The Feast of Tabernacles Part VII
John 8:37-59, 'I know that you are Abraham's seed; but you seek to kill Me, because My Word has no place in you. [Your authority is nicolaitane and not of faith]. I speak that which I have seen with MY Father: and you do that which you have seen with YOUR father".
They answered and said unto Him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the WORKS of Abraham [i.e. you would RECEIVE Me with like faith as Abraham]. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man that has told you the TRUTH, which I have HEARD of God: [in other words, the MIND of God, which is faith] this did not Abraham. You do the deeds [or works] of your father." Then said they to Him, "We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God".
[Jesus condemns them because their reason for wanting to kill Him is that He told them the Truth, as Cain killed his brother when he told him the truth. Abraham whom they claim was their father did not seek to kill the Christ when he encountered Him in Genesis 18. Thus it is clear that their spiritual and moral father is not Abraham who is precisely opposite to them in Spirit. And they do his deeds and are his servants.
Note the carnal understanding of these men? Like the carnal believer today, they cannot meet with Jesus on the same Spiritual plain. Whereas when He claimed God was His Father and Witness to His testimony, knowing God is invisible, they asked Him to show them a natural man (John 8:12- 19). Now Jesus has admitted these ministers ARE Abraham's natural seed, but they don't have Abraham's Spiritual seed, or faith. Spiritually they have ANOTHER father, one Abraham knew as his enemy and the enemy of God.
In God's Law, a bastard is one born from incest or adultery. Not being elect, he cannot become a son of God (Deuteronomy 23:2). Clearly, no one would suggest these religious spokesmen were born in adultery. Jesus has claimed He is a son of Adam, and Christ, the Son of God. They also claim to be sons of Adam and of God, yet like Cain, go about to kill their Brother Jesus. Jesus has accused them of having TWO fathers: one of the flesh, another of the soul. In their mind was Cain, the son of the Serpent who claimed to be a son of Adam with the birthright but slew the real heir. They imagine Jesus has accused them of being Serpent's seed, the offspring of intermarriage with the Canaanites who stem from fornication between Eve and the Serpent. Hence they protest, "we be not born of fornication," and trace their lineage to Abraham and back through Adam, to God].
Jesus said unto them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of Myself, but He sent me. Why do you not UNDERSTAND My speech? even because you cannot HEAR My Word [i.e. you lack the attribute of Abraham which is faith]. You are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. [That's why you lust to KILL Me]. He was a MURDERER from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of himself: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Which of you convinces Me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do you not believe Me? He that is OF God HEARS God's Words: you therefore hear them not because you are not of God".
Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, "Say we not well that You are a Samaritan, and have a demon?" ['Samaritan' designated an heretic and one of spurious origin from a mamser or mongrel nation. Jesus ignores this reproach. He already had believers among the Samaritans and identified with them in the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10)].
Jesus answered, "I don't have a devil; but I honour My Father and you dishonour Me. And I seek not My own glory: there is One that seeks and judges. Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep My saying, he shall never see death".
Then the Jews said to Him, "Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and You say, 'If a man keep My saying, he shall never taste of death.' "Are You greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom do you make Yourself?"
Jesus answered, "If I honour Myself, My honour is nothing: it is My Father that honours Me; of Whom you say, that He is your God: Yet you have not known Him; but I know Him: and if I should say, I know Him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know Him, and keep His saying. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day: and he saw it, and was glad. [By faith Abraham saw the Day of the Lord, and looked for a City whose Builder and Maker is God (Genesis 15:4; 17:17; 18:10; Hebrews 11:10, 19)].
Then said the Jews unto Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?" [A carnal and malicious intentional misunderstanding].
Jesus said unto them, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am". [Not I WAS, but I AM. Jesus was the Word before He was flesh, Abraham and you and I are flesh in the process of becoming Word (John 17:5)].
Then took they up stones to cast at Him: but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
[Now we come to the day AFTER the Feast of Tabernacles, and it was the sabbath (see verse 14). The scene was near the temple entrance].
John 9:1-7, 'And as Jesus passed by, He saw a man which was blind from his birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?"
