Brit Chadasha Foundations-Concepts in John-Chapter 11

John 11.1-57 will tell us about his decision to go to Judea and Jerusalem; the death and resurrection of Lazarus; the counsel of Caiaphas and the plot to kill Yeshua; the people look for Yeshua at Passover, and the orders from the chief priests and the Pharisees from Shammai to tell them where he was so that they might arrest him.

v 1… Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus (Hebrew “Eleazar” meaning “God has helped” and he will be a type of Israel in this story, also a believer in the resurrection and being born again) of Bethany (“house of figs”), the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

v 2… And it was the Mary (Miriam) who anointed the Lord (in 12.3) with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair whose brother Lazarus was sick.

v 3… The sisters therefore sent to him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.”

v 4… But when Yeshua heard it, he said, “This sickness is not unto death (permanent physical death), but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it (like the blind man in 9.3).”

v 5… Now Yeshua loved Martha and her sister, and Lazarus.

v 6…When therefore he heard that he was sick, he stayed then two days (to test their faith and patience, but it also corresponds to 2000 years or two days. This story will play out over 6 days, or 6000 years, when there will be a resurrection) in the place where he was.

v 7… Then after this (two days) he said to his talmidim, “Let us go to Judea again.”

v 8…The talmidim said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews (the rulers) were just now seeking to stone you; and you are going there again (fearful for his life, and theirs)?”

v 9… Yeshua answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day (when one can work)? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world (the “sun” is symbolic of Messiah-Mal 4.2; Psa 19. So as long as the sun shines it means “my life has not expired, so it is a time for working if I have the opportunity”).

v 10… But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles (it’s too late; Judas went out by night and stumbled-13.30), because the light is not in him (he is dead and it is too late).”

v 11… This he said, and after that he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep (which is a Hebrew idiom for death); but I go, that I may awake him out of his sleep (raise him from the dead).”

v 12… The talmidim therefore said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep he will recover (not wanting to go to Judea).”

v 13… Now Yeshua had spoken of his death; but they thought that he was speaking of literal sleep.

v 14… Then Yeshua therefore said to them plainly (with no metaphors), “Lazarus is dead,

v 15… and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe (strengthen the faith you already have); but let us go to him (Yeshua is on a journey to raise Israel from the dead, both physically and spiritually, too).”

v 16…Thomas (his Hebrew name meaning “twin”) therefore, who is called Didymus (the Greek name for “twin”), said to his fellow talmidim, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

v 17… So when Yeshua came, he found that he had already been in the tomb four days (Yeshua waits two days and then hears that Lazarus has died. Now there are four more days equaling six days, which is a picture of 6000 years, and after that there will be a resurrection-Hos 6.1-3; 1 Thes 4.13-17; 1 Cor 15.50-58. Yeshua is giving us an eschatological picture here, even though the extra days caused the family extended grief, good came out of it).

v 18… Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off;

v 19… and many of the Jews (the rulers) had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother.

v 20… Martha therefore, when she heard that Yeshua was coming, went to meet him; but Mary still sat in the house (she didn’t know he was there-11.28).

v 21… Martha therefore said to Yeshua, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

v 22… Even now (after he has died) I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”

v 23…Yeshua said to her, “Your brother shall rise again (this was no customary consolation).”

v 24… Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day (Hos 6.1-3; 2 Thes 2.1- the seventh day, the Lord’s Day, the Day of the Lord. After 6000 years, on Rosh ha Shanah, the Natzal, the gathering or what is known as the “rapture” will occur, starting off the last day, or 1000 years called the Messianic Kingdom, or “Millennium”-see our articles in the Prophecy/Eschatology for more detail).

v 25… Yeshua said to her, “I am the resurrection (present and future life existed in him; he is going to raise Lazarus by his own power, without asking it of his Father-John 10.17) and the life, he who believes in me shall live even if he dies (spiritual death is not a “penal evil” because the curse of it has been removed in a believer);

v 26… and everyone who lives and believes in me (those who believe in him and are alive and remain when he comes-1 Thes 4.15) shall never die. Do you believe this?”

v 27… She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that you are the Messiah, the Son of God (a parallelism and an idiom for “king” because kings were seen as adopted by the Lord-1 Chr 28.5-7; 1 Chr 17.11-14), he who comes into the world.”

v 28… And when she said this, she went away, and called Mary her sister (she did not know he had arrived yet), saying secretly (so that the rulers who were there could not hear), “The Teacher (another eschatological title for the Messiah based on Joel 2.23 where “early rain” is “teacher of righteousness” in Hebrew. Also Deut 18.15-18; Isa 30.20) is here, and is calling for you.”

v 29… And when she heard it, she arose quickly, and was coming to him (she is a picture of the believer who is alive and remains when Yeshua comes. He will call our name, and we will arise quickly to meet him-1 Thes 4.17).

v 30… Now Yeshua had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha met him (near the gravesite).

v 31… The Jews (the rulers) then who were with her in the house, and consoling her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

v 32… Therefore, when Mary came where Yeshua was, she saw him, and fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

v 33… When Yeshua therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews (the rulers) who came with her weeping, he was moved (means “to snort with anger, scolding and indignation”) in spirit, and was troubled (means “agitated”)

v 34… and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”

v 35…Yeshua wept (he was thinking about Lazarus, the pain his sisters were feeling, the coming distress that the people who were there were going to experience in a few years, who saw and would hear about this miracle, and still not believe).

