John 7:37-53: Unbelief of the Pharisees

Analysis

During the last (8^th) day of the festival, Jesus’ message continues where he left off in v36 and he prophesy about the Holy Spirit. He uses the metaphor of water that gives life. It is a fitting metaphor for the festival as he uses Exodus 17 as basis where God provided the wandering Israelites with water so that they can live. Even at this time in the desert, God provided and saved the rebellious and stubborn people from death. Jesus is crying out to the people to believe in Him and prophesying that they will have living water flow within him through the working of the Holy Spirit. John explains this in v39.

In v40 to v44 the people are picking sides; some believe in Jesus for who he says he is and others believe the Pharisees. Those in the Pharisee camp cling to the one shred of false information about Jesus’ origin – that he is from Nazareth! The most amazing thing about these people is their narrow view regarding the messiah. Jesus does not fit into their view of the messiah and thus he must be rejected.

The Pharisees follow exactly the same though pattern; just because Jesus does not conform to their interpretation of the scriptures, he must be rejected. The Pharisees confess two important things here:

• They do not believe that He is the Messiah sent from God (v48)
• They do not interpret the scriptures right (v52) because Jonah was a prophet from Galilee (2 Kings 14:5) and Jesus was born in Bethlehem !

Their hypocrisy and arrogance reaches a climax in v47 to v52. Because others do not conform to their view of the scriptures, the Pharisees:

1. Declare the crown accursed because the crowd does not believe the Pharisees;
2. Misinterpret the scriptures openly by stating that no other prophet ever came from Galilee (v52); and
3. Wrongly apply the law to judge Jesus and in the process threaten Nicodemus when he shows them their error.

Response

From this passage it is clear that if you do not believe in the basic truth, that Jesus is the Son of God, you will, without fail interpret the Word of God in untruthful ways and you will find your-self in a place where you reject the Saviour.

Jesus taught the crowds from the scriptures and it must have become quite clear to them that the Pharisees and the scribes have been either lying to them or do not know what they are talking about when it comes to the scriptures.

This is a clear message to us that we must search and study the word given to us by God so that we can live the life for Christ in the way the Father intended it for us. If we do not know the scriptures, them it will be easy for us to be led astray by teachers who might themselves not understand the Word.