The Story

The Lord was in Jerusalem, and passing by He saw a blind man sitting begging. The poor man had never seen the sunshine nor the faces of his friends, for he had always been blind. How the Lord would love to give him sight! Two things helped to cure the blind man. The Lord spat on the ground and mixing the water with the dust He put it upon his eyes; then He said, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam." The pool of Siloam was another of the pools of Jerusalem, like the pool of Bethesda, which we have learned about. He went and washed and sight came, and he could see. He could see the sky and the sunshine and the faces of his friends, the trees and the flowers.

What did the people think and say of this wonderful healing by the Lord? What did the Pharisees say? Read verses 13-16.

Then there were the father and mother of the blind man. What did they say? Read verses 18-21. They spoke in this way because they feared the Jews who were angry with the Lord.

And there was the blind man himself. What did he say? He told them how his eyes were opened: the clay, the washing in Siloam. And when they asked about the one who had healed him, he said, "He is a prophet. When the Jews asked him further he was not afraid like his parents, but said boldly, "Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God he could do nothing." Once more the Lord found the man who had been healed, and he worshiped Him. Read verses 35-38.

Do you remember where the Lord was in our last lesson? At what feast had He been present?

As Jesus "passed by," possibly at the gate of the temple, He saw a blind man begging for help from the passers-by. (Compare Acts 3:1-3.) This man was born blind and likely made that a special reason for asking help. There are many beggars in Palestine, all trying to attract attention and help by telling the passers-by of their troubles and showing them their diseases. There were none who gained more sympathy than the blind beggars.

This story of the blind man is most beautiful and dramatic as it stands in the Gospel. To try to retell it is to injure it. Yet we may pause for a thought here and there as we read. It was in Jerusalem where the Lord had attended the thanksgiving feast of Tabernacles. The blind man was begging, perhaps by the temple gate like the lame man who asked an alms of Peter and John at the beautiful gate of the temple. (Acts 3:1-3)

Notice the disciples' question, "Who did sin?" For the Jews thought of disease as a punishment for sin. The Lord does not send punishment. When He lets hard things come, it is always that they may teach some lesson and that they may bring some good. Watch in this story and see what blessing came to this man from his blindness. No hard thing ever comes to us that may not be used to turn our hearts more truly to the Lord; but by this poor man and his troubles the Lord was about to give a lesson to all the world of His power and loving kindness. He was not long to walk with men on earth and He must do the works of His Divine love before it was too late. And it was part of His Divine work to help this blind beggar.

What means did the Lord use in this cure? (Verses 6, 7) You find the pool of Siloam on your maps outside the present walls of Jerusalem to the south of the temple hill. There is also a lower pool of Siloam, to which water runs from the upper pool.

Among the several characters in the story the Pharisees, the parents of the blind man and the man himself, the man himself is the most interesting. Watch him as the story goes on. At first he did not know the one who healed him. "A man that is called Jesus," he called Him. Presently he said, "He is a prophet," and then "a man of God"; and then he believed in Him as "the Son of God" and worshiped Him. Can we see how this man's blindness was for the glory of God? Not only did he receive physical sight, but the Lord gradually opened the eyes of his mind to know Him the Divine Friend.

While the eyes of this man's spirit were opening to know the Lord, other eyes in the story remained closed, in fact were more and more tightly close - the eyes of the Pharisees. Read the last verses of the chapter. The chapter speaks in the beginning of natural blindness and at the end it speaks of spiritual blindness. It has lifted our thought from natural seeing to a higher kind, of sight.

1. Where was the village of Siloam? Where was the pool of Siloam?

2. What other pool in Jerusalem have we learned of? And what happened there?

3. What did the Lord do, and what did He require the man to do, in healing his blindness? Tell me of other times when similar means were used.

4. When do we see, spiritually? When are we spiritually blind? In this story who were the most hopelessly blind?

Spiritual Study

Find out what you can about the pool of Siloam; its position under the temple hill, the tunnel by which its water came, and the spring which supplied it. It is very probably this tunnel which is mentioned as Hezekiah's work in 2 Kings 20:20 and 2 Chronicles 32:4. The pool is also mentioned in Isaiah 8:6. The rivers of Eden and of the Holy City represent the abundant cleansing and refreshing truth from the Lord in a heavenly state of life. The springs and rivers of Canaan have a similar meaning. And now we find even the pools and aqueducts of Jerusalem used as types of the same Divine water of life. See especially Isaiah 8:6 and A. 790.

No one is to blame for wrong that his parents have done. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the, iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him." (Ezekiel 18:20) One may inherit a tendency to an evil, but the evil is not his except as he chooses it and makes it his own. (T. 521)

Even for our own sins the Lord does not send punishments. If hardships come as the consequences of evil or otherwise, they are permitted for some good. (T. 521; P. 277 and on)

When is one spiritually blind? When he does not understand, especially when he does not understand the truth about the Lord and heavenly life. " None are so blind as those who will not see." The most serious kind of blindness is when one will not understand because he loves what is evil. A less serious blindness is from ignorance, when one has never been taught about heavenly things. This blindness is more easily cured. We see the spiritual eyes of the blind man in the story opening to know the Lord. The Pharisees would not see His Divineness; they remained blind. (E. 239)

We all are born spiritually blind, in utter ignorance, and this is for the glory of God. For the necessity to learn may keep us humble and capable of a truer wisdom than would be possible if we had knowledge without learning and thought ourselves wise, as we should in our selfish state inevitably do. (M. 133, 134)

The water of Siloam we recognize as a type of spiritual instruction. The washing represents the application of truth to the cleansing of life. "The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." (Psalm 19:8) And what is represented by the anointing of the blind eyes with the clay? The water from the Lord's own lips represents instruction from the experience of His own life. The ground with which it was mixed represents the simple natural forms in which the Lord's truth is adapted to us in our natural state of mind. It seems especially to represent the practical applications of truth to good life, which make it tangible and effective. Compare similar means of cure in 2 Kings 5: 10; Mark 7:33; 8:23. (A. 6669; E. 475)

The contention between the Pharisees and the parents and the man healed of blindness is repeated in our minds when a true acknowledgment of the Lord is awakening, and is opposed by a proud, selfish spirit of denial, and by a disposition weakly to consider the opinions of the world and the natural effects of following the Lord.

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