Acts 3:11
“And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering.”
Peter and John spoke a healing miracle to the lame man. The man was on the ground every day next to a gate of the temple that was called Beautiful. He was crippled from birth and people would carry him to the gate and put him there so he could beg money to survive. Such a contrast of a crippled man on the ground who had to rely on friends or family to carry him to the temple and back home every day so he could beg in front of a gate that was called “Beautiful.”
One source indicates the gate was big and covered in brass plates. The actual Greek word that “Beautiful” comes from in this context is “hōraios.” According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible it means, “belonging to the right hour or season (timely), that is, (by implication) flourishing (beauteous [figuratively]): – beautiful.” With what happened to the beggar, I would say it was both “timely” and “flourishing!”
Out of all the glory of this miracle that Peter plainly gives to Jesus there is one small thing that sticks out to me and that is that the lame man “held Peter and John.” He went from being powerless in one single moment in time to being powerful enough to physically hold two apostles. Also take note that the lame man was” . . .walking, and leaping, and praising God.” God was both due and did receive the glory for the work.
There is no doubt to me that our enemy derived pleasure for every moment the lame man lay on the ground begging. Then there was that moment when the power of God was demonstrated for a purpose. The formerly crippled beggar held onto Peter and John, and then the Holy Ghost held onto everyone there because of the miracle so that the Gospel message would be declared in that timely moment and so it would flourish all the more.
I pray healing into your life so that God receives glory and that the message that Jesus is the Christ and is still offering forgiveness of sins and eternal life to anyone who calls on his name flourishes more!
(I invite you to read the whole text of the healing in Acts chapters 3 and 4.)
