How many souls are more or less in the state of the distressed m father of the sorely a distressful son, who thus answered the Lord's unbelief with appeal! It was the mixture of uh his faith which not only kept him unhappy, but delayed the deliverance of his child. He was preoccupied with the misery of his son, and afterward with the failure of the disciples. His eye was not single; he did not look away from other objects to Jesus only, the source of all true enjoyment. Nor was his defective faith without consequence even when grace gave the blessing.
It was different with the leper who, in the early days of our Lord's ministry, fell on his knees before Him, saying, "If thou wilt, thou canst cleanse." And then Jesus in his compassion stretched out His hand and touched him, with the words, "I will: be cleansed." The leper had no doubt of the power; but he rightly deferred to His good pleasure.
Here it was another case. "Teacher, I brought unto thee my son, having a speechless spirit; and wheresoever it seizeth him it, teareth; and he foameth and gnasheth his teeth and pineth away. And I spoke to thy disciples that they should cast it out, and they could not. But he answereth and saith, O faithless generation, till when shall I be with you? Till when shall I suffer you? Bring him unto me. And they brought him unto him; and when he saw him, straightway the spirit convulsed him; and he fell on the earth, and wallowed foaming. And he asked his father, How long a time is it that this hath come to him? And he said, From childhood; and often it cast him both into fire and into waters that it might destroy him. But if thou couldest do anything, have compassion on us and help us. And Jesus said to him, The ‘if thou couldest' is to believe all things are possible to him that believeth.
Straightway the father of the child cried out and said, I believe: help mine unbelief. But Jesus seeing that a crowd was running up together, rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, Thou speechless and deaf spirit, I command thee, come out of him, and no more enter into him. And having convulsed and torn [him] much, it came out; and he became as one dead, so that the mass said, He is dead. But Jesus laid hold of him by the hand, and raised him up; and he arose."
How painful the contrast, the manifestation of glory on the holy mount, and the disastrous unbelief of the disciples before Satan's power at its foot! But this God reveals that we who believe may be forewarned and forearmed. The lowly but righteous Servant felt it deeply and all round. How abide with a generation so faithless I Had He not authority here to meet the direct need?
So He directs the boy to be brought, allows the spirit's spiteful energy before their eyes, and inquires all particulars of the parent, who appeals to Him, but on the lowest ground: "If thou couldest aught, help us, have compassion upon us." But oh! the meek grace of Him Who was unwittingly so lightly esteemed. There was really no question of power or title. But practically all turned on faith: compare chapter 6:5, 6. Believing touches the spring of power. All things are possible to the believer. How poor and short to say to Jesus, "If thou couldest?" to doubt His compassion? to ask no more than "help?" He Who came to serve God and man to the utmost was not repelled, but corrected an error of evil consequence; so that even the absorbed father in his measure, felt and owned the wrong, and said at once with tears, "I believe: help mine unbelief.”
Oh! my reader, lay your sins, your misery, your unbelief, in faith at the feet of Jesus. He sees, hears, and compassionates you. If you look only to Him as you are, Be forthwith gives all you need. It is you who fail, not He, But "help" is far beneath Him or you. You are lost; and He is the Savior, now of the sot)l if you believe on Him, by-and-by of the body too, for an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading, reserved in the heavens for you that are guarded through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
But if you mix up your feelings and experience, learn from this instructive account, that you only gain loss and further pain which the Lord permits for your good. For even at the last when the Lord rebuked and commanded the unclean spirit to leave the child forever, the parent had to look on a fresh convulsion that left his boy as one dead, till Jesus laid hold of his hand and raised him up. “If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." What delays, difficulties, all and sorrows, unbelief in one way or another makes for the believer!