She Glorified God: The Woman with the 18 year Infirmity

A Daughter of Abraham is Healed on Shabbat
Note: The first half of this study was erased while I was writing it. Please be patient in its reconstruction.
Jesus has recently left Bethany where Mary and Martha lived. He also has, before the healing at hand, cast out devils. En route from Bethany to Jerusalem, Jesus confronts a tragedy, which is on the hearts and minds of all who are attending to his teaching: a tower has fallen and crushed many to death in Siloam, and Pilate has killed worshipers and mingled their blood with their sacrifices.

Luk 13:1 There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

The question at hand was whether it was their sin or not which had caused the tragedy:

Luk 13:2 And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?
Luk 13:3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Luk 13:4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
Luk 13:5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish

Israel throughout its history, had a sense of immanent justice: that sin brought judgment, and they conversely reasoned that if sin brought judgment, then when one suffered tragedy or severe consequences, there must have been an antecedent sin. Jesus though seeks to teach the principle that "the rain falls on the just and the evil alike". He warns Israel, that whether or not the grave consequence is judgment or part of the natural occurrences of life, that repentance from sin should be ever at hand, as should the 'handbreadth' of our days: repentance is required always as we do not know the moment of our death.

The Lord turns to teach the parable of the fig tree, also right before the healing, with relevance both for the healing and the wellbeing of Israel. A man has a fig tree, and it is left with the vinedresser to care for. The man comes looking for the figs in the third year. (In Levitical law, the third year of a tree, the first fruits, belong to God). Finding no fruit, the owner is willing to have the tree cut down. The vinedresser, though begs the owner for one last chance at the fruitfulness of the tree, when it is given proper loving care, and carefully attended to.

Luk 13:7 Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?
Luk 13:8 And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung [it]:
Luk 13:9 And if it bear fruit, [well]: and if not, [then] after that thou shalt cut it down.

Note that the owner finding no fruit, declares that the tree, without its right purpose of fruit, is 'missing the mark': it 'cumbereth the ground' or essentially is taking up space for no reason. The vinedresser though begs for one more year: when the tree is properly tended, then it will bear fruit or not: the vinedresser begs for mercy. The tree is Israel, and the Lord has come looking for fruit in the third millennia, finding none, the Messiah begs for the fourth year, when healed and loved, it will bear the expected fruit in its right purpose.

The Synagogue and the Woman with the 18 year Infirmity
It is no small coincidence that immediately prior to this healing, that Jesus tells the parable of the fig, and points to a lack of repentance toward God in the prior passage. Jesus takes his place teaching at the Synagogue this Shabbat, and the woman with the 18 year infirmity is there. The word for 'infirmity' in the Greek is:

ἀσθένεια

 

or astheneia which refers to a weakness or illness of a bodily sort, or generally a disease or sickness.

Eighteen years is a long time to be plagued with a condition which keeps one weak and unable to live life unencumbered---just as the fig tree did not have the proper ground and care to grow, so the woman was being held captive in her condition. Her condition was so serious, that she could not lift herself up:

And behold there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity of eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. Luke 13:11

Some physical conditions are so debilitating that they bind a person in a literal prison of flesh: this woman was so bent and weak that she could not stand nor sit.
There is no witness that the woman sought help, probably assuming that the lengthy condition was beyond the healing of God. In this healing, unlike many others, it is Jesus himself who reaches out to her:

And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman thou art loosed from thine infirmity.

It is one of the healings that involves the Laying on of hands:

And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. Luke 13:13

One can barely imagine the joy of being suddenly free of a lifelong affliction. The response of the healed in Israel was almost always joy and praise. She glorified God. Who beside God could have healed such a permanent ailment?

The Healed Woman's Reaction vs. The Ruler of the Synagogue

Consider the utter joy and praise of the healed woman whom Jesus encounters in the synagogue. He is there teaching like no other, and in the midst of the teaching, the great work of God is done, and the healed woman rejoices. That is drawing near to God: that is a relationship with God. Consider also though, the reaction of the Ruler of the Synagogue near at hand. His concern? The healing took place on Shabbat. Is it right to heal on shabbat? We have seen this dilemma elsewhere in many healings; the man with the withered hand is healed on Shabbat, and so are several others. Jesus makes it clear, though, that Shabbat and healing go together: Shabbat was for healing. The Ruler is displaying 'religion'; the woman is displaying the joy unspeakable of being in the presence of the Lord and Savior, and seeing his work. It is the dichotomy and conundrum of the ages in the Church: that a miracle of God occurs in front of all, and the religious want to assess instead of praise God. The ruler is very austere in his condemnation, using the Word itself to find fault, a practice known since the Garden:

And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work; in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.

The Ruler is concerned that healing is work, but the command of the sabbath regards 'servile' work. Jesus is master of the Sabbath, of Shabbat: he is the 7th day rest: healing is rest and restoration. Healing is the work of God. Jesus is just as succinct though in the defense of the healing:

The Lord then answered him and said, Thou hypocrite, doth noth each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? 16 And ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed form this bond on the sabbath day? Luke 13:15-16

Notice that the Lord refers to her as a daughter of Abraham. Why shouldn't mercy be shown on Shabbat? With the Lord right there intrinsically declaring the righteousness of the healing? She was set free from a Satanic binding: she was delivered, on Shabbat into fullness of right purpose, because the proper ground had been given her, just as with the fig tree.

On more than one healing when the issue of healing on Sabbath is brought up, Jesus notes that the religious of the day will pull an ox out of a ditch, to protect their pocketbooks and the animal, and yet they find fault with showing mercy on the day of rest. This woman had been in captivity 18 years! Under the worst of taskmasters! The Lord of Abraham, healed a daughter of Abraham to her right purpose. How could we not even still glorify God for restoring his people to wholeness!

The People Rejoice

Until this point, the people in attendance at the synagogue are not mentioned, but now, seemingly with permission, they rejoice:

And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed; and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him. Luke 13:17

The ruler of the Synagogue, the Pharisees and Sadducees, and other religious officers, had such a legalistic bind on Israel, that the fulfilling of ordinances and interpretation of ordinances was more important to them than the fullfilling of the Covenant, the everlasting Covenant. Their binding of the people was as serious and as lengthy as the 18 'astheneia' or infirmity: they had Israel bowed and bent in a permananent palsy, unable to look up, stand up or sit up. Jesus was out for faith and love: the Rabbi from Nazareth and heaven wanted them delivered, healed and free, properly nutured to be the fullness of who they were: sons and daughters of Abraham.

Till next time.
Ekbest

Publius's Father: The Healing of a Great Fever by Paul

By the end of the Book of Acts, there is little that Paul and his fellow apostles have not seen. He has been shipwrecked, brought before Kings, beaten half to death, stoned, imprisoned, and by the end of the account of the history of the apostles, the shipwrecked Paul winds up on the island of Melita with a "barbarous people" who showed them "no little kindness". The first act of kindness is to try and warm the castaways from the sea with a fire. As Paul sits before the small comfort in the cold and rain, the world adds insult to injury: as Paul gathers sticks to add on the fire, a viper jumps from the heat and fastens itself to his hand.

The people of the Island of Melita are not Christians nor Jews: like so many that Paul encountered in his travels, they are pagans, with the various gods of the region, usually of the Greek variety. Even these kindly pagans, though have the idea of divine providence or imminent justice: they expect that Paul, pulled from the sea must have done something terribly wrong,positing him to be a murderer, that "vengeance suffereth not to live". (Acts 28:4)

.there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.4 And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.5 And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm.6Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god. Acts 28:4-6

Two aspects emerge in the thinking of the Melitans encountering Paul on the shore that day:

1. Immanent Justice: He must have been a murderer because even after having been saved from the sea, he was bitten by a deadly viper, and

2. Divine nature or Intervention: Because he survived the viper bite, which would have killed most men, he must be a god or of a divine nature.

