mark ix. 7. With regard to the first part of these words spoken at the Transfiguration, they open far too large and wonderful a subject for me to do more than just touch with the tip of my finger, as it were, in passing, because the utterance of the divine words, 'This is My beloved Son,' in all the depth of their meaning and loftiness, is laid as the foundation of the two …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Jesus Only!
'They saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves.'--Mark ix. 8. The Transfiguration was the solemn inauguration of Jesus for His sufferings and death. Moses, the founder, and Elijah, the restorer, of the Jewish polity, the great Lawgiver and the great Prophet, were present. The former had died and been mysteriously buried, the latter had been translated without 'seeing death.' So both are visitors from the unseen world, appearing to own that Jesus is the Lord of that dim land, and that …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Transfiguration
'And after six days Jesus taketh with Him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and He was transfigured before them. 3. And His raimemt became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them. 4. And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus. 5. And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for Thee, and one for Moses, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Receiving and Forbidding
'And He came to Capernaum: and being in the house He asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? 34. But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest. 35. And He sat down, and called the Twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all. 36. And He took a child, and set him in the midst of them: and when He had taken him in His arms, He said unto them, 37. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

July the Ninth Scholars in Christ's School
"He taught His disciples." --MARK ix. 30-37. And my Lord will teach me. He will lead me into "the deep things" of God. There is only one school for this sort of learning, and an old saint called it the Academy of Love, and it meets in Gethsemane and Calvary, and the Lord Himself is the teacher, and there is room in the school for thee and me. But the disciples were not in the mood for learning. They were not ambitious for heavenly knowledge, but for carnal prizes, not for wisdom, but for place. …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

The Lenten Fast.
"This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer."--ST. MARK ix. 29. You remember the narrative from which I have taken this verse. Jesus, as we read, had just come down from the Mount of Transfiguration, and when He was come to the multitude, a certain man besought him saying, "Have mercy on my son, for he is lunatic and sore vexed, and I brought him to Thy disciples, but they could not cure him." Then Jesus rebuked the devil, and the child was cured from that hour. Thereupon His disciples …
John Percival—Sermons at Rugby

The Child in the Midst.
"And He took a child and set Him in the midst of them: and when He had taken him in His arms, He said unto them, Whosoever shall receive one of such children in My name, receiveth Me: and whosoever shall receive Me, receiveth not Me, but Him that sent Me."--ST. MARK ix. 36, 37. It is one of the characteristics of our time, one of its most hopeful and most encouraging signs, that men are awaking to higher and purer conceptions of the Christian life and what it is that constitutes such a life. We …
John Percival—Sermons at Rugby

Of Hell
"Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." Mark 9:48. 1. Every truth which is revealed in the oracles of God is undoubtedly of great importance. Yet it may be allowed that some of those which are revealed therein are of greater importance than others, as being more immediately conducive to the grand end of all, the eternal salvation of men. And we may judge of their importance even from this circumstance, -- that they are not mentioned once only in the sacred writings, but are repeated …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

A Caution against Bigotry
"And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in Thy name: and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us. But Jesus said, Forbid him not." Mark 9:38, 39. 1. In the preceding verses we read, that after the Twelve had been disputing "which of them should be the greatest," Jesus took a little child, and set him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, said unto them, "Whosoever shall receive one of these little children in My name, receiveth …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

Faith's Dawn and Its Clouds
In the text there are three things very clearly. Here is true faith; here is grievous unbelief; here is a battle between the two. I. Very clearly in the text there is TRUE FAITH. "Lord, I believe," says the anxious father. When our Lord tells him that, if he can believe, all things are possible to him, he makes no demur, asks for no pause, wishes to hear no more evidence, but cries at once, "Lord, I believe." Now, observe we have called this faith true faith, and we will prove it to have been so. …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 18: 1872

The Child in the Midst.
And he came to Capernaum: and, being in the house, he asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves who should be the greatest. And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all. And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them: and when he had taken him in his arms, he said unto them, Whosoever shall …
George MacDonald—Unspoken Sermons

Absolute Surrender
"And Ben-hadad the king of Syria gathered all his host together: and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses, and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and warred against it. And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel into the city, and said unto him, Thus saith Ben-hadad, Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine. And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine and all that …
Andrew Murray—Absolute Surrender

Thoughts Upon Striving to Enter at the Strait Gate.
AS certainly as we are here now, it is not long but we shall all be in another World, either in a World of Happiness, or else in a World of Misery, or if you will, either in Heaven or in Hell. For these are the two only places which all Mankind from the beginning of the World to the end of it, must live in for evermore, some in the one, some in the other, according to their carriage and behaviour here; and therefore it is worth the while to take a view and prospect now and then of both these places, …
William Beveridge—Private Thoughts Upon a Christian Life

The Three Tabernacles
And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. MARK ix. 5. Caught up in glory and in rapture, the Apostle seems to have forgotten the world from which he had ascended, and to which he still belonged, and to have craved permanent shelter and extatic communion within the mystic splendors that brightened the Mount of Transfiguration. But it was true, not only as to the confusion of his …
E. H. Chapin—The Crown of Thorns

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