(Suggested Reading: Ex. 14; John 11)
The Red Sea the Salvation of the Body
“THIS MAN does many signs" the chief priests and Pharisees cried at their Council after Jesus had raised Lazarus from among the dead "what do we?" The answer is that they could do nothing. Only the lowly Jesus had power to do anything for God. The history of the family of man up to this chapter had abundantly demonstrated this.
The Family of Man—Its Ruin Through Subjection to Satan
The family of man consisting of man John 5 and 9 woman John 4;8 and child John 4:46 54, was in ruin a ruin about to terminate in death. (1) John signals the end of this subject by a man with a name, Lazarus, as he signaled the beginning of it by another man with a name, Nicodemus. The gap in between was filled with the nameless lost sheep known only by their sins and infirmities "the woman", "the impotent man", "the blind man", the" woman taken in adultery", the "certain nobleman's son."(2)
The Lord performed many signs on His people to heal them and let them understand that God was present. Blessed as all these signs were they did not relieve man from the oppression of death his great enemy. Regardless of our individual history, death is the end of it. Yet the Lord did nothing to stop Lazarus' death even though Martha and Mary lamented that if He had been present their brother would not have died. No wonder the Jews said "could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?" But they were wrong. God could not set aside Satan's power of death over man which He Himself gave to him because of our first parents' sin. He could break it by the work of redemption alone. But until the Lord came that power held full sway and so the Lord remained two days where He was.
Now the Scriptures had said "the Lord...brings down to the grave, and brings up" 1 Sam. 2:66The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. (1 Samuel 2:6). Apart from the resurrection of the dead in Christ, God's salvation would not be complete. Eternal life for the soul John 4 must be accompanied by incorruptibility for the body John 11 in figure. That is why the Passover is followed by the Red Sea the figure of death and judgment.
The Breaking of Satan's Power Over Man
The grave of Lazarus corresponds to the Red Sea, the great lesson of which was "God for us" when we are faced with Satan's power death. Pharaoh is a type of Satan his armies of the flesh. The position of God's people seemed hopeless. They have been saved in Egypt and delivered from the authority of darkness yet that power is pursuing them. How do I get to Canaan then, with the hot breath of the enemy behind me, no escape on either side, and the Red Sea, i.e. death and judgment cutting off my passage in front of me?
Before I know the answer the Lord separates Pharaoh and his hosts from me by His presence in the pillar of the cloud. The presence of the Lord confounds the flesh but comforts me. But now the test comes a way must be made through the Red Sea. And so Moses lifts up his rod and stretches his hand over the sea. The result is a strong East wind. The East in Scripture generally speaks of the place of judgment hence judgment falling on the power of death which Satan exercised over man. "All that night" would tell us of the totality of that judgment, for he holds sway over the darkness Eph. 6:1212For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12). The rod brings in a great authority the power of God over the waters. They part. The power of Satan over redeemed man has been broken forever.
The Conflict Is Between the Lord and Satan—We Have No Part in It
In the midst of the sea they are on dry land. Dry land is our portion the waters were the Lord's. He was lifted up on the cross, as the waters were at the Red Sea, to show that our passage through death and judgment was only possible because He had passed that way first. Israel could only see their portion dry land and His portion the waters lifted up. His portion the waters "were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left." A wall separates. That is to say the death of the Passover Lamb Christ in figure separated them from the waters death and judgment and gave them standing before God dry land. The waters did something else. When they returned they separated the people from Egypt typically the world and separated them for Canaan typically heaven.
Man Must Choose Between Bondage to Satan or Deliverance by the Lord
All men must be cut off from the world sooner or later. Both the Egyptians and the Jews had to enter the Red Sea, since it is appointed to men once to die. The man of the flesh trusts in religion the gods of Egypt to take him through the Red Sea (death) to Canaan (heaven). The believer trusts in the death of Christ his Passover. And so it is a case of "how long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him, but if Baal, then follow him" 1 Kings 18:2121And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. (1 Kings 18:21).
Well, the flesh thinks it will follow the visible what it has always trusted in. The Egyptians were a religious people and their Pharaoh figured largely in their religion. They followed Pharaoh. They entered the Red Sea without first having got under the shelter of the Passover Lamb's blood. So they must be cut off from Egypt not cut off like Israel to be brought into blessing, but cut off to be brought into judgment. "After death the judgment" the Word teaches, and those Egyptians, though dead many years, still have this to look forward to. Death cuts us off from this world but not from God's judgment. Only the blood of Christ can do that.