The belief that a god could come in human form was not strange nor odd to this Mediterranean people: most of their gods were in human form such as the gods on Mt. Olympus, such as Zeus, Diana, Apollo, Mercury and so forth, or lesser divinities which took the forms of nature. Paul was bringing healing and word of the true Messiah, the Living God incarnate though, and he must have spoken with care to express true doctrine. The healing that was about to occur on Melita though, was not without a preliminary dissension in the Melitan's thinking, that because Paul escaped both the sea and viper bite that he must be a god. At least one other place in Acts 14 , the same error is made of Paul and Barnabas following a healing:

Act 14:11 And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.
Act 14:12 And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker.
Act 14:13 Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people.
Act 14:14 [Which] when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard [of], they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out,
Act 14:15 And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein:

IN Acts 14, the two are horrified at being treated as Olympian gods, and use the occasion to turn the people's attention away from idolatrous practice to the true God and his gospel, but the people quickly turn in violence and run them out of town.

In Melita though, the people are kind, and when they see Paul survive the storm and the viper, great kindnesses are extended, including an invitation to stay at the house of a 'Chief man of the island', named Publius, with whom they stay three days:

Acts 28:7 In the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius; who received us, and lodged us three days courteously.

While staying with Publius, the last healing mentioned by an apostle takes place: the healing of Publius's Father.

The Healing of Publius' Father of a Fever and Bloody flux
The kindness of Publius in inviting this charismatic stranger into his home, resulted in yet another wonder of God: Paul heals the man's father.

Acts 28:8-9 And it came to pass, that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux: to whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laid his hands on him and healed him. 9 So when this was done others also, which had diseases in the island, came and were healed.

Note that this healing, like so many of the others, including those of Jesus, sets the stage for the preaching of the Gospel. Healing is a sign of God's power and imprimatur; while the Jews looked for and required a sign, the wonders of God were also a draw to gentiles as well. When one sees the power of God in a magnificent way, one is very likely to at least listen to what is said next by the people of God who are the conduits for the wonder, in this case a healing. Almost every healing is accompanied by the preaching of the Gospel, also in power, explaining the source of the power, the healing virtue, which is the indwelling Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

The Healing
Not a great deal of description is given regarding this healing by Paul. Paul enters in, prays,and lays hands on Publius' father. We have seen in other healings that the laying on of hands is taught as foundational, along with the basics of doctrine:

font color=blue>Hbr 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Hbr 6:2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

We have also seen that even the merest touch is not required when it is the voice of God who heals: the commands of the apostles and Holy Spirit filled disciples, filled with 'living water' carried the weight and authority of Christ: even today, when modernity snubs Holy Spirit healing, a servant of Christ walking in belief, obedience and power speaks a healing, he or she does it with the Lord's permission: this is no "Heroes" type power owned by the person, but the power of God working through the person to touch those who are infirm.

It is only a fever, so common an ailment which confronts the father, but it is stopped as is the hemorrhaging, both end. A simple healing before an unbelieving group of islanders, turns into requests for healing, and belief, as well as honor for God's apostle:

Acts 28:10 Who also honoured us with many honours; and when we departed, they laded us with such things as were necessary.

Nothing else is mentioned of the healing or the ones that follow, but it must have been quite a harvest among the islanders, for Paul and the others stayed a full 3 months before moving on th Syracuse, Rhegium and Puteoli, and finally to Rome.

Some last thoughts on the healing: Implications for faith

In summary, a few observations are notable regarding how the pagan people of Melita encountered Paul and his survival, and later his healing of the Chief man's father:

1. Assimilation and Accomodation: When the pagan people of Melita did not understand what they saw was divine power ; without knowledge they could only attribute it to a 'god'. When people see something not in their experience, most first try to draw it into constructs they already have, e.g. a 'power' belonging to one of the 'gods'; only when they can conceive of the thing being a brand new thing outside their understanding, do they then attempt to bring it as a new idea into their understanding, and 'make room' for it.

Paul played on this a bit when he spoke in Greece and pointed to their 'unknown god', a god that was supposed to sort of 'cover' them in case they had forgotten any. Paul did not endorse the worship of pagan or Greek and Roman gods, but instead, uses the pagan construct, to bring the living God into view, for those who had no concept of the slain Lamb of God who rose from the dead. He never endorses nor aligns with idolatry nor does he or the others allow themselves to be seen as 'gods', but quickly rebukes them, but he understood how to begin to speak of Messiah to non-Jewish people.
2. Immanent Justice-We referred before to the idea of "Immanent Justice": these terms are often found in 'Developmental Psychology' when explaining how young children think. The 'barbarous people' of Melita, have the idea of 'just punishment' or 'immanent justice', that if something bad happens to someone, they are being judged for some unseen evil deed. When they see Paul bitten by a viper right after a shipwreck involving prisoners, they must feel that he really did whatever crime with which he was charged. He shakes it off, unharmed, as promised. (they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover (Mark 16:18). Some Appalachian churches even today use practices like 'snake handling' believing that true believers are tested by whether venom affects them, but that is not the spirit of the passage: Jesus refers to the event not harming believers, because the sovereign life of walking in Christ is above the natural life. To deliberately have snakes bite worshipers is to tempt or test God, to put him on trial, which we are not to do, and there is a difference between trusting his promises, and daring him to be right. In any event there is providential thinking.

3.When Paul lives the attribution is that he is good. Regarding the healing:

4.-It is immediate, as with the healings of Jesus

-It involves laying on of hands with prayer

-Multitudes show up on the island to receive healing after hearing of it. The apostle is blessed and honored in departing Melita.

This last healing in the Book of Acts in the last chapter of Acts bears the marks of all the other healings: some claim healings lapse and wane, and are only in the time around Pentecost, but this is certainly not true: this healing is in power, and in order, and leads to the salvation and healing of many. Though many today count the end of Acts to be the end of healings, tens of thousands can attest to the healing power of Jesus Christ, Yshua Ha Meschiach, Jesus of Nazareth the Messiah, through His presence in the Holy Spirit which indwells believers. Before ascending in a cloud into Heaven, Jesus , Emmanuel,"God with Us" promised that He would be the author of a Temple which could not be destroyed. The Power of God, in Healing and Prophecy, prophecy being the Testimony of Jesus Christ, is still alive today for the health and well being of His bride, the Church. Belief and the Power of God is not a dispensational age.

Till next time,
Elizabeth K. Best

Healing Virtue: The Power of Healing

In the study of the healing of the Lord and Savior, most read over the particulars of the individual healings, and preaching in the modern world tends to use the healings as a 'metaphor' or 'springboard' for other issues and doctrines. The power of God in healings is seldom more than mentioned: we praise God for His power, we talk about Holy Spirit healing and the gifts, and we sing songs which at least speak of the power of Almighty God, but only rarely is the power behind healing really attended to. Only thrice in the New Testament is 'healing virtue' truly dealt with by name, after the healing in Mark and Luke of the Woman who touches Jesus' garment, and also once again though not by name, it the Book of Acts, when it is noted that persons who saw the healings by the apostles desired even an item of clothing, and the report is that persons were healing by the touch of a handkerchief. The idea of clothing having 'power' of any kind is not reckoned in modern thinking, and it was not really the clothing per se at all, but the power of God which goes out in healing. That power, again is referred to as 'healing virtue'.

The two mentions in the Gospel are as follows:

Mar 5:30 And Jesus immediately, knowing in himself thatvirtue had gone out of him. turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?

Luk 6:19-And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed [them] all.

Luk 8:46 -And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.

Virtue: The Power of Healing

The word 'Virtue' used in the above passages, is not the same word 'virtue' as used when referring to a type of moral purity or excellence and honor. The word 'Virtue' used in these passages on healing is:

Dynamis

the same root as the word 'dynamite' and used in similar words to note an intense power, ability, miracle strength, abundance of power, and sometimes refers to the power of a ruler, or an 'administrative power'. The healings then that Jesus did, and later his apostles and disciples, can be fairly said to be pointing to His Kingly power and glory, in a divine sense, but also a very real 'power' that when Jesus lays hands on the sick, infirm,possessed or deaf and blind, causes them to be made whole, as though no impairment had ever been. The power of God in 'virtue', appears to be a work/power that heals human beings, but more than that, in Jesus and later Paul, there is something so great about it that it lingers even on the garment of the Lord, or of those indwelt by the Holy Spirit:

Act 19:12 So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.