v 36… And so the Jews (the rulers) were saying, “Behold how he loved him!”

v 37… But some of them (the rulers) said, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of him who was blind (they said they didn’t believe that he was born blind and they were calling it into question, but now they use it to discredit Yeshua), have kept this man from dying (they were saying it mockingly)?”

v 38… Yeshua therefore again became deeply moved (“to snort with anger and indignation”) within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it (at the door).

v 39… Yeshua said, “Remove the stone.” Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be a stench; for he has been dead four days (hw waited to also show that there was going to be no doubt that Lazarus was dead by the rulers who doubted the blind man was really born blind; they will have no answer for this one).”

v 40… Yeshua said to her, “Did I not say to you, if you believe, you will see the glory of God (the “kivod” can be seen in any of his glorious works; something greater than the traditions of the elders is here. He has the keys of life and death, the grave and he opens and shuts as he wills. It was against a Jewish teaching that said that they did not allow anyone to see one that is dead after three days)?”

v 41… And so they removed the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Yeshua raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.

v 42… And I knew that you always hear me; but because of the people standing around I said it (for their benefit, to teach them), that they may believe that you sent me.”

v 43… And when he had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice (for the sake of those around him, to show them his authority over death), “Lazarus, come forth (he calls him by name, to distinguish him from any other corpse in the cave or area).”

v 44… He who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Yeshua said, “Unbind him, and let him go (this is not only a picture of the coming resurrection after 6000 years, but this is also a picture of the born again experience. Lazarus had to be made alive first before he could respond. God sees us dead and it is his will that he comes to us, chooses us by name, and calls us forth before we can respond to him-John 1.13; Eph 2.1-10; Col 2.13).”

v 45… Many therefore of the Jews (the rulers) who had come to Mary and beheld what he had done, believed in him  (they trusted him and had no doubts now as to who he was).

v 46… But some of them went away to the Pharisees (of Shammai in the Sanhedrin), and told them the things which Yeshua had done.

v 47… Therefore the chief priests (who were Sadducees, and denied the resurrection) and the Pharisees (of Shammai in the Sanhedrin) convened a council and were saying, “What are we doing (about this man and his influence, just sitting here)? For this man is performing many signs (and weakening our position in the community).

v 48… If we let him alone like this, all men will believe in him (their ultimate fear was to become irrelevant with the people), and the Romans will come and take away both our place (“place” is “makom” in Hebrew, an idiom for the Temple, where Jacob saw the vision and “place” is mentioned three times, which would be the mountain where the Temple now stood-Gen 28.11; Acts 6.14. What they didn’t understand was that if everyone believed in him, none of this would have happened. But, because they rejected the offer of the kingdom and the Messiah, the Romans were going to come and do that anyway. They had everything backward) and our nation (the land).”

v 49…But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year (the high priesthood was for life in the Torah, but by this time it was bought by whoever had the most money. His father-in-law was a former high priest named Annas-Acts 4.6, and he ran the bazaars with the moneychangers. He skimmed money from that to purchase the priesthood from the Romans and keep power in the family. He had five sons and a son-in-law promoted to high priest at least), said to them, “You know nothing at all (stupid and ignorant),

v 50… nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish (but he was the one that was ignorant because by rejecting Yeshua and who he was, that was what was going to bring the Romans).”

v 51… This he did not say on his own initiative; but being the high priest that year (he was the “oracle of God” and the Holy Spirit made use of him that way), he prophesied (but didn’t know it) that Yeshua was going to die for the nation (which was opposite of what Israel’s idea of the Messiah would be-John 12.34);

v 52… and not for the nation (the Jewish people in the land) only, but that he might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad (Jews in the dispersion who are referred to in Scripture as “Ephraim” and the “m’loh ha Goyim” or “fullness of the nations”, an idiom from Gen 48.19. Paul uses this term in Rom 11.25, speaking of the Jewish believers among the nations at that time-Jam 1.1, and who will be gathered again after the Lord returns).

v 53…So from that day on they planned together to kill him (Peter would openly charge them with the crime in Acts 5.27-33).

v 54… Yeshua therefore no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews (the rulers in Jerusalem), but went away from there to the country near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim (alluding to what verses 51 and 52 were saying); and there he stayed with the talmidim.

v 55… Now the Passover of the Jews (as opposed to the Passover of the Samaritans) was at hand, and many went up to Jerusalem (as required by the Torah. You cannot keep a festival outside of Jerusalem and the Temple, then or now), to purify themselves (according to the Torah).

v 56… Therefore they were seeking for Yeshua, and were saying to one another, as they stood in the temple, “What do you think; that he will not come to the feast at all?”

v 57… Now the chief priests (Sadducees) and the Pharisees had given orders (published an edict from the Sanhedrin) that if anyone knew where he was, he should report it (and not give him shelter for the festival), that they might seize him (which they will because they will bribe Judas).

Posted in Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Tying into the New Testament, Verse-by-Verse Bible Studies

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