The Jewish men to whom Jesus talked spoke much of Abraham, a man who had lived over a thousand years before in that country, and was the first of the Hebrew nation, so called “the father” of that nation.
The Jews were descendants of his grandson Jacob (called Israel) and boasted they were from Abraham. But they forgot God had made Abraham the first of the great nation because he believed God’s words to him.
He had first lived in a land of great buildings, but where idols were worshiped instead of God. When God told him to leave that land and go to a land He would show him, Abraham obeyed, and was led to Canaan (later called Palestine). He lived there with his family, though they had no home but tents. He believed God when it would seem hard to believe. He also believed God’s promise of a great nation when he did not have even one child; and he believed God would raise his son from death.
False Children of Abraham
He believed God for what he could not see or understand, and that is called “faith.” He also obeyed God. But the Jewish men who called themselves “children of Abraham” had not believed God’s promise of the One He would send to bless all nations. They would not believe the words of Jesus or His great miracles which should have proved to them that He was the Son of God. They hated Him for His true words. Then Jesus said to them what is true of us all: “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.”
If we do what is wrong we are like a servant to the desire that produced the wrong act. Unless we stop and turn from the wrong thing, we will keep sinning more and more, and be as a slave to do the wrong.
Those men would not believe the Lord Jesus, but kept on speaking of Abraham. Then Jesus told them, “Abraham rejoiced to see My day: and he saw it and was glad.”
The men could not understand those words. They knew Jesus was not even fifty years of age, and Abraham, who lived so very long before, could not have seen Him. But Abraham had believed God’s promise to send One to bless. He rejoiced to think of such a One, so by faith Abraham looked ahead to the “day,’’ or time of a Saviour to come to reign as King, and was happy for that promise.
Deity of Christ
The Lord Jesus then told those men a more wonderful fact, and just as wonderful to us, He said, “Before Abraham was, I Am.”
That meant the Lord Jesus Christ lived before Abraham lived, and even more than that, those words meant He had always lived.
The Son of God left His glory to be the Saviour for every nation. We can only wonder at this truth and speak His name with reverence.
Further Meditation:
1. Why weren’t those Jewish men spiritual “children of Abraham”?
2. What other proof does the Bible give that Jesus is God?
3. You can dig a lot deeper into the important subject of the divinity of Jesus Christ in the short pamphlet Scripture Testimony to the Deity of Christ by S. Green.