(JOHN 2)
"THE third, day [i.e., the third day after the Lord's baptism, ** see chap. 1:29, 35-43], there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: and both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage." The mother of Jesus seems to be there as if it were her natural place; Jesus and His disciples are called there as guests; everything goes on in its due course. The bridegroom is there, the guests are there, the mother is there. But a moment arrives which tells its own tale—the wine is out. It is not that there had been no wine, but the supply is exhausted, and all who bear a part on the occasion are brought to this point, even the, want of that which befits and characterizes a marriage feast—there is no wine ! "And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.”
We read elsewhere (Matt. 22) that a certain king, making a marriage for his son, sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding, saying, " Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage;"but that they, having no heart for the feast, would not come, going, one to his farm and another to his merchandise., Now this sets forth in parable what the marriage in Cana of Galilee gives us both typically and historically. Jesus, the King's Son, is the true Bridegroom; and when He came and presented Himself to the nation of Israel, on His part all things were ready; but on Israel's part nothing was ready; and He the Bridegroom and heir to the throne, as He was, is found there in the obscure place of guest. He has no place where He ought to have filled the first, yea, every place, and hence the discovery is made that there is no wine. His very presence there exposed the want. There was no response in Israel to Him, the call to the marriage is unheeded. The wine —the blessing Israel had known in an earlier day, such as that was-was gone; the glory had departed: Now it was " Ichabod" for all who felt truly, or according to God, and the mother of Jesus, typifying the nation which was His mother (viewing Him as born under the law) expresses the true state of things, when she says, "They have no wine." Thus it was in that day: the abject need of Israel, impoverished and resource less on every hand, He all the while being there who had every blessing to give, if they would have received Him, was felt and owned by the little remnant of godly ones, who in true' but unintelligent desire, looked to Him, then and there to establish the kingdom and glory.
But what then? "Woman," says the Lord, "what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come." The hour had not come for Him to bring in the wine of the kingdom. The feast was prepared; the Bridegroom was there, but there was no response on the part of the nation to Him; and hence the hour was not come for Him to drink the fruit of the vine with His faithful ones in His Father's kingdom.
In fact His blood must be shed first. That we have not here, but the gap—the interval; which, because of Israel's sin, must come' between this, the day of her drought, and the future day of her fullness—is announced here in those stern words of the Lord: "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" The nation, as such, was to be set aside in chastisement for her sin. Israel, as we read in the prophets, was given a bill of divorce. (See Jer. 3) The word Of the Lord was "She is not my wife, neither am I her husband." (Hos. 2:22Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts; (Hosea 2:2).) She had rejected Him, and therefore the hour was not come when He could bring in her blessing in communion with Himself.
But the hour will come Here it follows in type, and the sequel of the scene takes up the history of Israel at the end of the age; the present dispensation coming in between verses 4 and 5; while verse 5 carries on the scene to the end. The next we hear of the mother is, that she, said unto the servants, "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." Here she appears before us. as the remnant of the latter day, who, as the true and godly part of the nation, will be the nucleus of it, and represent it in expression and exercise of heart, even as did the remnant of an earlier day—the day of the Lord's first coming, and who will be brought to full subjection of heart to Him, before their blessing is brought in. It is now not merely a confession of poverty and resourcelessness, of there being nothing to be found for God in, their midst nationally, no figs on the fig-tree, no grapes on the vine. There is more than this here, there is absolute subjection of heart to Christ; still indeed they are without wine, though in the position of dependence, waiting on, and for, Him to come in blessing like showers on the mown grass. Then they will say, "Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O Lord, our God? therefore we will wait upon thee"—and now "the hour" has come. But how does He, how will He, bring in the blessing—the wine?
"There were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews." What a picture! The law is there with its ceremonial rites—setting forth what that real purification of heart and way was which God required of man. But what could these ordinances, what could the blood of the sacrifices, do when there was no wine—no heart for God in man? He might wash himself ever so thoroughly, which was the utmost the law could do, but what then, even supposing there could be such cleansing? The heart is still empty and void, there is no wine.
The very number of the vessels of purification told of the imperfection of that which they set forth. Six is figuratively an imperfect number, as seven is a perfect one. When used in scripture, it implies that which is Jacking—found wanting. And this was the case, most truly, with the ceremonial rites of the law at this moment of Israel's history. Thus, drought on the one hand, and imperfection on the other, is exposed before the better thing is brought in.
