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(Jn 5:9) And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and
walked. And that day was the Sabbath.
And
immediately the man was made well.
It
happened all at once, physically whole! This is the manner in which Jesus
physically healed someone. They were never healed partially, gradually, but
immediately, completely! What a contrast to faith healers today. When we obey
God’s Word, powerful, amazing, unimaginable things happen! The multitude there
didn’t need the water; they needed the water of life (Rev 22:17). God works through Scripture, not superstition. If it is not God’s will for us to be healed, there is no
physician, medicine, or mystical water on earth that is going to change our
health situation. Consider the spiritual stature of the Apostle Paul and his
health situation (2 Cor 12:8).
took
up his bed, and walked.
This
man took up his bed at once and went walking naturally for the first time in 38 years –
“Bye, bye, Bethesda!” Jesus was literally fulfilling the Words of Isaiah the
prophet (Isa 35:1-7). Here was a pubic sign that the Messiah had come and was
among them.
And
that day was the Sabbath.
If
you read John all the way through in one sitting, you will notice that the
deeper you progress in the gospel of John, the more you will see the intensity
of hatred of Jesus growing very quickly. Nothing made the Jewish authority
go ballistic like Jesus healing on Saturday or making references to His deity.
By the time of Jesus’ crucifixion, the Sanhedrin, the judicial and religious
authority of Israel, had, for the most part, turned into a clinical machine of pure
hatred of Jesus which is analogous to the ill-feelings of the democratic party
in America toward their sitting President.
The
Jewish authority rejected Jesus as their Messiah; the Dems have rejected Trump
(God’s man, cf. Dan 2:21; Rom 13:1) as their President (cf. Jn 15:25). If our
nation survives this invisible enemy (COVID-19) without destroying the economy, the second
greatest immediate threat, in my opinion, facing our Republic is not China,
Iran, Russia, or any other bad actors, but the democratic party doing the bidding
of the bad actors in the world.
This political party projects their sins on
anyone who doesn’t think the way they do and have the gall to call their
opponents hypocritical and dividing the nation! They are the ones wanting to rip democracy from a Republic to a nation of
socialism! These dark souls need to look into the mirror of God’s Word to see
their own hypocrisy. It has been said that if it wasn’t for hypocrisy, the
political swamp would have no standards.
We need a politically healthy two-party system for balance, but I fear that the
Dems have forever lost the trust of the millions of people opposed to left-leaning socialism and will only become a hissing
word if they refuse to repent of this ungodly fracture created by them and their sins against God and the American people united against the evil of tyranny (cf. Rom 13:2). Personally, I thought Barrack Obama was more anti-Christ in
nature as an individual and as a President than all of his predecessors, but Christians
did not mistreat him as our sitting President is being mistreated and
disrespected.
Of course, President Trump is not perfect or sinless like Jesus; there is no comparison between the two, but I voted for a President, not a pastor. Regardless, he is the President of the United
States, duly elected by the people, ordained of God. If the Dems hate the President so terribly, they need to go to the ballot box and stop weakening our
nation, our president, and the will of the people by attempting to undermine
our country at every turn with their socialistic agenda.
I
cannot speak for others, but I didn’t respect Obama as a person, but I
respected his position of authority, recognizing Dan 2:21; Rom 13:1-2. As far
as the analogy goes, let’s hope that America doesn’t wind up like Israel in A.D. 70
when they were destroyed as a nation. I remind the brethren of
the faith, Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh (Psa 33:12a). I know this
is primarily a reference to Israel, but from an applicational standpoint, why cannot any nation
be blessed whose desire is that Yahweh is their God?
We
need not only to pray for the peace of Jerusalem but for the United States as
well for only God can fix this mess. Realistically, we may already be in
the process of divine repair or repudiation. Time will tell. Whatever Yahweh is
allowing with this COVID-19, God doesn’t expect us to return to an ungodly lifestyle
of doing what is right in our own eyes (cf. Jdg 21:25).
He
is the Creator God; He is the Almighty, and He, not the Republicans nor the Democrats,
will determine the course of our nation and the world for His glory.
The
earth is Yahweh’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell
therein (Psa
24:1).
There
will be no subpoenas or legal actions to change the course of His will or to be able to remove
Him as King of Kings and LORD of Lords. The only option for those opposed to
Jesus is to block Him from your heart, but that will not prevent His sovereign
will from happening. It only prevents one from glory. Solomon’s words need to
be heeded,
(Ecc
12:13) Let
us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: fear God and keep His commandments,
for this is man’s all.
(Ecc
12:14) For
God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether
good or evil.
Returning to our text, this
first recorded healing on the Sabbath by Jesus in Jerusalem initiated the path
to the cross (cf. Mt 20:28). This certainly will not be the last healing on the
Sabbath in Jerusalem (Jn 9:14). Jesus will go down to Galilee and heal again on
the Sabbath. Now these two healings in Jerusalem (Jn 5:8-9; 9:14) are
representative of Jesus healing on the Sabbath and the classic reaction of the
Jewish authority. Since Jesus performed many miracles that are not recorded
(cf. Jn 20:30), it is possible Jesus healed more than just these two men on the
Sabbath in Jerusalem, but these two healings, in particular, set off the
fireworks from the Jews as their hatred of Jesus unfurled.
