It was springtime when Jesus lifted up His eyes and saw a great company coming to Him-five thousand it turns out. He said to Philip, "Whence shall we buy bread, that these men may eat?" (See John 6:5.) Now, of course, the Lord was on mission. It says in verse 6 that Jesus said this "to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do." The Lord had made the plan. He had ordered it as definitely as He orders the sunrise and the movements of the planets so that the eclipses come through at the appointed time. Jesus had worked all factors so that these thousands of men would come around the lake. He was there waiting to receive them because He had planned to do what He was going to do.
Well, the Bible is a window. The purpose of the Bible is that you may look through it and see Jesus Christ. Some people stop with the Bible. I will yield to no man in my belief in the Bible, in its divine origin, in the fact that it is divine, verbally inspired revelation. But I say that the Bible is not a thing to be analyzed, criticized, outlined and examined, just for it's own sake. That would be just like sitting in a room and writing a book about a window, without seeing the ocean with its waves curling up the beach or the way the lights and clouds play upon the water. The Bible is not an end in itself any more than a window is an end in itself. The window allows us to see the beauty which lies beyond. The Bible is the way to life in Jesus Christ.
The idea of Jesus Christ as judge finds its way frequently into the pages of Scripture. (See Acts 10:42; 17:31; Rom. 2:16; 2 Cor. 5:10; 2 Tim. 4:1.) The Apostle's Creed states "From thence (heaven) He shall come to judge the quick and the dead ..." Jesus reminded His listeners that God had seen fit to judge through the Person of His Son. (See v. 22.)
There was one difficulty in the healing of the invalid at Bethesda's pool: the work of mercy was performed on the Sabbath day! Jesus had purposely selected the Sabbath to heal the man, knowing full well the uproar it would cause.
After these things there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, withered"' John 5:1-3. Archeology has uncovered the ruins of a colonnade area that probably was the ancient pool. It was in the form of a trapezium-a four-sided area with no two sides exactly parallel.
