God created all men to be wonderful, beautiful, good, powerful, unique, exceptional, extraordinary and impactful; whatever that makes man to function less is an intruder, unwanted and not to be accepted. If this ‘intruder’ is not dealt with early,it becomes part of man’s existence. The text reveals a place full of impotent folk, of blind (not because they may not have eye balls, but they lack the ability to see and foresee); halt-(those wounded by others or by life itself); withered- (paralysed, another word could be crippled).
This reminds me of the man in Acts 3:2 to whom the Bible said was crippled from the mother’s womb: “And certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple.” Some people’spredicaments and challenges began even before they were born; the male babies born the same time with Moses were sentenced to death even before they were born; that is why Moses has no age mate for all the peopleborn around the time he was born were all killed at birth.“And Pharaoh charged all his people saying every son that is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive,” Exodus 1:22.
People are challenged differently. The author of John’s gospel singled out a particular man who was invalid for 38 years: “And a certain man was there, which had infirmity thirty and eight years,” John 5:5. We are not told .
