Pool of Siloam

That's what the sacraments are doing for us now.

So he smeared the clay on his eyes, and then he said to him, "Go wash in the pool of Siloam." And then John adds, "Which means sent." So Pool of Siloam in, in Jerusalem, it's a place of cleansing and bathing.

But the fact that it means sent.

One of the great descriptions of Jesus, especially in John's Gospel, is the one who's been sent.

See, I've been sent on mission.

I'm the one who's been sent.

And so to bathe in the Pool of Siloam, what is that? That's baptism.

That's being washed in Christ.

For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.

the Lord spake also unto me again, saying, Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in reason and Remaliah's son, Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory.

And he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks.

And he shall pass through Judah.

But it's Christ.

So in here, let me give you a little illustration because we've used the Pool of Siloam several times.

Imagine that Jerusalem's water system was vital.

It was.

It was there.

The Gion Spring supplied water that eventually reached the Pool of Siloam, and you guys read about that in the New Testament, through Hezekiah's engineering works.

In an ancient fortified city, living water was literally a matter of survival.

And so this feast that they're at, this feast setting, therefore places Jesus' words among people who understood water economically, agriculturally, militarily, ceremonially, and physically.

But the dead were on the east.

South of the Temple Mount was the city of David with the Pool of Siloam at the south end and the Temple Mount on the north end.

That was the south, the south side and the east side.

Okay.

Living in relative isolation in a nearby village, he spent a lot of time reading the latest biblical scholarship.

And while examining a topographical map of Jerusalem, he noticed a ridge running north-south on the city's eastern side, which to his imaginative eye, resembled a human skeleton stretched out across the landscape, with the feet at the Pool of Siloam, where Jesus is said to have restored the sight of a blind man, the hips at the Temple Mount, where the Dome of the Rock now stands, and the head at Skull Hill.

What you're looking at is his own drawing.

He literally superimposed a skeleton over Jerusalem.

Then the Lord said to me, "Call his name Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.

For before the boy knows how to cry, 'My father' or 'My mother,' the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria." The Lord spoke again to me, "Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoiced over Rezin and the son of Remaliah, therefore behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory; and it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks, and it will sweep on into Judah.

It will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.

Be broken, you peoples, and be shattered! Give ear, all you far countries.