THREE POOLS
THREE POOLS
2 Samuel 2:12 - 16; John 5:1 - 9; John 9:1 - 7
These scriptures speak of pools. Pools are divisions of water. Water, being the main provision of God for man, represents divine provision and as in pools it is within man’s range so as to be usable. Man uses it thus and God too. Water is peculiarly a provision for God’s use. He claims the sea: it says, “The sea is his, and he made it” Psalm 95:5, that is the oceans, and God made them, He said. We will always remember this when travelling by sea. God especially claims a right to it. In fact it represents the immovable in its vastness and its depths. “They that go down to the sea in ships ... These see the works of Jehovah, and his wonders in the deep”. They get into trouble. The storms arise; “They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man ... they cry unto Jehovah in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses”, Psalm 107:23 - 28. So that although they seem vast to us, the oceans are usable and God turns them to account to show how He can serve men, and it is as in trouble, as we are “at their wits’ end”, as it says, that we appreciate all the more the divine intervention, the divine relief. So they reached their desired haven. Such is God’s use of such a great part of the area of this globe. He turns it to account to show how He can come in for man’s relief, human relief. And then, “Let them give thanks unto Jehovah for his loving-kindness, and for his wondrous works to the children of men”, Psalm 107:31. So that God turns the oceans into service, into account, for the relief of men and for His own praise.
[p. 473] Now, as I said, pools are small divisions of water. Wells are still smaller, although more valuable in that they are always fresh, denoting what is vivifying in freshness. Pools may be stagnant but they still are usable for watering, irrigation, and so forth. They are usable; they influence, too. Water is of great influence on the earth, and pools are relatively of value in that way. This pool at Gibeon is called great. I wish to speak of how it was used at this particular time for sport. For sport! God never intended it for that. He has no interest in sports, and yet sport occupies men’s minds almost as much as business, even more than family affairs. Warehouses make it the large portion of their business in sports’ furnishings. I want to dwell on this, dear brethren and friends, because it is men’s misuse of a divine provision. God bears long with men, and so allows them to proceed in their misuse of His creatures. For whilst every creature of God is good, many of them are misused and cannot be considered as sanctified. Thus the sports field is not sanctified. The fishing rod is not sanctified as used for sport. It must be extremely obnoxious to God that men should be using His living creatures for mere sport. It is said that Nimrod was “the mighty hunter before Jehovah!” Genesis 10:9 a mighty one. There he afforded no pleasure to God. Nor is the football sanctified, nor is the gun sanctified as used in the woods and field for the destruction of God’s creatures, miserable and selfish gratification, taking of the life of God’s creatures. There will be no such thing in the millennium, nor will there be sports fields, cricket fields, or football fields. You say, ‘Well, I did not come to hear the sports whipped like this’. But I do not intend that at all. If you will be a sportsman, ‘Well’, God says, ‘let it go at that. If a man be filthy, let him be filthy still; if a man be wicked, let him be wicked still’. If a man will go in for what is contrary to Him,
[p. 474] well, let him; he will die and thus be lost. It is a matter of your salvation. I am bringing forward this side. This pool is the misuse of the creature of God, and seeing the terrible feelings that arose, you say it is sport. But then sport may become an occasion of bitter feelings, as in this case. Sport is a question of skill, of the strength and agility of the play. It is considered here the field of strength more; whether football, baseball, cricket, tennis, rowing, it is all a question of human strength and human skill. Without rivalry it would be nothing. The zest of it all would fall to the ground without rivalry. You can see, therefore, how God is left out of all this; it is outside of His realm, and I am speaking now to some young people who are sanctified, their souls and their lives, they are jeopardising their eternal welfare, disregarding God, disregarding the gospel, disregarding Christ, for their sports. So that here we have twelve Benjaminites, and twelve of the servants of David. Think of the servants of David devoting themselves to sport, twelve men on each side, men of strength! One of the leaders, Abner, says, “Let the young men now arise and make sport before us”. Think of the state of Joab and of Abner, that they would order these sports, and such sports! They were not what we call harmless and merciful sports. Have sports never developed in your knowing to murderous and vicious feelings? Pugilism, wrestling, all these come under the head of sports.