(Jn 5:10) The Jews therefore said to him who was cured,
It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.
The
Jews therefore said to him who was cured.
This verse reminds me of a religious police state. Israel had a zero-tolerance for
violating the Sabbath. The eyes and ears of the Sanhedrin were everywhere. It
has been said (no reference) that there were over 6k Pharisees in Israel, not
counting all the Sadducees and underlings associated with these two religious
sects and the numerous snitches. There is a tendency to romanticize “in the
days of Jesus,” but this was a very dark time in Israel’s history, the
rejection of God’s Messiah via crucifixion (Jn 19:15) and the continued persecution
of His followers after His death, burial, and resurrection like the infamous persecutor, Saul of Tarsus (future
apostle!),
As
for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off
men and women, committing them to prison (Acts 8:3) ... Then Saul, still
breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the
high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that
if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem (Acts 9:1-2).
Israel ceases to be a nation in A.D. 70. The Church was scattered to the four winds.
Israel ceases to be a nation in A.D. 70. The Church was scattered to the four winds.
It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to
carry your bed.
This healed man was carrying his bed on the Sabbath
and was caught in the very act; God forbid! This man was creating bedlam in Jerusalem according to their misinterpretation of the Law of Moses (cf. Ex 23:12; Neh 13:19; Jer
17:21). He was violating the Law and tradition steeped in the misunderstanding of
the Law of Moses by rogue rabbis usurping authority.
It wasn't about wanting to know the truth and be just and equitable; it was all about power and control. The penalty for violating the
Sabbath day carried a possible sentence of death by stoning. Carrying his
bedding constituted working on the Sabbath which is why the SRP’s
(self-righteous people) informed him that it was unlawful for
him to carry his bed.
Why did Jesus tell this man to rise, take up your bed and walk in Jn 5:8, knowing that he would be approached and
rebuked by the Pharisees? I think for a greater purpose (public) and a lesser
purpose (private). (1) He was challenging the Sanhedrin’s misinterpretation of
the Sabbath and bringing his miracle to their attention that validated He was
the Messiah. (2) This man who had been healed was being tested; we will see
that he failed.
The Sanhedrin may not have been so bent out of the frame with
Jesus performing miracles from sunset Sat to sunset Friday, but healing on Saturday
(sunset Friday to sunset on Saturday) was a major taboo for it was interpreted as
“working!” This alone provided insight into how twisted their interpretation
degraded Scripture. Though the 35 recorded miracles and all of the unrecorded
miracles in John testified that Jesus truly was the Messiah; his healing on the
Sabbath, however, proved to the eyes of the Sanhedrin that he was not the
Messiah! Rather than basing Jesus’ performance on Scripture, they based it upon
the corrupted rabbinical interpretation of Scripture, tradition, bias, and hatred. Jesus threatened their ability to control the crowd.
The bridge between the understanding of the Law of
Moses and tradition was controlled by the rabbinical interpretation of
the OT. They were dictating the truth according to them. In Jesus’ day, the keeping of rabbinical tradition was given a far greater weight of authority than
the Law itself (Mk 7:9). It was simply nothing more than a usurpation of
authority and dishonesty. Jesus challenged these misinterpretations. It didn’t
make the rabbi camp very happy; Jesus was upsetting the apple cart. He didn’t
fit the corrupted expectations of the rabbis on the identity of the true Messiah.
The miracles, however, on the Sabbath or not, attested that He did fit the
Messianic profile of the Prophets.
Though the OT had forbidden work on the Sabbath (Lev
20:8-11), it did not specify what kind of work; the rabbis took it upon themselves
to fill in the blanks with extensive do-nots (google it!). The
general assumption is it involved one’s employment for gain. They may have
based this on passages like Jer 17:19-27 or Neh 13:15? Naturally, given the
spiritual bent of self-righteousness, work evolved into a host of conditions that were subjective,
ludicrous, whimsical, capricious, and potentially lethal.
This man physically healed by Jesus carrying his bed
would not be viewed as violating the Sabbath under a correct interpretation of
Scripture and the context. These false spiritual leaders were working under a different set of
rules and policies and policing sabbath-obedience according to a
misinterpretation of the Law and oral traditions based on faulty assumptions of
misinterpretations, which essentially denied the authority of the Scriptures!
This oral tradition became a way to legislate intimidation and control over the
masses in a Gestapo-like fashion. Apparently, carrying practically anything on
the Sabbath was deemed as a violation now according to Jn 5:10.
Not lawful.
The healed man had only broken Jewish tradition which usurped the Law
itself. Can you imagine that? Carrying his bed was deemed unlawful? Jesus would use this incident to confront the
nation of its hyper-legalism and religious hypocrisy Naturally, they would hate
Him for it and seek to kill Him. <><
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