I don’t know if my question will yield anything spiritually significant, but it’s something that I’ve been mulling over for some time, so I thought I’d get some outside input on it. In the past, I had always wondered why it was that when the Lord Christ healed the blind men (Matt 9:27-30) or when he healed the leper (Mark 1:40-45 & Luke 5:12-15), He specifically told them not to tell anyone what He had done. In both cases, however, they went and blabbed it to anyone who would listen. No doubt their joy and exuberance got the better of them, and they were so excited by what the Lord had done for them that they just had to go and tell everyone. But the Lord Christ specifically told them not to.
Whenever the Lord Christ directly commanded an individual (or thing) to do something, it was done according to His command. He would command other people (including His apostles) not to say anything to anyone and to keep a secret, command the water and the waves to be still, command the demons to be silent and to come out of a person, and even command a fig tree not bear fruit again, and all obeyed according to His commands. How is it that the leper and blind men defied His command? I know this has nothing to do with freewill, and I’m not suggesting that it does. It’s just something that has always perplexed me as to why (or how) they could disobey a direct order from the Lord Christ. The KJV says He
straitly charged them not to say a word to anyone, and I even checked up the words in Strong’s dictionary, and in the case of Matt 9:30 and Mark 1:43, the word used was the Greek word
embrimaomai, which means:
From G1722 and brimaomai (to snort with anger); to have indignation on, that is, (transitively) to blame, (intransitively) to sigh with chagrin, (specifically) to sternly enjoin: - straitly charge, groan, murmur against.This word is only used three other times in the NT, and it is translated as
groaning (John 11:33 and John 11:38) or as
murmuring against (Mark 14:5) as is seen in the definition. In the case of Luke 5:14 (which is Mark 1:40-45 retold), the Greek word used is
paraggellō, which does mean
to charge or
to command.
Why didn’t the Lord Christ extend His authority over the leper and the blind men? Why let them go and blab what He had done when He specifically ordered them not to? What's the spiritual lesson to be learned from that?
I don't know...maybe i'm over-analyzing this. Any thoughts (or even a link to a previous thread where this is covered) would be much appreciated.
Thanks.