Contents ▼▲
Front Matter The Story of a Beautiful Garden The First Baby in the World and His Brother The Great Ship That Saved Eight People The Tower That Was Never Finished The Story of a Long Journey How Abram's Choice Brought Blessing The Angel by the Well The Rain of Fire That Fell on a City The Boy Who Became an Archer How an Angel's Voice Saved a Boy's Life The Story of a Journey after a Wife How Jacob Stole His Brother's Blessing Jacob's Wonderful Dream A Midnight Wrestling Match The Rich Man's Son Who Was Sold as a Slave From the Prison to the Palace How Joseph's Dream Came True A Lost Brother Found From the Land of Famine to the Land of Plenty The Beautiful Baby Who Was Found in a River The Voice from the Burning Bush The River That Ran Blood The Night When a Nation Was Born How the Sea Became Dry Land and the Sky Rained Bre The Mountain That Smoked and Words That Were Spoke How Aaron Made a Golden Calf and What Became of It The Tent Where God Lived Among His People How They Worshipped God in the Tabernacle What Strong Drink Brought to Aaron's Sons The Scapegoat in the Wilderness The Cluster of Grapes from the Land of Canaan How the Long Journey of the Israelites Came to an What a Wise Man Learned from an Ass How Moses Looked upon the Promised Land The Story of Job The Story of a Scarlet Cord How the River Jordan Became Dry The Story of a Wedge of Gold How Joshua Conquered the Land of Canaan The Old Man Who Fought Against the Giants The Avenger of Blook and the Cities of Refuge The Story of an Altar Beside the River The Presnt That Ehud Brought to King Eglon How a Woman Won a Great Victory Gideon and His Brave Three Hundred Jephthah's Rash Promise and What Came from It The Strong Man: How He Lived and How He Died The Idol Temple at Dan and Its Priest How Ruth Gleaned in the Field of Boaz The Little Boy with a Linen Coat How the Idol Fell Down Before the Ark The Last of the Judges The Tall Man Who Was Chosen King How Saul Saved the Eyes of the Men of Jabesh The Brave Young Prince Saul's Great Sin and His Great Loss The Shepherd Boy of Bethlehem The Shepherd Boy's Fight with the Giant The Little Boy Looking for the Arrows Where David Found the Giant's Sword How David Spared Saul's Life The Last Days of King Saul The Shepherd Boy Becomes a King The Sound in the Treetops The Cripple at the King's Table The Prophet's Story of the Little Lamb David's Handsome Son and How He Stole the Kingdom Absalom in the Wood; David on the Throne The Angel with the Drawn Sword on Mount Moriah Solomon on This Father's Throne The Wise Young King The House of God on Mount Moriah The Last Days of Solomon's Reign The Breaking Up of a Great Kingdom The King Who Led Israel to Sin The Prophet Who Raised a Boy to Life The Prayer That Was Answered in Fire The Voice That Spoke to Elijah in the Mount The Wounded Prophet and His Story What Ahab Paid for His Vineyard The Arrow That Killed a King Elijah's Chariot of Fire A Spring Sweetened by Salt The Pot of Oil and the Pot of Poison The Little Boy at Shunem How a Little Girl Helped to Cure a Leper The Chariots of Fire around Elisha What the Lepers Found in the Camp Jehu, the Furious Driver of His Chariot Elisha and the Bow; Jonah and Nineveh How the Ten Tribes Were Lost The First Four Kings of Judah The Little Boy Who Was Crowned King Three Kings and a Great Prophet The Good King Hezekiah The Lost Book Found in the Temple The Last Four Kings of Judah and the Weeping Proph What Ezekiel Saw in the Valley The Jewish Captives in the Court of the King The Golden Image and the Fiery Furnace The Tree That Was Cut Down and Grew Again The Writing upon the Wall Daniel in the Den of Lions The Story of a Joyous Journey The New Temple on Mount Moriah The Beautiful Queen of Persia The Scribe Who Wrote the Old Testament The Nobleman Who Built the Wall of Jerusalem Ezra's Great Bible Class in Jerusalem The Angel by the Altar The Manger of Bethlehem The Star and the Wise Men The Boy in his Father's House The Prophet in the Wilderness Jesus in the Desert, and beside the River The Water Jars at the Wedding Feast The Stranger at the Well The Story of a Boy in Capernaum and a Riot A Net Full of Fishes The Leper and the Man Let Down through the Roof The Cripple at the Pool and the Withered Hand The Twelve Disciples and the Sermon on the Mount The Captain's Servant, the Widow's Son, and a Sinn Some Stories Jesus Told by the Sea "Peace, Be Still" The Little Girl Who Was Raised to Life A Dancing Girl and What Was Given Her The Feast beside the Sea and What Followed It The Answer to a Mother's Prayer The Glory of Jesus on the Mountain The Little Child in the Arms of Jesus At the Feast of Tabernacles The Man with Clay on His Face The Good Shepherd and the Good Samaritan Lazarus Raised to Life Some Parables in Perea The Poor Rich Man and the Rich Poor Man Jesus at Jericho Palm Sunday The Last Vistis of Jesus to the Temple The Parables on the Mount of Olives The Last Supper The Olive Orchard and the High Priests Hall The Crown of Thorns The Darkest Day of All the World The Brightest Day of All the World The Stranger on the Shore The Church of the First Days The Man at the Beautiful Gate The Right Way to Give, and the Wrong Way Stephen with the Shining Face The Man Reading in the Chariot The Voice That Spoke to Saul What Peter Saw by the Sea How the Iron Gate Was Opened The Earliest Missionaries The Song in the Prison Paul's Speech on the Hill Paul at Corinth Paul at Ephesus Paul's Last Journey to Jerusalem The Speech on the Stairs Two Years in Prison The Story That Paul Told to the King Paul in the Storm How Paul Came to Rome and How He Lived There The Throne of God The City of God

