Hidden From the World, But Seen From The Heavens

I am a big believer that sometimes the most important things in the Bible, is what it does not say. What I mean is that I think it is essential to look between the lines. Just don’t open the Bible and decide that you are going to read Hebrews in it’s entirely. When you study with this kind of mindset, you usually miss some of the most essential points of the gospel. The bible is full of tiny passages that pack a huge punch for your faith.

I recently came across a passage that I have seen many times. Though I have seen the passage quite a few times, I have never really sat there and thought what was really being said. If I have learned nothing else from studying the Bible, it is the fact that anything said in the Bible has some kind of meaning. Nowhere in the Bible is there any meaningless dialogue. The sooner you realize this, the sooner you will to be able to crack the hidden messages that God has given to us. So I was studying John, and I came across the passage where Nathanael meets Jesus for the first time. The passage reads like this:

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!” Nathanael said to Him, “How 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 and said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

So here is the first encounter between Jesus and one of his twelve disciples Nathanael; these two have never physically encountered before. Yet upon Jesus seeing Nathanael he declares here is a man in whom there is no deceit; he is a god fearing man. How could Jesus know this about him? Nathanael himself is confused after hearing this. So he asks Jesus what he means, and Jesus tells him that he has seen him before. But how is that possible? I have read this passage many times, and never really gave it a second thought. Maybe Jesus saw him previously sitting under the fig tree. This is the argument that I have always held. But reading the scripture carefully, and reading between the lines, it shows that is not the case.

Jesus found Phillip first once he entered Galilee. After that, Phillip went back and found Nathanael. Phillip left Jesus and went to find Nathanael. Yet Jesus knew exactly what Nathanael was doing before Phillip got there. How is that possible?

The important aspect here is the fact that Jesus said he saw him under a fig tree. That plays a significant importance to the meaning. Galilee was a hot dry place to live. The houses were also probably unbearably hot in the sun. To make the harsh conditions a little more livable, the people would often plant trees around there house to give them shade, for a quiet environment for say maybe studying the Old Testament. We know that Nathanael was a believer and studied the teaching of the Old Testament by the way Phillip came and gave the news of Jesus to Nathanael.

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.”

Phillip compares the man he just met to the teaching that Moses and the Prophets have talked about. So from that we can probably gather that Nathanael probably choose to escape the world and enter the word of God in a shaded serene place. A place most people of his time chose to do.

So here we have an encounter of the strangest sorts. We have an ordinary man on just a regular day minding his own business, and out of the blue he gets word that the Messiah is here! What do you say to something like that? Nathanael was more than skeptical about Phillip’s news. When Phillip told him he was here, the only thing Nathanael had to say was “can anything good come from Nazareth?” So what does Jesus do? He tells Nathanael that he saw him in his most sacred place. The place he goes to escape the world, and all its turmoil. Immediately after hearing that Nathanael exclaims “You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” God told Nathanael just what he needed to hear. He went from being down right skeptical of what Phillip told him, to declaring to the whole world that this man is exactly who he has been reading about, and waiting for all his life. And all Jesus had to tell him was that he’s seen him before.

What an amazing story of whom Jesus is. The Bible gave the cliff notes of the story. Examining the details gives us the full beautiful story. Never settle with just reading God’s word. Tear the story apart, put it back together, and walk away with a message that surpasses anything spoke by man before.