Page 555 - The MacArthur Daily Bible

TN_05_MacArthur_Bible_May.qxd 8/8/03 15:42 Page 536

MAY 31
26
21
Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and
said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe
22
brother would not have died. But even now I this?”
know that whatever You ask of God, God will 27 She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that
give You.” You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise come into the world.”
again.” 28 And when she had said these things, she
24 Martha said to Him, “I know that he will went her way and secretly called Mary her sis-
rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” ter, saying, “The Teacher has come and is call-
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection ing for you.” As soon as she heard that, she
29
and the life. He who believes in Me, though he arose quickly and came to Him.
DAY 30:Why did Jesus delay when He heard that Lazarus was sick?
The resurrection of Lazarus in John 11 is the climactic and most dramatic sign in this Gospel
and the capstone of Christ’s public ministry. Six miracles have already been presented (water into
wine [2:1–11],healing of the nobleman’s son [4:46–54],restoring the impotent man [5:1–15],multi-
plying the loaves and fishes [6:1–14],walking on the water [6:15–21],and curing the man born blind
[9:1–12]).Lazarus’s resurrection is more potent than all those and even more monumental than the
raising of the widow’s son in Nain (Luke 7:11–16) or Jairus’s daughter (Luke 8:40–56) because those
two resurrections occurred immediately after death.Lazarus was raised after 4 days of being in the
grave with the process of decomposition already having started (v. 39).
Upon hearing that Lazarus is sick, Jesus’ immediate response is that it is “for the glory of God,
that the Son of God may be glorified through it”(v. 4).This phrase reveals the real purpose behind
Lazarus’s sickness, i.e., not death, but that the Son of God might be glorified through his resurrec-
tion.So He stayed two more days.The decision to delay coming did not bring about Lazarus’s death,
since Jesus already supernaturally knew his plight.Most likely by the time the messenger arrived to
inform Jesus, Lazarus was already dead.The delay was because He loved the family (v. 5) and that
love would be clear as He greatly strengthened their faith by raising Lazarus from the dead. The
delay also ensured that Lazarus had been dead long enough that no one could misinterpret the
miracle as a fraud or mere resuscitation.
Coming to Martha, Jesus said,“I am the resurrection and the life” (v. 25). This is the fifth in a
series of 7 great “I AM” statements of Jesus (6:35; 8:12; 10:7,9; 10:11,14). With this statement, Jesus
moved Mary from an abstract belief in the resurrection that will take place “at the last day”(see 5:28,
29) to a personalized trust in Him who alone can raise the dead.No resurrection or eternal life exists
outside of the Son of God.Time (“at the last day”) is no barrier to the One who has the power of res-
urrection and life (1:4) for He can give life at any time.

commanded you, and if you keep My statutes
5
May 31 and My judgments, then I will establish the
throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as
I promised David your father, saying, ‘You
shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Is-
1 Kings 9:1–10:29
rael.’ But if you or your sons at all turn from
6
And it came to pass, when Solomon had following Me, and do not keep My command-
9 finished building the house of the LORD ments and My statutes which I have set before
and the king’s house, and all Solomon’s desire you, but go and serve other gods and worship
2
7
which he wanted to do, that the LORD them, then I will cut off Israel from the land
appeared to Solomon the second time, as He which I have given them; and this house which
3
had appeared to him at Gibeon. And the LORD I have consecrated for My name I will cast out
said to him: “I have heard your prayer and of My sight. Israel will be a proverb and a
your supplication that you have made before byword among all peoples. And as for this
8
Me; I have consecrated this house which you house, which is exalted, everyone who passes
have built to put My name there forever, and by it will be astonished and will hiss, and say,
My eyes and My heart will be there perpetu- ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and
9
ally. Now if you walk before Me as your father to this house?’ Then they will answer, ‘Be-
4
David walked, in integrity of heart and in cause they forsook the LORD their God, who
uprightness, to do according to all that I have brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt,
536