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But where can wisdom be found? Where does understanding dwell? …God understands the way to it and he alone knows where it dwells.

Job 28:12,23

True wisdom is only known through God’s revelation of Himself. Job painted a picture of the mining industry - finding silver, gold, and iron ore in the bowels of the earth - as representing the highest form of human technology in his day (28:1-11). Though human achievements are impressive one cannot find God that way. God must choose to reveal Himself, and then He must be embraced in faith.

The simplicity of this proclamation invites faith. We are not required to delve into deep philosophies, or to perform heroic feats, or to notch up impressive achievements. We are required to sit still long enough to hear and understand and to embrace God and His message in faith. Our faith need not be perfect - human faith never is - it must simply be enough to take the first step toward God, as He has shown us the way.

Someone asked me today why I thought Christ had the blind man of John 9 go and wash the mud off of his eyes in the pool of Siloam. Was there some symbolism attached to this, or an illustration of some deeper truth. John 9 is a passage that we can make more out of than we should. The theological background is that healing happens on the basis of God’s grace and comes to us through our faith. These two factors are consistent and are similar to the differences between the foundation of a building (grace) and the door through which I enter it (faith). I cannot come into God’s family or into salvation apart from faith, but my salvation does not rest upon my faith.

Having him go and wash in the pool was a concrete way that the blind man’s faith could be expressed, thereby helping him to believe. But there was also symbolism attached to the Pool of Siloam, as the wellspring of God. Jerusalem is a city founded on dry ground, without a navigable body of water. Its citizens drink of wells from beneath the earth, and this reality symbolized the movement of God’s Spirit in the lives of those who believe. God’s people have life and peace and wisdom from a Source to which the world in its unbelief does not have access. God’s Spirit is the hidden source of life for God’s people (see Isaiah 12:3; Jer 2:13; Eze 47:1-12; John 4:10-14; John 7:37-39).

And there is another reason: it shows the humility of Christ. He did not perform His miracles just to grandstand in front of the crowds. His first miracle, recorded in John 2, was in Cana of Galilee, an obscure place among common people, to meet a need that seemed rather insignificant - turning water to wine. But it was there that He began His miraculous signs, and it was then that His disciples put their trust in Him. Christ also did not want to be the first person that the blind man saw. Often in His healings He told people not to tell, and we can assume that Christ knew that the man would face some persecution just on the basis of being the recipient of the healing. Having him wash in the pool of Siloam downplayed the role of Christ in the healing, and distanced Him from the man and the miracle. It was consistent in the Gospels, especially seen in John, that Christ did not grandstand in His healings. He met needs and did not use them to call attention to Himself as a celebrity.

The wisdom of God is gentle, easy to be entreated, light, gracious, and kind. Faith opens the door. The question is whether or not we believe, and if we believe then He will begin the process of enlightening our hearts so that we might understand more and know Him better.

Jewels from Job healing, Job, wellspring, wisdom

That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”

Matthew 8:16-17

Every act that Christ did came from His character and revealed a part of His personality. Who is Christ? What type of Person was He and is He today? All we need to do is to look at His actions, for they speak as loudly as His words.

Christ was no showman, no mere pretender, using slight of hand tricks to impress the multitudes for self-serving purposes. He was simply being Himself, reaching out to those who hurt. James S. Stewart wrote these words,

When Jesus laid his hands upon a leper’s sores, it was not with an eye to effect, any more than his taking the children into his arms had an eye to the effect on the spectators. Any such idea of Jesus trying to produce a favorable impression is horrible. It would give us an unnatural Christ. No. Jesus carried the lambs in his bosom because he loved them – just that – and Jesus touched the leper’s sores because he pitied him with all his heart. The ruling motive of the mighty works of Jesus was always and everywhere compassion.[1]

The miracles of Christ invite us to trust in Him – we would expect nothing less from the true Savior than great works like these – but they were not showmanship, and they are not the only witness to His Messiahship. Our faith in Him is based on our inner acceptance of the witness of His Spirit, and because we have believed along these lines we have a different view of the miracles: we have no trouble believing that they truly happened just as the Scripture said. But to our minds and to our hearts the miracles do not merely show the raw power of Christ – they reveal His heart as well.

As it is true with sickness, so it is true to every other problem we have on this earth – depression, conflict, worry, anxiety, injustice, et al. There can never be a problem we experience that does not touch the heart of the Savior. When we think no one else cares, that all have forgotten us, that even the angels themselves have turned their attention elsewhere – when we feel most lonely then we must claim in faith these precious promises of the Savior’s compassion.

His miracles also reveal that sickness and pain and trouble are not intended to remain forever. The day will come when they will be no more, when painful loneliness, emotional scars, insecurities, as well as every form of physical sickness will be removed from us forever.

When we talk to the Savior in prayer, we address someone all powerful who has us on His heart, who cares more about our troubles and problems than we could ever imagine. Come to Him confidently, quickly, constantly, and trustingly. Leave your anxiety in His hands, casting all your cares upon Him because He cares for you! (1 Peter 5:7).

If He cares so much, the skeptic may ask, then why doesn’t He cure all our diseases? I believe the answer is that His work of redemption is deep, not shallow, intentional, and not random. The sin problems of the world are not easily or simply resolved, and even its legacy in our own lives – whether we mean the physical or emotional aspects of our personality – runs deep. In His time and in His way He will make all things right, but He must make them new first. The foundation of human society is corrupted and if we lose patience with His repair work it is because we do not grasp the seriousness of our problem as He does. We want changes on the surface where we can see, but He sees the greater need beneath. We want it done quickly and cheaply, but as the Master Builder He knows that it must be done thoroughly and that it will be costly.

We can trust His heart just as we can trust His plan – as deep as His knowledge goes, so just as deep goes His compassion for us. Rest in the reality of His love for you. Grasping this truth by faith gives us a taste of the future, when His goodness and love for us will be expressed without measure.

Evening Devotionals caring, compassion, healing