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sixth is called `Siloam'. In both cases a reference is made to either the language or the meaning of the name `which
is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda', `Siloam, which is by interpretation, Sent'. Bethesda means `the house of
mercy', and here in this sign mercy is seen and heard. Whether the troubling of the water by an angel is to be taken
as Scriptural truth, or whether we have here the record of a popular idea, makes no difference to the value of the
story. Israel as a nation were guarded, redeemed, led, taught, and punished by the instrumentality of the angels, but
the world to come, of which the apostle Paul speaks in Hebrews 2, has not been subjected to angels.
Among the many impotent folk who anxiously awaited the troubling of the water was a man who had been in a
state of helpless infirmity for thirty-eight years. If the reader consults The Companion Bible, Appendix 50. vii (2,3),
he will see that this is the actual period of the wandering of Israel in the wilderness, which wandering was a
punishment for their sin of unbelief. The impotent man is a type of Israel shut out from the promised land, cut off
from the aionion life. To this man comes the word of power:
`Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked:
and on the same day was the Sabbath' (John 5:8,9).
The epistle to the Hebrews deals with the actual historic wandering in the wilderness, and speaks of the `rest'
that remaineth, which rest is a sabbatismos (see Heb. 3, 4). Here we have therefore at the pool of Bethesda the type
of Israel's restoration. The man who was healed being cross-questioned by the Jews, confessed that he did not know
who his benefactor might be. This is paralleled in the sixth sign, where the neighbours and the Pharisees
cross-question the man concerning his benefactor. Commencing with `a man that is called Jesus', he is led on at
length to the confession that Jesus was the `Son of God'.
We shall see the prophetic significance of the sixth sign later, but it is already obvious to any student of the
prophets that in both of these signs Israel's restoration is set forth. The bigotry and hatred manifested over the
`desecration' of the Sabbath revealed the utter darkness of the minds of these leaders of the people.
Let us spend a moment to survey the Lord's doings on the Sabbath. In Matthew 12:1-8, where the word first
occurs, the Lord shows how vastly different was his understanding of the Sabbath from the strait-laced formal
conception of the Pharisees. Out of this controversy comes the first great truth that we do well ever to keep in mind,
viz., `The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day'.
The next truth to emerge from the crafty questioning of the Pharisees is that it is lawful `to do good on the
Sabbath'. Mark in his Gospel adds one item that must not be omitted here:
`The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the
sabbath' (Mark 2:27,28).
If we glance back again to Matthew 12 we shall see that this latter sentence is there connected with `mercy, and
not sacrifice'; in other words, the Sabbath is the day of healing, of mercy, of the beneficial effect of the redemption
made by Christ. It is fitting therefore that the impotent man should be healed at the `House of Mercy' . We shall
see also how fitting the pool of Siloam was when we come to the sixth sign. Luke, while recording the incident of
Matthew 12, gives a further illustration of the importance of the Sabbath (Luke 13:10-16).
A woman bound by Satan for eighteen years is loosed from her bond on the Sabbath day. The Lord gives special
emphasis to the fact that the woman who was `made straight' was a `daughter of Abraham'. The Millennium is the
day in which the seed of Abraham shall be delivered from the long-standing bondage of Satan, when they shall be
healed, when their blindness shall give place to sight, when they that are in their graves shall hear the voice that
awoke Lazarus (the seventh sign), when the marriage feast shall be set, and the `new wine in the Father's kingdom'
shall be tasted with joy, when the 153 fishes shall all be gathered to the shore with net unbroken.
In John 5:17 the Lord refers to the Father's works, `My Father worketh hitherto, and I work'. The meaning of
this statement is that up till the ministry of Christ, the Father had wrought for Israel, `hitherto' meaning `until now'.
From the commencement of the ministry of the Son, the Father wrought through Him. This truth comes out again in
John 9:4, `I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day'. The testimony of Moses is also referred to in
both signs: