WE are too prone to overlook the circumstantial and incidental instruction of the sacred writers, forgetful that every word of God is pure, and that whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning. Let us not lose any of this hid treasure for want of observing, and applying what we read.
Our Saviour met this man at the pool of Bethesda, but no sooner had he pronounced the word of healing, than he orders him to take up his bed and walk. We can see four reasons for this command;
First, it was to evince the perfection of the cure. His walking, indeed, would prove this; but his taking up his bed, and being able to carry that in which he had been carried, would display it still more, as it showed his strength as well as health. We often refer to miracles, and they are the witness of the Spirit. But the question is, were they true? Never could any thing have been more remote from imposition, than the miracles recorded in the gospel. Examine them. They were many---they were public---they were performed before witnesses interested in their detection, had they been false. The circumstances, too, were always corroborative. Does he raise the dead? The young man was being carried to his burial, attended with much people. Lazarus was in his grave, and had been dead four days. Does he recover the infirm and the diseased? The man whose eyes he opened was born blind. And this paralytic had been afflicted thirty-eight years, and in a moment he was made whole, and was seen by all going home with his bed upon his shoulders.
Secondly, it was to teach him to be careful, and to waste nothing. The bed probably was not very valuable, but he was not to throw it away. In correspondence with this, after the miracle of the loaves and fishes, even then, when he had shown with what ease he could multiply resources, and support his creatures, He said, " Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." Christians should avoid closeness and meanness, lest their good be evil spoken of. But there is another extreme they should be anxious to avoid: it is profusion, negligence, carelessness. They ought not to love money, but they should know the use and worth of it, and remember that they are responsible for all they have. How needy are many, and how ready would they be to call down the blessing of heaven upon you for a few mites; for the remnants of your wardrobe; for the refuse of your garden; for the crumbs that fall from your table. Be examples of economy yourselves. Teach your children to be prodigal of nothing. You would dismiss a servant that purloined; keep no one that wastes. How unfrugal often are the poor; how few of them seem to know how to make the most of any of their pittances. Let them be instructed personally and by tracts.
Thirdly, as a memento of his deliverance and duty. When at home, and looking on his bed, he would say, " Ah, there I lay, a poor enfeebled creature, and said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord, remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope, " It is a sad charge against Israel, that they soon forgot his works, and the wonders He had shown them. We are prone to the same evil, and need every assistance to aid recollection. Joseph and Moses made the very names of their children remembrancers. Samuel set up a stone, and called it Ebenezer. Some have set apart particular days. Some have kept diaries.
Fourthly, to try his obedience. Carrying his bed was a servile work, and it was now the Sabbath, on which day no burden was to be borne. He seemed therefore to oppose the law of Moses, and accordingly the Pharisees were offended, and murmured. But works of necessity and mercy were always proper, and the Sabbath was made for man, and the Son of man was Lord even of the Sabbath-day.
And it is pleasing to find that the man's mind was informed, while his body was cured. Hear him reasoning with the objectors. "He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk." How fine, how instructive is this! We are not to judge the Lord's commands, but to follow them. His orders may be trying, and in obeying them we may give offence, but we need not regard the revilings of men, while we can plead his authority. It is our deliverer, our benefactor, who enjoins, and what has he said unto us? He that died for us, and saved us from the wrath to come, what will he have me to do? He that made me whole, the same says unto me, " If ye love one, keep my commandments."
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