Daily Bible Reading: John 11: 1-16 -The Death of Lazarus

John chapter 11 is full of teaching:  Firstly is the raising of Lazarus.  This is not the first time that Jesus has raised the dead; previously he raised the dead son of a widow while on his way to burial, also the daughter of Jairus, a child of 12.  But Lazarus is different.  He was raised to show forth the glory of God.  Lazarus, unlike the previous two, was already in the tomb, and had been for several days.  He was a person well known to Jesus and loved by him.  Many people witnessed the raising of Lazarus.  Jesus did it in a very public manner while the first two were in a more quiet way.

The raising of Lazarus takes place after the teaching of Jesus that he is The Good Shepherd.  That his sheep hear his voice, that they follow him,  Lazarus heard the voice of Jesus calling him and he came forth.

Also in this chapter is Lazarus' sister Martha.  Jesus gives Martha the assurance of resurrection.  Also here is the shortest verse in the bible "Jesus wept." 


V1-3 A certain man named Lazarus was sick.  He was of the town of Bethany, as were his sisters Martha and Mary.   They sent word to Jesus saying "Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick." 

From this we know that Martha and Mary were well acquainted with Jesus as they did not hesitate to send word to Jesus that Lazarus was sick.  It is likely that they believed that Jesus would come and heal Lazarus as he had done to so many others.

V4-7  Jesus said to his disciples "this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.  Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus."  This verse is confirmation of the close relationship that they had.  But Jesus did not immediately go to Lazarus, he stayed  two more days in the same place because the death of Lazarus was to be very significant.

V7-16 After the two days were up, Jesus told his disciples "let us go to Judea again."  His disciples were surprised at that  because the Jews had wanted to stone Jesus there.  But Jesus said to them "our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep."  His disciples did not understand that Jesus was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, they just thought that Lazarus was sleeping as restful sleep so Jesus told them "Lazarus is dead."  Then Jesus told them that he was glad that he was not there when Lazarus died because it was because of this that they would believe.  Jesus said "nevertheless let us go to him." 

My next post will be about Martha, and her assurance of the resurrection of Lazarus.

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