John 5:1-6:27

The pools of Bathesda (or Bethsaida) are located just north of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  People would enter the pools when they were stirred up.  Now we might misunderstand this to mean that someone would physically stir the water, but what people witnessed was seeing the water appear to as if it were boiling.  Verse 4 which may not be in your bibles gives the description of this.  “From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters.  The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had.”  This verse doesn’t appear because it does not appear in the most important manuscripts used to authenticate the Gospel of John.  It does however, gives us tremendous insight into understanding what the invalid man was talking about.  He would get passed over for healing because only one could be healed at a time and he couldn’t get into the water fast enough.

I am including pictures of the pools so that you can see their size.  While it may have no theological importance to see them, these pools are very large, holding vast amounts of water.  Many people would have been able to be near them.  At one time their was a church built over the top of the eastern end of the pools.  You can see some of the ruins of the church in the pictures

While I was in Israel, I witnessed a number of regulations regarding the Sabbath.  While I certainly wish to respect the culture and devotion that is given to these regulations since they are often followed with a true desire to please God, I will admit that some of them seemed like overkill.  One example is the elevators that would stop on every floor of the hotel during the Sabbath so that devout Jews would not have to work by pushing either the up/down button to call the elevator, nor the floor button once inside to tell it where to go.  They simply waited for the elevator to open, got in and rode it until they got where they were going and the door opened.  We must remember that none of these regulations are in the Mosaic Code, but are traditions ordained by man.  Again, not evil or wrong to do, but ripe for abuse and misunderstanding which has the potential to point someone toward action without understanding,  and not necessarily leading them closer to God.

Is it any wonder that Jesus uses the term “Blind Guides” so often to describe the leaders who refuse to accept His testimony?  It goes to show that knowledge in and of itself is neither the beginning nor the end of wisdom.  In fact the bible says that fear of the Lord is both the beginning of Wisdom and Knowledge.  Hear we have leaders who have a great deal of knowledge of the scriptures but because they refuse to see, they cannot understand the meaning or the fulfillment of the scriptures as seen in Jesus.

What spoke to you as you read God’s word?  What was sparked in your imagination as you read these passages?