One must first consider, that the 'power' in the healing miracles is that of the power of the Holy Spirit: it is not a 'substance', not a 'method', not some electrical conduit as modern minds would prefer so they could dismiss it, but the living glory of God, the power of God, the 'existence' of God and one could carefully and not occulticly use the word 'force' in proper context, which emanates from the Holy Spirit. The power in Christ, and his disciples was so great that even touching the hem of a garment caused healing and the casting out of demons away from the physical presence of Jesus and Paul.

The 'healing virtue' is mentioned in the woman with the issue of blood, in Luke and Mark, and less clearly in Mt. 9:22, resulting in immediate healing, and peripherally in one of the 'healing of the multitudes' passages when the crowd clamors just to touch Jesus, because virtue is perceived as coming out of him. These were real healings, not placebo-effect acts of the imagination, or some desire-bent effect.

In other healings, where Jesus touches or commands the sick to arise, or devils to depart, there is a direct contact or verbal directive which one could see alone as some quality of the Savior alone, in his "administrative' authority. These passages though brief seem to teach though that the power of God in healing is

1. felt and known(e.g. Jesus perceives virtue has left him when touched)
2. affects the immediate garment that touches in the examples either Jesus or Paul,
3. the Virtue or dynamis-power heals, makes right, makes whole a dissensioned state of a human being.

While this is the clear teaching of the passages, and is self-evident, a note of caution must be added: today there is a 'miracles-market' in which a lot of feigned healings and power, or even worse 'emulated' power goes out claimingto be the same thing as the healing virtue of Christ. TV ministries try to entice with purchasable 'prayer cloths' or oils, or one mass mailing gimic sends out paper prayer rugs or other items that supposedly have a special blessing or healing effect, and these merchandising scams are despicable: they play on the longing of people in distress who are desperate for healings. NEVER in scripture is healing associated with a charge.

Gehazi and Naaman and the 'Cost' of Charging for Healing

While most consider healing a 'New Testament' phenomenon, a 'post-pentecost' gift, the healing by God's power is also mentioned in the Old Testament.

When Elisha is confronted by Naaman for the healing of leprosy, Naaman offers a reward of clothing, gifts and so on, which Elisha turns down flat. Throughout the Old and New Testament, no association could be made between healing or prophecy and the payment of fees, monies or reward for the free gift of God, the free healing 'virtue'. What could one reimburse God with for His power? The finest riches would never be sufficient. Elisha's servant Gehazi finds out, when he runs after Naaman on his way back to Syria and tells him he will accept the reward. When Gehazi returns to Elisha, the Prophet is abrupt and definitive, and the chastisement is severe for thinking there could be a reward or purchase of God's power of healing:

2Ki 5:26 And he said unto him, Went not mine heart [with thee], when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? [Is it] a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants?
2Ki 5:27 The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper [as white] as snow.

Not only was the servant rebuked for asking or receiving a reward, but he was cursed with the same disease as Naaman, and not only himself but his generation. The Holy Spirit of God is exactly that: HOLY, and his gifts are HOLY. Earthly commerce is not to taint the meeting of God with man in any form.

The Outcome

As Jesus travels to raise Jairus' daughter, the healing of the woman with an issue of blood is parenthetical: she comes behind Jesus in the crowd touches his garment, and says,

"...If I may touch but hisclothes, I shall be made whole" MK 5:28.

There are a few elements worth noting in this and the healing of the multitudes:

1. They had faith that the touch of the garment was enough
2. The garment was worn by in this case the Lord, and in the other a believer
filled with the Holy Spirit and always in the Word of God
3. There was no cost nor reward
4. The outcome was healing: being made whole.

The requisite FAITH for healing was there. A meekness of spirit was there, as they were satisfied if they could touch only the garment of the healer, the healing/gift was carried out in the Way of God, and the outcome was the immediate healing of the woman with the issue of blood and other healings not specified.

The power of God was not some sort of 'magic' clinging to a cloth or handkerchief, but the power of the living God, present in the genuine, living existing Savior or His Holy Spirit, the 'parakletos', comforter whom He sent to indwell us and keep us and work through us. Some wish to dismiss healings and miracles or turn them into wishful magic or conversely into mere metaphor as if they could not be, but the power of God is real, and did not die in the first century. To dismiss healing is to dismiss the power of God, and the presence of the Holy Spirit, "Christ in us, the Hope of Glory". The very discussion and use of the term 'virute' in the Word of God, shows that it is not merely some 'invention' or 'happy thought' of Jesus in our hearts, like we speak of peace or love 'in our hearts' which are ideas and thoughts but a real power of the LIVING GOD in this century and until the end of time. Healing virtue in the days of Jesus as now, is the power of God among us.

Till next time.
Elizabeth K. Best
Many blessings.

The healing of the Withered Right Hand: Jesus Heals on Shabbat

Among the healings that the Lord and Savior did, recorded by eyewitnesses, a few are described in detail, and a few receive a mere mention. A few are mentioned only once in one Gospel, and others have detailed parallel descriptions in all three of the synoptic Gospels each adding a little more detail (although never contradictory). The great healings, attended by many, have been repeated over and over both from scripture and in story form, such as raising Lazarus from the dead, or the Madmen of the Gadarenes, or Jairus' daughter. Among the healings that the Lord performed in his earthly ministry though, several have the distinction of having been performed on Shabbat {the Sabbath}, and the one in our current study, is the healing of the man with the withered hand.

Healing and Shabbat

Jesus had already well begun his teaching, preaching and healing, when one Shabbat he enters a Synagogue and encounters a man with a withered hand. Just prior to his encounter with this man, he has already healed a man with palsy, and encountered some Pharisees on another Shabbat who question why he allowed his disciples to pluck ears of corn to eat while walking through a corn field, on this day of convocation. The Old Testament was filled with God's commands regarding what was right to do on Shabbat and what was not allowed. Work on any day of 'holy convocation' was to cease, especially on Shabbat, to point to the work of God ceasing in Creation on the 7th day, the Sabbath or Shabbat of God, the 'Seventh Day Rest' which would point forever to His Messiah and Savior, our sabbath rest.

Through the years though, one rabbinical scholar after another sought to define what constituted 'work' and what did not, forgetting the gift of rest and peace, and instead trying to add man made ordinances regarding what was acceptable behavior and what was not. Some of the strictest extra-biblical requirements were policies of not eating an egg layed on the 7th day, or even traditions today among Orthodox groups regarding not wearing fragrances, or certain types of clothing on certain holy days.

As Jesus was walking though, through the corn field with his disciples just a short time before this healing, he began to bring forth correct teaching on Shabbat, a teaching which this generation has too often ignored: it was not in any way to be done away with, or ignored, nor was it to become a legalistic burden, but it was to be a day of quiet restful time with the Lord and with others, studying the Word, worshipping, and gaining peace. Jesus taught the arguing Pharisees, beginning with an exception to tradition, the story of David and his men eating the shewbread, which was normally forbidden, in order to sustain life for God's purpose. His central teaching on the second of three shabbats used to teach, was:

Luk 6:5-And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.

The Third Shabbat, Another Synagogue

On this third Shabbat in a row, though, in Synagogue, the issue of the Shabbat arises again, only this time, the question becomes whether one can heal on the Sabbath. Jesus and his disciples are in a Synagogue, and they encounter a man with a withered hand. The Greek word for the adjective 'withered' is 'xeraino', and it is quite literal, carrying with it descriptors of 'shriveled' rigid, dired up, or 'pineth away'- in short the hand is not able to be used because of some form of atrophy.

There is another aspect though of this healing that makes it a little unique compared to some, that it is the man's 'right hand'. In the Holy Scriptures there are many references to the 'right hand': it is a reminder of power and authority, or 'rightness' of designation, so for the right hand to be withered, and as most are right-handed, the condition means the man is quite incapacitated, and without power.

The day that Jesus encounters the man, he is in the house of God teaching. Note that there a number of healings that take place in the synagogue or just after, and it is often with Jesus teaching in the Synagogue. That is rather curious to some, as we so often picture him wandering the Judean mountains, with crowds flocking around, but on the Shabbat, Jesus was found teaching in synagogue. No sooner does the man with the withered hand come forth, but the Pharisees begin to object:

LUKE 6:7 And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him. Luke 6:7

Mark 3:2 And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him.

MATTHEW 12:10 And, behold, there was a man which had [his] hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him.

