John 10
AEKJohn 10:3-33
3 John the baptist was the door keeper who opened the door to the true Shepherd. Many another has come claiming to be Israel’s shepherd, but they did not come in God’s appointed way.
4 The Eastern shepherd never drives his sheep. He calls them. They will not follow a strange voice.
11 In His humiliation He was the ideal Shepherd defending His sheep. In His exaltation He is the great Shepherd, feeding them (Hebrews 13:20).
16 The dispersion, outside the land, was reached by Peter , in his two epistles.
22 The Dedications must refer to the rededication of the temple, after three years’ profanation by Antiochus Epiphanes, in the days of Judas Maccabeus, for Solomon’s temple was dedicated in the seventh month, which was about the autumnal equinox, Zerubbabel’s temple was dedicated in the twelfth month, the beginning of spring, but Judas Maccabeus held his dedication for eight days, beginning on the twenty-fifth day of the seventh month-in the midst of winter. Besides, neither Solomon nor Zerubbabel made it an annual celebration. Josephus tells about it in his Antiquities, book XII, chapter 7. He takes his account from the first book of Maccabees, IV, 36-59, and the second book, X,5-8. This festival was not of divine appointment, and mars the great series of seven festivals which are a prophetic forecast of Israel’s history. These are in two groups, one of which has been fulfilled, and one still future.
The Passover, Unleavened, First fruit, and Pentecost are history now. Trumpets, Propitiation, and Tabernacles will be fulfilled when Israel is again in God’s reckoning. After the millennium, which is the antitype of Tabernacles, there will not be a rededication of the temple. On the contrary, the temple and its worship will be superseded by reconciliation where no ritual is needed.
22 The Dedications was a sentimental, human anniversary, which never would have been instituted had the people not been blind to the marvelous meaning of Jehovah’s perfect series of festivals. It is usually called the feast of Lights. Such it was to the blind man! But to the Jews as a nation, this light-human amendment of the law and the ritual-was darkness, and how great was their darkness! If our faith is in man and his works, how futile it is! The many church festivals of today are like the Dedications, without foundation in truth, however they may appeal to religious sentiment. God’s festivals were filled with spiritual significance and force, which now demands the non-observance of days and set seasons.
John 10:34-11
34 The term “gods” is translated “judges” in Exodus 21:6; Exodus 22:8-9, where it refers to men. But our Lord does not appeal to this, but to Psalms 82:6 where the context clearly excludes men. The mighty spiritual powers of the past who overrule the affairs of mankind are called sons by God Himself. Even Satan is called a son of God (Job 1:6). He is called the god of this eon (2 Corinthians 4:4). Now if God said to these subjectors, “Gods are you,” notwithstanding the fact that they failed to right the wrongs of earth, how much rather shall He have called Him God Who shall dispossess them? To Him God says (Psalms 82:8): Rise, O God! Judge the earth, For Thou shalt be allotted all nations. He had been undoing the deeds of these sons of God and doing all that was foretold of Him before their very eyes. And yet they thought they were not blind!
1 The rousing of Lazarus from among the dead is the seventh and last sign in John’s account. Each succeeding sign finds the nation on a lower level. At the marriage feast of Cana they lacked the joy and gladness of the kingdom; the infirm man at Bethesda’s pool lacked power; the disciples on the sea, tossed by the tempest, lacked peace; the blind man lacked sight; but Lazarus lacked life. The apostasy of the nation had developed to such a degree that death was the fittest symbol to describe them. This is the condition of Israel in the latter days, as the prophet Ezekiel saw them in the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37:3). The question is asked, “Shall these bones live?” And the bones are roused from death, and enter the land of Israel.
4 The cause of Lazarus’ infirmity was not sin, as in the case of the man at Bethesda. It was the necessary prelude to the manifestation of His glory. Indeed, the Lord deliberately delayed His departure in order that he should die. So He deals with Israel. Their great cry is “Till when ?” . Their restoration to life is postponed until they are beyond all hope, until their resurrection, spiritually as well as physically, is manifestly the work of the Lord.
9 The day, in the East, begins with sunrise and ends with sunset. It is always divided into twelve hours. In summer these are longer than in winter. As the sun is nearly always shining anyone can tell the time of day by merely glancing at his shadow.
11 Repose is the favorite figure of death in the Scriptures. Only four times is it used of the actual repose of sleep (Matthew 27:52; Matthew 28:13; Luke 22:45; Acts 12:6). Fourteen times is it found in its figurative sense (John 11:11-12; Acts 7:60; Acts 13:36; 1 Corinthians 7:39; 1 Corinthians 11:30; 1 Corinthians 15:6; 1 Corinthians 15:18; 1 Corinthians 15:20; 1 Corinthians 15:51; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-15; 2 Peter 3:4). It is used of both believers and unbelievers (1 Corinthians 7:39). It likens death to that beneficial aspect of sleep which restores us to physical vigor and vitality. Death itself is an enemy, so we must look to the resurrection as the true inspiration for this figure.
This is beautifully pictured in the case of Lazarus. Had he actually found repose in sleep he would doubtless have recovered. But his death amounted to no more than this after the Lord has restored his life by resurrection. Of his experience in death we are told nothing, for this figure precludes the thought. Normal sleep is itself without sensation, and “the repose of sleep” is unbroken oblivion until the awakening.
15 We know that the Lord was fond of Lazarus (3). How strange, then, to hear Him say “Lazarus died. And I am rejoicing. . .”! We might have said, “I am sorrowing.” It is our privilege, also, to look about us on all the distress and disaster and death and rejoice, not in the calamities themselves, but in the glory which will accrue to God when He deals with them. It is only as we see God’s beneficent purpose in our trials that we can really endure them with joyfulness.
17 The four days may suggest the time during which the nation lies lifeless, before the resurrection of the day of the Lord. First they were under the law, and this dealt out death. Then came the personal ministry of Messiah which showed them to be but a corrupt corpse. The rejection of the apostolic testimony in the Acts leaves them still worse. They become most offensive in the day of wrath.