The Troubling of the Waters: Jesus Heals at Bethesda

prophIntro-enhancements.mp3

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 from Death: The Resurrection and the Life, Raises the Dead

We know when Jesus said in John 14:6, that he was "The Way, The Truth and The Life", and that "no man cometh unto the Father but by me", that He was speaking no small truth. That statement looks so simple, with three descriptors of the Lord and Savior, that he is the 'Way'- in which all must walk to dwell in the Lord, and He is the Way to heaven, that He is the Truth, and we think we know what that means but it envelopes the Word of God, the Plan of God , the Salvation of God, the Doctrine of God and the light shining on 'the way it really is', and we at least once a year at Easter say he is the "Life", and we tell the story, which for too many has grown into a glorified 'myth' of how the stone was rolled and he rose from the dead.
Raising People from the Dead

While all the books in the world could not get to the bottom of John 14:6, or the fullness of the name Jesus calls himself in that passage, the most remarkable and the most neglected, is that He is the "Life". In these studies on Healing, and what Jesus, or Yshua did when he healed, how he healed, what he said, and the many other aspects of healing, the most remarkable 'healing' was that of raising four people in the Bible from death to life, and then 'taking captivity captive' by rising from the dead, near the end of His earthly ministry, an idea which receives very little sermon time. Why? because the truth is, most Christians nod in agreement to the Resurrection, but do not understand the fullness of what Jesus meant when He said He was the 'Resurrection and the Life'. But if he had not been the 'Resurrection and the Life', there would have been no Salvation, no healing, no gifts of the Holy Spirit, and we would have only a dead faith, with the memory of a Martyr who believed in love. Yshua, Jesus, however, was Love and Life, not just in a metaphorical sense but in a divine sense, a super-natural sense, and the power of God, seen even today in those who will follow true, is the continuing prima facie evidence of Jesus, our Life, and Resurrection, the Power of God, and the evidence of the Life which will continue after death before Him.

Yshua, The Resurrection and the Life

In the Gospel of John, Jesus declares that he is the Resurrection and the Life, and those he speaks to have under-estimated the resurrection thinking it refers only to an ethereal future event in which both the Torah and New Testament teach that all will rise.

esus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.

Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. John 11:23-27

It is not that they did not believe, nor even fail to understand that He is the Messiah (Christ is the same as 'Messiah'), and that Messiah is the Son of God, long waited for, but there is a distance between the cognitive understanding, and before-pentecost trust, and the trust which came after the Resurrection of the Messiah. 'I agree' is what the sisters say, but they still grieve, yet they are about to see something so startling, that it calls them outside the complacency of expected daily events.

God's Power and the Healing from Death

They had seen Jesus heal so many they could not be counted already. They knew he was the power and presence of God, and had adjusted to this divine event in theirs and other's lives. God's power had been shown before in Israel: Moses had raised a staff and waters parted to the Sinai desert, he threw his rod down before Pharaoh and it turned into a serpent, he cast a stick into the bitter waters of Marah and they turned sweet, and Elijah had brought back a dying or just dead child, and increased the oil and flour for a widow and her son, and throughout the wars of Israel, when the Children of Israel trusted in their God, many battles were won without lifting a weapon. {Occasionally God has one lift a finger].

Jesus, Yshua, however, had come at an appointed time, and dumbfounded the hierarchy of the Sanhedrin and Rome. They accused him of gluttony, drunkardness, wantoness, breaking the Sabbath, mental problems, and even being demonic, and He never argued back, He just continued to heal, teach, preach and prophesy, and show the Kingdom of Heaven as no other one had ever done before. They became so angry at the clear manifestation of the Messiah, that their one desire became His overthrow and death, wanting only to go back to 'the way things were'. But here was the power of God, walking around Israel, literally, taking down unbelief like Joshua [yshua, also] took down Jericho, and like Gideon took down the Midianites. [See warsofisrael.com].


The Power of God and healing from the Dead

Several in the Bible are mentioned as having been 'healed from death' or coming back from the dead, and most are by Jesus in the New Testament. Elijah heals the widow of Zarapheth's son after doing them well. The son at a later visit is sick unto death. The woman is concerned that her child has fallen sick because of some failing of her own, but as Jesus noted in a later healing, some sicknesses are for 'chastisement' but some for the showing of the Glory of God.

I Kings 17:18 And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thous man of God" art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son?

The widow, as many of all times, believes that the calamity and death of her son is her own doing, a sin, a failing, a curse, something she had done wrong. But the world is a Divine Battle, always with elements of the Curse of the Fall and the demonic confronting and battling against the ways of God and the people of God. There are real instances when bodily or mental 'sickness' comes about because of something we do: sometimes it is merely a natural consequence: e.g. wanton behavior may result in disease, over-consumption of alcohol may destroy the liver. Other times, disease and death may come from environmental factors which we have little control over: bacteria causes septicemia, radiation causes radiation poisoning, and many factors are suspected to be carcinogenic. Whether we develop diseases or handicaps because of these are accidents are partially because the world can be a hazardous place, and while God is sovereign over all, few fail to walk so close to Him to always hear warnings about what to eat or not eat, or where to live or other considerations. When we end up outside of God's will, fences do indeed come down, and a variety of worldly harms can enter in. We tell our children not to heed or speak to strangers, yet tragedy after tragedy arises when some do. It is not that we do not protect them, or take care of them, but there are the twists of life that lead us sometimes unknowingly outside of that protection, and so it is with God's ways.

In this passage, though, there is no specific reason given why the child became ill unto death. In the passage in the new Testament regarding the death of Lazarus , Jesus remarks,

Jhn 11:4 When Jesus heard [that], he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

God himself designed the moment, so to speak, not 'inflicting' and 'afflicting' (although it is not out of his ability to do that too), for as Jeremiah speaks, "he doth not willingly afflict the children of men". God's wrath is real, and he sometimes directs harsh judgment to His world, but it is to satisfy his nature of Justice, for although He is so much a loving God that the New Testament states "God is Love", His nature did not change from Old to New Testament, and Jesus Christ is still "the same yesterday , today and tomorrow'.

