Mark 8:25 After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.
You Can Trust the Lord
I’ve probably told you before, but I hate to wait. I think most people do, and it has probably gotten worse in the last twenty years with our attention spans dwindling as they are. I was recently in a waiting room, waiting. It was a mercifully short wait, but just the very words “waiting room” can send most people into a cold sweat. We don’t like to wait, and when we ask the Lord for something, we are asking because we want it right now!
Mark 8 is a really interesting contrast to the rest of the book because Mark is a book whose keywords seem to be “immediately” or “straightway.” That is the way miracles were done. It is a book of action. Over and again we find Jesus healing people immediately.
In Mark 7 there was a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit. The Lord healed this young lady immediately. Matthew’s gospel tells us that the healing was in that same hour. Jesus gave hearing to a deaf man. Mark 7:35 says, “And straightway his ears were opened.” That is right away, lickety-split.
But this case found in Mark 8 is different. Mark 8:22-23 says, “And… they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand…and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought.” The way the Lord did this is interesting. He spit on his eyes and put His hands upon him. Jesus didn’t have to do that. The way He did this was not imperative, but it is of note.
Jesus asked the man, “What do you see?” The man said, “I see men as trees, walking.” Imagine how discouraging this would have been if you had heard about this Jesus of Nazareth Who healed the blind, the deaf, and the lame immediately, but when it came time for your need, Jesus seemed to delay.
Verse 25 says, “After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.” Now I don’t know why Jesus did this, but clearly He did not heal this man immediately. I do not know Jesus’ reason for delay, and neither did the blind man.
Like the blind man, maybe you are waiting today. I have often said that we wait when we want something from God, and our waiting is what God wants. He wants us to rest in Him. Mark 8 teaches us that you can trust the Lord to do the right thing in the right way at the right time. He may not answer for you exactly as He has for someone else or in the same time. It may be that His answer is in steps or stages.
Every time the Lord heals a person, it is as individual as the person for whom He is giving healing. The bottom line is that you can trust the Lord Jesus, not only to be sufficient, but to do the right thing, whatever that may be, in the right way, whatever that may be, in the right time, whenever that may be.