The day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me, (44) Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. (45) Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him of whom Moses in the Jaw and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. (46) And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth! Philip saith unto him, Come and see. (47) Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! (48) Nathanael said unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. (49) Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God: thou art the king of Israel. (50) Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. (51) And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.
The call of Philip and Nathaniel, and the relation of Christ's conversation with them, is most sweet and instructing. But what I would chiefly beg the Header to notice, in what remains in this chapter, Is, the Lord's exercise of his divine knowledge to the conviction of Nathaniel, in that he said, he saw him under the fig tree, and that Philip had called him. The fig trees in Judaea were large and shady, and godly persons made them what is called Proseuches, or places for prayer. By Jesus telling him that he was there when Philip called him, the heart of Nathaniel was at once convinced he must be God, since no eye but the eye of God could have seen him there. Our Lord's kind approbation of his faith, and as gracious a promise of the greater manifestations he should receive, should be considered as not relating to Nathaniel only, but a general assurance of Bethel-visits, like the ladder of Jacob, to all his redeemed, both to their own private and personal enjoyments, and to the public and universal happiness of the Church at the last day. Perhaps I should have observed, concerning our Lord's testimony to Nathaniel, that Jesus meant hot that this seed of Abraham was without guile. For this can be said of none but Christ himself. Neither, rightly considered, do our Lord's words go to such extent. By an Israelite indeed, I should conceive is meant, not simply one that is a real descendant after the flesh, from the stock of Abraham; for all are not Israel which are of Israel. Romans 9:6. but an Israelite indeed, means one of the children of promise. Galatians 4:28 whom God the Father hath given to his dear Son. And in this sense, the guileless mind of Nathaniel, hath a respect to the man's state as he stood accepted in Christ, and not as to his own holiness before God, for in this sense, he had none, neither could have been without guile. The Reader, if he knows anything of the plague of his own heart, and of the covenant righteousness in which the whole Church, both in heaven and earth, is considered before God as wholly in Christ, will enter into a full apprehension of the inestimable preciousness of this doctrine, which is after godliness, and gladly join issue with the Prophet when he said, In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory. Isaiah 45:25. For the double Verily, used by our Lord, in the last verse of this chapter: See John 10:1.