NO doubt you have all read of the pool of Bethesda where a great many impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waited for the moving of the water.
For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whoever went in first after the troubling of the water got cured of whatever disease he had.
Our picture does not quite illustrate the above as it does not show that the people sitting around are very sick and helpless, but it is something similar.
At that pool, when the Lord Jesus was here upon earth, there was a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years and was not able to go into the pool and had no one to put him in, so someone else would step in before him and he did not get the benefit of the troubling of the water. But Jesus saw him and knew he had been there for a long time and He said to him, “Wilt thou be made whole?” Ah, yes, he was willing, but was unable to go in. Jesus was the One who was able to meet his need. So, Jesus said, “Rise, take up thy bed and walk.” Immediately the man was made well.
Do you think anything better than this could be done for man? I am glad to tell you that something far more wonderful is being done for man today than healing his body. If he were to get his body healed, that would only be for time, but man needs all his sins to be put away and he is just as unable to do that, as this man was to put himself in the pool. This man, then, might be taken as a picture of ourselves in all our weakness and helplessness to save ourselves, and just as Jesus was the one that met his temporal need, so Jesus is the one that can meet our need for eternity. Is not this far better than what was done for this poor man, or if we were to get our bodies healed now? Yes, it is of greater importance. And let me ask you, ‘Have you felt your load of sins and your need of a Saviour?’ If you have, Jesus says to you, “Wilt thou be made whole?” If you are willing, Jesus is willing and ready to save you. He says, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” He is a Saviour for those who cannot save themselves. He saves the lost. “WHEN WE WERE YET WITHOUT STRENGTH, IN DUE TIME CHRIST DIED FOR THE UNGODLY.” (Rom. 5:66For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6).) May you praise and thank Him for having come to be your Saviour and having earned salvation for you at such a cost as the giving up of His life in your place.
ML 04/29/1917