Our Lord in Decapolis: Healing the Sick Matthew 15:29-31

(Compare Matthew 15:32-39)

DISCOVERY OF THE FACTS

1. The Lame Walking, the Blind Seeing, the Deaf Hearing, the Dumb Speaking, Matt. 15:29-31; Mark 7:31-37 After healing the Syrophoenician woman's daughter, what did our Lord do? Why so soon? Where did He go? What does the Revised Version say instead of "a mountain"? Is there any significance in the change? What did He do in the mountain? What happened then? Why did they come to Him? Whom did they bring with them? Had they any right to do that? Have we any warrant for doing the same today? (Heb. 13:8; Jas. 5:14.)

What did they do with the lame, blind, dumb, maimed? What is the thought suggested by the word "cast"? What did our Lord do? What was the effect upon the multitude? Why was it the God of Israel whom they glorified? (Ex. 15:26.) What special case of healing does Mark select from them all for a full description? Is this the only case of a dumb man healed recorded in the Gospels? (Matt. 9:32, 33; Luke 11:14.) What did our Lord do first with this dumb man? What was His purpose? Did He seek notoriety?

How did He differ radically in this respect from many modern healers? What other miracle does this resemble in some of the details? (John 9:6, 7; Mark 8:23.) What was His purpose in touching his tongue? Why did He look up to heaven? (6:41; John 11:41; 17:1.) Why did He sigh? (8:12; Luke 19:41; John 11:33, 35, 38; Heb. 4:15.) Did He know that this man's misfortune was soon to be completely relieved? Why then was He burdened over it? Is He burdened over our sorrows even though He knows that they are of short duration and in part imaginary?

Did His sigh express anything beside sympathy? Did it cost Him anything to perform this miracle? Is there any peculiar power in prayers so earnest that they are accompanied by sighs and groans? (Ro. 8:26, 27; 15:30; Col. 4:12, 13, R. V.) Did our Lord's miracles cost Him any suffering or pain? Had the connection between sin and sickness anything to do with His sigh on this and similar occasions? What did He say? What was the result? How was His unstopping the ears of the deaf and giving speech to the dumb proof that He was the Messiah? (Is. 32:1-4; 35:4, 5; Matt. 11:3-5.)

What strict injunction did our Lord lay upon them? What was His purpose? 1:44, 45; 3:10-12; 5:43; 8:25, 26.) Did He ever tell any one to witness to what God had done for him? (Luke 8:39.) Ought we today to keep to ourselves or to tell out what Christ has done for us? (Acts 1:8.) What was the effect of the miracle upon those who saw it? (1:27; 2:12; 4:41; 5:42; 6:51.) Were they converted? What did they say He did? Who alone can make the dead to hear and the dumb to speak? (Ex. 4:10, 11.) 2.

The Feeding of the Four Thousand, Mark 8:1-9 What proof have we here of our Lord's popularity with the people? For what purpose did they come together? Had they any real appreciation of Him? (John 6:26, 27.) How did they prove that they were deeply interested? What was His feeling toward this hungry multitude? What was He unwilling to do? Is there any lesson here for us? With what were the disciples filled at His suggestion that they should feed them? Who else had been similarly perplexed under like circumstances? (Num. 11:21-23; 2 Kings 4:42-44; 7:2.)

Why was their perplexity and anxiety inexcusable? (6:35-44.) What question did our Lord ask of the disciples? What was its purpose? What command did He give to the multitude? (Matt. 14:18, 19.) Why did that seem like a foolish command? What did He do when the multitude were seated? What did He take? Was that naturally enough to go around? How much of what the disciples had did He take? How much that we have must we put in His hands if we wish Him to bless, multiply and use it?

Having taken the loaves, what did He do? Ought we to return thanks every time we eat? (Ro. 14:6; 1 Cor. 10:30, 31; Col. 3:17; 1 Tim. 4:3-5; Acts 27:35.) How do we know that there was something deeply significant in the manner in which our Lord returned thanks? (John 6:11, 23; Luke 24:30, 31, 35.) Did He return thanks for anything beside the seven loaves? Did the few small fishes seem of much account? Was it necessary that they too be brought? Is there any lesson here for us?

How bountiful did that repast prove? Does any one ever go away hungry from the Lord's table? How was this feeding of the four thousand a proof of the deity of Christ? What proof have we that this was a separate miracle from the feeding of the five thousand, and not merely another account of the same miracle? CLASSIFICATION OF TEACHINGS

1. Jesus Christ

(1). His nature:

Divine (Matt. 15:30; Mk. 7:37, 34, 35; Mark 8:1-9); human, 34.

(2). His characteristics:

Shunned notoriety, 33; full Of sympathy, intensely earnest, 34; compassionate--on the sick, 30; on the deaf and dumb, 32; on the hungry, 2, 3.

(3). What He did:

Opened the ears of the deaf, unstopped the mouth of the dumb, Mark 7:32-35; healed the lame, maimed and many others, Matt. 15:30, 31; fed the hungry, Mark 8:1-9; fully satisfied those who sat at His table, 8; multiplied the possessions and power of His disciples when they put all that they had in His hands, 5-7; returned thanks before meals, for even the smallest things, 6, 7.