But now the word is, "Fill the waterpots with water." Christ fulfilled the law and made it honorable. He did not ignore the vessels of purification, Be filled them up to the brim, and then He turns the water of purification into the wine of joy. He did not set aside that which exposed their hopeless condition, until He had fulfilled every jot and tittle of it. And this is what Israel will be brought to see and own in the latter day before they taste the "good wine" of her full blessing.
And now the order is, "Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare, it." What is the result? On tasting the good wine, the bridegroom is called to account as to he* this had come about: why was the good wine kept until the last? The custom was to set forth the good wine at the beginning, and when men had well drunk, then that which was worse; but in this case, the inferior wine had been drunk first—drunk until it was exhausted, and now the good—the excellent wine—the joy and blessing consequent on resurrection, is brought forth! Who could explain this secret? No one can be accountable but the bridegroom, he whose right it was to provide the wine. And who had provided it? who but Christ Himself? therefore He is proved to be the real Bridegroom. The servants are in the secret, but Christ, and none other, is the provider. He who had entered the scene as a guest, and doubtless as an inconspicuous guest, is now discovered as the Bridegroom and Host; just as the lowly, the gracious, the rejected one in the day of His humiliation will prove to be the glorious, one, the King and the Bridegroom, the dispenser of all blessing and joy in the millennial day of the true marriage-feast, when He will manifest forth His glory; and all who behold it will believe on Him. He alone will be able to give account to God, the ruler of the feast, and declare, how by Him and through Him all blessing is brought in. Then will the good wine be drunk without let or hindrance during the long millennial day of the marriage supper.
And here let us note that there are two individuals who appear at the close of this scene as the bridegroom; one ostensibly so, but nameless, and lost in the other, who is the great actor and mover in the scene, and who is to all intents and purposes the real Bridegroom, because the dispensing-host. And so it will be in the day which the closing part of this little narrative sets forth. There will be for Israel the King and also, the prince; the former the Lord Himself, who will be all in all to her, but also there will be a prince, as we see in Ezek. 45, a son of the house of David, the head of the royal family on earth in that day, who will rule on earth under Christ, and in holiness and righteousness carry out His will. Thus this simple little historical scene has wondrous meaning—setting forth in type the Lord's past and future dealing with His earthly people as well as His own personal association with them.
And now we will consider an inquiry, the answer to which adds considerably to the interest of this scene as a type. Who, we ask, was the actual bridegroom' at this marriage? We are not told; but may we not suggest the likelihood of its having been the brother of Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary, the firstborn of their family? The position of his mother there seems to imply that it was the marriage of one closely allied to herself, or why should she be there, ordering the arrangements, and responsible for the provision? and why, we may add, were Jesus and His disciples called to the marriage?
If this was the case, it is especially interesting, as setting forth in type the more forcibly the prince of the future day to whom we have already referred. Let us remember that the Lord was actual heir to the throne of David. It was not merely that He had divine right to it, but He had human right also. He was the direct and lawful descendant of the house of David; being as was supposed (so scripture expresses it) the son of Joseph, that is, legally so.
Well, then, supposing the Lord had been received by the nation as Messiah instead of being rejected, and had taken the kingdom then, who would have been the prince? for we have seen in Ezek. 45 that when the kingdom is set up there will be a prince on earth. Surely this prince would have been, and will be, hereafter the one who, after the Lord, stood, and will stand, next in right to the throne; and in that day this right was clearly that of a son of Joseph and Mary, their firstborn son, as we have seen, who only for the Lord's priority would have been the heir. How fitly then, supposing the eldest son of Joseph to have been the bridegroom at this marriage feast, does he set forth the one who, as an actual descendant from the same line, will in the millennial day occupy the same position towards the Lord and towards Israel, as he did in this scene at Cana of Galilee. He was there in the highest place but one. That one place was filled by another, whose glory was at first veiled, but in the end shone forth in its full luster and proved Him to be the great and the glorious One, the true Bridegroom and provider of the wine, while the prince in the scene was only subservient to Him.
Thus will it be with the prince of the millennial day; he will be a real descendant of the house of David, and probably from this very line (for, however the records of the genealogy may be lost to human sight, they are known to God, and will be brought out when He requires it to carry out His own order on earth; see Ezra 2:61, 6361And of the children of the priests: the children of Habaiah, the children of Koz, the children of Barzillai; which took a wife of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called after their name: (Ezra 2:61)
63And the Tirshatha said unto them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, till there stood up a priest with Urim and with Thummim. (Ezra 2:63)); who will go in and out in the midst of the people, receiving their oblations (Ezek. 45) and executing judgment and justice, under Christ, the King and Bridegroom.