Connections with John 5

2:1 We should remember that Deuteronomy is a recounting of what has happened - we are reminded of this by 'we turned' etc and so on throughout the whole of the book.

2:24 And so Israel are reminded that God had kept His word in the past - an incentive to believe Him now when the nation were on the borders of their inheritance.

Israel was not to disinherit the Edomites (Deut 2:2-8). But when Saul became king, who did he fight against?  Edom  (see 1Sam 14:47).  No wonder he was disinherited by God.

V.1 After their unsuccessful attack upon the Canaanites, The Children of Israel broke up their encampment at Kadesh, journeying southward over the west desert of Tih, as well as through the great valley of the Ghor and Arabah, they would have traveled as far as the gulf of Akaba.

2:19 The way in which Ammon was not to be meddled with indicates that Israel’s taking of the land was not simply a matter of might wins. The giving of the land of Canaan was according to how God wanted Israel to take the land. Only what He had promised was to be theirs.

2:11     The use of the present tense ‘call’ rather than ‘called’ highlights that the record in Deuteronomy s contemporary, rather than having been written after the events of the wilderness journey.

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V.18  "No vision" Instruction in God's truth, which was by the prophets, through visions. 1Sam 3:1 "People perish"  Made naked; are deprived of moral restraints. "Keepeth the law" has and observes instruction. Psa 19:11, Prov 14:11,34

In v20 we have a proverb with the same ending as 26:12. I wonder if the rest of the proverb in each instance is linked too? Is it possible that a man wise in his own eyes will naturally be hasty in his words too? It would make sense, and we see examples of it in Bildad, Zophar, and Eliphaz (Job 42:7). These men were old and grey haired. They thought they had reason to trust in their wisdom and to speak freely!

But it is clear that they shouldn't have. We can compare this with the wisdom of Elihu. He was very much younger and had waited patiently, listening to their false discourse (Job 32:4). Although Elihu seems to be extremely wise in his own sight (33:3), this was not in fact the case. He had waited meekly without saying anything, perhaps for days (32:11). He had given preference to the elders, believing his own words to be little use compared to theirs (32:6-7). In doing this, he had fulfilled the advice of the proverbs. His wisdom was that of James 3:13,17. The heavenly wisdom which is characterised by meekness. His confidence was in that wisdom, rather than in himself.

The point, I think, is this. There are two types of wisdom. The wisdom from above (heavenly, spiritual, meek), or that from below (earthly, sensual, hasty) James 3:15. It may not be immediatly evident which one is being claimed when a man seems wise in his own eyes. We ought not to group them together and say that all claim to wisdom is wrong. Elihu claimed wisdom, as did our Lord Jesus. They both received that wisdom from above, by meekly receiving the inplanted word (James 1:21). Their delivery of that wisdom; though they were definite and sure of themselves; was done in meekness and humility before the God who had provided it.

Matt 6:21 says: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.  It is impossible to have one's heart in a place that is not alive with expectation and excitement.  Moreover, one cannot be excited about something that one cannot visualize.  Hence, we see the importance of developing such a vision (v.18).  Our treasure is the Kingdom.  Thus, it is important to develop a strong picture of the Kingdom.  Sure the image might be incomplete, or differ in some aspects to those of our brethren's, but that does not matter.  A strong, personal, vision is what is required.  To begin, dig out the references to the Kingdom (Psa 72; Isa 11:6-9; Mic 4:3; Zech 8:3-5 etc.) and start the imagination rolling.

29:24  In speaking of one who is ‘partner’ wit the thief the wise man is making the point that involvement with evil actions makes one as evil as the perpetrator of that evil. It is a matter of fellowship, in Biblical parlance. It is not possible to be associated with evil practices and yet not be tainted by them.

29:2 We know this to be true of worldly governments. We should not be tempted to think of the less corrupt Western powers being better than the corrupt rulership of some other countries. In reality all human government falls short of the Divine ideal. Therefore the only time that the principles outlined in the ‘righteous’ will be seen is when the righteous judge – the lord Jesus – returns to take the kingdoms of this world to himself.

29:1 Solomon is here returning to what he said earlier – Prov 6:15– making the point that there eventually will come a time when the son who does not listen to his father’s rebuke will finally learn that the time for judgement will come. This is rather like Israel who, being repeatedly reproved by God, were left to their own devices – Psa 81:12

V.2 There is some of us live in countries where the rule of law operates. Unfortunately, there are others who live in countries where the rulers are cruel and ruinous. Nevertheless, wherever we live, and under whatever conditions we find ourselves, we are asked to pray for our rulers, in the hope that they will allow us to live in peace (1Tim 2:1,2).