But Jesus IS LIFE, so to some degree, it is easier to understand that He can give or take life, and less easier to comprehend when He puts it in the hands of His Prophets and Healers. In the New Testament, though, the power of God, the dunamous power of the Holy Spirit INDWELLS the believer, and obedience to the commands, ways and words of the LORD, lead us to understand and practice the gifts of the Holy Spirit such as healing. Healing even from death, is still just as possible for the God whose name is the Way, Truth and the Life as ever, for it was even done in the instance of Elijah and the son in Zerapheth as then or now. God's breath gives life, and it has since the beginning. God's Word is life, and the disposing of the number of our days are His.

Providence, and Raising of the Dead

Does this mean that if we only get 'right' enough with God that we will live disease free, and go on living this earthly life without end, or even to the fullness of a normal lifespan? No, not really, for the Sovereignty of God is bigger than that. When we pray our wishes and wants constantly, without regard for God's will, we too often get what we want, only to our detriment. I heard the story once in a sermon of a mother whose child was about to die, and in despair, she cried to God and said, "You can't have him!" The son recovered but became anything but a blessing, into crime and drugs, etc, and died, unsaved. It is a hard truth which we all rebel against, that not just the 'outcome' of life is at hand, but whether or not a life should last, for example, indefinitely. This is not the euthanasia issue, but one of surrender to God in His wisdom. Some live on, deadly incident after deadly incident, while others, turn their head slightly and a blood vessel bursts. Our job is not to end life, but to bear the understanding of God having his way. I worked with parents who had infants die for many years. Is there anything more seemingly unjust than a stillbirth? Yet those tiny lives often accomplish more in changing hearts then some old men and women dying in their 90s. It is what God wills, and to turn back again to the Widow's son, or Lazarus, or the little maid, or the Widow of Nain's son, whether it was deserved, by accident, or set apart for the glory of God, to show God's work in the world, it is i his hands and discernment is called for so as not to blame the victim of tragedy. Job's circumstance and the lengthy discourse of whys and wherefores regarding why God would allow a just man to go through all that Job went through, the loss of children, house, belongings, health, and a wife turning from faith so much as to tell Job to curse God and die, the discourse is about

whether Job did wrong, although the total answer can be summed up by one declaration:

Job 19:25-7 For I know [that] my redeemer liveth, and [that] he shall stand at the latter [day] upon the earth:
And [though] after my skin [worms] destroy this [body], yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; [though] my reins be consumed within me.

So back to Elijah, after some explanation, the Widow's son has died, as evidence by 'no breath left in him, an(vs17) and by Elijah being asked if he was come to slay the son, and when healed, the note that his 'soul' returned.

1Ki 17:20-24 And he cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?
And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again.
And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.
And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth. And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou [art] a man of God, [and] that the word of the LORD in thy mouth [is] truth.

Note a few things about the above passage:

1. The child has died, but a reason is not given
2. Elijah takes a 3 fold 'prophetic stance' for the child's restoration
3. Elijah's prayer is for the 'child's soul to come into him again.

The result is the revival of the child.

It was custom and tradition in ancient Israel, that by the 4th day after death, the soul was completely gone, and could not return under any circumstances. This is important, as here in this 'well before Pentecost' raising from death, it was at or near the time of death, and the action was of a prophetic stance or prayer. God actually did the healing by request 'restoring' the child's soul.


New Testament Raising from the Dead

In the New Testament, there are several times beside Jesus' resurrection, when Israelite were raised from the dead. These include the Widow of Nain's Son, healed on the bier (Luke 7), and the 'Little Maid' to whom Jesus called 'Talitha Cume' [Little maid arise], and Lazarus most notably. Dorcas is raised in Acts after Pentecost. The healing from Death, though must be seen as something more than mere healing of which thousands of instances were spoken of. All of the other types of healing we have looked at in these studies: the healing of deafness, dumbness, blindness, lunacy, and demonic possession, are instances of restoring a distorted condition back to a whole and excellent state. Raising the dead, though, involved
reinstating Life back into the person, so the dynamic is a little different.
In the next section regarding 'Healing From Death', we will look at the New Testament instances of the most phenomenal Restoration of life.

His Eyes were Blind, He could not See...Bar Timaeus

"And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus , the son of Timaeus sat by the highway side begging."

I would like to begin "in those days" as though the blind no longer have to beg, but the truth is, physical blindness today, is often treated just as inhumanely now as back then: we have a sort of "chrono-centricity" in which we think we are far advanced and more 'mature' than back in the first century a.d. but the truth is, if anything, while our technology has grown, our hearts have stayed the same, or perhaps grown even more cold and brutal.

As the disciples and Jesus came to Jericho (and went out of Jericho*) they encounter a blind beggar by the name "Bar-Timaeus", or son of Timaeus. That day, they were in no small number, and 'blind bartimaeus' would probably have gone unnoticed to another crowd of this size, but when Bartimaeus heard that it was "Jesus of Nazareth", Yshua the "nazarim" something in his spirit caused him to 'cry out'. Before the healing, before even the gaze of the Lord turned to him, he cried out something rather unusual, for a Jewish beggar with no sight---not 'help me', nor 'give me something', but

"Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me." 10:47

Eager to calm the crowds and hustle and bustle, many charged him to be quiet, after all, the real Jesus of Nazareth was at hand, and seemingly to many, if he were the Messiah, he would have no time to deal with this poor blind man, whom most saw as the bottom rung of the social ladder of Israel. This encounter has been written of no doubt thousands of times, but the healing often gets little more than a brief pause, and the 'cry' of an Israeli beggar for his Lord and Savior, receives almost none.

The more they tried to stop him, the more he continued in his plea and purpose [like much of Israel], he cried out "all the more"

"Thou son of David, have mercy on me."

Why did the blind man call out son of David? The title "Son of David" is mentioned exactly 23 times, 9 in the Old testament. The titles 'son of Man', son of the Blessed, son of Adam, and son of God as well as son of the most High and others are also mentioned.....to be continued when the thieves are gone.


