if this is a literal statement, why doesn’t God heal my paraplegic friend?
2) OK some of my other thoughts
John 9
New International Version
Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind
9 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
This is a very interesting case. God at different times uses things as foils to show his love, power and mercy. This is especially the case when it comes to the times that the Deuterocanonical books cover, their were very few supernatural events that took place at the time. Even the "miracle of Hanukkah" has been called into question if you look at the history behind the story. The early accounts of that event from Josephus and others do not talk about any miracle event of oil the temple oil burning days longer than expected. But somewhere in the middle ages, long after the rise of Christianity with it's many miracle claims do the rabbis record this event, and well as miracles go compared to the other stuff in the Bible and Christian history is probably one of the most minor events to be recorded compared to parting the Red Sea, people rising from the dead etc.
In terms of theodicy this is noteworthy. I get the impression in the account that this man is at least 30 based on people questioning his parents and how they reacted. I have heard it said, in that culture you were not really considered to be fully adult until you hit 30. People tended to work for their father like an apprenticeship etc. And you can see signs of that especially in books like Genesis especially in Joseph and his brothers.
But this does raise an interesting issue. People tend to take life conditions like this to heart. They may even be angry at God for it etc. But that person spent years of their life with the condition, just so Jesus could eventually come along, heal him and it would become a story to teach us for the next few millennia.
But this thing is not new or unique to this one area of the Bible, but actually is a running theme throughout the Bible. Abraham is probably the best example to come to mind. The thing he wanted the most was to have a son... God gave him all kinds of other blessings that were almost like consolation prices, especially when it came to wealth, having a world class beautiful bride, as well as all kinds of other success. He even changes his name to mean "Father of Many Nations".... But no son till he is 100 years old and his wife is 90.....
And there are many reasons for this kind of thing
1) As I mentioned before it is a foil that shows off God's power. That it is not just the power of positive thinking etc. but literally doing the impossible.
2) It is something of a test and ordeal as well. One of the other meta themes of the Bible is that Faith is not just about things like the study of doctrine etc. Faith is a journey. That theme is all through the Bible but mostly not really talked about etc. But before Christianity was Christianity, it was called "the Way", and that term itself has it's roots in the Old Testament.
Anyway we should not be overcome by the fact some things take a long time. We are told in various places that we need things like patience to inherit the promises of God etc. So we need to change our way of thinking. The transformation of our character is a much higher priority as far as God is concerned (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Their was a saying from the TV show Smallville that dealt with the back story of Superman and Clark Kent,
"It not about the end.... it's about the journey." In this case Lex Luther, was being meta and sort of describing his own slow descent into villainy and why the show existed (to chronicle the tale of him and Clark) but it is a good saying for us. People can be preoccupied by various things they want and pray for etc. but it is really their relationship with God that matters and that is the thing we develop as we walk with God through this life through all the good and the bad times.
