BOOK BY BOOK BIBLE STUDY
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BIBLE STUDY LESSON
For
the week beginning Sunday January 26, 2014
____________________________________________________________
THE
POWER TO HEAL
(Blessing
those who live with a physical need)
John
5:1-17
After JESUS left Galilee, HE
returned to Jerusalem to attend an “unnamed” Jewish feast. Just to the north of
the temple area, near the “Sheep Gate” was a “double pool” (two
pools side by side) called the “Pool of Bethesda”. The pool had
five covered porches, where the sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed people
would come and lay awaiting to be healed by the water.
In those days, the people “superstitiously” believed that,
periodically, an angel would come down from Heaven and stir the water, and
afterwards, the first person entering the pool would be healed of their
physical afflictions. This event, mentioned in John 5:3b-4 is not found in any
existing Greek manuscript dated before A.D. 400. In fact, nowhere in the Bible
is this kind of superstition taught, as this verse presents to us, the picture
of an act of cruelty by GOD against the sick and the afflicted. It is believed
that this verse was added long after John wrote his Gospel, in order to
enlighten the reader as to why the sick and afflicted where assembling by the
pool on this occasion. Most modern versions of scripture, including the NIV,
and NLT understandably omit this verse.
Anyway, there was a certain man lying on a mat on one of the
porches, who had been suffering from an unnamed infirmity, for thirty-eight
years. When JESUS saw the man, HE knew exactly how long he had been ailing.
HE asked the man, “Do you want to get well?” The man confirms his own
superstition, by replying that he was unable to get to the pool first, because
of his condition, and since there was no one to help him, he kept getting beat
to the water by others all those years. In other words, he felt like his
own physical condition prevented him from being able to get help from GOD, to
better his physical condition. It is a sad commentary as to how living a
superstitious life can hinder a person from GOD’s blessings. Even today we have
our own modern-day superstitions, such as horoscopes, magic
eight balls, black-eyed peas kept in our pocket, or eaten on New
Year’s Day for good luck, seven years bad luck for breaking a mirror,
or “send this e-mail to ten people and you will be blessed”, etc.
Here in this passage, John 5:1-15, JESUS uses this occasion to
dispel all such superstition, and HE also sought to put an end to any concept
of a superstitious worship of GOD, or mixing the blessings of GOD, with the
satanic beliefs of the occult. This passage is also unique, in the sense
that, here we see JESUS healing a person who had not exhibited any prior faith
in HIM. Here HE simply instructs the man to “Pick up your bed and start
walking”.
Here we see GOD working directly in, and through, HIS “word of
command”. JESUS is showing here
that HIS power is not mere “superstition”, but rather, it is “supernatural”.
This is a case where the long “atrophied muscles” of a lame man were
clearly and instantly made operable. This was the third public miracle that
JESUS performed, as a sign that the MESSIAH had come, and that, indeed, HE,
HIMSELF, is, the long-awaited MESSIAH.
As I said earlier, the lame man in this passage had never
previously shown any faith in GOD, but rather, he had spent a lifetime viewing
GOD in a cruel and superstitious manner. This passage of Scripture, perhaps
shows us more clearly than any other, that, just as quickly as our faith and
trust in GOD changes for the better, so can the quality of our lives go from
being poor and helpless, to being rich, vibrant, and strong.
GOD, can and will bless others, through believers, just like the
lame man was healed and blessed through JESUS that day at the Pool of Bethesda.
We only have to trust and have faith in an all-powerful GOD, WHO can deliver us
into all eternity. And as Christians, we should be able to use the power of the
HOLY SPIRIT in us, to bless those who are in “human need”, just as JESUS
CHRIST did, and just as HE commands us to do also.
A Sunday school lesson by,
Larry D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER-
Official Website
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