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note 1: skeptics sometimes point to this passage as an 'error' for how could Jesus be coming and going to the same place. Do a little research and find out why this is no error!

The Light of the World Heals the Blind-Belief and Unbelief

Of all the healing Jesus, or Yeshua did, the one most tied to his Messiahship was that of opening the eyes of the blind. Even more than that, the one true mark of Messiah would be that he could heal one born blind since birth. Blindness caused at a later age, while robbing the person of sight, was often from disease or accident, and even the healing of that though miraculous could always have been assigned to some unknown process correcting itself. IN all of Israel however, no one had been healed of blindness since birth, and the equation of physical and spiritual blindness is readily apparent: The Light of the World, came to open eyes, hearts, ears and minds in more ways than one.

There are many instances mentioned of Jesus healing the blind in the Holy Scriptures, and they are far fewer than the number he actually healed: it is mentioned that if all the works he did were reported, there would not be enough room in all the books in the world: God is a rather prolific author of healing and other works of grace. Further, the people of Israel recognized that the true "Son of David", another name for Messiah, would heal one blind since birth in addition to others, for in one instance (Mt 12:22) after healing one possessed, blind and dumb, the people responded,

"And all of the people were amazed and said "is this not the Son of David."

Jesus and the Man Born Blind Since Birth

While other healings of the blind will be attended to later, the study here will focus on the healing in the Temple of the man born blind since birth in John 9. This healing of blindness above others is unique and intricate: there is far more than merely correcting or restoring vision, but instead a discourse between the Light of the World and the Blindness of the World, between Religion and Relationship with God, between Unbelief and belief.

LIGHT OF THE WORLD

Jesus begins, by attributing to himself yet one more name, 'the Light of the World' which is also an 'office' of Messiah. He has not just come to BRING light into the world, he has come AS Light in the World. There is a metaphorical allusion to day and night as well:

"I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is DAY; the NIGHT cometh, when no man can work. 9:4

Night and Day

Blindness is equated then with night and sight with day. Jesus dies as evening approaches, and rises with the break of the third day. Psalms reports darkness at the outer reach of glory

He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him [were] dark waters [and] thick clouds of the skies.Psalm 18:11

and sinners, in the end, in unbelief and non-acceptance of God's 'way out', are cast to outer darkness.

Mat 25:30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

While there are many references to day and night in the Bible, these are eminent, along with the plague of darkness which fell on Egypt, a type of the world, when Pharaoh refused to let the Children of Israel go free.

And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. Exodus 10:22-23.

The darkness and light of the Bible, the day and night, and vision and blindness, are all mentioned similarly with differing emphasis. While the literal darkness, night, and blindness have literal meanings, they point likewise to unbelief, not just cognitive unbelief or conversely for day and light, belief, but the unbelief of the soul. That is the point of the divine battle always, and is the pivotal choice of eternal life.

THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD HEALS DARKNESS

All of this is essential to understand in the healing of the man born blind since birth, for Jesus had come not only to do the one healing, but to make a major point to Israel and her leaders regarding belief, and light and day, and an Israel which would live in full worship of God in the Light of the Day. Following the discourse on night, Jesus says

As long as I am in the world, I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.[my emphasis] 9:5

We will see three principles emerge in the healing:

1. The man was blind from birth, and it was a DIVINE APPOINTMENT-for the purpose of showing the glory of God.
2. The Blind condition was equated with sin, at least sometimes.
3. The Blind condition and sin were seen as ancestral.

The equation of blindness with sin , perhaps committed byhis parents or himself showed the view of blindness as punishment. Jesus corrects that view at least in this case:

"Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. 9:3.

The work was an APPOINTMENT, an ANOINTING, waiting for the time of Christ, set apart since the beginning: it was a healing ensign, of God opening the eyes of Israel, blind since birth, to the degree of his love and salvation.

The HEALING
Right after making it clear, that he, the Messiah was the light of the World, the healing takes place:

9:6 When he had thus spoken he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle

and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.

It is announced right on the doorstep of the great healing which will confirm him as messiah. The Light of the World opens the eyes of the blind.

In the performing of the miracle, first the LORD speaks: as noted in another healing, a healing requires nothing more than the LORD speaking as when the centurion intercedes for his servant , 'only speak the word'.

Jesus next mixes spittle and clay. Here is the potter and the vessel, and he has a little repair work to do. Adam was drawn from the clay, and Jesus, the Creator is using clay to restore this created vessel at a point in time. Lastly he "anoints'
the eyes of the blind man: the sight which will be given all Israel is tied up in the healing of this man. This blindness had a purpose during all the years when its anointing could not be seen.

Jesus Speaks

"and he said unto him, Go and wash in the pool of Siloam
which is by interpretation 'sent'.

The command of the LORD is the only effort required, although there is a physical means, and the obedience to the command results in the healing. The passage continueds

He went his way, therefore and washed and came seeing.

The otucome of obedience is sight on two levels, for the man will now see much. The healing of the blind since birth was a first in Israel and heralded the presence of the Messiah (in part II we will see, that Jesus definitively declares, he is indeed the Messiah.)

IN 9:8-9, immediately after this hitherto unseen miracle, the first reaction of onlookers is to question the miracle, remarkable since the immediate difference was seen:

Some said, This is he: others said He is like him; but he said, I am he.

The observers weren't even sure it was the same man: they had nothing to compare the opening of always dead eyes to.

Therefore they said unto him How were thine eyes opened?

The response of the healed man, speaks for centuries for all Israel, for all believers:

He answered and said,

A man that is called Jesus made clay
and anointed mine eyes
and siad unto me
'Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash' and I went and washed
and I received sight.

Amazing Grace how sweet the sound...was blind, but now I see. Here is the response of all believers to the cynical:

I don't know how he has opened my eyes, I don't know how he has saved me, I don't know how his power and love abides in me know through the indwelling of the HOly Spirit, I don't know HOW one man dying on a Cross can be born of a virgin and carry all sin to the cross and put it to death once and for all, I don't know, but I have seen it, and it was Jesus.

The crowd immediately seeks to find Jesus at the wonder, but the healed does not know for the moment where he has gone. 9:12.

