the Lord said, "Thy faith hath made thee whole". No one can question the faith of the

ruler, but the word does not appear. In the next miracle, that of the blind men, faith is

prominent, and the cure was conditional upon it.

The references to faith in this Gospel are subject to a definite arrangement, and as

some of the passages are directly concerned with the miracles, we will give the order for

the sake of future study,

A | 8: 10. Great faith; outside Israel. Man for servant.

B | 9: 2. Their faith. Led to forgiveness.

C | 9: 22. Thy faith. Exeranthe (dried up), Mark 5: 29.

D | 9: 29. According to faith. Eyes of blind opened.

HERE COMES REJECTION (12:, 13:).

A | 15: 28. Great faith; outside Israel. Woman for daughter.

B | 17: 20. As mustard seed. Luke 17: 6 links with forgiveness.

C | 21: 21. Remove mountains. Exeranthe (withered), verse 20.

D | 23: 23, 24. Pharisees omit faith. Blind guides.

There is a lesson in all this. It is surely intentional that the two first occasions on

which faith is mentioned concern Gentiles seeking the blessing for others, in one case so

markedly as to cause the Lord to marvel, and in both cases to remark upon the greatness

of the faith exhibited. Yet the Lord would not deny the faith that was as small even as a

grain of mustard seed. His final charge against the blind guides of Israel, who were

leading them quickly into the ditch of rejection and unrepentance, was that they omitted

among other weighty matters, "faith". The faith even of others was blessed by the Lord,

how much more the faith of the individual! And so the last miracle that speaks of faith,

before the crisis (Matt. 12:), makes healing conditional upon faith.

Two blind men address the Lord by His kingdom (the true dispensational) title, the

title which Israel should have recognized and believed, "Thou Son of David, have mercy

on us". Seven times in Matthew's Gospel is the Lord addressed as Son of David, this

being the first occasion. Here at last comes the confession that in their midst stands

Israel's long-promised King. Would the eyes of this nation be opened to see Him? or

would He have to say that the words of the prophet were fulfilled, "their eyes they have

closed". Therefore, not for the individual's sake, but because of the typical value of all

the miracles, the Lord replies:--

This is what might have happened nationally, but faith was absent. The persistent

unbelief brought the evidences of the Messiah's presence to an end (Matt. 13: 58).

Therefore it was that the Lord straitly charged the two blind men, "See that no man know