Mensa Otabil - Full Obedience

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We’ve been looking at Jesus’s encounter with a blind man in John chapter 9. The man is blind from his mother’s womb, and Jesus passes by and sees him. His disciples ask a question: whose fault is it, the man’s or his parents'? Jesus says it’s nobody’s fault; this is an opportunity for God to showcase His works. So Jesus goes ahead, mixes clay from the ground, touches the man’s eyes, and there are lessons we’ve learned there.

So the next thing is Jesus gives an instruction. In verse 7 of John chapter 9, He said to him, «Go wash in the pool of Siloam,» which is translated «sent.» So he went, washed, and came back seeing. There is so much in the Scriptures that it’s exciting just to see God’s purposes working out carefully and being manifested.

So the key here is obedience. Jesus has done something for the man, and now He’s giving him the next steps to take to see the completion of the miracle. The touching of the eye is not all of it; something else has to happen, and all of that is based on obedience. The first thing Jesus says is, «Go wash,» and the place Jesus sent him is the pool of Siloam, which the parenthesis in the passage tells us means «sent.»

The pool of Siloam comes from a spring of water and is on the eastern side of Jerusalem, so the man has to do a little bit of walking-not too much, but a little — to get to the pool of Siloam. A blind man with clay on his eyes has to take the step. Remember, he didn’t ask for the healing; Jesus initiated it. Now he has to show whether he’s interested in his own healing, so he has to take the step, he has to go wash.

So many times when God wants to do something for us, He will want to see our level of commitment. There’s something we must do to bring about His healing or His deliverance in our lives.

So Jesus says, «Go wash,» and He sent him to a pool called «Sent.» Then the passage says the man went and washed. The man obeyed the command, went to the pool, and washed. Well, when he washed, of course, he had to wash off the clay that was on his eyes, but he’s doing more than washing off the clay on top of his eyes. The clay on top of his eyes represents everything that has clouded his vision; probably it was a cataract or some other disease of the eye.

So as he washed off what was on the surface, God was washing what was inside. His natural washing activated a supernatural work where God also cleansed whatever was wrong with him. There are sometimes physical actions we take in obedience to God that allow Him to also take a spiritual action on our behalf.

The third thing, which I love the most, is that he came back seeing. What a glorious testimony! This man who went blind came back seeing. He came in a totally different condition from the condition he was in when Jesus met him and the condition he was in when he started moving. He came back seeing, but all of that happened at the end of the process. He didn’t see when Jesus touched him with the clay; he didn’t see when Jesus touched him with His hand; he didn’t see when Jesus sent him; he didn’t see when he walked to the pool. He only saw after he had completed the process of obedience and washed the clay off his eyes. Then God washed the disease that had afflicted his eyes.

So everything about this miracle is obedience, and not just partial obedience but total and complete obedience to what God tells you to do. I trust that you will be obedient to the Lord to the finish.

Let’s pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, help me to be obedient to Your instructions. I will go where You send me to, in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.»