Jesus answered, "Neither has this man nor his parents sinned: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day: the night comes, [My absence, and Spiritual darkness] when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world." [The SUN opens only the eyes of the seeing whereas the SON opens and enlightens the eyes of the blind also].
When He had thus spoken, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing".'
[The pool was so called because of the spring water 'sent' forth from the mount of the natural temple. The water is a type of the Holy Spirit which flows from Jesus Christ. It washes away our Spiritual blindness as the waters of Siloam washed away the natural blindness of this man. It washed the clay or carnality from his eyes, and he received both natural and Spiritual sight].
John 9:8-12, 'The neighbours therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, "Is not this he that sat and begged?"
Some said, "This is he": others said, "He is like him": but he said, "I am he".
Therefore said they unto him, "How were thine eyes opened?"
He answered and said, "A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, 'Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash': and I went and washed, and I received sight".
[The man is not acquainted with the Messianic claims of Jesus but his already budding faith in the prophetic office and mission of Jesus declares itself in verses 17 and 33 though he does not know Him as Messiah until verses 35-38].
Then said they unto him, "Where is he?" He said, "I know not".'
John 9:13-35, 'They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind. And it was the SABBATH day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.
[The neighbours considered it their duty to report the miracle to the religious authorities because they see a stumbling block as the healing was on the sabbath day. The general law in force forbade all healing on the sabbath except in cases where life was imperilled].
Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, "He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see". [They ignored the miracle and inquired "how" he was healed that they may accuse Jesus].
Therefore said some of the Pharisees, "This Man is NOT of God, because He keepeth not the sabbath day." Others said, "How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles?" And there was a division among them.
They say unto the blind man again, "What do you say of Him, has He opened your eyes?" [Or "how" did He open your eyes]. He said, "He is a prophet".
But the Jews did not believe that he had been blind, and received his sight, until they called his parents. [But having heard the man's confession of the fact, the Jews unbelieve the fact itself and pretend some fraud exists].
And they asked them, saying, "Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? how then does he now see?"
His parents answered them and said, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind: but by what means he now sees, we know not; or who has opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself".
[The first two questions, "Is this your son," and "Was he born blind?" are pure formality. His parents evade the third question, "How does he now see"?]
His parents spoke these words because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that He was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. [This prior regulation concerning excommunication was made known to the people to INTIMIDATE them, probably coinciding with the decision to 'take' Jesus (John 7:30, 32). Conspiracy was afoot].
Therefore said his parents, "He is of age; ask him".
Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, "Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner".
He answered and said, "Whether He be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see".
Then said they to him again, "WHAT did He to thee? HOW opened He thine eyes?"
[The Pharisees are in despair and the healed man presents himself as a disciple of Jesus].
He answered them, "I have told you already, and you did not hear: wherefore would you hear it again? Will you ALSO be His disciples?"
Then they reviled him, and said, "You are His disciple; but we are Moses' disciples. We know that God spoke unto Moses: as for this Fellow, we know not from whence He is".
The man answered and said unto them, "Why herein is a marvellous thing, that you know not from whence He is, and yet He has opened my eyes. Now we know that God hears not sinners: but if any man be a worshiper of God, and does His will, him He hears. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was BORN blind. If this Man were not of God, He could do nothing".
They answered and said unto him, "You were altogether born in sins, and do you teach us? And they cast him out". [Having failed to justify themselves, the Jews ridicule the man and accuse him of being either a bastard or Serpent's seed].
Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said unto him, "Do you believe on the Son of God?"
He answered and said, "Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?"
And Jesus said unto him, "You have both SEEN Him, and it is He that TALKS with you".
And he said, "Lord, I believe." And he worshipped him. And Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind." [Jesus' purpose is to fulfil the part of the Spiritual antitype of the pool whose waters featured in the healing of the blind man and in the ceremony of the Feast of Tabernacles].
And some of the Pharisees which were with Him [spies?followers of Jesus with Pharisaic sympathies] heard these words, and said unto Him, "Are we blind also?"
Jesus said unto them, "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now you say, 'We see'; therefore your sin remains".' bb960327.htm
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