The fifth significant miracle was that which took
place on the Sea of Galilee at night. If the
storm on the lake, as some of the old commentators suggest, was Satanic in
origin, then here is another example of a challenge to Messiah. Certainly, the sea in Scripture is connected typically
with the abyss, the temporary place of confinement of demons. For example, the
demons in Legion, the Gadarene, referred to it in their appeal to Messiah, “… they
begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss.”[1] Yet
in that incident, although we have no indication of the ultimate intention of
Jesus, they ended up in a watery prison. David, in considerable trouble, used
the image of sinking into deep waters to describe his experience, “Save me, O
God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.
I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep
waters, where the floods overflow me … Let not the waterflood overflow me,
neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me”.[2] On
the restless sea, there is no place to stand,–and because of our sins we will
be engulfed. “The devil will drag you
under”, is the line from an old song.
Jesus was different. The sinless,
spotless, Son of God walked on water.
Moreover, He would not allow Satan to destroy His disciples: “Simon,
Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have
prayed for you”.[3] Moreover, when He entered the boat it was
immediately at its destination! Satan could
neither divert the Messiah by offering Him the kingdom again, nor remove those
disciples that He had taken under His care; “… of those You gave me I have lost
none”.[4]
The exception listed in Scripture is Judas, the son of perdition, who at that
time was demon-possessed,[5]
and later became Satan-possessed.[6]
In the miracle on the Sea of
Galilee, the divine Son of God demonstrated again that He would
thwart every attempt by Satan to drag Him down. The Devil, by threatening the
lives of the disciples, was making a two-pronged attack. First he tried to destroy the remnant that
believed in Jesus as Messiah; and then, by the act of putting the lives of the
disciples in jeopardy, he intended to lure Jesus on to the element most under his
control, and most likely to accomplish his diabolical aim of bringing the Messiah
down. Perhaps Satan, familiar with David’s prophetic prayer, hoped to bring
Jesus to the need to pray it Himself: “Save me, O God, for the waters have
threatened my life. I have sunk in deep mire, and there is no foothold; I have
come into deep waters, and a flood overflows me”.[7]
Not only did Jesus walk on water, but He also
stilled the storm, saved Peter from sinking beneath the waves, and brought the
craft safe home. The multitude fed, Peter saved, the devil defeated, no wonder
they, “worshipped Him, saying, You are certainly God’s Son”.[8]
Nevertheless, it cannot be overlooked that the
Messiah in becoming a sin offering on Calvary,
fully experienced all that David described: “I sink in deep mire, where there
is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me”.
The Sixth of the Significant Miracles in John – Healing the
Man Born Blind[1]
This sixth significant miracle takes place on the
Sabbath at the end of the feast of Tabernacles. The Messiah and His
disciples had entered the Temple
Mount when they saw a man
with congenital blindness. They were
aware of the theology of the Rabbis who taught that being born blind was the
judgement of God on the individual. They
claimed that this man’s condition was the result of personal sin, either his
own or his parents. The disciples asked:
“Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?”[2] The sin of the parents as the source of the
judgement was based on verses from the Pentateuch, for example: “The Lord God …
who keeps loving-kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression
and sin; yet He will by no means leave the
guilty unpunished, visiting
the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third
and fourth generations,”[3]
and: “The Lord is slow to anger
and abundant in loving-kindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He
will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the
children to the third and the fourth generations.”[4]
The Pharisees also taught that an individual had
a good inclination and an evil inclination,[5]
and that if the evil inclination had predominance in the womb, then it would be
possible for the child to be born disadvantaged because of the judgement of
God. The Rabbis further taught that since the infirmity was a judgement from
God, only Messiah would be able to cure it.
Jesus responded to the disciples’ question with the assertion that the
man’s blindness was not the result of a judgement on personal sin. God did not
inflict blindness on this individual, but rather the opposite, He would be healed,
to the glory of God.
For the blind man, the Messiah made a
clay poultice out of dust and spit, and applied it to his eyes. He then
instructed him to go to the pool of Siloam and wash away the mudpack. When he washed, he was able to see clearly. The
two ingredients of the poultice were dust and spittle. Biblically, dust represents the Adamic man,[6] and
to spit upon a man is to humiliate him, to count him worthless, to consider him
unworthy of the courtesies of life. This was the condition of the blind beggar.
Pharisaism counted him inconsequential. On the other hand, the means of his
cure, the water from the pool of Siloam symbolically represented the Spirit of
God. This symbolism was at the heart of the
ceremonies that took place during the week of the festival.
[1] John
9.1-40
[2] John 9.1
ff
[3]
Exod.34.7
[4]
Numb.14.18
[5] cf.
Berakhot 9.5.A (Mishnah)
[6] Gen.2.7,
3.19
