Daily Lesson for Sunday 29th of September 2024
Read John 2:1-11. What sign did Jesus do at Cana, and how did this help His disciples in coming to believe in Him?
Seeing Jesus perform the miracle of changing the water into wine provided evidence in favor of the disciples’ decision to follow Jesus. How could it not have been a powerful sign pointing to Him as being someone from God? (They probably were not yet ready to understand that He was God.)
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Moses was the leader of the Israelites, and he brought Israel out of Egypt by many “signs and wonders” (Deuteronomy 6:22, Deuteronomy 26:8, NKJV). He was the one whom God used to free Israel from the Egyptians. (He was, in a sense, their “savior.”)
God prophesied through Moses that a prophet would come who was like Moses. God asked Israel to hear Him (Deuteronomy 18:15, Matthew 17:5, Acts 7:37). That “prophet” was Jesus and, in John 2:1-25, Jesus performed His first sign, which itself pointed back to the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt.
The river Nile was a key resource and a deity for the Egyptians. One of the plagues was directed at the river—the changing of its waters to blood. At Cana, Jesus performed a similar miracle but, instead of turning water into blood, He turned it into wine.
The water came from six water pots used for purification purposes in Jewish rituals, linking the miracle even more closely to biblical themes of salvation. By recounting the incident of changing the water to wine, and thus referring back to the Exodus, John was pointing to Jesus as our Deliverer.
What did the master of the feast think of the unfermented wine that Jesus provided? He was indeed surprised by the quality of the drink and, not knowing the miracle that Jesus had performed there, thought that they had saved the best for last.
The Greek term oinos is used both for fresh and fermented grape juice (see The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Dictionary, p. 1177). Ellen G. White states that the juice produced by the miracle was not alcoholic (see “At the Marriage Feast,” The Desire of Ages, p. 149). No doubt, those who knew what happened were astonished at what had taken place.
What are your reasons for following Jesus? (We have been given many, haven’t we?)
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