I was in a certain town hall in a certain country in the south preaching the gospel, and on the floor below there was a wrestling match. Seven policemen were looking after the wresting match (there were no policemen watching the gospel). And as we came down; the policemen said, ‘Up there it is heaven, down here it is hell!’ I am putting the thing as it is. This world is taking God’s creatures, what God has intended for good, and misusing them and,
[p. 475] in the misuse, stirring up the most dreadful feelings of rivalry. Every one of those twenty-four men lay dead in a few minutes from sport. Think of it! Where was God in all that? The servants of David were there; alas, real Christians are found there! But then, I am speaking of this pool to you, young people, lest you may be allowing your sport to interfere with your soul’s salvation. As I was saying, sports afford more interest than almost anything that there is in the affairs of men. Hence young people get absorbed without thinking anything of the Bible, or of the preaching; they are after their sports even on a Sunday, as well as on a Saturday. Well, if there are those here in that case, I would say, Do as I have already commented; God says you may have it that way, and you will lose your soul, you will lose your salvation. It is waiting for you; it is here tonight for you. The gospel is salvation for all; it is where it should be; where it is sure; where it is available for every man, woman, and child on earth tonight, held in Christ, salvation that is in Christ Jesus. And I am urging this matter of sports lest any of you may allow yourselves to be tied to these sports, and God will some day say to you, ‘You will remain that way; you will die a sportsman; having left Me out, you will die without Christ and you will be lost’. I am putting the thing in its worst form, for the Scriptures speak about bodily exercise, but I do not think that refers to sport. I am speaking of this pool of Gibeon which Abner and Joab turned into a sports-arena to the loss of the lives of twenty-four men in sport for their gratification. You see how the devil was in that, and is in sports today to keep young men and women occupied to the loss of their eternal welfare.
May I not appeal to you young people here? You say it may be hard for you. You look forward to Saturday afternoon. But that same Saturday afternoon [p. 476] may rob you of your eternal welfare. It is not only Saturday but Sunday. What sports have turned Sunday into, a real sports-day; yet christians, even as we see here in the service of David, joining in, and Satan blinding the eyes of the youth, are occupied with wicked things to the loss of their souls. Gibeon was the great high place, we are told. That is, you may have a cathedral alongside of your sports field. In fact, some have dances and bowling-alleys in the basement of their churches. Think of the degradation of the name of Christ, as there with all this wickedness, to be minimised and whitewashed by the connection with the high place, for Gibeon was the great high place. The tabernacle was there. ‘Well’, you say, ‘what harm is it? Here is the tabernacle right beside us, the tabernacle of Jehovah’. One killing the other, smiting him with the sword, and these twenty-four young men losing their lives in a minute! There is your high place, your cathedral, your church! So that they died on the spot. You see, dear friends, I am putting the thing in a strong way so that you may see what follows at this time and how God is preserving young people. Sports are for the moment, but the gospel preaches what is for eternity. “What does a man profit, if he should gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:26. What is a life of sports, nothing! It is a man’s soul. God is proposing salvation to your soul. The sacrifice of God which is offered to you here tonight proposes to you the settling of things tonight. So that you may see the solemnity of what it is, allowing them to deprive you of what God has here for you, and how does He offer it? Through the death of Jesus. He died, “the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God” 1 Peter 3:18; that is the position. He is pleading with you now. Will you allow these [p. 477] things, this pool of Gibeon, this sports field, to interfere with your eternal salvation? I would not go to audiences of the world and preach like this for a moment, but it is a question of warning young people that these things may deprive you of it. You cannot do without the salvation of God concerning His Son. He died, “the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”, 1 Peter 3:18 laying a basis for salvation and then going after you. He has here tonight come after you to secure you, so that you will be saved and not lost.
Now the other pool is in Jerusalem, and it is the religious pool. It is a neighbour to the sports pool; religion and sports go together, Religion has lost its true meaning. True religion is this: “to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, to keep oneself unspotted from the world”, James 1:27. But as treated today it is another matter, dancing and feasting in its halls and porches. That is the definition of this pool at Jerusalem. It is merely a question of humanity, the five porches. They are like the different religions in the world. ‘We are all aiming at the same thing’, they say. The gospel is preached, thank God. It is a great distress to me to see young people hiking off into the country and leaving the churches empty. But it is a sign of the times; God is given up. God visits these high places. How did we come out? Because God went in and got us out. He came down here once a year, we are told, in this scripture. In Jerusalem He came oftener to the temple in those days. An angel came down once a year and troubled the waters, but in all the porches people were lying, and only one got blessing each year. Think of all the poverty of that! One person getting saved in a whole year! That would indicate that God did not have much place in the things being spoken.
