“Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing” (John 9:7)

The Healing of the Man Born Blind

When we act according to God’s will, the Holy Spirit seals us (Eph. 4:30). This act of sealing is also related to our transformation and to the growth of the divine life in us. Many times, however, the Spirit wants to seal us, but is unable to. Then God is grieved because He wants us to grow in life. He has much expectation in you and me because He is waiting patiently for us to mature and eventually to enter into the kingdom to reign with Him.

God expects us to become like those noble woods used in the construction of the temple in the Old Testament. The way this will take place is by seeking the Lord when we pass through sufferings. The cedar of Lebanon is one of these woods, which, by standing against the harsh weather in the mountains, becomes a strong and hardy wood.

Similarly, we need to grow even when we find ourselves in adverse circumstances because God wants in this way to transform our human nature. In the same way that the wood of the temple had to be covered with gold, we also must have God’s nature added to ours. All of this is so that one day we may be qualified to reign with Christ.

He really has a great expectation that we will serve Him today in order to acquire many experiences. Then in the coming kingdom we will also be able to serve Him. The Lord Jesus has a great commission for us and because of this established a requirement with a high standard, as we have discovered in chapters 5, 6 and 7 of Matthew.

It is impossible by human strength to practise the Lord’s words described in these chapters. However, God tells us that it is possible to do it because the Spirit of life dwells in us (1 Cor. 6:19). We are incapable of practising these words, but within us there is Someone who is able: the Spirit. The ministry of the apostle John has helped us much in this sense.

At first the gospels describe John as a person who followed the apostle Peter. After the Lord’s death and resurrection, both were taken prisoners, but only Peter, the leader, was martyred. John was spared and imprisoned for twenty years.

In prison John reflected on the life-giving Spirit (Rev. 1:10; 4:2; 17:3; 21:10). Because of this he sought the Lord in his spirit, and as time passed, grew in life. He also remembered the words the Lord Jesus had spoken in those three and a half years that they were together, which the other evangelists hadn’t recorded.

Many are aware that the Lord Jesus died on the cross and shed His blood. However, few know that from His side there also came out water, which represents the life that was in Him and which is the light of men (John 19:34; cf. 1:4). This fact was recorded only by the apostle John.

John also related in his gospel the healing of a man born blind (9:1-7). The disciples of Jesus thought that this man had been born blind because of his sin or the sin of his parents, but the Lord told them that this incident was so that the works of God might be manifested in him. Then the Lord spit on the ground, made clay with the saliva and applied it to the eyes of the blind man.

We believe that when the Lord applied the mud to the eyes of the blind man he could already see something, but not in a clear way. Thus the Lord said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (which translated is Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing” (v. 7). Siloam refers to the apostles and means that in order to be clear about God’s will, you need the word, the ministry and the interpretation of the apostles.

The blind man was able to see again through the light of the world because the Lord Himself said, “I am the light of the world” (v. 5). To receive the light of the world in those circumstances was like receiving the “first-day light.” Nevertheless, he still needed to enjoy the Lord as the light of life, the “fourth-day light.” We can say that he gained this experience when he went to the pool of Siloam and washed. In the same way, today we need the revelation of the word as the “fourth-day light,” which is transmitted to us through His sent ones.

Key Point:

Not neglecting the “fourth-day light.”

Your Key Point:

Question:

Why did the blind man have to go to the pool of Siloam?

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