"NATHANAEL"

Philip brings Nathanael

Joh 1:47-51 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

When Nathanael came to Jesus before he came Jesus had already peered into his heart i.e. his mind and perceived that the man Nathanael was an upright honest man who practiced no deceit of any kind. Jesus acknowledged his sincerity with the statement "in whom is no guile". Only when we are honest with the Lord in our conduct does Jesus acknowledge that honesty within us. We cannot defraud our fellow man in any form and still belong to Jesus. If you sell to your neighbor any item for more than what you paid for the item, then you're defrauding your neighbor. If you speak to your neighbor anything that is the "slightest deception" deliberately then you're filled with guile and you don't belong to Jesus.

When Jesus told Nathanael "Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee." He was not just telling Nathanael that He saw him under the fig tree only, but Jesus saw Nathanael when he was in the womb of his mother before he was even born and named Nathanael. However, Jesus kept it on the immediate personal level in His statement to Nathanael to let him know that He sees all things as they happen in "real-time." This is what spawned the reply from Nathanael of "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.

NOTICE: Jesus DID NOT say that He was the "King of Israel" but in His reply to Nathanael Jesus identified Himself as the Son of God by using the words "believest thou" to Nathanael. Anyone who reads these verses and believes that Jesus was the "King of Isreal" alone, doesn't have any spiritual insight. Jesus is the King of Heaven and Earth.

Nathanael spoke to Jesus this way because he knew the scripture that states: Isa 43:15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King. The word LORD here is all capital letters is the entire GODHEAD "ELOHIM" in the Hebrew. But. This verse doesn't imply that the LORD, the Holy One, the King is specific to Israel alone, even thou it states the phrase "creator of Israel." When Zechariah said: Zec 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; [Jerusalem] shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. It doesn't mean that Jesus was the sole "King of Israel", but it means He is the (overall) King of the Universe, King of the entire Creation of GOD! The phrase as used in Isaiah 43:15 of "the creator of Israel" simply means that when Jacob the night of his wrestling with Jesus and prevailed when Jesus "renamed" him from Jacob to Israel (it was at that point in time) that Jesus created Israel which did NOT materialize until during the Egyptian bondage of 430 years when they came out of Egypt en masse as a "Hebrew nation" called Israel.

The descendants of Jacob had been taught that because of Jacob's history in his "wrestling with God" that when the prophesied "King" in Zechariah 9:9 appeared that He would be the "King of Israel", but that is NOT what the verse implies. When Zechariah used the term "thy King cometh unto thee" he was simply telling them that (that King) that would come is the "King of the Universe" God Himself in the Son was coming to Israel, not that Israel would have the monopoly of the "KING!" Nathanael 's reply to Jesus of "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel." Verifies that he understood the prophecy of Zechariah's statement "thy King cometh unto thee" and therefore, Nathanael began his reply to Jesus with the opening statement of "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God!"

Then Jesus spoke this to Nathanael in reference to what Nathanael would witness during His ministry on Earth. Nathanael would witness the miracles of Jesus as He performed them which would be a greater witness for Nathanael than just the truth of "Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee." Nathanael would be privy to many other actions of Jesus above this truth that moved Nathanael to say "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God", Nathanael would see "thou shalt see greater things than these" that convinced him of Jesus' statement. WHAT did Jesus mean when He told Nathanael this? "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." Was Jesus referring to this scripture of "Jacobs Dream" when He spoke to Nathanael? Gen 28:12 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

The answer is YES and NO! When Jesus spoke this to Nathanael if He had meant it literally to Nathanael then it would have been recorded somewhere in scripture that Nathanael had the same dream Jacob had, but it is not found in scripture that Nathanael had such a dream. So what did Jesus mean when He spoke this statement to Nathanael? Many times in scripture the answer is both (yes and no) to statements made by the Lord, both in the Old and the New Testaments. EXAMPLE: Gen 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever. Is there a (yes and no) statement here? ABSOLUTELY! Man had become after the fall "as one of us", but would man eat from the Tree of Life? NO! So, there is a (yes and no) in this discourse and we find it many times in scripture.