He is the Saviour God, and He is saving here; He can save where people let Him save! Hence it [p. 478] is quite evident there was not much scope for God in this pool, once a year by His angel, but here is Jesus, God Himself, coming to this pool of Bethesda, for He came here to save. And here is a man who has been there for thirty-eight years. Jesus knew how long he had been there. He knows everything; He knows how long you have been in that church and have not been saved yet. I am not saying that to accuse the denomination. In fact, denominations have the Bible, the gospel, and God does go there, but He finds very little opportunity, very little scope, but still He goes there, and one in a year is saved. A century for a hundred persons to be saved! How many years would be needed to save all the lost on that basis? Now our Lord Jesus is here tonight; He is here spiritually in the gospel; the Holy Spirit is here among us to save. He knows how long you have been in that place; how long you have been in that denomination, and yet your soul is not delivered, and the Lord knows you have been there a good while. “Wouldest thou become well?” and the man tells his sad story. ‘I have been always outrun, others are able to get down to the water, and I am paralysed, I cannot get there’. How long a time to stay there! Thirty-eight years already in that state and never get into the pool! No change in your soul’s state. You are not a bit happier than you were years ago; not as happy, not realising that your sins are forgiven as you used to. How is this going to end? It may be thirty-eight years more — think of the outlook!
The Lord is here tonight saying to you, “Wouldest thou become well?”. Surely the man would be made well. The Lord by His words raised him. “Arise, take up thy couch and walk”. The man did. That is what is proposed at this time; although you may be in one of the five porches, you are not as it were in fellowship in God’s porch, but nevertheless God is ready to save you, to raise you up. You are making [p. 479] no headway spiritually. You are silent. You are in the wrong place. The Lord says, ‘I am here tonight for you. Will you be made whole? Are you ready for it?’. Some people often say, ‘Well, I went to the preaching, but it did not do me good. I came out as I went in’. Was he preaching the gospel? ‘He preached well, too, but I did not get any help; I am not going again’. Then the fault is with you! In Matthew 9, two blind men are following the Lord and they ask Him to open their eyes. They were in earnest, but the Lord wanted to test them out. Are you here tonight in earnest; do you really want to get help? He went into the house and they followed Him in. You want to have your eyes open, but have you faith to have your eyes open? ‘Yes, we have’. He touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith, be it unto you”. Matthew 9:29. But this person came to the preaching and got no help; he is not going again. It is a question of yourself. You are not really sincere in being here. You do not want the thing, are not set for the thing. If you have no faith, then you go out as you came in. These two men did not go out as they came in. “According to your faith, be it unto you”, and their eyes were opened. You came in at somebody’s invitation. I urge you all, sincerely; some day or another God will say, ‘You knew all this, you never have been sincere; you have never really felt your need, and appropriated what I have provided in the gospel’. I could say more about this pool, but it stands alongside the pool of Gibeon, because it is a question of the high place. The religious pool and the sports pool are adjacent to each other.
