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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
August 1924
^ooooososooosoooooooooooooooooooeeoeeeeoeoeoooeooeoooGGOooooeeeeoosGosiseoeoeooeeesoQ International Series of Sunday School Lessons
Frederic W. Farr Fred S. Shepard John A. Hubbard V. V. Morgan Mabel L. Merrill
EXPOSITION OF THE LESSON, BLACKBOARD OUTLINES, - DEVOTIONAL COMMENT, - COMMENTS FROM THE COMMENTARIES, ELEMENTARY,...................................................
THE FIRST MIRACLE OF JESUS Golden Text: “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.” John 2: 5. Lesson Text: John 2:1-11. Devotional Reading: Psalm 108:1-6.
This miracle shows that Jesus supplies the wants of men bountifully and constantly. He gives not only necessaries but luxuries. He makes our cup to overflow. He acts in accordance with that generous and lofty standard expressed in such statements as “With Him is plenteous redemption” and “Whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely.” Luxuries, however, are the least of our wants. We can get on very well without them. No one in Cana would have suffered if Jesus had not made any wine. If He takes notice of our lesser wants and ministers to them, will He not supply the greater needs? It is logical to reason from the lesser to the greater and from the greater to the lesser also. Both of these arguments are in the Bible. Paul argues that since God has given us His Son, He will not withhold other needed and lesser gifts. Jesus argues that if earthly fathers act in a certain way to express their nature, the Heavenly Father will go far beyond them in acting out His Divine and infinite nature. If God feeds the ravens He will not allow His own children to suffer hunger. If He numbers the hairs of our heads will He overlook our mental and spiritual well-being? After describing the ; miracle John declares that in this way Christ manifested forth His glory and His disciples believed on Him. Glory is always manifested excellence and it inevitably increases faith. Christ does not ask any one to believe without evidence. Accepting something as true without evidence is credulity, not faith. Christ is con tinually revealing His glory. It shines out on every page of the inspired Word. It is revealed in daily answers to prayer. It is reflected in sinful lives transformed into sainthood by the Holy Spirit. Happy indeed were those guests at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, but blessed are they who are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. COMMENTS FROM THE COMMENTARIES V. V. Morgan about six miles north of Nazareth.— Pract. Com. The third day clearly indicates the time of Israel’s blessing and restoration. Beautiful is the pre dicted and still future confession of Israel. “ After two days will He revive us: in the third He will raise us up and we shall live in His sight.” (Hos. 6 :1 -3 ). The marriage typifies the restored relationship of the Lord with Israel. That is why the mother of Jesus (type; of Israel) and His disciples (those who come with Him to the marriage) are mentioned. And this miracle is spoken of as the “beginning of mir acles,” when He manifested His glory. When He comes again and changes existing conditions, when Israel enters into the promised and blessed relationship, when He mani- V. it The third day after the last day mentioned which was marked by the calling of Philip and Nathanael. It is supposed the second day was spent in traveling. There was a Cana in Judea. This Cana is supposed to have been
n e e :: d 1 i : “My God shall supply all your needs” ' E I T ; L E E D
The first miracle that Jesus wrought in Cana of Galilee revealed His Deity and confirmed the faith of His newly- made disciples. It had an evidential value. According to the writer, it manifested His glory. He had always been the Son of God but for thirty years His LESSON Deity had been enfolded in His humanity. EXPOSITION It flashed forth in this miracle that men F. W . Farr might know that it was there. - If Jesus was Divine in Cana of Galilee, He was Divine in Bethlehem, and Nazareth, in Capernaum and Jerusalem. Deity is not something that can be put off at one time and put on at another time. He is Divine always and everywhere. The Deity of Christ may be compared to electricity, and His miracles to flashes of lightning. The electric fluid is everywhere. It slumbers in the dewdrop and is hidden in the clouds but it becomes visible for a moment in a flash of lightning. The miracle in Cana of Galilee was a symbol and a sign. The first miracle of Moses was turning water into blood. This was symbolic of the Old Covenant and of the law that worketh wrath. The first miracle of Jesus was turning water into wine. He came to turn the poor thin water of earth into the rich sweet wine of Heaven. He came to dignify and ennoble humanity. He transmits the secular into the sacred. He sanctifies all life. The miracle at Cana was the first of a series. It was followed by the mastery of winds and waves, by healing the sick, cleansing the lepers and raising the dead. There was a glorious climax and advance in miracle working through out the earthly ministry of our Lord. Usually water becomes wine by a slow and long continued process of nature. It requires the soil, sunshine and rain of an entire season. Jesus dispensed with the vineyard and performed the process in a moment of time. By this act of creative power, He showed Himself to be the Creator “All things we-e made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.” He who reared the cedars on Lebanon, who built the mighty pines of Oregon and the giant sequoias of California is the same Person that we see at Cana of Galilee doing in the twinkling of an eye that which in nature He does through many seasons.
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