Believe and Live

Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind

9 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. 8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

Jesus’ sending of this man to the pool to wash is presented as an important aspect of the event, not just an incidental detail. John also stresses that the man did, in fact, carry out Christ’s instructions and that it was not until he had done so that he received his sight. It may also be that Christ’s action of making clay, anointing the man’s eyes, and requiring him to go to Siloam was a deliberate, technical violation of the Sabbath designed to antagonize the Pharisees and to draw attention to the miracle. Significantly, Jesus is the only person presented in Scripture as healing the blind. (Ananias’ action in regard to Saul of Tarsus is of another sort, entirely.) The healing of the blind was prophesied as being an activity of the Messiah (Is. 29:18; 35:5; 42:7). Jesus referred to it, in answer to the query of John the Baptist, as an indication that He really was the Messiah (Mt. 11:5).

Jesus rejects their formulation of the problem and says that the reason for the man’s blindness is neither of the two they suggest but something entirely different. “But” (Greek alla) is a strong adversative and indicates great contrast.

What can we know about the will of God? God’s will is determined.

God’s will is a determined occurrence.

We may wish something will happen, but God’s will will happen. He has determined it to be so. His power is shown in this fact.

God in his redemptive work can take our seemingly hopeless situations and be glorified.

God’s will has a determined season.

God’s will is not determined by anything but his righteous and perfect plan. His will comes in to fruition in the season he determines.

God’s will cannot be altered by outside forces.

God sets it and nothing can come against it.

As we seek to know the will of God we must have a priority of his Word in place.

-Expositional Listening. Expositional listening is listening for the meaning of a passage of scripture and accepting that meaning as the main idea to be grasped for our personal and corporate lives as Christians.

What is the meaning of this passage?

Psalm 119:97  Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. 98  Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. 99  I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. 100  I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts. 101  I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word. 102  I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me. 103  How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! 104  Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

I. Why should we love the law of the Lord?

1. Because it is the Lord’s law. It is His nature expressing itself. God is love, and law is love, guiding the men it loves. It is the revelation of His heart. Kings make laws: God reveals them. It is quietly given to us, not amid the thunders and lightnings of Sinai, but by voices long silent, in the pages of the Bible, in our conscience and reason. It is given in principles, not in regulations. It is given in outline, which we are to complete by such precepts as our life demands.

2. The law of the Lord is right. It is perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect. It fosters the right; it secures honesty in business, integrity in government, charity in society. It enlarges our joy. The fullest declaration we have of it begins with the note of pleasure. “I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt.” So the Sermon on the Mount, more strict in its requirements than the Decalogue, opens with the Beatitudes. “Blessed and blessed,” and from this beginning the Teacher gives His precepts that the kindness of His heart may be fully enjoyed by those who hear Him. The law gives security also. It is the rule of the best. It is the guidance of the wisest. You wish to sail in the ship which has the best captain, and the one who is furnished with the best charts and compasses. In all our way through this world, with its confusion and its peril, we should love the law of the Lord which will guide us safely and in honour.

3. Again, the law of the Lord is the law of heaven. Its principles belong in all the worlds. The loftiest angel and the humblest man of all the redeemed observe this law with delight. The best proof that men are going to heaven is that they love the law of God before they reach its gate; that they delight to meditate in the law, to follow its commands, to live in its control. Unless this is true of us here, it can be little pleasure to anticipate the life in a world where the law of the Lord wilt surround us like the atmosphere, to be breathed in to-day and for ever.

4. Finally, we should love the law of the Lord because it is the law of Christ. It pervaded His life. “I came not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.” “I do always those things which please Him.”