Now we have the pool of Siloam, the real one, the one that represents all that is of God; it represents the work of God. The man who is blind is there waiting to be saved, to have his eyes opened. But it is the Lord’s matter. Facing this meeting [p. 480] from your point of view raises the question about the faith and sincerity you ought to have. So the Lord says, ‘Now I want to present My point of view. I am engaged in the work of God’. “I must work the works of him that has sent me while it is day. The night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world”, He says. God is facing this gospel from His point of view as well. It belongs to the work which He has been doing for over nineteen hundred years. Whether you are interested or not, the Lord is saying, ‘This meeting is part of My work, part of what God is doing, and if anyone who is blind is here, his eyes can be opened, I will not charge one single cent for it, I am just here to carry on the work of God’. A very fine thought! The Lord goes on with His work here or we could never think, hear, or see. He fills out His day. So long as it is day the work must go on, and it will go on, and not for nothing, for something is accruing from it. So it says, “As he passed on”, He saw the blind man. So tonight if one blind man is here, the Lord sees you. I am not asking you to do anything yet; He did not ask this man to do anything, until He put mud on his eyes. “Having said these things, he spat on the ground”. It was the essence of Christ definitely in humanity. What a wonderful thought! Could there be anything greater? He put mud made of His own spittle on his eyes! He was blind already, now made worse, if possible, than ever. But that is the way the Lord works. We see He is working, because He works all He could in the daytime and He must carry on the wonderful works whatever people think or say. So He puts this mud on the man’s eyes. The man is pliable, not repulsive, saying, ‘You are making me worse!’ It was a most extraordinary transaction. Think of the Person who is doing it! What material in that mud, the essence of Christ in humanity! It is a wonderful [p. 481] fact that God came down into manhood and is here to serve you. He takes His own way to do it, a way you never thought of, that you may be whole again. The man allowed the Lord to plaster his eyes with mud; he is a self-judged man. No sports field, no high place; just purity and simplicity, a pool available to God, and God uses it. He plasters the man’s eyes, ‘Now go to that pool. Do not rebel, do not question’. The Lord Jesus is speaking to you. ‘Go, wash in the pool’. Think of that man going down the streets of Jerusalem plastered with mud! Suppose Michael, the archangel, saw him on the street, how he would understand! Oh, the magnitude of the transaction, God was acting! It was His work! Never would a man have thought of putting mud on a man’s eyes, but it is more than mud! He is still at the pool. What would that pool mean? By its interpretation, ‘Sent’. We all like to give command instead of obeying. The gospel is for obedience of faith and this man is equal to it. So he is thus met on the streets of Jerusalem. How did he get down to the pool? Scripture does not say, but it does say that he got there. And having got there, he went into the pool. You can understand how you would feel if you met that man now and saw his eyes plastered with mud. The more dignified word for the transaction is ‘anointed’. The Son of God did it. But these would say to that man, ‘You are a sight!’ Let me be under reproach. It is better to be under reproach than to be blind for ever; it is worth it to get my eyes opened. He was sent, ‘I am under orders’. Let me tell you there is no salvation unless you accept orders. Young people do not like to accept orders. But never mind, the Lord will say to you, as He said to Saul, ‘Go to the brethren’. The Lord outside of Damascus could have told him everything, but “Enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do”, Acts 9:6. Many [p. 482] young people do not like to obey. They like to have their own way and do not like to be under reproach; they would rather remain blind! Not so this man. He went to the pool of Siloam, which means ‘Sent’, and he washed, and he saw. He “came seeing”. He came back again. Would to God some may come back again! “Enter into the city”; you despise the brethren? Well, if the Lord will do it, you have to go to the brethren, too. “Enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do”. Acts 9:6. The Lord guided him into the city. The Lord told Ananias what to do, and Ananias told Saul, but in all the doings Saul was saved, but how did he come into things? By obedience. “Obedience of faith” Romans 1:5, not only obedience to the Lord, but obedience to the brethren, to the authority that the Lord has placed in the assembly. Rebellion against the brethren is rebellion against the Lord, so that is damage to your own soul.
This man went, and came back seeing. May God grant that we shall find someone like this after this meeting, someone getting clear, subjecting himself to God, to Christ, and to the brethren; light and guidance; ‘I see it all’. The man said to his neighbours, “Having gone and washed, I saw”. John 9:11. He told the Pharisees, “I washed, and I see”. John 9:15. There is a great deal more about these pools, but this is the most interesting of all because it is the pool that God uses. The Lord Jesus is the Worker and the man’s eyes are opened; he came seeing. Now the religious people cast him out. They did not cast the man out in chapter 5; he was in the temple, he was a different kind of convert. He was a convert that was going to stay where he was. He was not going to be a true disciple at all. We cause the Lord Jesus suffering when we are not genuinely out on the Lord’s side. “Sin no more, that something worse do not happen to thee”. Become a real disciple; you may lose what [p. 483] you have and become a worse disciple. This man is cast out. When the Lord heard he was cast out, He did not say, ‘Sin no more’. He had been faithful in the testimony and had been cast out for the testimony. The Lord found him. ‘I want you for ever’, He would say. He is suffering with Christ for the testimony. He wants you for His service. ‘I want you to believe in Me, the Son of God’, and he worshipped Him. That is what God intended. That is the real result of genuine conversion. It is addition to Christ, a true worshipper. That is what this man became. It is a genuine case. He gives God the glory. He is outside of all man’s affairs; he is entirely subject, he gives a full account of it, and the Lord finds him there. He will be with Him for ever. The next chapter speaks about the flock. He is one of the sheep of Christ, put into that flock to be in it for Christ for ever.