29:3 We might not think that the only two options that are available to the son are ‘wisdom’ and ‘harlots’ but Solomon is returning to the theme that he has developed in Proverbs 7 where the son who did not listen to the words of God ended up snared by the harlot of false worship.

29:4-7 This series of couplets highlights the different effects of faithfulness and self seeking. Faithfulness benefits many. Selfishness benefits one person – and then only for a short time with disastrous consequences for others.

It would appear that Judas was Lazarus' brother and Mary and Martha were his sisters. Judas Iscariot was Simon's son [12:4, 13:2]. Lazarus was Mary and Martha's brother [11:21,32]. The meal took place in Simon's house [Matthew 26:2] As they prepared the meal in the house we can conclude that it was their home as well.

V.28 If Jesus were God (as some suppose), then it makes this verbal exchange difficult to understand.

Vs.44,49 Make it clear that Jesus was talking about a person other than Himself.  He was talking about His Father in heaven.  Therefore, Jesus and God are two different persons.  The notion of the Trinity is false, having been developed from pagan ideas.

12:8     ‘The poor always ye have with you’ is not a cynical comment abut the poor in contrast to the fact that Jesus was going to be crucified. It is a quotation from Deut 15:11 which teaches that as long as Israel do not keep the law there will be poor people

Jesus was the king of the Jews. The people were shouting it aloud in the streets! He came fulfilling the prophecies of the Christ; the "annointed", and they recognised it!

Yet they hadn't accepted him as their saviour and spiritual head. Their leaders wanted to kill him, and his message of the gospel had largely been ignored. They wanted a leader on their own terms, rather than God's terms. They wanted someone who could produce bread to satisfy a multitude, but didn't want to receive the bread of life (6:26-27).

But this had always been in God's plan. It was not enough for Jesus to be king of the Jews. He was to be King of the whole world! With the Jewish rejection of him would come the acceptance of the gentiles. This seems to be the main thrust of this chapter, starting at v20. Greeks had come to Jesus to see him. Instead of granting them audience, he says the following: "unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain... if anyone serves me, let him follow me; and where I am there my servant will be also" (24-26). What he meant by this was that in his present capacity of king of the Jews he had very limited reach (especially with the gentiles). Also in his present mortal state he could only travel as far as his legs, or the legs of his donkey, could carry him. He needed to die and be "glorified" in order to reach the rest of the people who needed salvation. Once he was in heaven with his Father, all people would be able to reach him, day or night, through prayer.

This would be accomplished by the rejection if the Jewish people, their judgment and dispersion, so that the "time of the gentiles" would begin. Again, following on in the chapter we have references to Isaiah which say the same: Isa 53 "Who has believed our report? (not the jews, see v37-38) He is despised and rejected of men. For the transgressions of my people was he stricken, and they made his grave with the wicked. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him." and then the next chapter, speaking of the gentiles: "Sing, O barren. You who have not borne! More are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman" and the chapter after that: "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; you who have no money, come buy and eat!.. you shall call a nation you do not know, and nations who do not know you shall run to you"

John then quotes Isaiah 6: "Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes... until the cities are laid waste, and the land is utterly desolate".

So we have in John 12, the rejection of Jesus, the king of the Jews, and by it their judgment which would usher in salvation for the Gentiles. Jesus spoke of himself when he said in v31 "Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out" but "if I am crucified, I will draw all peoples to myself".

12:11 We need to remember that when John uses the word ‘Jews’ in his gospel he is very specifically talking about the religious leaders.

12:36  The idea of ‘children of light’ is developed by Paul – Eph 5:8.

12:1 John says ‘six days before the passover’ but as we have seen before when looking at this chapter, the meal took place two days before he passover. Here we have another occasion – like the mention of the anointing of Jesus in 11:2 – where details are placed out of chronological order for the purpose of developing a theme.

12:12 ‘the next day’ follows on from verse 1 thus telling us that Jesus entered Jerusalem on the ass five days before the passover setting a start day for the way in which this week is laid out in the gospel narrative. Mark 11 in particular gives us the order of the days and provides a basis for developing a calendar of the events of the week leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus.