Restoring Sight to the Blind - Part Two

 

---

LESSON

 

My oldest son Donald was born with crossed eyes, which later were corrected by an operation. And, after we had had a baby sitter from a Bible institute, we learned that there was a lot of discussion among the students at the Bible school as to what sin we had committed that caused God to have our baby born with crossed eyes.

 

But, you see, this is not God's way. Don't ever think it is. The minute you do, you make yourself into a dirty little, nasty little judge, trying to say, "Well, what did they do," instead of saying, "In the providence of God all things come to God's people." The most holy and saintly woman that has ever lived for God may have cancer. Or one of the finest men of God may in his old age, have softening of the brain and lose his reason. A child of the most godly people may be born as a mongoloid. So don't ever fall into the great error that the disciples did.

 

Jesus continued, "We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day; night comes when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world" (vv. 4-5). Now get this fact. Because Jesus left the world, He is no longer the Light of the world. I know we have a hymn that says, "The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin; the Light of the world is Jesus." This is not true, Jesus Christ, while He was in the world, was the Light of the world. When He went back to heaven, He left us to be the mirrors to reflect Him. Jesus said to His disciples, "You are the light of the world!" The reason things are so bad today is because we do not reflect that Light of the world.

 

While Jesus was speaking these words, He spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man's eyes with the clay, saying to him "Go wash in the pool of Siloam." (See vv. 6-7.)

 

The Pool of Siloam is mentioned three times in Scripture. (See Neh. 3:15; Isa. 8:6; John 9:7.) The present site of Birket Silwan, near the brook Kidron, is probably closest to the actual location of the Siloam of the past.

 

An oblong tank, partly hewn out of rock and partly built with masonry, the pool measured about 53 feet in length, 18 feet wide and 19 feet deep.

 

The adjacent Siloam tunnel was constructed in the eighth century B.C., by Hezekiah's engineers, who began at opposite ends and finally met a few feet apart in the center. The tunnel was to convey water, in the event of a siege, from Gihon to the Pool of Siloam.

 

Now Christ could have healed this man without this means. But He did it for a purpose. Perhaps He varied the manner of His miracles in order to show people that He was not bound to one way or another. When He made clay of His spittle and put it on the man's eyes there certainly was no healing power, no therapeutic value, in substance made out of spittle. No one else could have tried that. It had to be the spittle of Christ. It had to be the touch of Christ. It had to be the power of Christ that did this thing.

The Bible very simply tells what happened. "So he went and washed and came back seeing" (v. 7). People had become so accustomed to seeing him grope about in his blindness, they couldn't believe their eyes when he came along with sight.

 

Then, the Pharisees challenged him. Had Jesus merely spoken the word and healed him, there would have been no problem essentially. But "Jesus made clay" (v. 11) and this was work-on the Sabbath-and therefore, sin. These dirty, low down, religious leaders thought more of keeping the Sabbath than of healing a man who had been born blind.

 

---

STUDY QUESTIONS