Flashback Wednesday <3 September 1, 2011
* For over two years, I have sent a weekly encouragement by email. Wednesday’s posts: “Flashback Wednesday”, will catch you up on those “treasures” from the past . I hope they bless you, either for the first time or again!!!!
This week, I was reading in John 5. The chapter begins with the account of Jesus healing a man at the pool of Bethesda. The Hebrew word “bethesda” translates literally as “place of outpouring” or “house of grace”. The pool at Bethesda was a place where miraculous healings occurred.
The Bible tells us that an angel went down from time to time and stirred the waters. Whoever stepped in first, after the stirring, was made well of whatever disease he had. The account tells us that around this pool there was a great multitude of sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed people. They were all waiting for the water to move, hoping to be healed.
In all this scene of a large number of people, Jesus saw one man. The terms used to describe him include – “a certain man”, a man who had had “an infirmity thirty-eight years”. Jesus asks him if he wants to be well and the man answers that he does and has tried, but somehow in many years waiting, has managed to come in no better than second in the race to enter the pool of healing on time.
Jesus speaks to him directly – “Rise, take up your bed and walk”. This brief account ends with two facts – 1. The man was made well and 2. The day was the Sabbath. God may be speaking something different to you, but let me share a snap shot of my own.
In the right hand margin of my Bible, at some point in time, I have drawn two arrows for these verses. They create a path that goes from the place in time where Jesus sees this one man and speaks to him (v. 6), backwards to the first scene where He came upon a multitude (v. 4). In the left hand margin, I have written these words of observation:
“There are many there. Jesus chose this one – Praise God; whose ways are beyond understanding.” I am sure when I wrote those words, I was perplexed.
So many waiting to be healed. Surely He had the power and surely the will to heal every single one. I don’t understand but I trust.
Maybe you are in a place of wondering what God is up to. Where is He and why is He not doing what you fully believe He is able to do? I encourage you to choose to praise Him even in what you do not understand.
Be assured that at just the right time and in the right way, He will move. While others wait for the “waters to be stirred”, I urge you to be looking for your Savior and listening for His voice.