The blind man sat by the dusty wayside, begging. He had been born blind and could only beg for a living. As Jesus and His disciples passed the man, the disciples wondered why anyone should have such a birth defect. So they asked Jesus about it. And Jesus is the right person to ask.
Jesus told them He had a blessing for that man, and He has a blessing for you too, which is yours for the taking. Have you seen it and accepted it? Don’t turn it down!
Jesus then spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and put it on the blind man’s eyes. Jesus is the holy Son of God, and everything that came from His mouth was holy too. Then Jesus said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.”
The blind man obeyed without asking questions, and when he washed in the pool of Siloam his eyes were healed and he could see! What a miracle!
Then he came back, and first he met the neighbors. Were they glad that he was no longer blind? No, they found it hard to believe him. But the man told them exactly what had happened. And he gave all the credit to “a Man that is called Jesus.”
“Where is He?” they asked. But all he could answer was that he didn’t know. He had never seen Jesus, but he had obeyed His voice.
Have you obeyed His voice? That is the way to receive God’s blessing - obey that voice. In John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24), Jesus tells us, “He that [hears] My word, and [believes] on Him that sent Me, [has] everlasting life.” You can do what the blind man did. He listened to Jesus and believed Him. The words of Jesus are recorded in the Bible for you to hear and believe and obey.
Next the man met the religious leaders. They were very strict about the Sabbath day (the seventh day, Saturday). They argued that Jesus was not of God because He healed the man on the Sabbath day. The man did not know very much, but he knew one thing, and no arguments could change his mind. He told the religious leaders, “One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.”
Even his parents did not stand with him. But the man with his marvelous new eyesight was ready to answer anyone in the world. And the more they talked against Jesus, the more he insisted that Jesus was of God. He told them, “If this Man were not of God, He could do nothing.”
The religious leaders didn’t like what he said, and they threw him out of the synagogue.
How discouraging! Family and friends gone. An outcast with no possibility of begging anymore. Who will help him now?
Jesus found him! He said to him, “[Do you] believe on the Son of God?”
The man answered, “Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?”
Jesus said, “Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that [talks] with thee.”
“And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him.”
That is where we leave the man who had been blind - at the feet of Jesus. And he will be with Jesus for all eternity.
That was God’s blessing for him, and that blessing is for you too. Did you notice how he got it? It was the Son of God who healed him, and the arguments of others did not turn him away from Jesus. And when Jesus found him, he listened and believed. You can do that too. Right now. Will you? “He that [believes] on the Son [has] everlasting life” (John 3:3636He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36)).
You can read this wonderful story for yourself in the Bible in the book of John, chapter nine.
ML-09/29/1996
Lessons from Nature