And, behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no way lift herself up.
Read Chapter 13
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And behold there was a woman. "The spirit of infirmity, that Isaiah , an infirmity sent by the evil one," says de Lyra. Euthymius, "The devil of weakness not suffering her to live." The Arabic reads, "With whom was a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years, and she was bowed together and was not able to stand up by any means." This infirmity was a curving and bending of the whole body, so that the woman was compelled always to walk bent and stooping. Observe that diseases are often sent by the devils, through the permission of God, for sins of other reasons. Ver16 shows the cause of this infirmity, "This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound," Thus the devil afflicted Job with various diseases, chap. ii. The same is seen in Psalm 78:49, and Matthew 9:23. The devil, therefore, made this woman crooked and bent, to compel her always to look down upon the earth.
Eighteen years. It was, therefore, an inveterate and incurable disease, and as such could not be healed by the physicians....
Now, if someone does not wish, whether like the sinful woman to embrace the feet of Christ [Luke 7:38], or like the prodigal son to run back to Him with burning repentance [Luke 15:11ff], or like the woman with a hemorrhage and bowed with infirmity (Luke 8:43 and 13:11) even to approach Him, why does he then make excuses for his sins by saying, “Those whom He foreknew, them also“–and them alone!–“He called“?
One may perhaps reasonably reply to the person so disposed that “God, Who is before eternity and Who knows all things before creating them, also knew you beforehand, knew that you would not obey Him when He called, that you would not believe in His promises and in His words, yet still, even while knowing this, He “bowed the heavens and came down” [Psalm 18:19] and became man, and for your sake has come to the place where you lie prone. Indeed, visiting you many times every day, sometimes in His own Person and sometimes as well through His servants, He exhorts you to get up from th...
