Following the Book of Numbers theme, the death of the old generation gives rise to a purified new generation who inherit the garden dwelling of YHWH, John’s seventh sign concerns a young man who died, was resurrected five days later, and sat at the table with Yeshua. The text identified a certain man, Lazarus (meaning “God has helped”), from a certain city outside the Camp of Israel, Bethany, meaning “House of depression or misery.” He was the younger brother of Martha (meaning bitter, marah) and Mary (meaning rebellion, a derivative of Miriam)¹. Since they had a house on the southeastern side of the Mount of Olives, where invalids and the sick were quarantined, his father was probably the leper Yeshua healed (Mat. 8:2, Mar. 1:40; 14:3; Luk. 5:12:12-16). This blog explains how Bethany becomes “the house of dates” through the story of Lazarus’s death, resurrection, and glory reflected in Israel’s sojourn in the Book of Numbers.

Ancient Israel set out from Mount Sinai carrying the Tabernacle in a camp shaped by YHWH to reflect His heavenly abode. Infected with unbelief, Israel’s first generation that left Egypt rebelled at Yam Suph and throughout the entire journey to Kadesh Barnea, where they refused to enter the Land that YHWH promised to them and their forefathers. Even though they heard YHWH’s words, they lacked the heart to obey. In just judgment, YHWH sentenced all those twenty years old and above to death in the wilderness. Since His Presence was within the Camp of Israel, a seven-day purification for all those defiled by corpse pollution happened outside the Camp. The purified second generation of Israel entered the Land and bore fruit, conquering its idolatrous inhabitants.

Just as the two generations are contrasted in the Book of Numbers, John contrasts Mary’s passion and Martha’s extravagant serving with Judas Iscariot’s criticism of Mary’s anointing Yeshua’s head and feet. Filled with the same murderous spirit as Cain, Judas was an unbeliever and a thief. On the other hand, Mary and Martha saw their great need for a savior and believed Yeshua was the Son of Man, the Son of God, come to deliver them. The women’s actions represented works of the light, whereas Judas’s work led to his own death, the blackness of the grave.

Lazarus represented Israel becoming infected with rebellion of the first generation and being raised to the second generation’s newness of life, just as the disciples had become infected with Judas Iscariot’s hypocrisy and later were filled with the Spirit to take the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to the world. Lazarus was dead for four days, and on the fifth day, Yeshua raised him from the grave. Yeshua was the forerunner of Israel’s resurrection to life, as Moses was Israel’s exodus forerunner.

So, when Yeshua came to Bethany, Martha went immediately to meet Him, and He assured her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha acknowledged that Lazarus would rise again on the last day. Then Yeshua said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (Jhn. 11:25-26). When Mary came to where Yeshua was, she fell at His feet, weeping for the loss of her brother. At this, Yeshua groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And then He wept (Jhn. 11:33, 35). The three verbs, groaned, troubled, and wept, connect Yeshua’s seventh climactic sign to the middle division of the Book of Numbers, the death of Israel’s first generation.

Groan, embrimaomai (Strong’s G1690) means “to snort like a horse” and “to be very angry, to be moved with indignation,” as in Mark 14:5, “rebuke; criticize, to denounce harshly, to scold” (H1690, Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, Louw and Nida Greek-English Lexicon). The Greek word troubled is etaraxen (Strong’s G5015), meaning “to stir or agitate” (Strong’s Expanded Dictionary of Bible Words, p. 1406). It defines perplexity (Mat. 2:3, 14:26, Mar. 6:50, Luk. 1:12, 13:38, 1Pe. 3:14) at subverting believers by evil doctrine (Act. 15:24, Gal. 1:7, 5:10)2. The Hebrew word `anach (Strong’s H584) expresses groaning as “that exercise of heart on the part of the prophets over Israel’s desperate spiritual condition” (TWOT, p. 57). Used twelve times, groaning defined the public acts of mourning and wailing, groaning in repentance, lamenting over Jerusalem becoming unclean and destroyed, so no one comes to her appointed feasts, and Israelites groaning in childbirth and in their slavery with the whole creation’s groaning, awaiting the liberation of the children of God. Yeshua groaned in the spirit, much like the Spirit of God moving over the lifeless deeps in Genesis 1:2, which gives the expectation of a watery exodus birth of a new creation teaming with life. He groaned in spirit and was troubled because evil ruled, and the people groaned for an exodus, a way out of slavery to death. Yeshua wept at the pain and suffering of His people in bondage to decay; He wept over Jerusalem, at their refusal to turn and trustingly believe in Him, the only way out.