Isn't it a characteristic, even today, of legalistic people that they never watch themselves so closely as they watch other people, waiting with baited breath to catch an error that they might condemn them, all the while seeing it as 'exhortation'. One need not be unsympathetic. Often when we begin our Christian walk, in an effort to closely obey the Lord we love, we fall into a pit of legalism where we try to obey every 'jot and tittle' of the Law, and then we try to obey it for those around us! It is also difficult to find a balance because many feel that anyone who holds tight to the Word is a legalist, and that is simply not true: the commands of God while not 'buying' or 'earning' Salvation, are there for a reason, and not to be ignored. The two most common errors are to walk in to the house of God with 'lists' and 'inspect' whether all are following, or on the opposite extreme to gloss over all God's teaching and commands with an 'it doesn't matter, I'm forgiven.' Neither is a correct position. These Pharisees, and many of the Pharisees which were encountered in the New Testament were not all the ones that condemned Jesus and wished him dead, but some, as in this healing were people whom he worshipped, fellowshipped and ate with. Most mentioned though, were quick to ask why he did every little thing the way he did it, and most, as we see in this passage, had the motive of trying to find fault.

At another place in Scripture, it notes that the wrath of man will praise God. Why would these Pharisees, in this culmination of God's plan on earth, be constantly examining Jesus for error and fault? The answer lies in his role as Passover Lamb: before a Lamb was declared the excellent sacrifice it needed to be for Passover, it had to be inspected by the priests to determine that it had no flaw nor imperfection and that it was the 'right kind of Lamb' (see Leviticus). Without knowing it, those these and other Pharisees bore him ill will, they were at the same time 'inspecting the lamb': they questioned his healings, his teachings, his doctrine, his companions and even his food.

The Healing

God often has a way of using the wrath of man, though to the benefit of those who believe, and it was even moreso with Jesus in his earthly ministry. The Pharisees intent on detecting error, actually gave witness from the opposition to the veracity of the healings and 'perfection' of the Lamb. If none of the Pharisees had seen this or other healings, they could have denied the healings with some degree of latitude, since healings were not abounding in the first century until Jesus came. Seeing though, the healings in front of their eyes, and in the case of the withered hand, directly, in a house during or after a dinner, the local members of the sect could no longer deny the power of God attendant on Jesus' healing of the man.

How does Jesus react? Instead of what we would do, going into a diatribe about how we shouldn't be too legalistic, or some such thing, he begins to teach: he seldom returns even a rebuke when teaching is still a possibility. Luke 6:8 notes that he perceives their condemnatory musings, even before they speak:

"But he knew their thoughts...."

and in Mark, though it is not stated, it is implicit that he knew because he questions them immediately after the healing. It is part of the prophetic nature to as Jesus himself puts it, "know what was in a man", although it was more true with Jesus than any merely human prophet. In Matthew, we see a parallel of Mark's rendering.

Matthew 12:11-2	Mark 3:4	Luke 6:9,3-5
And he said unto them, What man shall thou be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fell into a pit on the Sabbath Day, will he not lay hold on it and lift it out? How much more then is a man better than a sheep? Conclusion: Wherefore it is lawful then to do well on the Sabbath Days.	Jesus asks," Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath Day or to do evil: to save life or to kill? (They held their peace)	Then said Jesus unto them, Is it lawful on the Sabbath Days, to do good or to do evil? to save life or destroy it? [The sheep in the pit is not here, but in 6:3 before the healing] Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was an hungered, and they which were with them; 4 how he went into the House of God, and did take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone? 5 And he said unto them, That the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath.

Another note, and a mistake often made, it does not appear that this is the SAME Sabbath as the one on which the corn was plucked, but most probably the same Pharisees. Luke 6:6 shows that Jesus taught at the Synagogue the day of the healing

...he entered into the synagogue and he taugh: and there was a man whose right hand was withered.

Before describing the healing, there are two things about this passage that seem eminent: 1) it is a right hand which is withered, and 2) it is a 'withering' or condition in which the limb has become fruitless.

The Right Hand

The fact that the man's hand which is healed on Shabbat was the right hand may indeed be seen as significant, as the right hand in the Scriptures is denoted as a place of authority, power, and favor.
God's right hand gives the Law, or Torah (Deuteronomy 33:2)-a fiery Law, and the

Anointing of a High Priest, the blood covering is of the right hand/thumb as in Leviticus 14:25-8; 14:7, 14:14; 8:23 and Exodus 29:20.

The Power of God is denoted as at the Right Hand in Exodus 15:6. and

Protection of God in the same passage.

Joseph receives the Right Hand of blessing in Genesis 48:17 and Sisera is killed (and Israel delivered) by Jael's Right Hand in Judges 5:26.

The AUTHORITY of God is at his Right Hand in 2 Kings 23:13, (and in Messiah's position in the Godhead), and

Salvation of God by his Right hand is seen, e.g. in Psalm 17:7, 18:35, 20:6 and 44:3, 138:7 and 139:10.

In Psalm 21:8, the Right Hand finds out enemies, and in Psalm 26:10 is associated with 'all righteousness', and inversely, shows 'terrible things'.

The right hand additionally in the Scriptures is associated with Triumph (Ps 89:42 and Victory Ps 98:1, with Judgment Ps 109:6 and Justice 109:31 (stand at the right hand of the poor), Safety and God's favor: Psalm 110:1,5 (exaltation-'Sit thou at my right hand), Valiance 118:15, Corruption, if bad (Ps 144,18), a right wise heart, as in Ecc 10:2; in Creation and Sovereignty in Is 48:13 (Right Hand hath spanned the heavens), Leadership (Isaiah 63:12 as in the right hand of Moses), and favor as in Hab 2:16. In separation of sheep and goats at the end, the sheep go to the right hand in Matthew 25:3,4 and the Right hand of power is mention in Matthew 26:64. When Satan wishes to do evil or does evil, he is said to stand at the right hand as in Zechariah 3:1. The Right hand is one of righteousness in Is 41:10. The Right hand of the Bridegroom embraces the bride in Song of Songs, 2:6.

While another whole study could be written to understand the depth of the meaning of the mention of the 'Right Hand' either of God or Man in the Scriptures, this should suffice for the moment to show that in this healing, and in God's sovereignty it is no insignificant thing that the withered hand is the right one. (See notes for other attributes of the 'Right Hand').

Withering Heights
'Withered' is mentioned only 25 times in the scriptures, but is also significant. The idea of withering denotes a lack of fruitfulness, a lack of 'works' death, impotence, and a heart that has given up. (e.g. Ps 102:4,11; Is 27:11; Lamentations 4:8, etc). Jonah's gourd withers, and so do believers who have no root and fall on bad ground. The most telling meaning of 'withering' though, is when Jesus curses the fig tree, a clear indication that the 'Gardener' has come looking, in the 3rd season for fruit on the tree of Israel, and finding none, declares it fruitless and of no use.

Mat 21:19 And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away.

So we can reason that a 'withered right hand' is not without significance, and refers in this healing not only as the healing of a physical condition, but as a sign to the Pharisees debating healing on Shabbat that their Messiah is the answer to the 'withered right hand' of Israel.

Jesus' Command

This has been a somewhat circumvent route to describe the encounter with the Pharisees at that after Shabbat dinner. The healing though questioned, was at hand and was to the point. Jesus says:

Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other. Luke 6:10.
_______________________________________________________
Then saith he unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like the other.
Mt 12:13
_______________________________________________________
And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other. Mark

What was Jesus' concern with the Pharisees? Not legalism per se, but the thing it does to the spirit: hardness of heart. And what was the command in healing by the Messiah? Stretch forth thy hand. He commanded a hand in an 'unwhole' and dissensioned state, to be made whole, the aim of all healing. (See Being Made Whole). The man apparently does according to the command, and the hand which was not only incapacitated but showed no seeming chance of recovery, in an instant was made whole, immediate as other healings.

Obedience was the key for the man with the withered hand. When we seek the healing of Jesus, and we wish an immediate healing, we must also anticipate his expectation of immediate obedience.

The Reaction to the Restoration of the Withered Hand

Seeing an unexpected miracle of the first order done right in front of one's eyes one would expect would bring about astonishment and amazement. Instead, for the dinner attendees , self-appointed guardians of tradition and sticklers for uniformity, the reaction was one of madness and vengefulness, two frequent companions. In Luke 6:11 the Madness is noted:

And they were filled with madness and communed with one another what they might do to Jesus

While the intimation of vengefulness against Jesus is seen above, the two parallel verses show the evil intent towards him even more intensely

Mark 3:6 And the Pharisees went forth and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.

Luke 12:14 Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him.

In the second two verses, the language is defined and violent: instead of rejoicing at the wondrous work of God they had just seen, they begin to plot not only among themselves but among others that hate Jesus, to destroy him. It is one thing to act with rage against those who anger us for one reason or another, but it is far more sinister to plot the overthrow of another with painstaking planning. It is alos of note that they sought out the Herodians, the State connection, whom they were certain would also want to get rid of a kind of power they could not fight. Voltaire once said that when it comes to money, all are of the same religion. It appears that when it comes to trying to overthrow the Love and power of God, religion takes a back seat also to the criminal intent.

It is not unknown to Jesus that they intend violence, destruction and overthrow. He leaves this area of Galilee immediately, the hospitality grown cold, and withdraws to the sea. Multitudes though follow, with the expected astonishment and far greater acceptance of this divine Rabbi. He had come to heal the Right Hand of the Withered tree of Israel, and as is taught in scripture, in the third time (millenia) when the first fruits are expected (see Bag L Omer) and when the first fruits are dedicated to the LORD.

We will continue next time in discussing the healings of Shabbat.
more to follow.ekbest

The Healing of the Crippled Man at Lystra

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The Troubling of the Waters: Jesus Heals at Bethesda

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One of the most well known stories in the New Covenant is the telling of the healing of the man, infirm for 38 years, at the Pool of Bethesda. Jesus has just a few days before been at a feast day, and following, he heals a Nobleman's son after rebuking him a little for wanting to see only signs and wonders. The healings begun, and two miracles of healing into the Gospel of John, Jesus arrives at Bethesda.

There was at Bethesda a pool, surrounded by five porches, and the sick of all kinds waited at the pool for what was said to be an angel 'troubling the waters'. We have in our cultures today, similar places, such as Lourdes and Medagorje in the Catholic religion, or the portion of the Ganges for several religions in India, in which pilgrims from all over the world go to bathe in the waters believing they have a divine element which heals diseases. The Pool of Bethesda, known in Israel for the same, attracted the infirm and impotent from all over who sat among the columns, with stairs going down into the pool, and it was reported that whoever was first to the water, was healed of whatever infirmity ailed them. John 5:2 remarks that there were 'a great multitude', and lists the types who waited the stirred waters:

1. Blind
2. Impotent ( a variety of illness)
3. Halt (motor dysfunction and lameness)
4. Withered.

Angels were not at all unknown in Israel: they had a strict Scriptural interpretation of Angels as the emissaries of God advantaging the Children of Israel in many ways in their history, such as the visitation of Abraham and Sarah announcing Isaac, or the 'dragging' of Lot's family from Sodom, bound for destruction, or the angel guarding the way back into the Garden of Eden, the paradise of God. So the saying of an angel troubling the waters, was based no doubt upon some divine observation.

For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool , and troubled the water:
Whosoever then first after the troubling of the water, stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.5:4

At least one other 'troubling of the water' is mentioned in Scripture although in an inverse way: in Ezekiel 32:2 in a lamentation for Pharaoh, Pharaoh is described as troubling the waters for contention:

...and troublest the waters with thy feet, and foulest their rivers. (Ez 32:2)

Both words, Old and New, for troubling, mean what one would naturally assume: the Greek tarache, meaning disturbance or troubling, and the 'dalah' [daleph, lamed he]
means to churn, stir up, or trouble. An amusing side note is that a related and very similar word, delaya or delayhu, is the name for 'Delilah' in Hebrew, who troubled Samson's waters to no end!.

So whatever the mechanism or reason or etiology, the waters stirred by the angel at Bethesda was certainly convincing enough, that a multitude, including this man waited even for years to make their way down into the pool, although one had to be first. If one looks at photographs of the pools, of the remnants left, one can see why a man unable to walk well or at all would have a very difficult time ever being first to the waters: it was impossible to get down the stairs in time amidst the many rushing into the waters.

The Man with the Infirmity

the man with an infirmity was said to have had it for 38 years. John 5:5. Jesus, as it is mentioned elsewhere, knowing what was in a man, encounters the man, and and immediately knew how long he had been in that condition.

Jesus ....knew that he had now been a long time in that case.. Jn 5:6

and said to him

Wilt thou be made whole?

Now, these remarks seem minor, but they contain a lot of information: the first verse points to one characteristic of our Lord and Savior that often gets 'read-over', that he knew people based upon their spirit: one verse puts it 'he knew what was in a man'. Jesus was already conversing in his Kingdom, living in the ways of Heaven- a person was 'known' to him without asking, and this can be seen as the 'conversation' or citizenship of heaven, when it is noted in .... that we will be 'known as we are known.'.

1Cr 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

So Jesus encounters the man in utter truth, because he can see all about him, with the loving eyes of Heaven.

There is more though, in the statement 'Wilt thou be made whole'. I have discussed a sort of 'model' of the person which is central to the Mind of Christ, in the concept of 'wholeness' vs 'dissension'. When a person is whole and right, he is everything that God meant him to be, although most of us never get near to this. Since sin entered the world at the Fall of Adam and Eve, most of what is in the world conspires to make us anything but 'whole'. It is well within the description God gives of the Potter and the clay: the fresh lump of clay begins whole and without imperfections but with air bubbles, too much slip, dirt and particles, hits, uneven pressure etc, the clay can become either a vessel which can be used, or so 'dissensioned' that it can be ruined forever.

Our lives are very much that way: though we may have differing 'temperaments' or a few other characteristics, those things rudimentarily given at birth are meant in God's plan for our lives to contribute to the 'wholeness' of what we are to be and do in his loving care. Most however, do not find God young, and the world hits hard, and blow after blow, hurt after hurt, sorrow after sorrow, depending on the degree, a person becomes 'dissensioned' from what he or she was to have been, and the healing process, whether it is mental, emotional, spiritual or physical, involves 'making whole' or bringing the dissensioned state, back into the 'shape' or state(not always literal) that it was supposed to be. This places in divine context Jesus' words: 'Wilt thou be made whole', referring to physical wholeness, but the later events show that Jesus is concerned uttermost with the man's spiritual wholeness.

The Willingness to be made Whole

There is also here a fascinating note of the 'willingness' to be made whole!. I have been around many deeply troubled people in my career and in life: some were overcome by grief and mourning, some by depression, some by deeply distorted states of imaginations and even hallucinations, what the world refers to as psychosis, and while they will participate sometimes for years in therapy, they do not want to change. It is hard to believe, that those who are hurting and in horrible circumstances would not want to be whole and well, but they feel a certain amount of 'comfort' in their circumstance: they know it and though it is painful, they prefer it to the unknown, even healing. The poet Rainer Maria Rilke once remarked after abandoning psychotherapy, that he was afraid that 'if his demons left, his angels would leave also'. Like Rilke some feel safe in self-destruction, a premier oxymoron, rather than accepting what a healing might bring. John 5:7 though implies it is not only his willingness but the inteference of events and others that encumber him:

Jhn 5:7 The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.

This passage also speaks to the nature of man, even in divine things, and more so in this day and time: pushing and shoving others out of the way in order to get even a healing from the Lord. This selfishness on the part of others kept this man in suffering for 38 years, and yet of all on the porch that day, he was the one appointed to healing and later defending and declaring the Gospel!!! However, the wait was worth it, for Jesus himself, not a mere emissary came to him, and well, life just wasn't the same later. At that point he did not need the Angel nor the healing waters, for the Living Water confronted him directly and healed him.

The Command of Healing

In this healing, Jesus does not mix a substance, nor lay on hands, but as in many healings, only speaks the healing, even 'commands' the man to be whole. He starts interestingly, with a command, that was not possible before--to

1. Rise
2. Take up thy bed and
3. Walk Jn 5:8

Most would expect, that Jesus instead would have just said 'be healed', or something similar, but He was giving also the frame of faith. When God intends and speaks, the thing is already done. It is a foregone conclusion. That bed, and that bent condition had imprisoned the poor fellow for 38 years! Now, in a moment, in front of the living Messiah, he is instructed to pick up that prison and take it with him. It no longer binds him: he binds it!