Following the prescription set forth in Leviticus, the healed man was brought to the priests, in this case the Pharisees (13)

Darkness Creeps in

Immediately following the great light of the healing and belief, the divine battle steps up to plate again, and Unbelief makes it's attempt on dismissing the Messiah and the Miracle. Their first strategy is the strategy of all religionists: fault-finding and nitpicking. The target is Shabbat: the Sabbath day, in which there is to be no servile work.

9:14 And it was the Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes.

Shabbat is a day of rest, worship and light : a perfect day for the blind to be healed for both Old and New Testament teach that it is not wrong to do good on the Sabbath. But the Pharisees needed Jesus to be a sinner to make their argument: in their eyes, bending down obtaining clay and mixing it with spittle was work. Back in those days, some argued that even eating the egg of a chicken which was laid on Shabbat, should be forbidden as it caused the chicken work. While there was an intense effort to obey God's commands concerning the day of rest, [I observe the Sabbath rest failing only a little once in a long while], the rules and nitpicking can rob the day of joy, which was supposed to be an integral effect of the day. The Pharisees did not perfectly obey either: Jesus at another passage refers to an ox being pulled out of ditch so that even a Pharisee would not lose the animal or cause suffering or monetary loss as being o.k. on the Sabbath, but here they did not want a man to receive sight from God on the Shabbat due to a technicality! Not even a sin, but an interpretation of what work was. They exhibit another characteristic of religious unbelief:
Condemnation, an overly critical nature of everyone and everything, and even a murderous spirit. In the face of a miracle they see only minute details to condemn and do not attend to the wonder. We have all met these folks in Christian circles: we have even tended to it ourselves at certain times: we have both an obligation to keep doctrine accurate and excellent without dissension, but to also be filled with grace, peace and love. It is the extremes though that kill faith: not of the person trying hard to obey for themselves, but in the people who will not let others live and breathe without an analysis.

The man born blind explains the course of his healing by Jesus to the Pharisees, and true to form, their response is Condemnation.

Therefore, said some of the Pharisees,

This man is not of God
because he keepeth not the Sabbath Day[he was the Sabbath]

Others said,
"How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles?

And there was division among them.

___________________________________


1.The Pharisees immediately without much investigation condemn
2.Pharisees cause strife and division where there is none
3. Pharisees commit condemnation on the Shabbat or Sabbath, a serious sin,
accompanied by slander, and yet worry about mixing clay and spittle for a once
in a lifetime healing.


The nature and course of the healing has been described in this short study. We notice
I.that it occurs on Shabbat, that it is a first,
II. that it is a sign of Messiah, and
III.that it is a physical portrayal of the Light of the World granting light and vision where none was before.

In the next study, we examine the divine importance of this great healing of the blind, and then will continue later with other healings of other blindmen in Israel.

Blessings from Elizabeth K. Best
Director, Judah's Glory
"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life,
and no man cometh unto the Father but by me." John 14:6

See Judahsglory.com/biblestudies.html and other Bible studies at warsofisrael.com and propheteuo.blogspot.com and housethatwillnotdie.blogspot.com.

Jesus Calls Out a Deaf and Dumb Spirit

We usually think in this culture, of deaf and dumb as going together, and being totally of a physical origin. We reason that if one cannot hear, then it only stands to reason that one will have difficulty speaking. The idea though of 'a deaf spirit' seems foreign to the modern mind, which has great difficulty comprehending a divine battle which includes 'entities' such as demons which take a person partly or wholly captive.Oddly, though, we have already mentioned that even in the realm of secular unbelieving Psychology, the concept of the demonic, rather differently defined exists. The example used prior is that of Rollo May's concept of 'the Demonic in Psychotherapy' in which he defines 'demonic' as any process which overpowers and controls the person to the hampering or exclusion of free will. The observation of 'possession' has existed in Church history from the beginning though, and the 'modernization' of the concept of the demonic actually supports the idea and observation, but the teachings of Jesus were definitive that the 'power' which controls and intrudes was that of a demon spirit, while the modern concept attributes it to some unknown , hopefully explainable process.

Deaf and Dumb

In the New Testament, most deaf are mentioned as also dumb, and as being possessed or controlled by a spirit or demon (devil), but interestingly, blind and dumb appear as cohorts frequently also---perhaps the greatest implication there supports the idea of a supernatural control, because there would certainly be no rational physical common cause of blindness and dumbness. While we will look at Jesus' healing of the blind shortly, and the implications, we shall continue for now considering Jesus' healing of the deaf and/or dumb, by a 'calling out' of the Spirit. He uses a word, "Epaphratah" in one calling out, which many who study the Bible read once or twice and never consider beyond the Aramaic, but it points to an aspect of Jesus' ministry which few address: the keyholder, with the keys to all, opens and closes and it is in his sovereign power likewise to open eyes, ears and hearts as well as Heaven and Hell. How could a grave contain, the one with the Keys?

The Structure of Jesus Calling out the Deaf and Dumb Spirit
In Mark 9:20-23, a Child is brought to Jesus for healing and consideration, notable because the child was a) brought to his attention by the disciples and b) because the disciples could not heal the child. Says the Scriptures:

And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming.
And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child.
And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.
Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things [are] possible to him that believeth.

The passage notes that

A. The Spirit tore him
B. He fell on the ground
C. He 'wallowed foaming'
D. Jesus asks the father 'how long' and the reply remarks of a child 9:21b
E. It casts him
1. into the Fire
2. into the Waters and
F. It is destructive and seeks to destroy.

