Monday, September 4, 2017

The Miracles of the Messiah

The Fifth of the Significant Miracles in John – Walking on the Sea


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



[1] Luke 8.31 (NASB)
[2] Ps.69.1,2,15 (KJV)
[3] Luke 22.31
[4] John  18.9
[5] John 6.70
[6] Luke 22.3; John 13.27
[7] Ps.69.1,2
[8] Matt.14.33

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