What was the result?

And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the Sabbath 5:9.

The man obviously immediately BELIEVED and OBEYED and wholeness and healing followed in an amazing way.

The Legalists and the Healing Messiah

Now legalists in any religion attend to every word of doctrine hoping to catch error almost always in everyone but themselves, and this healing was no exception. And as the healed man, goes immediately to show his healing as is commanded in the Old Testament, (Lev 13:2-59) to the priests in Israel to declare the healing, but is met with the legalisms so many meet with today in the House of God: they do not attend at all to the healing, except for the way it was done, by whom, and why on the Sabbath day. They do not give thanks and glory to the LORD for such a miraculous healing, or rejoice that the LORD is among them, but instead look to 'get the guy who did it'.

John 5:12

What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed and walk?

1. They turn to accuse the Healer (the Messiah)
2. They accuse Him of a crime that doesn't exist
3. They seek strife on the Sabbath [Shabbat]

So really, they are the ones sinning against God: the crime doesn't exist!. It is wrong to work on the Sabbath in such a way that defiles the rest and quiet God gives to be alone with Him and rest from labor in joy and health, but it is nothing but the work of God to heal on the Sabbath, and it is 'ok' with God! Jesus points out later that it is not wrong to do good on Shabbat!

Mk 3:4
And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life or to kill?

They want to know who did this thing? but the healed man did not know, he just knew he believed.
And he that was healed wist not who it was; for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place John 5:13.

Note that Jesus did not stay for the accolades, Healing is to make whole not for reward, which is always rightfully his.

These men would have reversed the healing of 38 years of misery, just to win an argument. Don't we have them in the church today?

Sin No More: Can the Healing Be Undone?

There is though a small codicil of faith necessary for the healing to continue, direct from the Savior's mouth. Jesus finds the man later in the Temple, for it was of essence that the man come to know the Messiah:

Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. Jn 5:14

Jesus notes that there is a relationship between healing and sin. It was commonly known and believed that sin and healing were related: remember when the blind man was healed in the Temple, and the question Israel had for Jesus was 'who did sin, this man or his parents ?' (Jn 9:2) When the disaster of the tower of Siloam occurred, again the same question came up. Jesus there also noted that they did not sin more than others. Another time, Jesus notes that the reason for an infirmity was to show the Glory of God, so that illness and hardship and even disaster can be:

A. For no reason at all, other than natural occurrences
B. As a judgment from God
C. Because of Sin
D. To show the Glory of God

and that these things can occasionally overlap. Job, the perfect and upright man, finds all gone in a moment, including his health, for no sin. Daniel, dedicated to the LORD in the last days of Jerusalem before the exile, finds himself torn from his parents, and alone in captivity for most of the rest of his life, and so did Joseph at 17, but it was for the glory of God.

But sin and disease and healing CAN be related and must not be overlooked. We do not like as a society or even as a world today to receive such notions as the 'judgment of God', we somehow feel that a God of Love is just generally o.k. with our destroying his world and everything and everyone in it. Therefore we never repent, and the world is seldom healed. The Church at the end of the holocaust, millions of deaths later, looking the other way at best, debated whether Germany should really have to repent at Stuttgart. Here, however, Jesus is warning the healed man, to sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee' Jn 5:14.

The healing can be equated with Jesus' description of the casting out of devils or demons as in Luke 12:44-45

Then he said, I will return to my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty , swept and garnished. 45 Then goeth he and taketh with himself 7 other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

Devils and the Healed Person

This is not a popular teaching in a day when men consider themselves so sophisticated they can make it alone without God. Devils? We have 'psychology' whatever that is, and mental illness with diagnostic categories, not 'devils'. C.S. Lewis, in the Screwtape Letters, mentions that the greatest demonic strategy of Satan is for modern man not to believe he exists. So, professing to become wise, they become fools, and the foolishness of God surpasses the wisdom of man in a slight paraphrase.

In Luke 11:25, the process of 'casting out' a spirit or devil or demon is spoken of by the Messiah himself:

When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man he walketh through dry places, seeking rest and finding one he saith, I will return unto my house when I came out. 24 And when he come he findeth it swept and garnished.25, Then goeth he and taketh to him 7 other spirits more wicked than himself and he entered in and dwell thee and the last state of that man is worse than the first. John 24-26.

This passage also refers to the healing of the man at Bethesda and Jesus' warning. The nature of it is
1. The Spirit (causing the possession or infirmity) is cast out.
2. The spirit or devil 'walketh thru dry places
3 The devil 'seeketh rest'
4. Finding none (no rest for the wicked)
5 Seeks to return and
6. Finds the original host 'clean'.

The 7 plus 1 devils, overthrow the original host, and it is sin which has made it possible: returning to the practice or sin which caused the first possession to occur. The healing can be undone, and the last state worse than the first.

This also points to the process of devils and disease as well: the dissensioned state is one of 'overthrow'--whether in a person, a family, a city state or nation. Even the unbelieving existential psychologist Rollo May wrote about the phenomena psychological. He called the demonic anything which overpowered a person. When a person is then healed by God himself, if he chooses to go back to the state of distress, the result is seven fold worse, and that can be readily seen in persons who for example come to the LORD, live life in the LORD for a little while, sobering up, giving up drugs, adultery, gambling, or any of the thousands of things people are delivered of, and then, deciding it is easier (?) to live in the flesh they just quit and go back. Often, the latter state is worse than before they walked with the Lord.

It is just a small note, but the fact that devils find NO REST apart from a host person, shows a little of the nature of the demonic: restlessness, agitation, ill-ease, anxiety etc. In Hell, there are not 'hosts' to attach to so all live in a state of unrest. Nothing swept clean there. In short, the process of demonization is overthrow.

The healing of disease follows a similar patter when sin is antecedent, which we must assume in the case of the man at Bethesda, since he is told to 'sin no more'. Again though, sin is not always but often antecedent: sin can lead to natural causes of disease such as in smoking, drinking, etc, unclean habits can lead to septicemia, sin can lead to demonic activity as can be the case with stress and psychological disease, or sin can lead to disease as a chastisement.

Those who snub and ridicule the notion of all this also go without healing, and often lead chaotic, stressed , rushed painful lives without rest. Jesus, Yshua, Messiah is our rest and our peace, he is our healing, but we have to believe and receive. Until next time: many blessings, and no 'troubled waters'. ekbest

Healing: Part V: Healing of the Nations

We will return in this blog shortly, to a discussion of the different kinds of personal healing which are made manifest in Jesus' life on earth. Most of what we have discussed so far has been from the individual's perspective: physical healing, emotional healing, spiritual healing, healing and deliverance, and the Healing of the Cross. Before moving on though, to the particulars of the 'kinds' of personal healing, we stop to describe an aspect of scripture and teaching that in modern times has only been briefly alluded to, but is just as essential and works similarly in macrocosm to personal healing. The issue is the "Healing of the Nations".

The clearest scripture that deals with the "healing of the Nations is in Revelation:

Rev 22:2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, [was there] the tree of life, which bare twelve [manner of] fruits, [and] yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree [were] for the healing of the nations.

Healing and Deliverance: Part IV---Healing of the Cross

All healing, ALL really begins at Golgotha. There is surely no way around it. While even unbelievers can be healed by a Believer filled with the Holy Spirit, lasting, life-changing and permanent healing comes first with belief, and that at the Cross. We have already discussed why in has to begin there by the nature of the Atonement, the great Sacrifice, the great EXCHANGE which took place there.

When I was an unbeliever, and I was one of the more vocal, I dismissed all of the above as foolishness and nonsense. I was both humanist and pragmatist. I believed what I could see, touch, experience, and hear, and was not given to local Christians with southern accents in Gainesville telling me to 'get saved'---in fact, I believe that drove me far from the real Messiah. It took years to come to understand that there was a God, a wondrous God, and that He was not just a pantheistic 'notion' or Oversoul, but a real, living true life-breathing healing God. Both modern Jews and Christians, though they may have attended synagogue or church all their lives, first have to come to that 'revelation': that God, the God of Heaven, not one of man's conception is real, true and working in the world.

