We saw that death was confined to the second and seventh signs, and we shall now see

that sin is spoken of only in the third and sixth. It will be observed, moreover, that the

second pair of signs intensifies the subject.

In both the third and sixth signs we have a pool, a long standing case, and the Sabbath

day. Further, the nature of the spiritual infirmity and blindness is suggested by the

reference in each case to the words of Moses and the works of the Father. Both signs

were given at Jerusalem. The pool in the third sign is called Bethesda. The pool in the

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 angels, but the world to come, of which the apostle

speaks in Heb. 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, 7: 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 aionian life. To this man comes the word of power:--

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-questioned 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

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 Matt. 12: 1-8,

where the word first occur, the Lord shows how vastly different was his understanding of