The Israelite Indeed

This is a chapter of “beholds.” We are first to “Behold the Lamb of God,” and then to behold a man of God.

Nathanael was simple, straightforward, honest, “an Israelite indeed.”

In this he was not like his great progenitor, Jacob, who was a supplanter, and not a prince with God, until that memorable night when the angel wrestled with him, and withered his carnal strength. Then, in the weakness of that simplicity which laid hold upon the mighty One, Jacob became Israel. Genesis 27:36; 32:28.

A sincere and simple character was not common in our Lord’s day.

It is despised by many at this day.

It was greatly appreciated by our Lord, who has the same character in perfection, and is truly called “the holy child Jesus.”

This characteristic of guilelessness is—

I. A HAPPY SIGN IN A SEEKER.

We will illustrate this by Nathanael’s procedure.

1. He is the sort of man to whom disciples like to speak. “Philip finds Nathanael”: verse 45.

2. He is outspoken with his difficulties, and therefore his friends see how to meet them. “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” verse 46.

3. He is ready to apply the proper tests. “Come and see”: verse 46.

4. He is honest in his use of those tests. Our Lord saw that Nathanael was no captious critic, nor idly-curious observer: verse 47.

5. He is open to conviction if fair evidence be supplied. As soon as our Lord proved his omniscience Nathanael believed: verse 48.

6. He is ready to make confession: verse 49.

7. He is prepared to proceed far in the school of Christ. The Lord promised him the sight of greater things because he was prepared to see them: verses 50 and 51.

   • An Israelite is the man to know “the King of Israel”: verse 49.
   • An Israelite is the man to understand the famous dream of the father of all Israelites: verse 51. Genesis 28:12.

II. A VITAL POINT IN A BELIEVER.

The truly upright man, and he only, can be a Christian.

1. A sense of pardon removes the temptation to deceit: we cease to excuse ourselves when pardon is received. See Psalm 51

2. A reception of Christ as “the truth” causes deceit to be hated.

3. A truthful assurance of the gospel prevents a hypocritical faith.

4. A complete consecration to the Lord puts an end to a double-minded life, and to all false aims and maxims.

5. A sense of the presence of God makes deceit appear absurd.

6. A brave faith in God causes it to appear mean and cowardly.

III. A SURE PRODUCER OF OTHER QUALITIES.

1. It makes a man love his Bible. Nathanael was familiar with the law and the prophets.

2. It makes him pray. He is an Israelite. Genesis 32:28.

3. It leads him to be much alone. “Under the fig-tree”: verse 48.

4. It makes him wear his heart in his countenance. “Behold an Israelite indeed.”

5. It prepares him to behold the pure and true glories of Heaven.

   • Who among us is renowned for cleverness, craft, shrewdness, and the critical faculty in general?
   • Let him be afraid of the much-admired quality of cleverness.
   • The absence of simplicity is by no means a healthy sign.

Let us be true in any case, and may the Lord teach us his truth!

Mosaic

‘Twas well Christ spoke among plain men. Had the Scribes and the Pharisees heard him, had some men of these times heard him, they would have said that Christ purposed to define a fool. Who is not now a fool that is not false? He is rated as having but small wit that is not of great subtlety and great wiliness? Plainness is weakness, and solid sincerity stolid simplicity. No man is honest but for want of sense. Conscience comes only from a crazed brain. He has no reach that does not overreach. Only to disguise is to be wise; and he is the profoundest that is the grandest counterfeit. Christ will have a serpent and a dove coupled together—wisdom and simplicity; and he bids, what God has joined, that man should not sever. But the world dares uncouple them. Uncouple them? That’s little; dares divorce them. In these days doves may not consort with serpents, nor singleness and sapience harbor in one heart. Certainly plain-dealing is a jewel; but the world dubs him a fool that uses it.

Hence it is that, nowadays, men dare not deal uprightly, lest their wit be called in question; they are afraid of honest plainness lest they be held for idiocy. Term one an honest man, you do discredit him. The name of fool is so disgraceful, one will rather be a villain than be called a fool. But here, God’s Word, God’s Wisdom, defines a true Israelite, by truth and plainness; he is one that has no guile.—Richard Clerke.

“Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.”—The expression would appear to be so distinct an allusion to the thirty-second Psalm as to amount to a quotation, and to imply that this guilelessness of spirit was not mere amiability, but was the fruit of forgiven sin. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered (or atoned). Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” Nathanael, if we may follow this clue, was no stranger to the spiritual meaning of atonement; no stranger, therefore, to the consciousness of sin which made its necessity felt. Pressed on the one hand by the sense of guilt, allured on the other by the provision of atonement in the temple sacrifices, he had been forced to earn his first title by wrestling in prayer with God for pardon; and, having prevailed, there had sprung up within the forgiven man the guileless spirit of childlike trustfulness in God, who had thus stooped to his prayer, and granted the benison he sighed for. He is in the happiest state of preparation for the personal knowledge of Christ, and we shall see with what fullness of faith he honors his Master at the first interview, uttering on the threshold of discipleship a confession more advanced than was made at the same point by any other of the twelve.—C. A. Davis.

Nathanael was one of these true Israelites; he was in reality, as well as by profession, one of the people of God; and the evidence he gave of this was his freedom from deceit. But our Savior does not say he has no guilt. A man may be freckled, or have spots, and not be painted. A Christian is not sinlessly pure—he has many unallowed and bewailed infirmities, but deceit he has not: he is no hypocrite. He does not in religion ascend a stage, to assume a character which does not belong to him. He is what he appears to be. There is a correspondence between his professions and actions, his meanings and his words. He is upright in his dealings with himself, in his dealings with his fellow-creatures, and in his dealings with his God. He is all of a piece. He is the same alone as in company; the same in his own house as in the house of God; the same in prosperity as in adversity.—William Jay.

The clearer the diamond, the more it sparkles; the plainer the heart is, the more it sparkles in God’s eye. What a commendation did Christ give Nathanael—“Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile”!—Thomas Watson.