She Was Not Hid
Charles H. Spurgeon
Luke 8:47
In the last chapter we spoke upon the woman who was healed of her issue of blood. After having spent all her living upon physicians and being disappointed in them all, she touched the Savior's garment and was healed immediately. She came behind Him, for she did not wish to be seen. She said not a word. She had not the courage to ask for the blessing in an open manner. When cured, she slunk away into the crowd. She was anxious to be unobserved. Now, if the story had ended here, you would not have been surprised. It was a case of extreme delicacy that might seem to require a specially secret ending by the woman's being permitted to go her way home, happy and whole.
But now, suppose that, in the tenderness of our Savior's sympathy with this trembling woman, He had permitted her to depart without making an open confession, what would have been the consequence? The Savior willed that the miracle should be recorded in three of the four gospels. If it had ended where we left it in the last chapter, then such is our human nature that we should have drawn from it the inference that saving faith need not be confessed. Our natural love of ease and our desire to avoid the cross would have made us follow this woman's example. We would have tried to touch the Lord for healing and then run away from Him without making any profession of discipleship.
Many would have quoted her case as a reason why they might be allowed to escape the responsibilities, duties, and sufferings that discipleship might involve. If the Savior had permitted this woman to retire in silence, many cowardly believers would have said that the Savior's silence gave consent to her retiring without a word and that they might safely imitate her. I know the people and their style of reasoning. This would have been fine nuts for them. Think how this story would have been used in times of martyrdom. The cowardly would have argued, "We may have to go to prison ...
Charles H. Spurgeon
Luke 8:47
In the last chapter we spoke upon the woman who was healed of her issue of blood. After having spent all her living upon physicians and being disappointed in them all, she touched the Savior's garment and was healed immediately. She came behind Him, for she did not wish to be seen. She said not a word. She had not the courage to ask for the blessing in an open manner. When cured, she slunk away into the crowd. She was anxious to be unobserved. Now, if the story had ended here, you would not have been surprised. It was a case of extreme delicacy that might seem to require a specially secret ending by the woman's being permitted to go her way home, happy and whole.
But now, suppose that, in the tenderness of our Savior's sympathy with this trembling woman, He had permitted her to depart without making an open confession, what would have been the consequence? The Savior willed that the miracle should be recorded in three of the four gospels. If it had ended where we left it in the last chapter, then such is our human nature that we should have drawn from it the inference that saving faith need not be confessed. Our natural love of ease and our desire to avoid the cross would have made us follow this woman's example. We would have tried to touch the Lord for healing and then run away from Him without making any profession of discipleship.
Many would have quoted her case as a reason why they might be allowed to escape the responsibilities, duties, and sufferings that discipleship might involve. If the Savior had permitted this woman to retire in silence, many cowardly believers would have said that the Savior's silence gave consent to her retiring without a word and that they might safely imitate her. I know the people and their style of reasoning. This would have been fine nuts for them. Think how this story would have been used in times of martyrdom. The cowardly would have argued, "We may have to go to prison ...
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