One of the first characteristics of the 'possession' or control of the boy is that the disciples, as mentioned could not heal the boy, and they asked Jesus about it. They had already been able in his power and name to call out demons and heal, but this boy did not respond. Jesus suggests prayer and fasting, as a remedy, but, the characteristic which stands out is that when the father of the boy is quieried, as to how long the boy has been in the 'condition' he remarks 'of a child' in other words, since the boy was very young, so the hold on the child was of a lengthy period, and one must assume that the spirit which had bound the child was deeply entrenched. Later in Scripture, Jesus refers to a spirit cast out and the 'house being swept clean', but that if allowed to enter in again, the posession is seven times worse. Just as the Holy Spirit abides in us for the good, for salvation, healing, wholeness, and order, the longer one walks in the Holy Spirit, obeys God's word and stays in it and keeps in surrender and obedience, the person grows strong in the LORD, and more powerful in the gifts of the Holy Spirit which are unencumbered. We see Christ more in the person as a result. But conversely, especially in an unsaved person, when a demonic force enters and takes control, leaving the person with no 'divine' support or opposition, it 'encamps' and sets up a stronghold. Sin is often the entrance point. Some who have dabbled in the occult will report black moods, or odd occurrences in their life even some time after the 'dabbling'. Demonic spirits, or as the New Testament refers to them 'devils' set up shop, so to speak, inhabit, 'arrange' the furniture in metaphor, and a lengthy time of no opposition can produce real physical symptoms.

This is no doubt a troublesome and unpopular point of view for those not immersed in the Scriptures, but it is a clear teaching.

Mat 12:43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth [it] empty, swept, and garnished.
Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven 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.

more to follow....

Healing of Messiah: Types of Healing: I Deaf and dumb

---

The Healing of Messiah

We have recently been considering the 'Healing of Nations', the groundwork of which we have laid and will continue at another time, but we turn now to the Healing of the Person, and the types of Healing that Jesus , Yshua conducted in His earthly ministry. In the Old Testament, in Isaiah 61, the pronouncement is made of what the earthly ministry of Messiah, the King of Israel will contain, and it is reaffirmed in the reading of Jesus in the Temple at the beginning of his ministry, with miracles as signs and affirmations of His Messiahship:

Isaiah 61:

The Spirit of the Lord GOD [is] upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to [them that are] bound;To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

Luk 4:17-9 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

It is very clear that from the beginning, one of the roles and declarations of Messiahship was HEALING, and deliverance from the many forms of captivity, which include what we now call 'psychological' bondages but which were recognized in the 'divine battle' as 'imprisonments'. It is interesting to note that even in modern psychology, the concept of the 'demonic' has been reintroduced by such an eminient psychologist as Rollo May, who defined it secularly as something --an event, person, emotion, state which so overpowers a person as to control him or her. So the phenomena are observed even today, though the defintions differ.

The Healing of the Person is seen in scripture as healing of the Deaf and Dumb, the Healing of the Lame, of the Blind and of the Demonically possessed, along with leprosy and other conditions. Healing of the Deaf and Dumb, while easily ascribed to 'healing' is almost more of a deliverance, from captivity, or from a possession of an unclean spirit. Deafness and dumbness often are seen hand in hand as those deaf find speaking difficult, but oddly, blindness and dumbness are mentioned together in scripture especially when the malady of ascribed to possession. The Greek word 'Kophos' is used to describe both referring to a bluntness or dullness in hearing or speaking, a lameness of tongue.

There had been healings before Jesus the Messiah came to Israel: Elijah healed the widow of Zarepheth's son, and Naman sought healing from the Prophet, Miriam was given leprosy and had it removed and so did Moses, and so on, but out in public right before Israel's eyes type healings were a new thing, and they accompanied the teaching of the Kingdom of God in such a powerful way that none could ignore.

Types of Deafness

Deafness and Dumbness both are thought of in Scripture to be both literal and figurative: One deaf may be

1. Physically deaf
2. Spiritually Deaf
3. Deaf to the World, as in the idea of a 'deaf' Messiah, deaf to all that is not God's way.

Consider the following passages:

Exodus 4:11 "whoh maketh the dumb or deaf or the seeing or the blind? have not I the LORD [the Lord has sovereignty over deafness, blindness and dumbness"]

Psy 38:13 But I as a deaf man heard not and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth....14 Thus I was as a man that heareth not."

Is 29:8 In that day shall the deaf hear [physical deafness, sign of Messiah]
Isaiah 35:5 ...ears of the deaf unstopped." {"}
Isaiah 42:18 "Hear ye deaf"---[spiritual deafness]
Isaiah 42:19-Who [is] blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger [that] I sent? who [is] blind as [he that is] perfect, and blind as the LORD'S servant? [the 'deaf' Messiah?]
Isaiah 43:8 bring deaf that have ears...
Mt 7:16 their ears shall be deaf...

The Messiah Heals the Deaf

In Matthew 11:5, when the servants of John the Baptist are sent to ask Jesus if he is the Messiah or should they look for another, he replies with the following:

T

he blind receive their site and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the DEAF hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them...

and in Luke 7:22

Go your way and tell John what things you have seen and heard. how that the blind see and the lame walk , the lpers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to he poor, the gospel is preached...

It is clear that one of the signs of Messiahship was the ability in the full view of Israel to heal the deaf and heal all these others.

Deaf and Dumb

While deaf and dumb are most often mentioned together coming from the same word, it is interesting to noted that occasionally dumbness is associated also with BLINDNESS in the New Testament:

Then was brough unto him one possessed with a devil, BLIND AND DUMB...Mt 12:22.

mT 15:30-31 describes all sorts of infirmities being cast at Jesus's feet for healing, lame blind, dumb, maimed and many others. The healing of these diseases and unclean spirits and the making whole of dissensioned lives and spirits was a sign of Christ's compassion, and His empathy for the hurting in Israel.

more to follow....

Healing of Messiah: Types of Healing: I Deaf and dumb

---

The Healing of Messiah

We have recently been considering the 'Healing of Nations', the groundwork of which we have laid and will continue at another time, but we turn now to the Healing of the Person, and the types of Healing that Jesus , Yshua conducted in His earthly ministry. In the Old Testament, in Isaiah 61, the pronouncement is made of what the earthly ministry of Messiah, the King of Israel will contain, and it is reaffirmed in the reading of Jesus in the Temple at the beginning of his ministry, with miracles as signs and affirmations of His Messiahship:

Isaiah 61:

The Spirit of the Lord GOD [is] upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to [them that are] bound;To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

Luk 4:17-9 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

Healing of Messiah: Types of Healing: I Deaf and dumb

Beth-El: House that will Not Die:III-broadcast

Genesis 13-14, Strife, Famine, Division and War Meet the House that Will Not Die

The House That Will Not Die begins with a call to an unknown man, in the city of Haran, to go out into the desert to a particular place, where God will tell him what to do. He was not famous, or a great preacher, for at that time, the House of God was not yet fully come into vision. But Abram obeys and before the story is over, there is the wonder and mystery of Beth-El, the house that will not die, and the High Priest who receives a tithe of men, and a Father of Faith willing to sacrifice even a son of Promise on Moriah.

