<TITLE>09. Par 30-33</TITLE>L-30 Several hundred years after that, there was an old, blind beggar setting by them walls. We know him in the Bible as Bartimaeus. Many pronounce it, "Bar-tee-meus," either way will be all right. And there he was setting, blind. And how he must have been thinking, this little boy, how his mama used to get him on her lap and tell him of the great stories of how God did great things. And maybe his favorite story was when Moses crossed the Red Sea, or when Joshua entered the promised land, just a few hundred yards below where they were at. Oh, how his little bright eyes would flash and say, "Oh, mother, tell me that story again 'fore you rock me to sleep." And as he'd take his hands and pat her pretty cheeks as that young Jewish mother rocked him, little did he know, he'd be setting there blind someday.

L-31 And then as his thoughts went back to that great story, I can imagine it in his little mind, he said, "Well, here I am an old ragged beggar setting here. If I could've only lived in the day that when Jehovah made Jordan, right below me here, stand still to see His parade... If I could have only lived in that day, but my priest tells me that the days of miracles is past. There's no such a thing as Jehovah doing such now; we just keep the law."
And also, he could remember the story that not many years before his time, right down that same old cobblestone road, come Elijah and Elisha, the two mighty prophets of God, walking right along arm in arm, walked down to the Jordan years after Joshua had had it to stand still. The prophet Elijah gets his mantle and strikes it, "Stand still. I've got to cross over." And the same Jehovah Who stood it still for Israel, hundreds of years later stood it still for Elijah.

L-32 One person...  Certainly. And they walked across. Hour... One hour later, perhaps, that young prophet Elijah--Elisha walked back with the same mantle on him, and struck the Jordan and said, "Where is the God of Elijah?" And it stood still for God to manifest His power to those prophets on the hill watching him. Certainly.
Old blind Bartimaeus said, "If I could've only lived in that day, I would've run out in the street, and I would've grabbed them prophets, and said, 'O prophets of God, pray for me a blind man, that God will restore my sight.' But alas, they tell me the days of miracles is past; God doesn't do those things no more."

L-33 And another thought come to his mind, that one day before Joshua took the--the city, he was a walking one day. And he happened to look, coming to him, and here stood a Man, walking, with His sword drawed. And Joshua the great warrior drawed his sword and started walking to Him. And Joshua screamed out, "Who are You for? Are You for us, or are You for our enemy?"
And this Man stood still, waved that sword, and said, "Nay, but I am the Captain of the hosts of the Lord." And the mighty Joshua threw his sword on the ground, pulled off his helmet, and bowed his knees.
Old blind Bartimaeus said, "If I could only lived in that day, and I met that mighty Captain..." Little did he know less than two hundred yards from where he was sitting, come that same Captain of the hosts of the Lord walking down the streets. A noise...
Oh, sure, made fun of, always, those who do something for God. I can hear the priest run out and say, "Say, you that raised Lazarus out of the grave, we got a whole graveyard full of them up here, come up here and raise one for me. Let us see you raise the dead." But you know, it's little men that pick up little things like that. Big men never notice them. They just go on.
He never turned His...?... His whole mind was set on Calvary. He was going right then to Jerusalem to be crucified.


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