I came to understand surrender, though, and to understand what was done on that dark afternoon on Golgotha 2000 years ago. We were healed. When the veil rent, the partition between man and God was gone: we could walk again with Him in belief and with his righteousness instead of our own, in the communion which had not been seen since Eden. So among the tasks on the Cross which were accomplished were

1. Our Healing [by His Stripes we are healed]
2. Our Righteousness
3. Our Salvation- safety, oneness with God,
4. Deliverance, from Death-- 2 Cor 1:10
5. Deliverance from Hell and Everlasting Judgment
6. Deliverance from Satan [the destroyer]
7 Deliverance from the Power of Darkness

We have already discussed how the Stripes of his Cross healed us, it was the exchange which was to lead to ours: His life for ours. Righteousness, the gift of God we could never attain on our own, was a healing to what we would need to do, to be with God, to have life eternal, and to be 'fit' for His presence in Heaven. Even in the Old Testament, this concept of 'righteousness' is replete: the concept of it being a total GIFT from God that man could not earn, is not a 'Christian' concept, but a Jewish one---every passage dealing with righteousness in the Old Testament, shows it to be a gift of God, and not an earned quantity, because, our righteousness is not sufficient to ever match His. When through Jesus' [Yshua's] blood and death, the righteousness of God was imputed to us in divine mystery, it was again, the healing that brought us into wholeness: He was the cornerstone and plumbline bringing God's creation back into line, back into right order for the purpose it was intended, in Love. We talk so little about the love of God these days except in a general sense, but it is more than good works, caring for the poor, the lame, the hungry, blind, deaf and so on---it is the undeniable reaching out of perfect whole unadulterated Love by the perfect Spirit of God, for the imperfect: us. Not only are we "imperfect", but before 'regeneration', we are vile in His eyes, but He can see past to our healing, to the person we will become in Him. Given this healing, we are delivered to FREEDOM---the perfect law of Liberty.

Now if we are given to liberty, we are no longer under the bonds of darkness. Darkness in the Bible is a symbol of spiritual darkness and sometimes the occult or demonic activity, seen for example in the description in Zechariah:

Zec 11:17 Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword [shall be] upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.

or the description in Daniel of the Abomination of Desolations:

Daniel 8:23: a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.

The healing of 'deliverance from Darkness' is a powerful one: often physical healing and 'mental' or 'emotional' healing are tied up in this deliverance. The Modern Mind does not comprehend the notion of 'darkness' except perhaps in a metaphorical sense, but anyone who has confronted the occult, though they may not be very 'spiritual' has seen or felt at least some of what the Bible refers to. Even hard hearted hard core police officers investigating real cases of ritual abuse and worship report 'feelings' or a sense of something overpowering. I was trained in a Psychology Department at a major Southern University. 'Darkness' and the occult were almost never mentioned---in fact, just as God was considered the premiere 'off topic' conversation, the notion of a heaven or hell, or the existence of a real entity of evil, was considered laughable: we were all far too 'sophisticated' (a psychological term for spiritual blindness) for all of that. Yet still, in metaphor or out, even some Psychologists have noted the idea of 'evil' or darkness. The eminent existentialist, mentioned before, Dr. Rollo May wrote a series of essays on Psychology and the Demonic: he noted the concept within psychotherapy of something that 'overpowers' the person, that the person become controlled by or enslaved by, although he stopped short of religious views, and attributed it to primarily cognitive-emotional phenomena, e.g. depression. One particularly fine address in 1961 at the National APA [American Psychologist Association] given by the then head of the APA, reknown psychologist Murray was entitled "Psychology and Satan".

While it was the first [and perhaps last] keynote address of the APA which will be always remembered, the Chair made some remarkable points for a psychologist: He said, that " here is where our psychology comes in with...its prevailing views of human personality, its images of man obviously in league with the objectives of the NIHILISTIC SATANIC SPIRIT, Man is a computer, an animal, or an infant. His destiny is determined by genes, instincts, accidents early conditionings and reinforcements, cultural and social forces...there are no provisions for creativity,... for voluntary decisions... no power of ideals, no bases for selfless actions...if we psychologists were all the time, consciously or unconsciously intending out of malice to reduce the concept of human nature to its lowest common denominator, and were gloating over our successes in doing so, then we might have to admit that to this extent, the satanic spirit was alive within us" Murray, Past President APA 1965 Keynote Address.

So, at least in metaphor, 'darkness' and the occult and even the 'Satanic' spirit, exist in concept not only in lived faith, but in theology, psychology, and even philosophy, and believe it or not in the Legal System!!! Several cases which have involved the practice, for example of exorcism, when brought to court, had to establish the reality of 'possession', a widely held recognition across cultures and religions. [See : "the Exorcism of Emily Rose."]

Even outside of the Christian walk then, there is at least the notion, that 'whatever' spirit it is, even just sort of generic one, there is a wave of what we are referring to here as 'evil' or darkness---the popular author and psychologist Scott Peck, while his doctrine is somewhat secularized, gained fame by positing the unstated observation of many psychologists, that true 'evil' really does exist.^x

So then, darkness, and what the Bible refers to as 'the power of Hell' and Satan, while many in secular society today do not agree on the nature, most see at least the 'effect' in observation: police investigating ritualism, lawyers trying exorcisms, psychologists confronting sundry cases including ritual abuse and psychopathologies, theologians wrestling with the goodness of God, and even historians and ethicists trying to come to terms with the Shoah and other genocides.

Yet in the teachings about the healing and deliverance afforded us on God's Cross on Golgotha, we are promised that the obedience of the Messiah included power over darkness, over sin, over death, and over Satan.

Spiritual Darkness

What the Bible refers to as 'darkness' can run the gamut from unbelief, all the way to the 'dark' arts. Darkness is a theme which can be only momentarily expounded here, but which is frequently referred to in Scriptures, in both the Old and New Testament. 'Darkness' is mentioned in the beginning of the Creation when the world was 'dark and void' referring to a literal darkness, but also to a sense of 'nothingness', a juxtaposition of time and space without form or meaning, etc. Darkness is seen as part of the great judgment on Egypt when they would not allow Israel to go forth in the desert to worship God, and is part of the plagues, and the darkness then, intimating the great spiritual void of idolatrous Egypt in harming God's anointed people is mentioned as so great they could not see one another, which while meant literally, can be taken figuratively as well. Darkness is also mentioned in Psalms consistently as surrounding the place God dwells such as:

Psa 18:9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness [was] under his feet.
Psa 18:11 He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him [were] dark waters [and] thick clouds of the skies.

Darkness also intimates, interestingly, a lack of understanding, a sort of spiritual and mental void or confusion, and is equated with chaos and the world being out of equilibrium and 'not whole'

Psa 18:28 For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
Psa 82:5 They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.

Darkness is equated then with chaos, misunderstanding, reprobate conditions, and confusion and being less than whole.

It is also though eminently associated with dark arts and the occult: magic, and such and a darkened eye refers in several places in scripture to a person with unnatural power of an ungodly sort. Descriptions of the Anti-Christ in Daniel list this as a characteristic of the 'vile one' who arises to control the nations. The understanding of dark sentences is equated with the practise of the occult

Dan 8:23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.

Power Over Darkness

Healing comes in deliverance from 'darkness'. Colossians 1:13 says:

Col 1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated [us] into the kingdom of his dear Son:

Part of the healing process which occurred on the Cross, was the deliverance from darkness, and as the scripture above notes: the giving of power over the power of darkness. We may be healed, not in the flesh from 'darkness', but in the "new man", in which Christ, the Messiah is indwelling, [the Light] and is Master over the darkness: this may be a somewhat awkward way to say it, but it is nevertheless true, that the power of darkness of any kind: occultism, confusion, witchcraft, satanism or unbelief and chaos, are under the foot of the conquering Redeemer. We will turn to discuss the idea of the healing of mental and spiritual afflictions later, but for now we note that to be whole, a person who has allowed themselves to participate in dark arts, practices or 'states' is healed through being delivered from the 'power' of darkness, by a power greater than darkness:

John 1:5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

The light of Messiah is so great, and the accomplishment of healing of such magnitude on the Cross, that the powers of darkness at work in the world, cannot overpower the light of Christ, and are subject to His sovereignty.

