THE KING’S BUSINESS
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was also a neighboring city to his own, and consequently he would not be likely to rejgard it with favor. However, the inhabitants of Nazareth were bad enough, they were willing to murder the Lord when He offended them (Luke 4:29, 30), but they were not essentially different in this form from other people. Our Lord’s home was in a despised town, in a despised province, of a despised people. Philip’s reply to Nathaniel ^contains the essence of the true solution for religious doubts,” “Come and see." Any one who will put Christ and Christianity to the practical test of personal Experiment will soon lose his unbelief. Better far than to argue with people about the Lord Jesus is to get them acquainted with Him for themselves. Nathaniel’s skepticism did not come from the badness of his heart, but from his ignorance of the facts. However, he was a doubter, and so we see a good man can be for a time a skeptic. Not a little of the skepticism of our own day comes from ignorance of the facts rather than from badness of the Sheart. But Nathaniel, in his sincerity, humility, and honest desire to know the truth, was quite unlike -the ordinary skeptic. vs. 47-49. "Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him, and saith of Him, Behold an Israel ite indeed, in whom is no guile! Nathaniel saith unto Him, Whence knowest Thou me? Jesus answered, and said unto him, Before that (omit, that) Philip called thee, when thoWwast under the fig tree I saw th e eN a th a n ie l answered and saith unto Him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; Thou art the (omit, the) King of Israel.” These are remarkable words of commenda tion which Jesus speaks of Nathaniel. He tells the bystanders as He sees Nathaniel coming, and as He reads his heart, “Here is one who answers to the true, character of an Israelite.” In other words, He says, “He is a true child of the one who had power with God” (cf. Gen. 32:28), and He adds that there was no deceit in him, he was absolutely frank, simple, and sincere. There is no reason to suppose that Jesus had any previous acquaintance' with
Nathaniel, but He read men’s hearts and knew their inmost thoughts. Jesus did not pronounce Nathaniel sinless, but free from deception. This was alb the mere remarkable when we consider the time at which Nathaniel lived and the people among whom he lived. Nathaniel was humbly conscious that Jesus had read his heart aright and that" the description was true. Like Israel of old, he had recently been wrestling with God in deep sincerity of purpose, but how did Jesus know it? Tq Nathaniel’s question, “Whence knowest thou me?” he gets a still more startling answer: “When thou wast under the fig tree I saw thee.” There can be no reason able doubt that Nathaniel was engaged in prayer or deep meditation under the fig tree. Jesus had seen him there, not with the natural eye ,1 but by the exercise of that omniscience regarding men and things that He often displayed (cf. John 2:24, 25; Luke 19:5; 22:10, 12; John 21:6). It was Nathaniel’s recognition of this fact that led him to acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God and King of Israel. The fig tree was a favorite place of resort Tor medita tion (1 Kings 4:25; Micah 4:4; Zech. 3:10). Jesus’ reply to Nathaniel answered both the question which Nathaniel had asked-of Philip (v. 46), and the question which he had asked of our Lord (v. 48). Sincere soul that he was. Nathaniel saw at once the full force and meaning of our Lord’s reply and exclaimed, “Thou art the Son of God; Thou art Ring of Israel.” He had abundant reason for his faith, and yet if he had been less sincere and a less earn est seeker after the truth he would not so readily have seen the truth and accepted it. His faith was not credulity, but rational faith. Faith is belief upon sufficient evi dence ; credulity is belief without evidence; and unbelief is the refusal to yield faith to sufficient evidence. Credulity and unbelief are both just the opposite of faith; they are simply positive and negative sides of the same thing. When a man refuses to believe until there is sufficient evidence, he exhibits his love of truth. When a man hesitates to believe when sufficient evidence
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