When the Jews doubted the power of God’s Spirit in Him, Yeshua groaned within Himself again and commanded them to “take away the stone” covering the tomb. Martha protested because it was now the fifth day since Lazarus had died. Yeshua said, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?” When the stone was removed, Yeshua prayed, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by, I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, this way out!” And Lazarus came out, bound. Yeshua told them, “Loose him, and let him go” (Jhn. 11:38-44). The resurrection of Lazarus was the tipping point that sealed Yeshua’s death, spurring the Jews to kill him and Lazarus. Six days before Passover, Martha served Yeshua a supper, and Lazarus sat at the table with Him. But, perceptive Mary anointed Yeshua’s head and feet with the costly oil of spikenard, preparing His body for burial, the Seed fallen to produce much grain.

Takeaway:
Every human’s journey out of bondage to death into the life-sustaining dwelling place of YHWH is mapped out in Israel’s exodus journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, through the Books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. By the Spirit’s groaning, the sojourner is transformed through a new birth to a new creation, a resurrection from the dead to holy life in His image, filled with His glory, fruitful in the will of God. Yeshua rescued Lazarus from death and decay by a bodily resurrection to the glory of a new creation. John’s seventh sign astutely depicts Israel’s second generation’s resurrection, raised in Christ’s resurrection, the glory and abundance of God with us.

Fun Factors:
“Your brother will rise again” is 2626, 26 × 101 (101 is the 26th prime); YHWH = 26.

Yeshua’s words to Martha in John 11:25-26 have 138 letters (6 × 23) in 34 words (2 × 17), totaling 15510, 15 × 22 × 47, number speak for restoration (15) by the power of God’s breath or word (22) and the work of His outstretched arm (47). The consecutive number sum of 307 + … + 353 is 15510; 307 is symbolic of YHWH’s fulfillment of His names (37), and 353 is 8² + 17², the victory (17) of YHWH’s Feasts (8), or 4⁴ + 3⁴ + 2⁴, the 432 of His heart’s desire established (sun’s radius number).

Yeshua’s calling Lazarus forth from the grave in John 11:40-44 has 425 letters (the 17th pentagonal number), 5² x 17, 8² + 19², in 89 words, 5² + 8², 8 + 9 = 17, totaling 50363, 13²(10² + 7²) + 13²(10² + 7²) + 1²; 10² + 7² = 149, 6² + 7² + 8². The numbers speak of the victory of His holiness through the eight Feasts of YHWH in the 19-year lunar time cycle, humanity’s journey to Him.

The seventh sign, “Your brother will rise again,” is the fullness of the second sign, “Your son lives.” Their number language matches. John 4:50-51 has180 letters (2² x 3² x 5, 2⁷ + 3³ + 5², 144² + 36²; 34 + … + 38; the sum of its prime numbers 2 + 2 + 3 + 3 + 5 = 15) in 38 words (2 × 19; 19 = = T₄ + T₃ + T₂), totaling 23095, 5 × 31 × 149 whose sum 5 + 31 + 149 = 185, 37 × 5, the number of names and appellations of YHWH; the consecutive number sum of 15 numbers, 32² + 33² + … + 46², restoring (15) YHWH El’s (31) holy (5) temple (32 through 46, sum of 15 numbers). See Blog 47 and Blog 48.

The second sign has 176 words, the 11th pentagonal number and 8th octagonal number, 8 × 22, with a sum of 87059, 7(86² + 71²), pointing to the completion of Elohim’s restoration of humanity to Him. The seventh sign has 945 words, 27 × 35, with a sum of 496347, 3(332² + 235²), saying God’s house of life, the holy work of His hand, is certain.