God's Earliest Thoughts and Satan's
It would now be appropriate to consider the certainty of this judgment and the way of escape found in the earlier and complementary type in Gen. 1. In the old creation God had turned the darkness and the waters into the light of a land of life. Then sin and Satan came in and God has to say "dust you are and to dust you shall return." This He said to man the crown and last work in that creation. The idea behind "return" is going back a reversal. But the return God ordered was partial. It was only to the dust the unformed state for God had made man's body of the dust of the earth. But the earth had come out of the waters over which darkness was, before God began to work. If God had ordered a return to that the portion of the devil and his angels there would have been no hope no forgiveness for man. But man sinned being tempted, unlike the devil and his angels. God had no thought of allowing Satan the victory by undoing His original blessing of man. Instead He promises a deliverer for man from Satan's power the woman's seed Christ, "for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil" 1 John 3:88He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8). Alas, if man persists in following Satan and denying the work of the woman's seed, deliverance from the power of death will not be his, and he must follow Satan back to the darkness and the waters. This is exactly what took place after much warning Ex. 14:24, 2524And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, 25And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the Lord fighteth for them against the Egyptians. (Exodus 14:24‑25) at the Red Sea. In the finality of judgment it will take place at the lake of fire. Darkness outer darkness will forever be on the face of that deep. The Christ rejecters of today, like the Egyptians then, will never know God except in judgment.
The Flesh in the Believer Prefers Egypt to Canaan
Israel on the other hand passed through the Red Sea in the sheltering power of the Passover lamb's blood. It was this too that opened the way to Canaan. But the believer does not immediately go to heaven although that is the purpose of God for him. First he must pass through the Red Sea and be proved in the wilderness. In the ways of God our hearts must be tested to show what is in them. There God's heart is made known. The lesson of the wilderness is entire dependence on God. It is death to my flesh but a Father's love made known. And a Father's love would never permit His people to become slaves to Egypt again Egypt the land of the authority of darkness and the lash of the tyrant although His people lusted for its good things. If their desires were un-judged and captivity became necessary in God's ways, then they were carried to Babylon but not back to Egypt. The natural heart murmurs against the Father. So at the grave of Lazarus it complains "Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died" as at the Red Sea it objected "because there were no graves in Egypt, halt thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?”
The Power of the Son of God Opens the Way for Us
The passage through death is hopeless apart from the Son of God. At the Red Sea Moses' rod was the witness to that power here it is Jesus Himself. His affections are deeply touched as a blessed Man holy affections at the power Satan wields over man the power of death. He weeps. But He does more He prays to His Father. Never does He exercise His power without His Father whether to provide bread for Himself when hungry or to intervene on behalf of His creature as here. At the grave of Lazarus the Lord anticipated the work of the cross when He should forever annul Satan's power of death. Then He cried with a loud voice "it is finished." Now He cries with a loud voice "Lazarus come forth." Do not His words "I go that I might wake him out of sleep" suggest His going to the cross, the moral basis for raising from the dead every believer who has died? In the structure of John's gospel chapters 12 17 are parenthetical they are tabernacle scenes. Viewed in this light the Lord's demonstrated power over death in John 11 is immediately followed by His breaking Satan's power of death in John 18 and 19.He went that He might wake Lazarus up.
Lazarus As a Figure of the Natural Man
Lazarus has to be viewed two ways as a type of the natural man and as a type of the believer. As a type of the natural man Lazarus is exceedingly instructive. In that light he is the end of a long chain we have had before us impotency John 5 blindness John 9 sin against God John 4 and 8. The end of these things is death and Lazarus demonstrates this truth. But the Lord exposes man's true condition here. His voice is heard twice. First the people at the grave these represent His servants now for they hear His voice are told to roll the stone away, as a public demonstration of man's corrupt state. For four days i.e. the period from Adam to Christ man was stinking and still is. Nature, in the person of Martha, protests this, as people today hate the gospel because it exposes to the world the stench of man—man dead in trespasses and sins dead to God. They want this truth hidden. But the Lord commands His servants to roll away the stone (3) and expose man as he is. Secondly when Lazarus came out the Lord commands them to free him and let him go. You won't understand why the Lord said this unless you noticed that Lazarus did not walk out of the grave. He couldn't. His hands and feet were tied figuratively man's work and walk are terminated by death and he couldn't see since a cloth was wrapped around his face figuratively under the power of darkness. So if a man is not born again he remains in death what he was in life powerless like the impotent man of John 5, and blind like the man in John 9. There is this difference that in death he is bound in that hopeless state, with no prospect but coming before Christ for judgment. The grave clothes too speak of the state of the lost after death "bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness" Matt. 22:1313Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 22:13). When the Lord said "Lazarus come out" he had to appear before Him just as he was bound with the consequences of the fall. For it was in the garden in Eden that man got his grave clothes.
