August 13 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

John 5:1–9

Devotional

These are the words of a man who had lain on the same sickbed for thirty-eight long years. He had seen many brought to the pool and healed by the power of its water. But he had nobody to carry him down into the water when it was troubled. When he would successfully crawl to the pool to enter the water, then the healing strength of the water was already gone. He always came too late, for there was no one to help him. There were enough people at that pool, but they all walked past this man.

You don’t have to end up as a shipwrecked sailor on an island to be alone in the world. There are many, living among other people, who still have nobody. At the end of the day we all stand alone in this world because of the curse due to our sin, for our fall in Adam is a personal fall. That is why every heart has its own bitter depths of sin that it would rather not share with others. Who would want to speak about these personal matters and who would be able to explain the depths of these sins and miseries?

“I have no man” to help me in my daily needs or in my eternal need. I have no one in the midst of all the masses of people around me. I am alone. Even though on my deathbed there will be loving hands to moisten my lips, to wipe away my death sweat, and to close my eyes, I will still have to go alone through the gates of death.

Do you understand that? Or do you not see it, that after all you are alone on this earth that lies under the curse? We love to lean on other people. We do not want to be alone on the journey of life. Our first resort in our need is to seek help from people. But people will fail us, even if they are children of God. Nobody can carry us to the pool of redemption and neither can we bring ourselves there. Help has to come from above. Have you seen this? Have you learned to see that you need help not from man, but from Christ?

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.