Doves,
This has been a very exciting week with all the posts pointing to this year 2005 as, hopefully, the year of our redemption. After reading Pastor Riley's posts about the healing of the man with the infirmity after 38 years and the woman with the issue of blood after 12 years, and seeing how these miraculous accounts both point towards the healing that could begin for Israel this year, I began to wonder if possibly the other accounts of Jesus's healing miracles could be viewed in the same manner.
So I prayed that the Lord would open my eyes and bless me with understanding as I studied His Word. I printed out a list of the miracles Jesus performed and immediately noticed that three had to do with healing of the blind. I thought this was interesting, because Israel has been blind all these years, and perhaps the blindness is about to be healed. I began to study these three separate accounts and also did some studying about related events and key words throughout the Scriptures, and found many interesting things that seem to confirm that there are other meanings behind these miracles. I would encourage those of you who feel led to study these also and see what the Lord shows you, because Jesus did far more miracles than those that are described. The ones mentioned specifically must have been chosen for a reason, as with God there are no coincidences.
I have barely begun, but here is what I have found so far, which I shared with Pastor Riley. I will post his reply to me at the end of my findings. I also began looking into the healing of the woman who was crippled for 18 years, and wrote Pastor Riley, who has already posted those letters today at Five Doves.
http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/jan2005/fmriley129-1.htm
1.Matt 9:27-31 tells of Jesus healing TWO blind men.
"And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou son of David, have mercy on us. And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that no man know it. But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country."
Why two men, who were Jews? And they called him Son of David, a Jewish term.I have been going through OT references to blindness, and there is a lot in Isaiah.Is 43: 8-12:
"Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears. Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth. Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God."
This passage instantly reminded me of the TWO WITNESSES, who will be Jewish. Maybe they are about to come upon the scene, as the entire book of Isaiah is referring to the end time nation of Israel and the coming Day of the Lord.
There are also many references to MY PEOPLE, who are blind.
Is 56: 10-11"His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter."
This seems to be speaking about those in the church, the watchmen and shepherds, who are blind and cannot understand.This explains the lukewarm Christians not getting excited over the things we are discovering. They are too busy with themselves and what they can gain. Maybe this is referring to two who are blind: first Israel, to whom the two witnesses will soon come, and to the church, whose watchers and leaders have also been blind. There is nothing specific as to a length of time, but it is definitely talking about the time before the soon coming Day of the Lord.
2.Another miracle Jesus did in restoring sight to a blind man was told in John 9: 1-41. This was the man blind since birth. Jesus made clay from spittle and told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is south of Jerusalem, and is also mentioned in the book of Nehemiah 3:15. This was when they were rebuilding Jerusalem, and specifically mentions rebuilding the gate and wall around the pool of Siloam.
After he was healed of blindness, the man was sent before the Pharisees, who demanded to know how we was healed, and also called the man's parents. They were afraid to answer them and claim that Jesus, who healed him, was the Christ, for fear of being put out of the synagogue, so they TWICE told the Pharisees to ask the man himself, since HE WAS OF AGE. This means he was over the age of 19, right?
I discovered some interesting things about the Pool of Siloam.The Pool of Siloam was the only permanent water source for the city of Jerusalem in the first century AD. It was fed by the waters of the Gihon Spring diverted through Hezekiah's Tunnel, built in the 8th century BC. Jesus told the blind man to go wash at the Pool of Siloam, and after doing it he received his sight. This was significant since the Hebrew word Siloam means "sent" and Jesus was the Messiah "sent" from heaven. The English equivalent is the word "apostle."
This from the Wikipedia:
Pool of Siloam (Hebrew "sent" or "sending") is a landmark mentioned several times in the Bible. This Pool has been identified with the Birket Silwan in the lower Tyropoeon Valley, to the south-east of Mount Zion.The water which flows into this pool intermittingly by a subterranean channel springs from the "Fountain of the Virgin". The length of this channel, which has several windings, is 1,750 feet, though the direct distance is only 1,100 feet. The pool is 53 feet in length from north to south, 18 feet wide, and 19 deep. The water passes from it by a channel cut in the rock into the gardens below.
According to the New Testament of the Christian Bible (John 9:6-11), this is the location where Jesus of Nazareth performed a miracle in giving sight to the blind. The crucial text, in the King James translation, is:
In 1880, while wading up the conduit by which the water entered the pool, a youth discovered an inscription cut in the rock on the eastern side, about 19 feet from the pool. This is the oldest extant Hebrew record of the kind. It has been deciphered by scholars, and has been found to be an account of the manner in which the tunnel was constructed. Its whole length is said to be "twelve hundred cubits;" and the inscription further notes that the workmen, like the excavators of the Mont Cenis Tunnel, excavated from both ends, meeting in the middle.
- When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, 7 And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.
Some have argued that the inscription was cut in the time of Solomon; others, with more probability, refer it to the reign of Hezekiah. A more ancient tunnel was discovered in 1889 some 20 feet below the ground. It is of smaller dimensions, but more direct in its course. It is to this tunnel that Isaiah 8:6 probably refers.