The House That Will Not Die, is established at Beth-El, and a second altar between Beth-El and Hai, or Ai. It is met immediately with opposition: first of famine, then of division and strife after a return from Egypt where the flesh won out for a time,

Gen 13:6-7 And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together.
And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.
then outright war, and the temptation to worldly riches.

This satanic opposition to the House Eternal fails because of faith, and surrender of Abram, and each time his faith is rewarded with the great plan and house of God moving forward in a powerful way.

Gen 13:13-7 But the men of Sodom [were] wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.
And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:
For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, [then] shall thy seed also be numbered.
Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.

There are set in the foundation of this House the following:

A. An Altar of Sacrifice-Ch13
B. A Promise of Land and Seed-Gn 13-15
C. The Wine and Bread Gn 14:18-
D. The High Priest and a priesthood 14:18-
E. The Tithe Gn 14:18
F. The Presence of God

A pattern of faith is set by Abram in the following:

A. Surrender to God's will and call
B. Faith over sight
C. Humility
D. Prefering the Spirit over the flesh
E. Repentance from 'dead works' in the flight to Egypt

Even after a momentary fall to the carnal in the escape to Egypt, when rectified, Abram returns to the second altar near Beth-El, and calls on the name of the LORD.
Faced with division and strife in the 'cattle war' Abram takes the 'less desireable' land preferring peace to contention, and prevails and grows. Faced with war to regain the more carnal Lot, he expends his own riches and men, and wins Lot back and defends and establishes the safety of the fledgling but growing house of God. His move adds another altar. Turning down the riches of this world offered by the King of Sodom, he is instead enriched by God, and the presence of the High Priest, Melchisedek, the King without ancestry, graces the growing House.

Each step of faith leads to the firm foundation of Beth-El. Each act of faith resulted in promise, blessing, and foundation of a House that Will not Die and has lasted till today.

The Prophetic Vision and the Healing of a Nation

In the previous discussions regarding the healing of a nation, the 'broadest' healing spoken of in the Bible after the Salvation of mankind, we have seen that

1. A Nation Must Recognize their sin or be shown it
2. A Nation must own their sin and admit it
3. A Nation must turn in Mourning from their sin
4. A Nation must plead with God for forgiveness, mercy and direction and guidance
5. A Nation must obey God

In the course of this healing process, which is very simply bringing a nation into God's correct order and to obedience, the Prophetic Utterance often occurs and is seen in prototype in the Assyrian/Babylonian exile. Warnings occur regarding the 'ill' or dissensioned nature of the nation long before the actual overthrow, as Isaiah and Micah prophesy long before the event. Nearing the time of Nebuchadnezzar's overthrow of Jerusalem, after Assyria has already taken Hazor and the North of Israel, Jeremiah cries in constant pleas to heed God's Word and call for repentance, but except for a few Rechabites, Jeremiah and a few at court, none hear.

The Affliction of Jerusalem

After Jerusalem falls, and the Jews are carried away into captivity the demoralization, alienation and 'dissolving' of the national spirit of the Jews takes place to the point that after 70 years in captivity, their national identity has waned, their resolve is gone. At the end of the period as mentioned before, Daniel discovers the time of a prophesied return is at hand by reading the book of Jeremiah. But other things happen near the end of captivity as well, heralding the healing of the nation that is to come:

-Nehemiah becomes the King's cupbearer and mourns for the re-establishment of Jerusalem (Neh 1:1-6)

And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province [are] in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also [is] broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned [certain] days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven, And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned.

-Cyrus declares for Ezra the rebuilding and restoration and replenishment of the Temple,

-Hadassah, or Esther, ascends to Queen in Vashti's place, and implores the King under Mordecai's guidance for the deliverance of her people from Haman's edict of genocide.


The time is at hand in the above passages for the healing of the Nation of Israel, but a few things are going on-

1. Certain key Jews are moved into position in a pagan nation: Daniel as court advisor, Ezra as courtier, Nehemiah as the King's cupbearer, Mordecai as the King's rescuer, Esther as the Queen of Artaxerxes.

2. The discovery of the prophesied time is determined for healing

3. Mourning and Repentance are called for and accomplished,

4. The Remembrance of the Afflictions of Jerusalem is made, e.g.

The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province [are] in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also [is] broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. Neh 1:3
or
I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Dan 9:3And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
or
Esther 7:4
For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage.

The Remembrance first is made, followed by mourning.

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More to follow....

Healing: Prayers of National Repentance Part II

Daniel continues in the prayer in Chapter 9, that will lead to the healing and restoration of Israel back to

1. Who She is as a Nation and
2. A recognition of what she has done which caused the Captivity and
3. The Supplication for God's Healing of the nations and return from Exile.

When Daniel makes the supplication to the God of Heaven, as has been mentioned, he is aware that the timing of the Return according to Jeremiah is at hand, and that the Lord is faithful:

I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Dan 9:2

and

...the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; Dan 9:4

Here is a critical issue in the healing of the Nation of Israel: THE ACKNOWLEDGMENT of THE COVENANT. The COVENANT is EVERLASTING and holy and has been from the beginning. This means that the 'RIGHT' state of Israel is when she is keeping COVENANT with her GOD. When Israel moved away from GOD 'missing the mark', a definition of sin and national sin, then she was in a 'diseased' state, and the intervention of God became necessary to bring her back into a whole and right state.

