“He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto Me.” (Mark 9:19)
Jesus said this when His disciples couldn’t help the father with the son who had a dumb spirit. Jesus revealed that it was because of the disciples’ lack of faith that they couldn’t help the son. Later and privately the disciples ask Him why they couldn’t cast the dumb spirit out. “And He said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.” (Mark 9:29)
It's evident by what the father said that the son had a demon. We don’t know the age of the son, but know he was not a young child because the father tells Jesus that the son had been in that condition since he was a child. Because of the Gospels and incidents in Acts, we know that demons can indwell a person and cause them to do terrible acts. Jesus cast out many demons that were troubling people. But it’s curious that none of the epistles record any demons being cast out of people. I don’t think it was because demons were no longer indwelling and causing people to be sick and act crazy, but because the apostles were so focused on the Gospel, that these incidents were not recorded. There are many incidents that evangelists, missionaries and preachers tell that are clearly about someone who has been possessed with a demon. So that still occurs.
Jesus points out what the apostles lacked. One was faith and the other was prayer and fasting. Although the apostles spent all their time with Jesus, they didn’t have understanding of everything Jesus told them. When Jesus was crucified, they scattered and lost hope. They didn’t believe what Jesus had said about being resurrected from the dead. After His resurrection Jesus breathed on them the Holy Spirit. “Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:” (John 20:21-22) So we see that His disciples lacked faith and understanding throughout the Gospels.
Another lack was prayer and fasting. Jesus said that it takes prayer and fasting to cast out some kind of demons. (Mark 9:29) Prayer and fasting are two disciplines necessary in the believers’ life. The disciples were not disciplined in prayer. They were actually new believers without the Holy Spirit. When Jesus took them to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray before He got arrested, the disciples fell asleep and couldn’t stay up one hour to pray. (Matthew 26:36-46; Luke 22:39-46) If prayer was lacking, fasting is more so lacking as it takes more discipline to fast. Prayer is very evident in their lives after Jesus ascends to heaven. “Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey. And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.” (Acts 1:12-14) John, Peter and later Paul write about praying and prayer in their epistles.
The last phrase Jesus speaks in Mark 9:19 is “...bring him unto Me.” When all human effort is exhausted, Jesus says “...bring him unto Me.” Unfortunately, this describes our lives. When we are sick, we immediately taken medication and/or go to the doctor (not saying we shouldn’t go to the doctor, but he should not be the one we turn to first.) When our finances are in ruin, we take out a loan. When our children are incorrigible, we run to the teachers or psychologists to ask them for advice. When our husbands or wives are unfaithful, we run to our friends and family. When people do us wrong, depending on the gravity, we take vengeance, call the police or take them to court. And after we have exhausted all our human efforts, then we go to Jesus. We make Him our last resort, when in Truth, He is our only resort. Near the end of his life, David wrote Psalm 71. It’s his prayer for help in his old age. Since his youth, David depended on the Lord. His first resource was the Lord. And in his old age, he still turns to the Lord for his help. The Lord is our only hope in any trouble or difficulty. Jesus is still saying, “...bring him unto Me.” We can go to Him first. And He will give us what we need.
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