The Siloam inscription above referred to was surreptitiously cut from the wall of the tunnel in 1891 and broken into fragments. These were, however, recovered by the efforts of the British Consul at Jerusalem, and have been restored to their original place.
There is a news article at this link about the recent discovery of the Pool of Siloam, which is dated Dec. 23, 2004.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6750670/
An excerpt from this article says:
Pean said Jesus likely chose to cure the blind man using the purest water available, because people with any disabilities were barred from the temple.
3. The Bible records three accounts of Jesus healing speciific blind men. I've already mentioned two; the third was the man healed of blindness at Bethsaida. This story is in Mark 8:22-26. Jesus laid his hands TWICE upon the blind man's eyes before he was able to see clearly. The first time Jesus made clay from spittle and put it on his eyes and asked him what he saw. The man replied that he saw men who looked like trees, walking. So Jesus again put his hands upon the man's eyes, and this time he was able to see clearly. Also in this account, just as in the instance of the two blind men healed, Jesus told him not to tell anyone in the town.
I looked up Bethsaida in Strongs, and discovered that this was where Philip was from, John 1:44. Philip was the apostle (notice the connection with the pool of Siloam, which means Sent, or the English equivalent of apostle) who encountered the Ethiopian eunuch. More on that in a minute. In John 14: 8-9,
Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?
Jesus is essentially telling Phillip that he has been blind, because he did not recognize that Jesus and the Father were one. Another reference to blindness. Now back to Phillip and the eunuch. Acts 8:9 begins with Simon the sorceror doing miracles until Phillip came along, preaching Jesus, and this Simon believed and Phillip baptized him. Then in verse 26 the angel of the Lord told Phillip to go "toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert." This was where he encountered the Ethiopian eunuch, a man of great authority under Candace, Queen of Ethiopia.
From the web: It is somewhat singular that female sovereignty seems to have prevailed in Ethiopia, the name Candace (compare "Pharaoh," "Ptolemy," "Caesar") being a title common to several successive queens. It is probable that Judaism had taken root in Ethiopia at this time, and hence the visit of the queen's treasurer to Jerusalem to keep the feast. There is a tradition that Candace was herself converted to Christianity by her treasurer on his return, and that he became the apostle of Christianity in that whole region, carrying it also into Abyssinia.
Also interesting is that the Ark of the Covenant is said to be in Ethiopia, having been carried there by Menelik, the son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Perhaps it is soon to be revealed
He had charge of all her treasure, and had come to worship in Jerusalem, and was returning and sitting in his chariot reading from the book of Isaiah. (Also interesting in that I mentioned this book earlier about blindness!) So Phillip was told by the Holy Spirit to go speak to the man and ask him if he understood what he was reading, and the eunuch said he could not understand unless someone should guide him ( just as a blind man needs a guide!) Here is what he was reading, from Isaih 53:
The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. ( Is this a clue about the generation whose lives are taken, or removed, from the earth?)
And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.
Then this happened:
And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.
Phillip was transported immediately from the road in the desert to Azotus, the Greek word for Ashdod, a city in Gaza! He was transported in his body, instantly from one place to another, some distance away. The Greek word for caught away is HARPAZO, the same word used in describing the rapture! Is this an example of the kind of transporting of our bodies during the rapture?
I also discovered that Bethsaida was where Peter and Andrew were also from, and means "house of the Fisherman". We are to be fishers of men. This is also where Jesus fed the multitudes and walked on the water. Here is a link to more info about this place, and it was re-discovered by archaeologists in 1987, where it is located at the border of Israel on the northern edge of the Sea of Galilee.
http://avalon.unomaha.edu/bethsaida/history.htm
An excerpt from this article reveals:It is now believed the Iron Age Bethsaida was the capital of the kingdom of Geshur. Geshur is notable in the Hebrew Bible for its visit by King David, and his subsequent marriage to Ma'achah, the daughter of the king of Geshur.Interesting that King David had a bride from this same town! She was the mother of Absalom, the rebellious son of David.
I'm not sure where all this is leading, except that these things are not coincidental. Interesting what "hidden treasures " one finds when studying the Word. God has promised to give us a special blessing for this.
Dear sister,
Thanks for the kind words and for your research. Sister, I have studied everything you researched at one time or another over the years, and yes, every historical incident recorded in the Scriptures is filled with "types" of end-time events. Remember that the Lord said, "I am God.....Declaring the end from the beginning," Isaiah 46:9-10. Careful Bible study reveals that the entire scenario for the end-time has already been laid out during the ancient history of Israel and the nations. Sadly, many Christians (or professing Christians) stumble over these truths today to their own hurt and loss. How wonderful the Word of God is if God's people would just devote themselves to studying it.
Thank you again for writing. I could make lots of comments on what you have written and point out Bible types in all of the accounts, but just don't have the time right now. But keep studying. The Lord will bless you for it, and will enlighten you as you seek His leadership. God bless you. Keep us in your prayers.
Pastor F. M. Riley