Bereansearching Bible Studies

Introduction

There are a few instances in the New Testament where we read of a somewhat strange way that Jesus used to heal the deaf, dumb, and blind. It involved the use of Jesus’s spit! But the question arises, “Why did Jesus use His saliva as part of the healing process? It is the intention of this teacher to answer that question below.

The Accounts of Jesus Healing the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind with His Spit

Near Decapolis, some people brought a deaf and dumb man to Jesus. Jesus healed the man, but in a most unusual manner: Mark 7:33-37, “And he (Jesus) took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. ¶And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published [it]; And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.”

Later, in the town of Bethsaida, Jesus healed a blind man. Again, this miracle was also preceded by Jesus spitting: Mark 8:23-26, “And he (Jesus) took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. ¶And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. ¶After that he put [his] hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly. And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell [it] to any in the town.“

To heal a man born blind, we read this in John 9:6, “When he (Jesus) had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,“

Was there some unique magic potion of chemical makeup in Jesus’s saliva that could be the means of imparting healing powers? No, other than Jesus is fully God and thus He inherently has the supernatural power over all creation, life and death, and thus all healing power. But we know also that some people were healed simply by touching Jesus’ clothing as in the case of the women who has an issue of blood for many years that we read about in Matthew 9:20, “¶And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind [him] (Jesus), and touched the hem of his garment: For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.“

But what is the point of Jesus using His spit? There must be more to this than meets the eye.

What Does the Bible Tell Us About “Spit”?

When we look back into the Old Testament there are a few references of the use of “spit”.

The first reference in the Bible is in Leviticus 15:8, “And if he that hath the issue spit upon him that is clean; then he shall wash his clothes, and bathe [himself] in water, and be unclean until the even.“

In Numbers 12:1&2, we read of Miriam and Aaron, Moses’ sister and brother, having murmured against Moses, and it angered God to the point of God plaguing Miriam with leprosy. “¶And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman. And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard [it].” Later in Numbers 12:9&10, we see God is angry, “¶And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them; and he departed. And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam [became] leprous, [white] as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, [she was] leprous.” But Aaron admitted to their sin and cried out to Moses to interede for mercy upon Miriam and for God to heal her. Then in Numbers 12:13, we read, “¶And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee.” God replied as follows in Numbers 12:14, “And the LORD said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in [again].“

With regard to the law of redemption, when the next male in line is to serve as the near kinsman to bring up offspring with the widow of the dead male family member, but refuses to marry the widow, we read of God’s law as follows in Deuteronomy 25:9, “Then shall his brother’s wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother’s house.“

During Job’s sufferings he exclaimed in Job 30:10, “They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face.“

From the last three examples we can see that to be spit in the face is a sign of derision and abhorrence by the spitter, and only shame to the recipient of that spit.

So then, when we look forward to the New Testament, we see that this action of “spitting in the face” is only for the purpose of bringing shame to the recipient. And that is exactly what happened to Jesus Christ during the Atonement, as we read in the following verses:

Matthew 26:67, “Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote [him] with the palms of their hands,“

Matthew 27:30, “And they spit upon him (Jesus), and took the reed, and smote him on the head.“

Jesus even prophesied that this would happen when speaking to His disciples in Mark 10:34, “And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again.“

Mark 14:65, “And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say unto him, Prophesy: and the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands.“

Mark 15:19, “And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him (Jesus), and bowing [their] knees worshipped him. And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him.“

Conclusion

When we look at all the Biblical references to spit in totality, we must come to the conclusion that to be spit upon by Jesus is not a curse but rather a blessing. How can this be? It is another example of God’s Equity and Economy that turns things upside down. Only The One Who is truly clean, can curse; and only He who is truly cursed for His own, can cleanse them.

We must remember that:

1. Jesus became a curse for the believers as we read in Galatians 3:13, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed [is] every one that hangeth on a tree:That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” ,
2. By Jesus’s stripes we are healed, as we read in Isaiah 53:5, “But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed“.
3. Jesus became sin Who knew no sin, as we read in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

So it is not wrong to say that from God’s vantage point, the taking of Jesus’s saliva and putting in onto the ears, tongue, and eyes of deaf, dumb, and blind individuals is not a curse, but rather a sign of blessing, as the Old Testament condemnations are done away with in Jesus Christ, because He bore those very condemnations for the believers! And moreover, there is healing virtue in every thing that belongs to Christ; clay made of Jesus’s spittle is much more precious than the balm of Gilead.

Those who are the true believers, though they were spiritually deaf, dumb and blind, can all now have the power to hear, speak, and see the Truth because of the anointing of God’s Holy Spirit. And this spittle signified the “eyesalve” (like an ointment) wherewith Christ anoints the eyes of those that are spiritually blind, Revelation 3:18, “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and [that] the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” Hallelujah!

Postscript

The ‘physical’ healings by Jesus of people’s “physical” infirmities like being deaf, dumb, blind, lame, leprous, etc., which even included Jesus raising people from death to life, were all intended to reveal, by analogy, God’s Magnificent ‘Spiritual’ Healing Capability, through the Person and Atoning Work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came to heal His chosen from their sin sicknesses, which everyone has inherited from Adam and which perpetuate themselves in every generation. It is only because of the Intercession by the Great Physician, The Lord Jesus Christ, that all believers are healed from those spiritual infirmities, which otherwise separate everyone from God. Believers are spiritually resurrected from spiritual death to new life in Christ, being born again in the spirit by God’s Holy Spirit. Once spiritually awakened, the believers will have been given ears that ‘spiritually’ hear, eyes that ‘spiritually’ see, and new tongues with which they can ‘spiritually’ communicate the Gospel of Salvation, because the Word of God is now in them. Please see these two studies: The Hearing Ear and the Seeing Eye and Mephibosheth and God’s Covenant of Grace.

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This entry was posted on December 12, 2024 at 6:23 pm and is filed under Bible Studies. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

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