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John 7:31-53 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

But many of the crowd believed in Him; and they were saying, “When the Christ comes, He will not perform more signs than those which this man has, will He?”

³² The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about Him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to seize Him. ³³ Therefore Jesus said, “For a little while longer I am with you, then I go to Him who sent Me. ³⁴ You will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.” ³⁵ The Jews then said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find Him? He is not intending to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks, is He? ³⁶ What is this statement that He said, ‘You will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come’?”

³⁷ Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸ He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” ³⁹ But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

⁴⁰ Some of the people therefore, when they heard these words, were saying, “This certainly is the Prophet.” ⁴¹ Others were saying, “This is the Christ.” Still others were saying, “Surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He? ⁴² Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” ⁴³ So a division occurred in the crowd because of Him. ⁴⁴ Some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid hands on Him.

⁴⁵ The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, “Why did you not bring Him?” ⁴⁶ The officers answered, “Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks.” ⁴⁷ The Pharisees then answered them, “You have not also been led astray, have you? ⁴⁸ No one of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in Him, has he? ⁴⁹ But this crowd which does not know the Law is accursed.” ⁵⁰ Nicodemus (he who came to Him before, being one of them) said to them, ⁵¹ “Our Law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it?” ⁵² They answered him, “You are not also from Galilee, are you? Search, and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.” ⁵³ Everyone went to his home.

Today’s text says:  Some of the people therefore, when they heard these words, were saying, “This certainly is the Prophet.” Others were saying, “This is the Christ.” Still others were saying, “Surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He?  Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?”  So a division occurred in the crowd because of Him.  Some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid hands on Him.  The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, “Why did you not bring Him?”  The officers answered, “Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks.”  The Pharisees then answered them, “You have not also been led astray, have you?  No one of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in Him, has he?  But this crowd which does not know the Law is accursed.”  Nicodemus (he who came to Him before, being one of them) said to them,  “Our Law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it?”  They answered him, “You are not also from Galilee, are you? Search, and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.”   So both some of the people and the Pharisees, who were experts in the Law and the scriptures, sought disprove or disqualify Jesus as being the Messiah based on the fact that He came from Galilee. Jesus did in fact meet the requirement of being the descendent of David and He was born in Bethlehem.  It really doesn’t take a lot of searching though to find the reference to Galilee that the critics and doubters in today’s text missed. In Isaiah 9:1-7 it says:  But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them. You shall multiply the nation, You shall increase their gladness; They will be glad in Your presence As with the gladness of harvest, As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.  For You shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders, The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian. For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult, And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace,
On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.  So the prophet correctly prophesied that the Messiah would both rise from Galilee and be a descendent of David.

All together Jesus, through His birth, life, death and resurrection, fulfills over three hundred Messianic prophecies in scripture.  That they tried to disqualify Jesus based on His coming from Galilee rather than Bethlehem shows the danger of knowing or quoting only part of scripture. Not recognizing that Jesus did indeed come from Bethlehem, shows the danger of making judgments without knowing all of the facts. Which one of us can say they truly know all the facts about another person? Still we see and hear both of these things done frequently today. They are done both by some in the church and by many outside of the church. Within the church, people often create doctrines around a select group of preferred scriptures and disregard or discount those that don’t fit their preferences. Even more, many people in the world take verses out of context in order to bend scripture to fit their own ideology. 2 Timothy 3:16 says:  All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.  Keep in mind that when Paul wrote that, the gospels and the epistles were not included in scripture.   In Matthew 5:17-20 Jesus says:  “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”   He too says that all of scripture endures and should be considered in fullness.  Additionally in Matthew 7:1-5 Jesus says:  “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”   In John 8:7 He says:  “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone.”    None of us should make judgments about others without seeing clearly.

The text says:  “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”  But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.   Now though Jesus has been glorified. The Spirit has been given.  “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” 

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit thank You for Your word; for all scripture. Thank You that You don’t judge us as we deserve to be judged, but rather in the knowledge of Christ. May Your living water flow like a river from me.  Amen.