Because Jesus knew this specific Israelite known as Nathanael, He also knew that Nathanael would when he died, "die in the faith" as he was a man of "no guile." Therefore, when Jesus told Nathanael that he "Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man" Jesus was speaking of the "harvest of the earth" at the "last day" when Nathanael would be a part of that harvest himself and would witness those "greater things" not just of the miracles that He would perform during His redemptive work on earth, but that Nathanael would witness for himself as Jesus harvested the earth at the first resurrection when the angels of God would be both ascending and descending at the command of the Son of Man. Mat 24:31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

The statement made to Nathanael by Jesus of "ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man" first brought to Nathanael's mind the truth of Jacobs dream, and since Nathanael has already recognized Jesus as the "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God" statement that he made to Jesus, Jesus was assuring Nathanael of his own personal salvation in that same Son of God. What a joy this must have been for Nathanael! When the heavens opens at the coming of the Son of Man back to Earth and the harvest of the saints take place Nathanael will witness the truth of this statement. Rev 6:14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Here John's account speaks of the Second Coming of Jesus when Nathanael will see those "angels ascending and descending" at the command of the Son of Man. Here the heavens "depart" as the rolled scroll opens to the one who is about to read it must unroll the scroll. Whereas, Isaiah is speaking of what takes place after the heavens depart and the gathering of the saints of God is completed. Isa 34:4 And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree. The heavens depart and are again "rolled together.

After Nathanael and all the saints are gathered unto Jesus in the clouds. 1Th 4:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Then Isaiah says that the heavens will be again "rolled together" again as the same scroll. After which God gave Jeremiah the prophet a vision of what this Earth will be like after the heavens "are rolled" together again. Jeremiah states Jer 4:23-27 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger. For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end. There's no such thing as God establishing any kingdom of God on Earth at any time until after the 1000 years are completed. This kind of teaching is the "heresy" of Hal Lindsey and the Tim LaHaye apostates. There will be "no man" left alive on the earth after Jesus comes again.

The "full end" won't come until after the destruction of the wicked at the end of the 1000 years of desolation, it's a rest for the Earth that takes place. After the 1000 years, the wicked are raised and they attempt to overtake the city of God the Holy City the New Jerusalem and this is what they get for their attempts.  Rev 20:9 And they [the resurrected wicked along with Satan and the fallen angels] went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints [The New Jerusalem] about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. This is the "FULL END" and Nathanael and all the saints of God will witness this event from inside the Holy City.

In Luke 6:14-16 Nathanael is NOT listed as one of the chosen "twelve" disciples of the Son of God, even though he was an Israelite in whom Jesus said "had no guile" but Jesus didn't choose him as one of the (twelve chosen) disciples but Nathanael was a disciple of Jesus and witnessed the third day after his recognition of Jesus as the Son of God His first miracle performed in Cana. Joh 2:1,2 And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage. Nathanael was one of the "seven disciples" gathered when Jesus after His resurrection appeared before them as they were fishing together. Joh 21:1,2 After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise shewed he himself. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, (James and John) and two other of his disciples.

Luk 6:14-16

1. Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and

2. Andrew his brother,

3. James and

4. John,

5. Philip and

6. Bartholomew,

7. Matthew and

8. Thomas,

9. James the son of Alphaeus, and

10. Simon called Zelotes,

11. Judas the brother of James, and

12. Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor.

Could it be possible that the statement made to Philip by Nathanael when he said: Joh 1:45,46 Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. As a reason, the Israelite in whom there was "no guile" was not chosen as one of the twelve? Absolutely NOT! God is no "respecter" of persons. We don't know why Jesus did not choose Nathanael as one of the twelve, the "most important thing" is that Nathanael acknowledged Jesus and as such will be with Him in the Kingdom of God when it's established upon this Earth when the "Full End" is completed.

Many things in scripture are worthy of "deep study" by all of us. One of which is the event of the choice of Matthias as a replacement for Judas. I personally believe that the eleven chose the (twelfth replacement) presumptuously even though they did so with good intentions. Since all of the original twelve were chosen to become "apostles" and Judas' greed caused him to be "cast out" from among them. I myself and this is just my personal belief believe that God desired the Pharisee Saul later named Paul to be the replacement for Judas Iscariot. Why? Because it is believed that Paul wrote about 2/3rds of the New Testament and took the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles as that was God's will for him. I believe because of this that when we enter the Holy City we will find there Paul's name listed on one of the twelve foundations of the apostles.

As I said already, this is just my own personal belief and I cannot prove it with scripture.

The WATCHMAN !!!