Joh 7:2-10 | KingComments | STEP | In John 5 we see the Lord Jesus as the Son of God Who gives life with unlimited authority to whom He wants. Because He is the Son of Man, He judges all. The emphasis is on what He is, not on the position He holds. In John 6 we talk about the same Son, but there He is presented as the One Who came down out of heaven. In His humiliation He is the object of faith and then the Son of Man Who dies and then ascends to where He was before. In John 7, Christ is presented as not yet revealed to the world. Once He takes His glorious position in heaven, the Holy Spirit will come down to earth in His place to dwell in the believer. After the healing of the lame in Judea in John 5, the Lord went to Galilee and there performed the wonder of the feeding (John 6). He walks there in love seeking people to prove that love to them. He doesn’t want to walk around in Judea because that is not the will of His Father. He never let Himself be led by how people treated Him. His will and that of the Father are equal. Therefore, we read that He did not want to walk in Judea. Yet the reason given is not the will of the Father, but that the Jews wanted to kill Him. We see here that the evil attitude of the Jews is incorporated in the will of the Father. The will of the Father does not undo man’s wickedness, but the will of the Father is above it and He uses that wickedness to carry out His plans. Jews are the Judeans and especially the spiritual leaders. Wherever man’s wickedness prevents the Son from proving His mercy, grace finds new areas for it. He will be in that area for a certain time, because He will only go to Judea again when the time determined by the Father has come. The time of the events of John 7 is the time of the Feast of Booths. John 6 has the Passover as its starting point ( ) and His death as subject. Here the Feast of Booths is central, a picture of the feast of joy in response to all God’s blessings in the fruits of the land in the realm of peace. This is connected to the coming of the Holy Spirit ( ). Because of the sins of the people, the time of the fulfillment of this feast for the people has not yet come. Therefore, just like the Passover, the feast is called a “feast of the Jews”.

‏ John 7:2-10

The Upcoming Feast of Booths

In John 5 we see the Lord Jesus as the Son of God Who gives life with unlimited authority to whom He wants. Because He is the Son of Man, He judges all. The emphasis is on what He is, not on the position He holds. In John 6 we talk about the same Son, but there He is presented as the One Who came down out of heaven. In His humiliation He is the object of faith and then the Son of Man Who dies and then ascends to where He was before. In John 7, Christ is presented as not yet revealed to the world. Once He takes His glorious position in heaven, the Holy Spirit will come down to earth in His place to dwell in the believer.

After the healing of the lame in Judea in John 5, the Lord went to Galilee and there performed the wonder of the feeding (John 6). He walks there in love seeking people to prove that love to them. He doesn’t want to walk around in Judea because that is not the will of His Father. He never let Himself be led by how people treated Him. His will and that of the Father are equal. Therefore, we read that He did not want to walk in Judea. Yet the reason given is not the will of the Father, but that the Jews wanted to kill Him.

We see here that the evil attitude of the Jews is incorporated in the will of the Father. The will of the Father does not undo man’s wickedness, but the will of the Father is above it and He uses that wickedness to carry out His plans. Jews are the Judeans and especially the spiritual leaders. Wherever man’s wickedness prevents the Son from proving His mercy, grace finds new areas for it. He will be in that area for a certain time, because He will only go to Judea again when the time determined by the Father has come.

The time of the events of John 7 is the time of the Feast of Booths. John 6 has the Passover as its starting point (Jn 6:4) and His death as subject. Here the Feast of Booths is central, a picture of the feast of joy in response to all God’s blessings in the fruits of the land in the realm of peace. This is connected to the coming of the Holy Spirit (Jn 7:37-39).

Because of the sins of the people, the time of the fulfillment of this feast for the people has not yet come. Therefore, just like the Passover, the feast is called a “feast of the Jews”.

The Unbelief of the Brothers of the Lord

The brothers of the Lord want Him to return to Judea. They know that He has disciples there who can then see His works. That will increase His popularity which will reflect on them. They reason only from their own perspective, without any understanding of Who He really is, Who has deigned to be born into their family. They seek honor from the world, because they want to make a name for themselves by what He does.

What they propose shows what they themselves would have done if they were in His place. Their proposal comes from seeking their own honor, as is common in the world. They have no idea of what really drives the Lord. They find it strange that He remains hidden, while He, so they believe, wants to be known publicly.

The reason for their attitude and proposal is that they do not believe in Him. To them He is no more than a Brother with special gifts. They do want piggybacking on the prestige He receives through His signs, but keep far away from Him as soon as His rejection comes in sight.

Later His brothers will believe in Him. After all, they will be there when the disciples are together in the upper room after His ascension devoting themselves to prayer and to choose an apostle in the place of Judas (Acts 1:14).

The Lord does not let Himself be led by the vision of His brothers. As always, He remains in perfect dependence on His Father. He lets Himself be led by Him and not by people, not by His enemies and not by His family. It is not yet the time to make Himself known publicly to the world. He must first suffer. He does have a message for His brothers. He holds out to them that they live in and for the world and therefore their time to show themselves to it is now.

Perhaps the Lord also alludes to the momentary nature of their life and that they should prepare to meet God (Amos 4:12). People of the world do not bother about God’s time, but rather take time into their own hands. Because they live in and for the world, the world regards them as part of itself and therefore cannot hate them. They love the world and the world loves them because they contribute to preserving and cultivating the world.

This is different with the Lord Jesus. The world does hate Him because He reveals the world in its true character. He comes from another world, that of the Father and life. He came into this world to give it the life that belongs to the world from which He came and to which He still belongs. Because this life is the light of men (Jn 1:4), He exposes the evil of the world in the light. The Lord and His brothers belong to different worlds.

He tells them to go to the feast because for that is where they belong. It is a feast of the Jews, the most deadly opponents of the Lord. It is a feast of the world in which the greatness of man is celebrated. That is what the brothers are looking for and that is why they belong at the feast.

Once again the Lord says that His time is not yet fulfilled, because His path is determined by the Father. He cannot go with them to a feast that has no place for Him unless it is the place that man thinks He should take. So He stays in Galilee.

The Lord Goes up to the Feast

When the time of the Father, or ‘My time’ (Jn 7:8), has come, the Lord goes up to the feast, clearly separated from His brothers and with entirely different motives. He goes in accordance with what He has said to His brothers that the time of making Himself known publicly has not yet come (Jn 7:6). That is why He goes, but as if, in secret. He does not go to satisfy human curiosity or desires. The way He goes to the feast is a type of the place He occupies now and also of the place we occupy. He is now hidden in God and our lives are with Him hidden in God (Col 3:3).

The Jews assume that He must also be somewhere at the feast. These declared opponents of the Lord, who are always out to get rid of Him, do not seek Him to honor Him, but to see if there is an opportunity to seize Him. Their question “where is He?” shows how occupied their minds are with Him. He is the great danger of undermining their position.

Not only the Jews are busy with Him in their deliberations. The crowds also talk about Him. It does happen in the form of grumbling and not out loud. Nor does it happen out of a deep inner need for a personal encounter with Him. They talk about Him as a phenomenon you can discuss, but that does not affect their conscience. While the leaders want to kill Him, the crowds are indifferent.

The grumbling about the Lord and not speaking openly about Him is because the crowds are afraid of the Jews, the spiritual leaders. If you said anything about Christ that the Jews did not like, you fell into disgrace with them. Their spies were everywhere. You could easily be betrayed. Here we see how great an influence the Jews have among the people.