Blut und Boden

In Germany in WWII, there was a concept of 'blut und boden' or blood and soil, which entailed the identity of the German people or 'Volk' being so tied up in the land they lived in and on, that to be German was to be on Aryan soil, and to be on Aryan soil was to be German by necessity. This concept, many are not aware gave rise to the modern environmental movement, but caused a severe persecution of the Jews to drive them out of the bloodlines (blut) of Europe and off of the land (boden) to create a pure 'oneness' of people, spirit and land.(See Blood and Soil In the case of Germany, the concept was used against the Jewish people.

In God's Covenant with the Chosen people though throughout history, the promise of the Seed and Land, a Jewish form of blut und boden, was essentially different though because it was holy, set apart, in the purposes of GOD and meant for the salvation of the world. The late German form was merely an emulation of the COVENANT, essentially opposite from the COVENANT of the Everlasting nation and meant not for the preservation of the Jews, the oracles and vehicles of the Word of God but for the opposite. Why is this important in the discussion of the healing of a nation? Because there really is an issue of the healing of the Jewish nation being tied to them being:

1. In the Covenant
2. In Obedience
3. In the Land

in order to be in that perfect, healed state, an equilibrium and balance when all is as it should be, when they are in a 'RIGHTEOUS' state.

Why does this matter in the national healing of Israel? Because Israel, to be healed needed to be back in the Land!. It was part of her 'wholeness'. Is this true for all nations? It is somewhat difficult to answer because virtually all nations are on their own land. During WWII, a few monarchs and heads of state had to flee Nazi occupation: without their heads, nations such as the Netherlands felt downtrodden and hopeless: they were in a dissensioned state.
When their rightful leadership was back in place, their form of government, etc, they began to HEAL as a nation. Israel is a special case of the nations having survived in and out of the land for 5000 years, depending on how some historians count origins.

BACK TO REPENTANCE

The Prophet Repents for a Nation in Captivity

One of the first things to realize as Daniel prays, is that without their 'permission' or even knowledge, Daniel, the prophet of exile takes it upon himself
to pray vicariously in repentance for the good of the nation. Why would God receive Daniel's prayer in this way? Would it not take the whole nation repenting? Well, it happens both ways: in Daniel, the prophet prays in Proxy as a representative of the whole nation of Israel in Babylonian captivity. In Esther we see the whole nation called to prayer for their self-defense and protection, including severe repentance.

We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:
Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
O Lord, righteousness [belongeth] unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, [that are] near, and [that are] far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.O Lord, to us [belongeth] confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.-Dan 9:5-8

In Esther:

And in every province, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, [there was] great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. Esther 4:3

Now in Daniel, the Prophet stands in proxy of the people, declaring unto God in heart and soul, his sorrow over his and their sins which set them in captivity to a pagan nation. In Esther, we see both: Esther intercedes with the pagan King Ahasuerus for the nation of Israel, Mordecai 'stands in the gap' for Israel when he sees the nation about to fall to the wicked Haman, and later all Israel mourns, weeps, fasts, wails and lays in sackcloth and ashes, begging for the great hand of God to again defend the beleaguered nation. Is this merely about begging for protection? No, it is also about the healing of the nation beginning with repentance.

If a soldier is wounded on a battlefield, his wounds are not neatly attended to there: he needs to be dragged off the front, to a place of safety and some rest so that he can be healed and made whole. Rest is required. In the case of a nation, they are substantially asking to be 'dragged off the battlefield' to a place of rest where they would be made whole again, by the hand of GOD. REPENTANCE, both via a representative in this case a prophet or a Queen, or leader of Israel (Mordecai), brings the desired intervention and in all three cases, a miraculous healing of the nation. For Daniel, the Repentance is intense and severe and occurs amidst a pagan atmosphere, and risks the wrath of the king and courtiers.

Daniel notes that the nation has fallen to CONFUSION because of rebellion:

O Lord, to us [belongeth] confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
To the Lord our God [belong] mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him; Dan 8-9

and that the failure to obey the LAW (Torah) of GOD, has resulted in the 'diseased' condition of the captive nation:

Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.

Why is national repentance needed? Because a whole nation sinned:
-

all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that [is] written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.

We will continue with this study again shortly but a few points in summary are applicable not only to the Israel of long ago, but to all nations today:

1. We have fallen to a 'curse' by
-disobedience,
-sin,
-failure to hear God,
- failure to walk in His Law or Way
[I am the WAY , the TRUTH and the LIFE Jn14:6)

2. The 'Curse' of National Sin results in
-Confusion
-Inability to hear from GOD
-Captivity and brutal treatment
-A lack of Clarity as in confusion, lack in decision-making
-Lack of leadership and direction
-'Dissension' of the fabric of society

3. Both Prophets and Ministers of God need to Repent for the Nation and Themselves


4. The Nation Must Repent in Seriousness
-Calling on God with Praise, Fasting and Supplication
- Turning from the way they are on by obeying Christ's commands
-Spending the time necessary to seek out GOD's forgiveness and will.

___________________________________________________________

This study will continue at a later date. by Elizabeth Kirkley Best

Prayers of National Repentance: Daniel, Esther, & More

The national repentance which is required for the Healing of a Nation is clearly seen in several passages of scripture. The Ninevites turned in national repentance at the prophesying of Jonah; Daniel's repentance brought the vision of the future of Israel clear to the end of time, along with a Return to the Land, the national repentance of the Jews saved them in Medo-Persia from India to the Meditteranean [the following is by Elizabeth K. Best] from the foes raised by the edict Haman procured. Ezra demands by God a national repentance and the putting away of 'strange wives' in the purification of Israel, and there are a number of other times as well. [e.g. the repentance of Israel during certain wars ] Corporate confession of national sin came either by
1) The whole nation praying a confession or
2) By a person praying in Proxy for the sins of the Nation

Daniel's prayer is the essence of the prophet praying in Proxy for the Sins of Israel, supplicating God for the time which has been determined as the prophesied time for the end of captivity.

