GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 3:26
Internal Division
The Byzantine Empire began in 330 when Emperor Constantine officially dedicated Byzantium as Constantinople, making it the new capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. The Byzantine Empire lasted until 1453. Religious disputes, economic decline, and corruption within the Empire weakened to the point that the Ottoman warrior Sultan Mehmed II was able to invade the city after a two-month siege.
Following World War II, six republics were combined to form the state of Yugoslavia. In the 1980s, however, ethnic tensions, an economic crisis, nationalist movements, political instability, and a civil war led to the collapse of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s resulting in six independent republics.
Added to the list of nations that collapsed because of internal conflict are the Mughal Empire, the French Monarchy, the Russian Empire, and the Soviet Union, among others. In ancient history, the Egyptian Empire, the Babylonian Empire, and even Israel could be added to this list of empires that fell because of internal divisions. Jesus described the principle that internal weakness leads to decline and collapse when speaking to the teachers of the law, who accused him of casting out Satan by the power of Satan. He said, “And if Satan has arisen against himself and is divided, he is not able to stand, but he has an end.” (Mark 3:26) Undoubtedly, these scholars knew about the collapse of Egypt, Babylon, and Israel, but in their haste, they cobbled together a patently absurd criticism. If Satan is divided against himself, his end has come.
Jesus’ answer to his critics pointed out a principle that has proven true over and over: a message that should be taken to heart.
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