SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/25/2016
10:40 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Miracle Performed, PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 5:1-9a
Message of
the verses: “1 After these things there was a feast of
the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the
sheep gate a pool, which is called in
Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. 3 In these lay a multitude of those who
were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [[waiting for the moving of the waters; 4
for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred
up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped
in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.]] 5 A man
was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying
there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said
to him, "Do you wish to get well?" 7 The sick man answered Him,
"Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up,
but while I am coming, another steps down before me." 8 Jesus said to him,
"Get up, pick up your pallet and walk." 9 Immediately the man became
well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk.”
According to John MacArthur’s view on this first
verse it is believed by him that Jesus’ ministry in Galilee had ended because
of the way that verse one is constructed with the words “after these things.” I certainly do not disagree with him on many
things, but the thought has come to me that if this was one of those feasts
that all men had to go to that it could have been in the middle of his ministry
in Galilee, for even if this is not correct on my part we do have to believe
that during those 16 months that Jesus ministered in Galilee He would have had
to go up to Jerusalem to three feasts required by the Lord to go to. At any rate John does not cover much of His
ministry in Galilee with the exception of the healing of the nobleman’s
son. Now as far as which feast this is
the only one that when we read “a feast of the Jews” that it is not identified,
or whatever reason. We also see
something that is often seen in the Word of God and that is that it is “up to
Jerusalem.” I believe there are a couple
of reasons for this and one of course is that Jerusalem is up on top of a hill,
but when you compare it with when someone went to Egypt then it is “down to
Egypt” so there is some spiritual qualities in these two statements. Now as far as men going to certain feasts let
us look at a couple of OT verses which show that all men were to go up to
Jerusalem for, that is Passover, Tabernacles, and Pentecost or Weeks. “"Three times in a year all your males
shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, at the
Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths,
and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed (Deut. 16:16).”
Now as I was listening to MacArthur’s two sermons on
this section he mentioned that I want to write about and that is John’s description
of where Jesus performed this miracle: “there
is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda,
having five porticoes” or porches. John
uses the word “is” and we have to remember that John was writing this some
15-20 years after the city of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans so there is
a question as to why he is using the word “is.”
Now why this is important is because there are people who would say that
John’s gospel was written at an earlier date, but this will not work for them
in this case as historians tell us that the place where Jesus did this miracle
was not destroyed during the Roman invasion of Jerusalem. MacArthur writes “John was probably writing
here in the ‘historical present,’ using a present tense verb to refer to a past
event; doing so would have been consistent with his writing style elsewhere.”
MacArthur writes “The NASB italicizes the word ‘gate’
since the noun modified by the adjective probatikos
(‘of or pertaining to sheep’) is not expressed in the text. The reference is most likely to the sheep
gate mentioned in Nehemiah 3:1, 32; 12:39, located near the northeast corner of
the city’s wall not far from the temple.
‘Bethesda’ is the Greek transliteration of a Hebrew or Aramaic word
variously understood to mean ‘house of outpourings’ or ‘house of mercy.’” Now we read that this place had “porticoes”
which were near the pool and it is under these porticoes that the people who
had these disabilities would lie. The
text states that those who were “blind, lame, and withered” or paralyzed were
there. Now we get into a section that we
have to believe that this is the way things happened, and that is it is
believed that the pool was feed by a spring, an intermittent spring “7 The sick
man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the
water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.’” MacArthur adds “ancient sources indicate that
the water in the pool had a reddish tint from the minerals in it.”
Now I want to talk about the bracketed verses that are
found in this section as they were added in a later manuscript and not in the
earlier ones. What we have here in these
bracketed verses “, [[waiting for the moving of the waters; 4 for an angel of
the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water;
whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made
well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.]] is a superstition
that got its way into the later manuscripts.
MacArthur adds “The early church father Tertullian referred to the
superstition of an angel stirring the water in the late second or early third century. Later manuscripts incorporated the scribal
glosses into the text.”
We will look at the rest of this section in our next
SD.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I am thankful for John including this story
of this man’s healing in his writings as with this story we can see the awful
beginnings of the persecution of our Lord, something that I do not like to read
about, but something necessary for the payment of my sins.
My Steps of Faith
for Today: When I think of that suffering that Jesus went through for me to pay
for my sins I am thankful, and desire to love Him in the proper way.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Simon” (Acts 8:9).
Today’s Bible question: “Which minor prophet was associated with
Haggai in stimulating the people to resume and complete work on the temple?”
Answer in our next SD.
2/25/2016 11:44 AM
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