From the pit to sight….

 From the pit to sight….

Am still in Jeremiah,  came across this verse on Jeremiah being lowered into the muddy cistern…I wonder what he was thinking as they lowered him, down…down …his feet touching the mud and then sinking further, mired in that muck…

“Gee, I was doing what God told me to do…I was saying what He told me to say…and this is what I get”…

“Are they going to let me out ?”….

Etc….

So they took Jeremiah and put him into the cistern of Malkijah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah by ropes into the cistern; it had no water in it, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.

Jeremiah 38:6 

I had to look up other places that spoke of mud…it is sometimes associated with sinking to depression…as David was …followed by rejoicing from the deliverance…God’s Grace…love…mercy…rescue…

David…

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.

Psalm 40:2-3

Rescue me from the mire, do not let me sink; deliver me from those who hate me, from the deep waters. Do not let the floodwaters engulf me or the depths swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me. Answer me, Lord, out of the goodness of your love; in your great mercy turn to me. Do not hide your face from your servant; answer me quickly, for I am in trouble. Come near and rescue me; deliver me because of my foes.

Psalm 69:14-18

Then, this passage…another kind of deliverance using mud…Jesus used mud to heal the blind man’s eyes… divine spit, mixed with the dust from which we are made, pressed upon the man’s eyes, followed by washing in the Pool of Siloam…and sight was given…a gift that he had to defend and then a gift of belief…

Going back the the verses in Psalm 69…goodness of your love…mercy…Jesus showed himself to the man, not hiding …deliverance from blindness…

After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 

7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” 

Some claimed that he was. 

Others said, “No, he only looks like him.” But he himself insisted, “I am the man.” “How then were your eyes opened?” they asked. 

He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.” Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.” 

Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 

Jesus said,  “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

John 9:6-11,35-39

Thank YOU even for the mud, the mire…that you use  in our lives…help us to see ….Your face…

By the way, Jeremiah was lifted out of the cistern …Jeremiah 38… to be placed in the court of the guard…dealt well with by the king of Babylon…