John
1:47-51
When Jesus saw him coming he said, "There's a real Israelite, not a false bone in his body." 48 Nathanael said, "Where did you get that idea? You don't know me." Jesus answered, "One day, long before Philip called you here, I saw you under the fig tree." 49 Nathanael exclaimed, "Rabbi! You are the Son of God, the King of Israel!" 50 Jesus said, "You've become a believer simply because I say I saw you one day sitting under the fig tree? You haven't seen anything yet! 51 Before this is over you're going to see heaven open and God's angels descending to the Son of Man and ascending again."
Food for thought!
Do you have someone in life who seem to understand you, someone who really knows you? Someone who can guess your thoughts and even sometimes your words? Someone that can read your mind? Well, this is what Jesus did to Nathaniel; he told and showed him that he knows him through and through. He told Nathaniel that long before Philip called you here, I saw you under the fig tree. Long before any human saw Nathaniel, Jesus had seen him.
Jesus is telling Nathaniel that he is no ordinary man; that he is God, and because he is God, he knows everybody, he sees everyone everywhere everyday. And Nathaniel was quick to learn this truth about Jesus. This is why he immediately confessed, "Rabbi! You are the Son of God, the King of Israel!" Now he knows that God knows him.
Nathaniel didn't let Jesus say loud what he once did beneath that fig tree when Jesus saw him. All he knows now is that God knows him well. This is what God revealed to Jeremiah (1:5) "Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you. Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you: A prophet to the nations, that's what I had in mind for you."
This is what king David is saying in Psalm 139:1-18
1 GOD, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand.
2 I'm an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking.
3 You know when I leave and when I get back; I'm never out of your sight.
4 You know everything I'm going to say before I start the first sentence.
5 I look behind me and you're there, then up ahead and you're there, too, your reassuring presence, coming and going.
6 This is too much, too wonderful, I can't take it all in!
7 Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight?
8 If I climb to the sky, you're there! If I go underground, you're there!
9 If I flew on morning's wings to the far western horizon,
10 You'd find me in a minute, you're already there waiting!
11 Then I said to myself, "Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I'm immersed in the light!"
12 It's a fact: darkness isn't dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they're all the same to you.
13 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb.
14 I thank you, High God-- you're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration, what a creation!
15 You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
16 Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you. The days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day.
17 Your thoughts, how rare, how beautiful! God, I'll never comprehend them!
18 I couldn't even begin to count them, any more than I could count the sand of the sea. Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!
We too, someday, shall know God as he knows us, as Paul says (1Co 13:12-13):
We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us! But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly.
When Jesus saw him coming he said, "There's a real Israelite, not a false bone in his body." 48 Nathanael said, "Where did you get that idea? You don't know me." Jesus answered, "One day, long before Philip called you here, I saw you under the fig tree." 49 Nathanael exclaimed, "Rabbi! You are the Son of God, the King of Israel!" 50 Jesus said, "You've become a believer simply because I say I saw you one day sitting under the fig tree? You haven't seen anything yet! 51 Before this is over you're going to see heaven open and God's angels descending to the Son of Man and ascending again."
Food for thought!
Do you have someone in life who seem to understand you, someone who really knows you? Someone who can guess your thoughts and even sometimes your words? Someone that can read your mind? Well, this is what Jesus did to Nathaniel; he told and showed him that he knows him through and through. He told Nathaniel that long before Philip called you here, I saw you under the fig tree. Long before any human saw Nathaniel, Jesus had seen him.
Jesus is telling Nathaniel that he is no ordinary man; that he is God, and because he is God, he knows everybody, he sees everyone everywhere everyday. And Nathaniel was quick to learn this truth about Jesus. This is why he immediately confessed, "Rabbi! You are the Son of God, the King of Israel!" Now he knows that God knows him.
Nathaniel didn't let Jesus say loud what he once did beneath that fig tree when Jesus saw him. All he knows now is that God knows him well. This is what God revealed to Jeremiah (1:5) "Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you. Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you: A prophet to the nations, that's what I had in mind for you."
This is what king David is saying in Psalm 139:1-18
1 GOD, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand.
2 I'm an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking.
3 You know when I leave and when I get back; I'm never out of your sight.
4 You know everything I'm going to say before I start the first sentence.
5 I look behind me and you're there, then up ahead and you're there, too, your reassuring presence, coming and going.
6 This is too much, too wonderful, I can't take it all in!
7 Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight?
8 If I climb to the sky, you're there! If I go underground, you're there!
9 If I flew on morning's wings to the far western horizon,
10 You'd find me in a minute, you're already there waiting!
11 Then I said to myself, "Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I'm immersed in the light!"
12 It's a fact: darkness isn't dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they're all the same to you.
13 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb.
14 I thank you, High God-- you're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration, what a creation!
15 You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
16 Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you. The days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day.
17 Your thoughts, how rare, how beautiful! God, I'll never comprehend them!
18 I couldn't even begin to count them, any more than I could count the sand of the sea. Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!
We too, someday, shall know God as he knows us, as Paul says (1Co 13:12-13):
We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us! But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly.
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