And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

The form is worth noting: First there is the
-ACKNOWLEDGING OF THE MAJESTY OF GOD,
-THE CHARACTER OF GOD, and the critical
-COVENANT

Dan 9:4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;

Following the praise and essential declaration of Covenant, which has kept Israel alive and protected her throughout captivity, the major tenets of the sin are listed:

Dan 9:5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:

Dan 9:6 Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

Healing of the Nations- The Beginning of Healing in Exile- Repentance, the Anointed, and the Remnant-Part C

In discussing the nature and pattern of healing of a nation or the 'healing of nations' [both are a separate concern], we have already discussed that first, the 'dissensioned' state of a nation which has removed itself from the right ways of God must be recognized as lacking wholeness, being 'diseased' or corrupted and in a state of disequilibrium. Many examples of this appear in scripture, such as the Babylonian empire around the time of Belshazzar, in which the kingdom is wrested away from Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar, or in the period in Israel just prior to the Exile, when Israel was in such a condition, that every prophet of the time is given similar prophecies regarding the destruction of the nation loved by God because of a sin state. Once the disease is recognized, though, or the dissensioned state of a nation, either of God's or the world, The second stage in healing in Scripture is a

1.call to Repentance,
2.the appearance of the anointed,
3.a Return, and
4.the re-establishment of at least a Remnant.

Repentance and God's Anointed

Jonah, the recalcitrant Prophet, eventually rises up in Nineveh, calls for repentance, the first rung in the ladder of the Healing of a Nation, and Nineveh, the vile city is spared the prophesied destruction for 120 or so years. Two things are characteristic of the prophecy that leads to that healing:

I. The Prophet is compelled to the Prophecy and Call to Repentance
II. While the Nation Repents and is healed for the next generation,
the original prophecy of destruction of Nineveh for its many crimes
still takes place at a later time.

So REPENTANCE, the first rung of a Nation's healing, can change the immediate fate of a nation leading it into a whole state in equilibrium, but the PROPHETIC PRONOUNCEMENT is still true. When Nineveh turns away from its repentance, the judgment returns. (See Nahum).


Repentance turns a nation which has fallen into distress back to the path of healing. In the Holy Scripture, to my knowledge there is not a time when God heals either Israel or any of the 'Heathen' nations without a heart repentance of that nation.

The Repentance of Israel

There are a number of instances of national Repentance in Israel, which lead to healing of Israel. The healing almost always involves a total restoration, abundantly above all that is asked or expected. Several examples of the national repentance of Israel are found in the Wars of Israel, in which the nation in repentance and supplication goes on to win a war after an initial failing. One such example is in Joshua's Battle with the Southern Canaanites in Israel's route into Canaan. In the first battle, God commands the taking of the mountain where the Anakim dwell, where the Southern Canaanites dwell, and Joshua and Caleb spy out the mountain, reporting back to Israel that they can take it though it be fearsome. Israel, though, despite the command of God, turns back, afraid to go to battle. [Numbers 14] They then turn to repent, but out of step with the Lord's command, they fail to do things the Lord's way and fail:

And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we [be here], and will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned.

Num 14:41-44 And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it shall not prosper.
Go not up, for the LORD [is] not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites [are] there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you.But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp.Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, [even] unto Hormah.

In the case of the defeat even with repentance, it was not a repentance fully, for they turn again to the battle, only without waiting for the Lord. They are soundly defeated.

In the Life of a Nation, the first and foremost step in healing a 'dissensioned' nation is for the problem to be identified, and acknowledged as sin and separation from the ways of God, along with a seeking of God with the heart and mind and soul not only of individuals, but of a whole nation.

There are times when on behalf of Israel, a few repentant prophets and people prayed in proxy for their people who had forgotten and despaired of turning back to their God. One such prophet, was Daniel, one of the most great trial-ed prophets in the Holy Scriptures. Daniel had been taken as a child from a royal family and in the midst of war and destruction and the sacking of Jerusalem was taken captive by the brutish armies of Nebuchanezzar. One really needs to meditate a bit on what that meant: royal children are spoiled at least a little: they have servants, a lush lifestyle and comfort and are tenderly treated. These were the children taken by a brutal army and ripped from parents,comfort, love and innocence: some were made into eunuchs, in a cruelty so unspeakable, that none could fathom any child having to face it.

Relocated, 'deported' to a foreign land under these circumstances, and placed in the palace of a horrendous King, only a few resolve not to lose their faith or identity: Daniel, given the Babylonian name Belteshazzar [not Belshazzar], and Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego, of the fiery furnace fame. Even within the courts though, forced to read and study the abomination of dark arts and magic of the Chaldeans, Daniel notes as he grows in excellence, the timing due in the Jewish scriptures of the Return, and sees the need of the Healing and Repentance of the Nation of Israel, precipitous to the Great Return.

As with others at times of Israel's distress, Daniel, knowing his nation to be in a dissensioned state captive in Babylon, does not rush to think that all Israel will bow the knee and ask God to save and deliver them from Babylon. Most of Israel has grown old in exile in this time: the ones who were very young children are now old men, and many of a lesser character have forgotten the great need of repentance: they do not remember much about Israel, it became in Babylon as it became in the holocaust or Shoah: "Ha Eretz Y'israel", the semi-mythical Utopia of the Jews which in exile appears as the only hope, distant, unattainable and far away.

Daniel however is not willing to leave it as a distant and unattainable hope: through his studies of Jeremiah's prophecies and through prayer, constant prayer, he falls on his knees hoping to repent not only his own sins, but the Sins of a people, the nation of Israel.

Chapter 9 of Daniel details that prayer of national repentance and serves as a prototype of heart repentance for a nation in dissension or a nation in exile. The Book of Esther also contains national repentance and prayer as Mordecai and Esther place their lives on the line before a pagan King, Artaxerxes, and all Israel falls in fasting and prayer to save their lives. In Daniel, however, it is a 'proxy' prayer, as one 'warrior' intercedes with God for a whole nation which has lost its way, and does not even remember the true ways of Israel before her bridegroom.
Dan 9:3 ¶ And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

Dan 9:3 ¶ And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
Dan 9:4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;

The issues and characteristics of national repentance will be examined in the next section before moving on to other issues of the Healing of a nation.