Sometimes we hear about terrible events: accidents, sickness, financial trouble; why do these things happen? Why do we have sin? Why do we have accidents? Because man rebelled against God. But God so loved you, He sent His Son into the world to break the power of the devil and set us free. We can’t always explain or understand the ways of God, but as with the man healed in John 9:25, “One thing I know: though I was blind, now I can see.”
Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.
Therefore the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, “Is not this he who sat and begged?”
Some said, “This is he.” Others said, “He is like him.”
He said, “I am he.”
Therefore they said to him, “How were your eyes opened?”
He answered and said, “A Man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and I received sight.”
Then they said to him, “Where is He?”
He said, “I do not know.”
… He answered and said, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.” (John 9:1-12, 25, NKJV)
When I tell you that the God of the Bible is alive, that He works miracles today, I am the evidence; my life is the miracle; God has healed me at least three times. In the 1960s, God healed me of throat cancer. I had no operation, God worked the miracle! One time whilst ministering in Ukraine, I was in a car accident. As a result, I had a severe problem with my left hip. The doctors wanted to give me a new hip. I was in a lot of pain. But I didn’t have the operation because when I called upon the Name of the Lord, He healed me! In 2003, God healed me of lung cancer.
In this story from the Bible, the disciples asked the question we all want the answer to, ‘Why did this happen?’ Sometimes we read about terrible events: people die in wars; loved ones are in accidents. Why do these things occur? God did not create the accident. God did not create sin. ‘The Lord is good and His mercy endures forever’ (Ps 136:1, NKJV). Why then do bad things happen? Because man rebelled against God; and when man did, sin came into the world. And because of sin, we are under the curse. But God so loved you that He sent His Son into the world to break the power of the devil. God is a good God. The devil is a bad devil. Sin is from the devil. Sickness is from the devil. The Bible says, ‘For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8, NKJV).
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. (John 10:10, NKJV)
The religious leaders turned to the man; they had lots of questions because they didn’t believe the miracle. Even in the days of the Bible, despite Jesus working countless miracles, people still refused to believe in the miraculous. Some said, ‘It isn’t the same man.’ But the man said, ‘I am he.’ Immediately after, the religious leaders began to question who Jesus was, denying His deity. In verse 25 the man responded, ‘Whether He is a sinner or not, I don’t know, but this one thing I know, once I was blind but now I can see.’
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. (1 Corinthians 13:12, NKJV)
We won’t always understand everything in the Bible. I’ve studied the Bible all my life. I’ve been to Bible College. I’ve been a preacher for more than 60 years. I don’t understand every passage in the Bible. But nor do I understand how the television works. How is it that something can be filmed in one location, broadcast via satellite, and then received in my house? I don’t need to understand the technical details to know that it works. It is the same with this blind man, he didn’t know how he was healed, but he knows he was. I don’t know how God healed me of cancer, but I know He has.
You only need to know one thing: God’s Word works. What He says, that will He do. Be confident of this, ‘He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ’ (Philippians 1:6, NKJV).
‘Sheltered in the Rock’ used by kind permission of www.vinesong.com