On the next day, He desired to go into Galilee, and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, “Follow Me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” And Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said about him, “Behold, truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to Him, “From where do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And He *said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
John 1:43-51
Introduction
It is easy to think of God as a far off and aloof figure. After all, He has the governance of all creation to deal with. The machinations of eternity are His to command, and we have the audacity to approach Him with our little problems.
But that is not the God of scripture. That sort of thinking actually does not imagine a God who is big enough. If God is so busy that He does not have time for His creatures, then He is not boundless and limitless. If His attention even has the capability of being divided, then it must be finite. The mathematical fact, though, is that an infinitely great value divided by any number remains infinitely great. There is no limit to how much time and attention God is able to apply.
And so what might seem contradictory at first becomes a logical necessity: for God to truly be infinite, He must also be personal.
The God who knows you
Nathanael (called Bartholomew in the other gospels) understood this, knowing that the only One who can possibly know each individual is their creator. And the more we know our creator, the more we can be like Him. So Nathanael is described by the Lord as, “an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” The clarity with which Nathanael saw Christ translated into his own life: one without deceit.
Knowing the character of God also prepared Nathanael to recognize Him when he saw the Lord. Declaring, “You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel” upon meeting Jesus was not a mere guess or a gut feeling. Nathanael weighed the evidence and concluded that only the most great and personal God could know him as Jesus knew him. Only God saw him under the fig tree before Philip called him.
We are commanded in 1 John 4:1-3 to test the spirits we encounter. And 2 Corinthians 11:14 tells us that even Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. John gives us some excellent criteria in his epistle, telling us that we know every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ’s coming in the flesh is from God. This is very good for us to know. But as we live our lives and encounter teachers, friends, spirits, etc., we can rely on the revelation God has given us already to test them as well. And the more we know the character of God, the more we can recognize His work in the lives of others.
Jesus as Jacob’s Ladder
In Genesis 28, the patriarch Jacob (also called Israel) laid down his head and slept. During that sleep, God gave him a vision in the place where he rested with a ladder (or staircase) on which the angels of God ascended and descended. Then God reestablishes His covenant with Abraham with Jacob. He promises the land on which he slept, numerous descendants, and a blessing on all the families of the earth through his seed (Genesis 28:14). When Jacob awoke, he blessed God and called the place Bethel, meaning “House of God.”
In Nathanael’s encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ, He quotes this very passage to Nathanael in reference to Himself. In sharp contrast against the demands of the Pharisees to see a sign from Him (Matthew 16:4), Nathanael was satisfied with the fact that the Son of God knew him. And being satisfied in Christ, God promised him even more.
Comparing Himself to the House of God, Jesus peeled back the curtain on the purpose of His ministry: to reconcile God and man. As the sole mediator between heaven and earth (1 Timothy 2:5), Jesus is the fulfillment of Jacob’s vision and of the covenant which God made with him. He is the seed that would bless all the families of the earth (Galatians 3:16), and so confirmed Nathanael’s declaration that He is the Son of God and the King of Israel.
We, too, ought to study the word of God carefully to learn more about His character and deeds. We, too, ought to recognize the hand of God in our lives and bless Him with praise. And we, too, ought to look to Jesus as the only way to God.
May the Lord bless you and conform you into the image of His Son.
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