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Companionship with Jesus, hearing His Word, receiving His ministrations of love, sympathy, power and glory in John 11, leads to His loved ones (John 12) ministering to Him, gratifying divine longings for response.
Bethany lessons unfolded in chap. 11 are all centered in verse 4; to promote "the glory of God" was the spring of all the Saviour's actions. The Spirit leads us to view all circumstances with reference to God's glory. His object in permitting sickness, death and all other trials, the "needs be" (1 Pet. 1:6), and "the end of the Lord" (James S:10, 11) will manifest, that our Father's will, our Father's glory, may be the outcome (cf. 1 Cor. 10 :31).
The Lord's love is a wise and a faithful love. His glory and our blessing are bound together. Two days' delay (ver. 6) may chafe our spirits. Our impatience would hasten relief, making the grave mistake of seeking immediate ease from pressure rather than the glory of God; and hindering our viewing, as we surely may, the bright rainbow yet to shine through clouds however dark.
Jesus looked on the progress of sickness, the sisters' grief, on death itself, yet gave no relief until every human hope had vanished, for Lazarus was four days dead. A real mercy it was. Nature says, "No," faith says "Yes," for "precious" faith emerged from the trial "unto glory" (1 Pet. 1:7). For our example, we behold as Jesus' motive the divine will, and as His object, divine glory. We witness at the grave of Lazarus heavenly glory shining out over the dreary region of death, a glory soon to be participated in by all His own, for He will deliver them from the grasp of the enemy, just as He raised Lazarus. Meanwhile faith may answer every evil suggestion as to apparent lack of sympathy or succor, by use of His Word, "Blessed are they that wait for Him" (Isa. 30:18), for His "due time," knowing that the Lord's delays are not refusals. Paying no attention to man's vaunted "common-sense," but every attention to that true wisdom of Prov. 3:5,6; welcoming every means that He employs to rid us of all hateful vain-confidence-to faith the tears and groanings of our blessed Lord call for heart appreciation of His sympathy with human misery, which was so real; and also of His sorrow, so profound, because of the unbelief and hardness of heart exhibited by careless souls, indifferent to the evil conditions that so grieved His heart; conditions akin to the distressing moral departure from God prevalent in our day. Oh, for hearts to feel, as He does, the moral corruption of our worldly surroundings!
Thanking God for the record of our Saviour's sympathy with human sorrows, and sharing the grief by which holiness regards sin's havoc, may our souls now rise to witness the Saviour's triumph. The sisters sought Jesus in their distress, and so may we. They called Him "Lord" and so honored the Nazarene. "He whom Thou lovest" as much as says, "His love, not mine, the resting-place." "Is sick" humbly owns that divine love permits illness. And all this is supplemented by the further lessons that not even natural affection, but God's glory, should impel our every action. The Spirit of God would stimulate our faith to see the glory of God displayed on the darkest background, to see the grace of our Beloved's heart revealed. Jesus waited Mary's coming (ver. 3); she, His call (ver. 28). Surely the words, "Calleth for thee," lent wings to her feet. Thus she was found "where Jesus was" to behold His face, to fall at His feet, and then only to speak her heart's burden. Happy example for us! Exposure of corruption the flesh dreads (ver. 39). Unbelief saw but a decomposing body; faith the glory of God (ver. 40). Note the order:"Believe," and then as surely, "See."
New creation we too experience (Eph. 2:10) by the same mighty "working" to "walk" in the newness of resurrection life, brought into being by His word as in vers. 43, 44. The tender touches of His ways of grace appear the sweeter as power and glory fill the scene. We are encouraged by the very mention of His dear ones:Mary named first in ver. 1 for commendation (ver. 2); Martha, first in ver. 5, for Jesus "loves" the weakest; and we shall see in John 12 the testimony of risen life that Lazarus rendered to His praise and the glory of God. E. J. Checkley
(To be concluded in next number, D.V.)