Mark 8:22-26 says:
"Then He (Jesus) came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him. So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything. And he looked up and said, "I see man like trees, walking." Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly. Then He sent him away to his house, saying "Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town."My wife and I recently went abroad on holiday. It was lovely, and refreshing to get away from the demands of work, bills, etc etc! Now I'm back at home, I can definitely see the benefits of just taking a break and enjoying a new environment. While abroad, the Lord led me to the Bible passage above which tells of Jesus healing a blind man. In this article I want to focus a little on the section which says "He caught the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village." Imagine what that must have been like for this blind man. He was being taken out of familiar territory, not seeing or knowing where he was going. It couldn't have been easy for him. However, Jesus used this 'leading away' as part of the process of healing and restoration for this blind man.
I put it to you that Jesus often works in the same manner today. He at times wants to take us away from our familiar territory/environment/comfort zone (whatever you want to call it!) in order for us to get our breakthrough. Don't get me wrong - this change of location isn't restricted to a physical move - for example moving home. It may be a change in terms of distancing yourself from certain people or habits. It could be a change of job, or simply a shift in attitude or outlook. Whatever it may be, Jesus can and will initiate a process of change in our lives in order to bless us.
Just like with this blind man, as Jesus leads us into new territory, away from what is 'safe' or 'familiar', we cannot see where we are going. This reminds me of Abram in Genesis 12:1-2 where God tells him to leave him home in Haran to go to a place away from his relatives. God didn't spell out to Abram where He was taking him. Abram had to put his faith in God and trust that He would fulfill His promises. Like Abram, as Jesus is leading, we must trust Him. Now for healing Notice that the Bible doesn't specify how long Jesus took to lead this man away to the place where he was healed. It could have been 10 minutes, half an hour or even a few hours. When Jesus starts to deal with us, we often will not know how long it takes for us to get to the place in our lives where Jesus actually starts to change our condition. For remember, as the man was being led away from the village, he was still blind.
But once Jesus brought him to where he wanted him to be, a process of healing begins. Jesus spat on his eyes! "Yuck" you may say! How many of us today would like a doctor to treat our sickness like that!? Jesus often uses unusual ways of healing, delivering and restoring us - ways we do not expects, ways we wouldn't normally choose for ourselves. Settling for less than best? We see that Jesus touches him but he wasn't completely healed. While reading this I wondered why Jesus didn't heal him in one step as He had done with so many other people. I believe the Lord answered my question by pointing out to me that He often heals in stages, step by step. Marriages aren't always transformed overnight, bad habits or attitudes aren't always conquered instantly. A financial crisis often takes time to get sorted out. Whatever it may be, God often works in stages. The important thing to note is that we shouldn't settle for anything less than complete healing and restoration.
In this passage the blind man could have settled for just being able to see people like trees. After all at least he could see something now, rather than nothing at all right? Well this partial healing wasn't Jesus' plan so Jesus touched him again (!) and now his sight was completely restored.
In life at times we too may be tempted to be satisfied with an improvement in our circumstances without seeing a complete resolution. Sometimes when there has been so much pain, discouragement or regret, when things get better in some way, we may think "I'm just glad that things are better than they used to be." However God has more in store, and you can press on to believe that God can complete the work He starts in your life (Philippians 1:6). Why Bethsaida? As I read through, I noticed that Jesus told the man not to return to the village or even tell anyone there of his healing? I questioned the Lord about this, and He highlighted the name of the village to me - Bethsaida.
What is the significance of Bethsaida you may ask. Bethsaida was a place that Jesus did great miracles - feeding five thousand using 5 loaves and 2 fish. However Bethsaida was one of the places Jesus rebuked for its unbelief (Matthew 11:20-22, Luke 10:13-14). Looking at the context of Mark 8 as a whole, Jesus was trying to teach his disciples the importance of faith. I believe that unbelief in that town was the reason Jesus took the man away (acknowledging that the faith of those who took the blind man to Jesus in the first place). This is a vital lesson for us. We have to believe in the Lord, and at times this means distancing ourselves from unbelief in its various forms - critical or unbelieving people or situations. back to top |
