Chapter 11.5
Troubled Waters
Who
troubled the waters at Bethesda? - Does God heal only some folks?
Troubled
Waters at Bethesda
Question: What’s going on with the troubling
of the Waters at the pool of
Bethesda? Is God picking and choosing
who He will heal?
Background: To answer this question I have to make a
pretty bold statement, but just run with my Belief System
while I draw a word picture.
I can say; the night before Christmas we left cookies and milk for Santa
when he came down the chimney. What I
said was true, but that does not validate the appearance of
Santa. Job in the Bible
said: “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away”. It is true he said it, but is what he said true? What Job said, is what Job believed.
Scripture says that; The Lord came to give life and Satan came to
destroy life.[1] Now the stage is set to read the scripture
concerning the TROUBLING
OF THE WATERS.
John 5:1-9
1 Sometime later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for
a feast of the Jews.
2 Now there is in
3 In these lay a multitude of them that were sick, blind, halt,
withered,
(John 5:3b-4 ADDED IN LATER TRANSLATIONS.)
waiting for the moving of the water.
4 for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons
into the pool, and TROUBLED THE
WATER: whosoever then first after the troubling of the waters stepped in was made whole,
with whatsoever disease he was holden. ASV
5 One who was there had been an invalid for
thirty-eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that
he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want
to get well?"
7 "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one
to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get
in, someone else goes down ahead of me."
8 Then Jesus
said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk."
9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat
and walked.
NIV
The
Troubling
There
is much interest in the angel of God “troubling of the waters” at
Bethesda.
QUESTION: Does God every now and then send His messenger
to select one person out of a group of sick people to divinely heal them, just
to let the sick know they are not forgotten?
This idea is “expounded on” in some commentaries. So, let’s take a look.
Bethesda (Hebrew) known as the
House of Mercy, the House of Portico, the House of Olive. It is now identified as the “Fountain of the
Virgin”. The remains of the pool with its five
porticos at Bethesda have been excavated, proving that this was an actual place
and the story told in the scriptures was not a myth or parable. The
five porticos spiritualized the five books of Moses and the Law.
It was a very large pool that had a sloped floor where you could kneel
and walking further on out you could dunk under. There are indications that it
was used as; a water source, bathing, baptisms and you could even swim in
it. There were a number of these pools
built around various springs.
This one was built around an intermittent spring
that had medicinal
properties. Nature provided
remedies for the sickness with minerals boiling up from time to time from the
underground spring. Much like our “Warm Springs”
minerals in the USA.
NOTE; Oddly enough,
in the earliest ancient Greek text, the
last part of verse three and all of verse four is missing, as it was added
in later. Many commentaries skip over
the part of chapter five concerning the angel troubling the waters as if the
passage did not exist.
The boiling up or troubling of the waters
was the signal of the forthcoming healing minerals. The folks noted in the scripture, did not
have diseases as such, but had physical limiting infirmities. They were blind, crippled, and lame and some
had bodies that had lost their vigor and were decaying and had become
wasted. These people could not get into
the waters by themselves when the minerals were present.
FACT: Superstition or folklore had it that at the
beginning of the year an angel would stir up the waters in different localities
and that the first person into the waters would be healed. So folks would wait
around for this supernatural event to occur.
Thus, they would say they were waiting on the angel of God to trouble
the water.
FACT: Concerning the
Angel; The
Bible reported in truth of what they were doing, although what they
thought was just superstition.
The truth was that the waters would erupt with minerals which would be
beneficial to those in the water and then the minerals would recede.
Wherever Christ and the Disciples went, they healed ALL who asked to be healed. …ALL[2]… God
is not a “respecter of persons”.[3] It is His will that ALL be healed. In this story, only one was healed; the one Jesus
perceived had FAITH to be healed. It was a teaching moment.
A Truism:
It is true that God has an
appointed an angel in charge of “waters”.[4]
It is true that it was God’s Devine
will that these waters promote
healing and give hope.
So whether an
angel or nature erupted the waters,
the results were
the same.
Healing and Hope.
[1] John 10:10 - The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to
destroy: I am come that they might have life
[2] Acts 10:38 – He healed
ALL that were oppressed of the devil -- Matt 9:35 – Jesus healed EVERY disease and sickness
[3] Acts 10:34 – ALL can receive; God is no
respecter of persons: -- Matthew 9:27-29 – According to your FAITH you receive
[4] Revelation 16:5 – There
is an angel of the waters
No comments:
Post a Comment