Lazarus As a Figure of the Believer
Next, as a figure of the believer, Lazarus teaches us that we have a new head. We have been transferred from the headship of Adam the man of dust to the headship of Christ the Man of glory. The Lord, and not Satan, now holds the keys of hades and of death Rev. 1:1818I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. (Revelation 1:18). "Whether we live we live to the Lord, and whether we die we die to the Lord. Whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's" Rom. 14:88For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. (Romans 14:8). If we are alive at the time of the Lord's coming, we shall never die John 11:2525Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: (John 11:25); instead we shall be changed. If we have fallen asleep in Jesus before the Lord's coming, then we are absent from the body and present with the Lord. And as consciously enjoying the Lord's presence this is far better. At the assembling shout the dead in Christ shall be raised incorruptible. "If the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from among the dead dwell in you, He who raised up Christ from among the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit who dwells in you" Rom. 8:1111But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:11). Both shall meet the Lord in the cloud and so shall we be forever with the Lord.
The Resurrection of the First Man and the Resurrection of the Last Man
The resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the foundation of all this blessing, is in contrast to that of Lazarus. "But now is Christ risen from among the dead and become the firstfruits of those who slept" 1 Cor. 15:2020But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. (1 Corinthians 15:20). Why the firstfruits? I once heard a man say "didn't Lazarus rise first?" Well, when Lazarus was raised he came out of the grave once more in a body of flesh and blood which was only to die again. "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption" 1 Cor. 15:5050Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. (1 Corinthians 15:50). Not so with the Lord Jesus. His holy flesh knew no sin and as the incorruptible Man He could rightfully have returned to the Father without going to the cross. If He had done that He would have been the only Man in the Glory. But the thought is impossible, for He came into the world to lay down His life for us. This was His Father's commandment.
He entered into death for us. Sin was attached to His precious blood by imputation our sin in the three hours of darkness on the cross. When He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father He appeared to His own in a body of flesh and bone the blood having been shed for sin. "Handle Me and see," He says "for a spirit has not flesh and bone as you see I have" Luke 24:3939Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. (Luke 24:39). If further proof were needed, Thomas is told to thrust his hand into His side John 20:2727Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. (John 20:27). Also He ate a piece of broiled fish and honeycomb Luke 24:4343And he took it, and did eat before them. (Luke 24:43). Well, since He would have us like Him, the believing dead shall be raised incorruptible and we the living shall be changed 1 Cor. 15:5252In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:52) but Christ is the firstfruits. In all things He must have the pre eminence.
The grave of Lazarus completes a great scheme of things in God's ways, which began with the wedding in Cana of Galilee in John 2. A wedding is man at his best; a funeral, man at his extremity. In between is the wretched story of man, impotent, blind, sinning. The Lord alone is our Deliverer.
It was to have us with and like Him that He entered into death. But when He took His life in power again John 10:1818No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. (John 10:18) Peter sees "the face cloth that was about His head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself”
John 20:77And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. (John 20:7). Not only is all in order in the way the clothes are placed, but death could not bind Him as the grave clothes did Lazarus, or the stone seal His sepulcher. As to the stone He does not take that away anymore than at the grave of Lazarus. Another servant, His angel, does that. The body of Jesus, once in the tomb, is there no longer.
The Rich Man Who Became Poor to Enrich Us
He had entered and left the tomb of the rich man Joseph of Arimathaea to fulfill the Scripture Isa. 53:99And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. (Isaiah 53:9). When the rich man built the tomb it was a confession that his riches were futile he couldn't take them beyond the grave. Since he must leave this world as naked as he entered it, he is really poor. But "ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty, might be rich" 2 Cor. 8:99For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9).
Everything has been changed because Jesus has entered the tomb that made up the rich man's "future." He entered into the very place that Joseph had admitted he deserved by building it. And now He is risen. Was the tomb now Joseph's future anymore? No. Is it mine? No. The Lord was raised again for my justification. The angel rolled away the stone. I have seen and believed.