Mark 5:25-34
Tradition says that this woman’s name was Veronica and that she was from Caesarea Philipi, but scripture identifies her only as “a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years”. She must have been very wealthy, at least in the early stages of her sickness, for she had been to many physicians and had suffered many things at their hands, “and had spent all that she had”. These 12 years worth of doctor’s visits had not bettered her in the least but rather she had grown worse.
This woman is a spiritual type of many things, but namely she is the church, typified by the number 12, God’s number of perfect government. Her issue of blood is a type of some sort of problem within the life of the believer that is robbing them of their life and their happiness, for the life of the flesh was in the blood.
When she heard that Jesus was coming, she made the life-changing decision to go and find Him. Her disease made her ceremonially unclean in Israel, so her arrival in a public place would have been a law breaking action. She throws this notion off, too desperate for a miracle to care whether or not she is judged by the law, and she approaches Jesus from behind Him. Perhaps she had let Him pass because she had a change of heart, and nearly let Him get away. Or maybe she let Him pass because she could not bear the thought of looking Him in the eye, content only to get her healing and sneak away.
She grabbed the hem of the garment of Jesus as He passed by and the very moment that she did, the bleeding stopped, and she felt her healing happen. Jesus turns to the crowd, sensing that power has left His body and He asks who has touched His clothes. After a brief exchange between Jesus and the disciples, the woman, “fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth” (Mark 5:33).
The response of fear and trembling is a result of being in the wonderful presence of the Lord and should not always be construed as a bad thing. Jeremiah said that when the earth hears all the good that He does to them, “they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it” (Jeremiah 33:9). Paul said for each believer to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). Again, this is a beautiful event, for we are only working out of us what God has worked inside of us, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).
Under the Old Covenant, no man could look upon the face of God and live. In fact, when Moses requested to see God’s face, he was denied and God let him look only upon his backside as He walked away (Exodus 33:18-23). Jesus is grace and He is truth (John 1:17), so when He has opportunity to show forth the nature of God, He looks the woman directly in the eye and gives her a title that He gives no other woman in the Bible, “Daughter”. He has adopted her into the family of God!
When Jesus says, “Go in peace”, He uses the word “eis” in Greek meaning, “go into peace”. As the woman dwells on her newfound position of “daughter” she will go into the peace of heaven. This peace will make her whole of her plague. When you find yourself troubled by the symptoms in your body and mind, just remind yourself that you are a son or daughter of God and watch your healing manifest in Jesus’ name.
Tradition says that this woman’s name was Veronica and that she was from Caesarea Philipi, but scripture identifies her only as “a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years”. She must have been very wealthy, at least in the early stages of her sickness, for she had been to many physicians and had suffered many things at their hands, “and had spent all that she had”. These 12 years worth of doctor’s visits had not bettered her in the least but rather she had grown worse.
This woman is a spiritual type of many things, but namely she is the church, typified by the number 12, God’s number of perfect government. Her issue of blood is a type of some sort of problem within the life of the believer that is robbing them of their life and their happiness, for the life of the flesh was in the blood.
When she heard that Jesus was coming, she made the life-changing decision to go and find Him. Her disease made her ceremonially unclean in Israel, so her arrival in a public place would have been a law breaking action. She throws this notion off, too desperate for a miracle to care whether or not she is judged by the law, and she approaches Jesus from behind Him. Perhaps she had let Him pass because she had a change of heart, and nearly let Him get away. Or maybe she let Him pass because she could not bear the thought of looking Him in the eye, content only to get her healing and sneak away.
She grabbed the hem of the garment of Jesus as He passed by and the very moment that she did, the bleeding stopped, and she felt her healing happen. Jesus turns to the crowd, sensing that power has left His body and He asks who has touched His clothes. After a brief exchange between Jesus and the disciples, the woman, “fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth” (Mark 5:33).
The response of fear and trembling is a result of being in the wonderful presence of the Lord and should not always be construed as a bad thing. Jeremiah said that when the earth hears all the good that He does to them, “they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it” (Jeremiah 33:9). Paul said for each believer to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). Again, this is a beautiful event, for we are only working out of us what God has worked inside of us, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).
Under the Old Covenant, no man could look upon the face of God and live. In fact, when Moses requested to see God’s face, he was denied and God let him look only upon his backside as He walked away (Exodus 33:18-23). Jesus is grace and He is truth (John 1:17), so when He has opportunity to show forth the nature of God, He looks the woman directly in the eye and gives her a title that He gives no other woman in the Bible, “Daughter”. He has adopted her into the family of God!
When Jesus says, “Go in peace”, He uses the word “eis” in Greek meaning, “go into peace”. As the woman dwells on her newfound position of “daughter” she will go into the peace of heaven. This peace will make her whole of her plague. When you find yourself troubled by the symptoms in your body and mind, just remind yourself that you are a son or daughter of God and watch your healing manifest in Jesus’ name.
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