Story of the Bible Told for Young and Old - Jesse Hurlbut




The Cripple at the Pool, and the Withered Hand in the Synagogue


While Jesus was living in Capernaum the time for the Passover of the Jews drew near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem to keep the feast, as he had kept it a year before You remember that at that time he drove out of the Temple the people that were buying and selling. We read this in Story Seven of this Part. The feast which Jesus now kept was the second Passover in the three years while Jesus was preaching

While Jesus was at Jerusalem he saw in the city, not far from the Temple, a pool called Bethesda. Beside this pool were five arches or porches; and in these porches were lying a great crowd of sick and blind, helpless and crippled people. At certain times the water rose and bubbled up in the pool and it was believed that at these times it had power to cure diseases. We know that there are springs of water that will cure many kinds of sickness, and this may have been one of these.

On the Sabbath-day Jesus walked among these poor helpless and suffering people, who were waiting for the water to rise. Jesus looked at one man, and though no one told him, he knew that this man had been a cripple, without power to walk, for almost forty years. He said to this man, "Do you wish to be made well?"

The man did not know who Jesus was. He answered, "Sir, I cannot walk; and I have no man to carry me down to the water when it rises in the pool; but while I am trying to crawl down, others crowd in before me, and the place is full, so that I cannot reach the water and be cured."

Jesus said to the man, "Rise, take up your bed, and walk!"

The cripple had never heard words like these before; but as they were spoken he felt a new power shoot through his limbs. He rose up, took the piece of matting on which he had been lying, rolled it up, and walked away toward his home!

Jesus heals the cripple at the pool

JESUS HEALS THE CRIPPLE AT THE POOL


Some one who saw him said, "Stop; this is the Sabbath-day, and it is against the law for you to carry your bed!"

The man did not lay down his load. He only said, "The one who made me well said to me, 'Take up your bed and walk.'"

The Jews said, "Who was this man that told you to carry your bed on the Sabbath-day?"

The man who had been cured did not know who it was that had cured him; for there were many standing near, and Jesus, after healing the man, had walked away without being noticed. But after this Jesus met this man in the Temple, and said to him, "You have been made well; do not sin against God any more, or something worse than disease will come upon you."

The man went away from the Temple, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. The Jews were very angry at Jesus because he had cured this man on the Sabbath But Jesus said to them, "My Father works on all days to do good to men, and I work also."

These words made the Jews ready to kill Jesus, not only because, as they said, he had broken the Sabbath, but because he had spoken of God as his Father, as though he were the Song of God. He was indeed the Son of God, although they would not believe it.

After the feast of the Passover Jesus went again to Capernaum in Galilee, beside the lake. One Sabbath-day he was walking with his disciples through the fields of ripe grain; and the disciples, as they walked, picked the heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, blew away the chaff, and at the kernels of wheat. The law of the Jew allowed any one walking through the fields to eat what he could gather with his hands, though it did not allow him to take any of the grain home. But the Pharisees, whose goodness was all for show, said that it was a breaking of the Sabbath to pick the ears and to rub them in the hands on the Sabbath-day. They said to Jesus, "Do you see how your disciples are doing on the Sabbath what is against the law?"

Jesus and his disciples in the field of grain

JESUS AND HIS DISCIPLES IN THE FIELD OF GRAIN


Jesus answered them, "Have you never read what David did when he was hungry? He went into the house of God, and took the holy bread from the table, and ate some of it, and gave some to his men, though the law said that only the priest might eat this bread. And do you not know that on the Sabbath-day the priests in the Temple do work, in killing and offering the sacrifices, yet they do no wrong? I say to you that one greater than the Temple is here; for the Son of man is lord of the Sabbath."

Jesus meant them to understand that he was the Son of God, that God lived in him even more fully than he lived in the Temple, and that he spoke as Lord of all.

We have read this, about David and the holy bread in the Tabernacle, of which Jesus spoke to the Jews, in Story Seven of Part Third.

On another Sabbath-day Jesus went to the synagogue. A man was there whose hand was withered The Pharisees watched Jesus, to see whether on the Sabbath-day he would make his hand well. Not that they felt for the poor man; they only wished to find some chance to speak evil against Jesus. Jesus knew all their thoughts, and he spoke to the man, "Rise up, and stand where all can see you!"

The man rose up from the mat where he had been sitting, and stood before all the people Then Jesus looked around upon them sternly, being sad because their hearts were so hard and cruel, and he said, "Is it against the law to do good on the Sabbath-day, or to do evil? To heal a man, or to try to kill a man, as you are doing? If any one of you owns a sheep, and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath-day, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? Is not a man worth more than a sheep? I say unto you that it is right to do good to men on the Sabbath-day."

And then, turning to the man, he said, "Stretch out your hand!"

The man obeyed the word of Jesus, and held out his hand. At once it became strong and well, like his other hand. Many of the people were glad as they saw this; but the Pharisees, who hated Jesus, went out very angry; and they met together to find some plan for putting Jesus to death.