Section 6
porches. We are like the impotent people under the law-keeping shelter.
THE SICK PEOPLE UNDER THE LAW-KEEPING SHELTER
A multitude of sick people lay in the porches. This signifies that under the law-keeping shelter, in religion's fold, there are many people who are blind, unable to see; lame, unable to walk; and withered, being short of life. They have no joy or peace, only suffering. The impotent man had no joy, even on the joyful day of the feast (5:1), and he had no rest, even on the Sabbath day (5:9). The sick people were helpless and hopeless, dead in the eyes of the Lord.
There was the means of healing in the law- keeping religion, but it did not profit the impo tent man, because he had no strength to fulfill its requirement. In the eyes of the Lord, he was a dead person in need not only of healing, but also of enlivening. With the Lord's enlivening there is no requirement. As we shall see, the impotent man heard His voice and was enlivened. The sig nificance of this sign is that when the practice of law-keeping in the Jewish religion became an impossibility due to the impotence of man, the Son of God came to enliven the dead. The law