Power Over Death

The premiere idea of Salvation, the healing and making right and whole of God and man his creation, the finished work on the Cross of Golgotha, is power over death. Believe it or not, this is not a new concept in the New Testament: the words O death, where [is] thy sting? O grave, where [is] thy victory? [1Cr 15:55 ]is found also in the Old Testament in Isaiah.

Isa 25:8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken [it].

The power over death is a reality we rarely get ahold of and yet that is what our blood bought faith is all about: a real transaction took place that day on the Cross: we were 'healed' or 'delivered' from DEATH. Before we are saved, the idea of death is of either a complete end or some shadowy fearful unknown. But the Great Exchange on the Cross, and the victory won there on that hill, was a literal putting underfoot of death: we will not die, but live, and we will live the eternal life of God, since Jesus, Yshua, the firstborn of Creation, placed even death under his feet.
When I was a younger researcher I was in a department where a couple of persons were studying 'death threat' or 'death anxiety': they looked at how fearful and tense persons were about the concept of death, their own and others. Most people are very fearful: even Christians, but that fear can be healed, in knowledge that when we are imputed with His life and righteousness, we are given Life as a gift: eternal life and what we call death becomes a mere doorpost. When we are delivered not only of the fear of death, but death itself, we are able then to live the rest of our lives in victory and surrender---but not until then. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the theologian and leader of the Confessing Church in the Shoah noted near his death that the "last temptation is hope". Until we reach for surrender to eternal life, we are always holding out and begging for 'one last chance at life'---the hope that we will escape death. The power of our life however is magnified immensely when we surrender even that hope and boldly take hold of the power of the New Life, the gift of Golgotha and the rich man's tomb: that even death could not provide a darkness so great that the power of God could not overcome it.

Power Over Satan

Satan is a created being: he is not a competing 'god'. He was originally among the Angels or ministering spirits although a vaguely described war took place in Heaven and a third of the angels fell in rebellion against the sovereignty of God. The hows and whys, or the attempt to make sense to the contemporary unbelieving mind, is almost impossible, it is an issue of faith. There is however a definitive, divine battle which goes on unseen except in effect behind natural contentions. In Daniel, for example, an angel is detained for weeks because he says he had to confront the Prince of Persia: a 'principality' or power in a hierarchy of powers which are behind the national workings of this world. Satan has power in this world, but it has limits, and can be overpowered by the blood of Christ, the Word of God and "loving not one's life unto death". He is a defeated foe, but a real adversary. C.S. Lewis, a former agnostic, became a great Christian apologist and author and in the Screwtape Letters notes that unbelief in Satan is one of his greatest accomplishments: he prefers it, that His power may abide. The unbelief in a real 'Satan'--mostly because he has been trivialized into a cartoon character, is the reason for defeat in many Christian lives. He is all that opposes Christ, the Messiah, the Prince of the Covenant [Sar B'rit]. We have no victory over him until we have a power greater than him in us:

"Greater is he that is in us, than he who is in the world".

This part of healing and understanding the deliverance from the adversary of souls, is essential, because it means that we are not enslaved to what his power can do in our lives, and it is monstrous: there is a way out. It means there is recourse, even when we confront the terrible destructions he is capable of wreaking on nations and persons. Madeleine L'Engle in a novel "Wind in the Door" describes the process in metaphor as 'un-naming' and uses the name 'ecthroi', for the destroyer. The things in life, such as loss and horror which leave us in utter despair can be his work: our power over them, and hence healing, lies in our knowledge and belief, of the indwelling power of the HOly Spirit: dunamous, which grants us God's authority over even Satan.

Power Over Hell

Lastly, the Power Over Hell, is in line with the power over death and Satan: once our citizenship or conversation is in the Kingdom of Heaven, we are not going to Hell, the entropy which lasts forever. Our fear of death is a fear of what happens next, and when we are encompassed in our own flesh and sinfulness, without Christ, we cannot rest easy even if we seldom consider hell or heaven. Today, in the slight belief that is out there, there is a very erroneous assumption that all are going to heaven because God is Good. This is not the teaching of the Torah or the Gospel: both teach the need to abide in God. While God is a god of Love, He is also a God of Justice: and the wicked, and those who choose unbelief, enter at death by their choosing and His assignment, a place of intense suffering. One has to have the indwelling life of God inside at death: what is of God will go to live in the presence of God, in bliss, and what is apart from God, will live apart from God in eternity. It is not a matter of what we think is 'fair' but of what actually will happen. Jesus showed such power on earth that we can hardly doubt that His knowledge of the afterlife is in error, and He taught about hell, warning that it was better to go limbless than to suffer there. His concern was so great, that He willingly laid down his life for the Way out. His call away from that suffering, pain and diseased state, condition and place was continuous: He could see beyond the limits of earthly life. Once we are healed via the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we have rest and peace: death and hell, Satan and the powers of hell can no longer harm us. It is a place of surrender, which affords us the ability, even when facing the most horrible events of life, to be healed and whole, while others fragment and find twisted adaptations to this life. The healing is so great, we can face a willing death in peace.

Healing of Deliverance

IN the last study we talked about one of the first definitional 'mainstays' of Healing: being made 'whole', and the idea of wholeness and perfection in a state of 'equilibrium' which is 'as God created it to be'. The fragmenting or dissolution of that 'right' state necessitates healing, and the dunamos power of God, brings back the compromised person or thing to its 'right state'. While that sounds a little 'jargon-laden', the previous study shows it to be Biblically correct.

The second 'mainstay' of healing is Healing as deliverance, or deliverance as healing.
When we are delivered from something we are

1) Made safe
2) Turned from distress to peace
3) returned from instability to stability
4) Turned from fear to a lack of fear
5) Turned from a captive state to a free state

Safety we understand, most of us covet it: we seek to be free from danger and trouble and save for a few we like to be apart from feelings of insecurity and distress. Distress characterizes a need for deliverance, we do not like to feel apart from a sense of well-being. When we enter in to states of "dis-ease", whether they are physical or emotional, we immediately look for ways to return to an equilibrium. Likewise, when we are in need of 'deliverance' we are in a state which is 'unstable'-
our course is not certain, our path not clear. Our condition is unsettled and could go more than one way. Fearfulness characterizes the undelivered: we feel in danger---in real life circumstances there are often real objects of fear, in cognitive and emotional states wanting deliverance, the anxiety which is often experienced is an undefined fear as well. When we are delivered of these states, virtual or what the world calls 'psychological', or even spiritual, we cease from fear. Further, when we are need of deliverance, we are not free, whether it be a 'real-world' experience or an internal one. A great hallmark of deliverance is the sensation and state of being free, for when we are bound by a lack of it, we feel anything but free: we also, simultaneously feel unable to make decisions and plans so beset by whatever is before us causing the harm.

Healing and Deliverance

As we talked about a return to wholeness characterizing the Healing of the LORD, we turn not to a totally separate aspect of healing, but a concomitant one. Deliverance as healing can take the form of:

1. Deliverance from disease and malfunction, spiritual, mental or physical
2. Deliverance from Others and danger
3. Deliverance from sin, death and Hell

DELIVERANCE [HEALING] from DISEASE AND MALFUNCTION

When we get sick, we want to get well, when we face a life-threatening illness, we want to go back to the way things were before: we wish to be safe, content, and the same as we have always been.

Our most familiar repeated prayer, the "Our Father" contains a reference to the deliverance from a spiritual adversary: 'temptation' or trial, :

Deliver us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil

That famous passage points to a setting free, and hence, making whole and right the person from the danger which confronts them. In this case, it is the danger of righteousness falling to 'sedition'--of coming undone and being shattered with wrong choices. Deliver us from trials and temptations we pray, that we might continue in a whole state. Most of the time it is good to seek back the state at rest, but occasionally, God confronts us with trials and temptations, even evil, for many reasons, e.g. to try our faith, or to lead us to a higher state of being and relationship with Him. This is at the heart of modern discussions of 'why bad things happen to good people' or why bad things happen at all---one of the reasons is the re-forming of the person into something better by what scriptures call the 'furnace of affliction'. It is like a physical breaking a bone to reset it, so that it can heal properly, for if he allowed the natural growth in the condition it was in, it could cause the limb not to work properly later.

to be continued....