`He abode two days ... after that saith He to His disciples, Let us go into Judaea again' (11:6,7).

This period prophetically covers the approximate 2,000 years of Israel's death as a nation, and indicates the

millennium as the day of Israel's revival and new life. To the same period refer the words of Hosea 13:14:

`I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues;

O grave, I will be thy destruction'.

The apostle Paul, speaking of Israel's failure as a nation, says:

`If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but LIFE FROM

THE DEAD?' (Rom. 11:15).

Twice does the nobleman use the words `come down' to the Lord. This may be simply common usage, it may

be strictly topographical; it may nevertheless be a part of the sign itself. Over and over again in this Gospel the Lord

refers to Himself as the bread which came down from heaven. Israel's great cry in the day of deliverance will be:

`Oh that Thou wouldest rend the heavens, that Thou wouldest come down' (Isa. 64:1).

lsrael at the point of death will have no hope of deliverance except from above.

We must however be careful to note the great difference between the second and seventh signs, as well as the

correspondence that exists between them. In the case of the nobleman's son, healing is the word, whereas in the

case of Lazarus, resurrection is the one essential. In the second sign the child is `at the point of death', dying of a

The verb `to heal' occurs but three times in John's Gospel (4:47; 5:13 and 12:40). The last reference is at a

dispensational crisis, and is found in the quotation of Isaiah 6:10, a passage fraught with solemn importance.

Healing in John's Gospel means not only the physical cure, but the spiritual healing of the nation. Immediately

before this quotation is made, the seventh sign has been given. `Lazarus is DEAD'. No longer a nation `at the point

of death' needing healing is set forth, but a nation dead and buried, needing nothing less than resurrection. In Acts

3:11 the word `to heal' reappears with the renewed preaching of repentance. Once more Isaiah 6:10 is quoted in

Acts 28:27; this time finally. The time for healing is past, death has come, and Israel must await the hour when it

shall hear the voice of the Son of God.

In five out of the eight signs the Lord speaks the word only, and does not touch the subject. There is an

emphasis on the power of His word. In the first sign He simply says, `Fill the waterpots with water'; `Draw out

now'. In the second, `Go thy way, thy son liveth'; and the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him.

In the third, in contrast to the complaint of the impotent man that he had no one to put him into the pool, come the

words, `Rise, take up thy bed, and walk'. This is followed by the wondrous words:

`For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom He will ... He that

heareth My word ... hath everlasting life ... the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear

His voice, and shall come forth' (5:21-29).

This truth is fully set forth in the raising of Lazarus. Here again we see a second setting forth of the Messiahship

of Jesus, and perceive the power of life which abides in His name, and which is received by faith.

John 5:1-47

We saw that death was confined to the second and seventh signs, and we shall now see that sin is spoken of only

in the third and sixth. It will be observed, moreover, that the second pair of signs intensifies the subject.

In both the third and sixth signs we have a pool, a long standing case, and the Sabbath day. Further, the nature of

the spiritual infirmity and blindness is suggested by the reference in each case to the words of Moses and the works

of the Father. Both signs were given at Jerusalem . The pool in the third sign is called `Bethesda'. The pool in the