The Impotent Man Waiting at Bethesda

This text speaks about a feast of the Jews. We do not know which feast it was. It could have been the feast of Passover, of Pentecost, or of Tabernacles. However, the most important and principal thing is that it says, “And Jesus went up to Jerusalem.” He also went up to the feast, because for God's children the feast days are days of mourning when they do not meet Him at these appointed times.

The Lord Jesus sojourned much in the temple, even when it was not a special feast day. He Himself testified, “I was daily with you in the temple.” He did not neglect the public gatherings, even though there was much in the temple which was to be disapproved.

Going up to God's house is in itself already a blessing, there to be separated for a moment from all daily activities. How great it is if we may appear before His presence, to confess our sins and to invoke His forgiving grace over them, and to acknowledge His love, grace, and faithfulness. The hearts of the God-fearing long for this. At times they may find again the lodging place of their soul in that of which the poet sings:

O God ofhosts, O God of grace,
How lovely is Thy holy place,
How good andpleasant is Thy dwelling!
My thirsty soul longs earnestly,
Yea, faints Thy holy courts to see
'Mid festal throngs and music swelling.
My heart and flesh cry out to God,
To Him I spread my hands abroad.
— Psalter 421:1

If God's child must miss this, he envies the sparrows and swallows, which have their nests hard by the altars of the Lord. If it is different, it is a poor sign, even if we possess grace.

The Lord Jesus entered Jerusalem at the sheep gate. This gate had this name because the sheep which were to be offered were brought to the temple through this gate. At this gate there was a pool, called Bethesda, which had five porches. In Bethesda lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, and withered. It was an accumulation of the sorrows of life, an image of suffering humanity.

Because of sin, a stream of suffering passes over all men. A worm, which we could call death, gnaws at our life. And sickness is often a servant of death, although the Lord can suddenly lay us low. Also for God's child, the displeasure of the Lord can sometimes, in his opinion, be found in his sicknesses. David cried out, “O Lord, rebuke me not in Thine anger, neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure” (Psalm 6:1). In their perception, the chastisements are found to be just.

It can also be that in the sicknesses of His people, the Lord comes with them and makes all their bed in their sickness (Psalm 41:3). At times the Lord must deal in such ways so that they take refuge in Him, where otherwise they can leave Him in His place. It is not that the circumstances themselves bring us to the Lord, but when He uses them for that end.

These impotent folk were all waiting for that special moment, the moving of the water. There can be a great difference in how we await the healing of our sicknesses: unreconciled and murmuring, or prayerfully and with submission. The moving of the waters was from above. God Himself troubled the waters by an angel.

Here everything is darkness and inability, a striking image of a sinner before God. In himself he is wholly incapable of doing any good and inclined to all wickedness. We cannot add one sigh to our salvation, although it does not take place without this. No matter how much violence we may do to the kingdom of God, we must say at the outcome that we have done nothing for it. It is necessary that we be discovered to this, so that we learn to know ourselves entirely as a lost one before God. No, we do not come there so readily. Only almighty, irresistible grace teaches us this.

At the troubling of the waters by an angel, the water had a healing power. He who stepped in first after the troubling of the water was healed, regardless of what sickness he had. Afterward there was no healing power present, so that after the first one, others were not healed, unless the angel again came down to trouble the water. It took place by God's almighty power. The Lord glorifies Himself alone in His almighty power, and He does so in all the ways in which He deals with His people, that His honor may arise from the dust.

In one of these five porches there lay a man to whom our attention is especially drawn. He was entirely impotent for many years. He had lain there thirty and eight years. He had no ability of his own to step into the water when it was troubled. If there was someone to put him into the pool, another was there before him. It happened time and again that he saw the water troubled; he knew that it had a healing power and also that it would heal him of his sickness. Nevertheless, he could make no use of it.

He saw others healed, but he had to be brought back into the same circumstances he was before. Bitterly disappointed and grieved, he would again be placed in his bed. Healing was near at hand, and yet far off. Do we know something of a disappointing spiritual waiting? This does not take place outside of a waiting which longs and looks forward to it, for otherwise we cannot be disappointed. I will name a few examples so that it will be clear what I mean.

After the promise, Abraham expected seed from Sarah; there you have the expectant waiting. Then we read, “Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children.” Here there was a disappointed waiting. We see this also with the lame man at the gate of the temple. He expected to receive something. Peter said, “Silver and gold have I none.” Upon an expectant waiting, a disappointed waiting often follows.

“Watchman, what of the night? The morning cometh, and also the night.” We wait for light, but, behold, there is darkness; we look for a gleam, but we walk in darkness. We call and expect an open door, and the Lord is silent. We read of the woman of Canaan, “But He answered her not a word.” We knock, and it seems that the door is fastened more securely. We hear that Jesus is a Savior for lost sinners and that if we come unto Him, we will not be cast out, but the work finds no fulfillment.

How shall we come to Him? We seek it here and there and everywhere, and we do not find it. We hear that others were helped, that they may partake of His love, may rejoice in the God of their salvation — but for me? Oh, it is a disappointing waiting! The poor and needy seek water, and there is none. Yet it is a waiting which is seen by the Lord.

The Lord Jesus drew nigh to this impotent man. He himself did not know that it was the Lord Jesus. We also by nature do not know Him in a saving way. This man could not come to the Lord Jesus, for we read that the Lord Jesus came to him. “I bring near My righteousness: it shall not be far off, and My salvation shall not tarry: and I will place salvation in Zion for Israël My glory” (Isaiah 46:13).

Jesus saw this man. He also saw the others lying there. But for this man it was free grace, which moved Jesus from eternity. He saw him with a special look, with an eye of pity, mercy, and love. “I will set Mine eyes upon them for good.”

— Rev. H. van Gilst, (1901-1966)

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