Tracking the eight signs of John’s Gospel, the second sign is the healing of the nobleman’s son (John 4:43-54). How does this sign reflect the all-important Night-To-Be-Much-Observed (NTBMO) and eating unleavened bread?

Like the Night-To-Be-Much-Observed’s connection to Passover, John purposefully connects the second sign to the first by location, Cana of Galilee, the third day, and its privacy (Jhn. 4:43, 46, 51). Because of the Passover first sign, there is forgiveness of sin and healing in the second sign. Redemption goes hand-in-hand with restoration, our freedom to obey, serve, and worship YHWH. The second sign results from the first sign, the Most High God fulfilling His oath to Abram through the Lamb of God’s sacrificial death. The Son of God’s Passover death redeemed Israel’s firstborn sons, freeing the nation to leave Egypt the NTBMO. The NTBMO marks a solemn remembrance of God’s oath to Abraham (Gen. 15) to have children that shine as the stars (divine life) from all nations.

The nobleman has parallels to Abraham. He heard Yeshua preaching in the synagogues of Capernaum and believed. His faith drove him to seek Yeshua when he learned he was nearby. Just as Abraham’s faith affected his entire household, so did the nobleman’s faith. As Abraham received his son back from the dead, so did the nobleman obtain his son’s life. And as Abraham kept (shema, hearing and obeying) YHWH’s statutes and commandments, so also did the perceiving nobleman act on his faith when hearing Yeshua’s words, “Go your way, your son lives.” Our eating of unleavened bread, the Word of God, is hearing and responding to Him on the journey to the land promised, His Eden Garden.

Eating unleavened bread for seven days, the sign of His grace that allowed YHWH’s law to be “in your mouth,” affects all our thinking and doing. The Night-of-Solemn-Observance marks in our minds that we were once hopelessly enslaved to the ways of death, unable to break free of evil’s oppressive chains. Through the Word, the Father will complete His plan to bring us out and build His family to fulfill His oath to Abraham of righteous children living in glory forever (Exo. 13:3, 8–10, Deut. 5:6, 15, 16:3).

Why Yeshua chose Capernaum for His ministry’s base uncovers a crucial tie between Capernaum’s meaning and Israel’s promised healing. Capernaum (1183, 7 × 132) means “field of repentance (root kaphar “to cover”), city of comfort, the city of Nahum,” defining God’s deep sighing compassion over Israel (Strong’s G2584). The book of Nahum’s message belongs to the end of the age, comforting the saints that God will take vengeance on their enemies. Isaiah also calls out about God’s comforting Zion in all her waste places by making her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of God (Isa. 51:3). YHWH’s gift of repentance links directly to Israel’s restoration. The nation’s hearing and ingesting the unleavened, living words of God promote turning, forgiveness, and wholeness (shalom).

Yeshua strongly rebuked Capernaum, along with Chorazin and Bethsaida (towns near Capernaum, v. 48), with that “evil generation” because they sought a sign that He was their Messiah (Luk. 10:13–15, 11:29–32, 49–51). The only sign He gave them was the sign of Jonah in the belly of a great fish for three days and three nights. Yeshua took their sins on Himself, died, and laid in the grave for three days and three nights, freeing Israel to enter a new covenant. While still claiming God’s mercies and favor, the Jews courted a self-made Eden of Tarshish, the emptiness of nothingness, rather than being filled with the living Word of Truth. Israel was to point to God’s rescue, order, fullness, and rest, even to their enemy nations. The Jonah story enacted Israel’s death and rebirth, becoming a light to the Gentiles. In the presence of the nobleman, Jesus appropriately rebuked Capernaum’s Jonah-like unbelief and display of hypocrisy. None acted like their forefather Abraham, wholly believing God’s Word. Yet God, in His faithfulness to Abraham, heals rebellious Israel’s sickness unto death, drawing her to repentance (Isa. 1:5–6, Eze. 16:63, Jer. 31).

John mentioned another key detail telling exactly when the healing of Abraham’s children takes place (Jhn. 4:52). Reference to the seventh hour ties the second sign to the seventh sign in the seventh month. The second sign, with its genesis in the Night of the Oath, the promise to Abraham that God would give him children of all nations who would live forever, becomes a reality in the seventh month. The seventh feast, the Festival of Tabernacles, celebrates Israel’s righteousness in Yeshua, a nation walking in His will, learning to fear Him. The Night-of-Solemn-Observance has its counterpart in the fall feasts. Tishri 15, the Feast of Tabernacles’ opening night, memorializes the national fulfillment of the covenant promises made to Abraham on Abib 15. The nobleman’s son’s healing in the seventh hour indicates when the reality of YHWH’s promises to Abraham—repentance, healing, and Israel’s rebirth—take place in the seventh month. At the designated “seventh hour,” the children of Israel become an accurate representation of heaven on earth with countless children living forever.

By YHWH’s outstretched arm, His name became known to all people, making Abraham the father of many nations. Because He was YHWH of the first Exodus, there will be and is a second Exodus to the mountain of God, manifesting His majestic name: I AM the God who brought you out.

Takeaway:
Whether the nobleman is an Israelite or Gentile is unimportant in this sign. What is important is that he mimicked Abraham in his faith, which counted him as righteous. He heard Yeshua’s word and responded with believing obedience, showing he did not come for a sign to convince him Yeshua was the Messiah like the residents of Capernaum had done. The hour of his son’s healing draws the second sign to its chiastic fulfillment in the seventh sign, the NTBMO with the opening night of the Feast of Tabernacles, linking the first exodus to the second exodus, two seven-day periods of eating the Word of God. For those who fear His name, the Sun of Righteousness will arise with healing in His wings.

Fun Factors:
The nobleman’s plea, “Lord, come down before my child dies!” has a sum of 2257, or 37 × 61, YHWH’s name constant (37) multiplied by the 18^th prime and 8^th Pythagorean prime number, 61. It can be written as the sum of two squares, 31² + 36², the name El (31) plus EHL (36) the tabernacle squared.

The words “your son lives” (1445, 5 × 17² or 22² + 31²; 17² = “God created”) appear twice in John’s passage (Jhn. 4:50, 53). The sum of both (1445 × 2) is 2890 or 17² × 10, indicating the victorious hand of God in creating His people in righteousness. The third reference, “the boy of him lives” (verse 51), sums to 1557, or 9 × 173, 39² + 6², or written another way, 9(13² + 2²). We get 4447, the 604^th prime, when all three sayings are totaled. Three implies the absolute certainty of Israel’s healing and righteousness in Christ. (“Go, your son lives” equals 3825, or 5² × 153.)

In the Tanakh, “your son lives” (90, 5 × 18, numerically saying “behold life”) occurs once in 1 Kings 17:23. Elijah said this to Zarephath, the Sidonian woman, whose place Elijah stayed during a three-and-a-half-year judgment of drought on Israel. It prophesies that all nations receive salvation (verse 24), an eternal future in an inheritance with God.

All four passages regarding “your son lives” (1445 + 1445 + 1557 + 90) equal 4537, the 28th star number. The sum of 4537 is 44² + 51². Fifty-one is the product of 3 and 17 (the certainty of victory), and 44 is twice 22, the number of letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the Word of God.