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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
‘The people therefore, that stood by … An angel spake to Him.’
Joh_12:29
There are voices of God still speaking to us, and according to our spiritual readiness we hear them or let them pass.
I. The voice of Providence.—Illness comes; bereavement comes; happiness comes. To none the voice is wanting, but to some the ear.
II. The voice of Nature.—The glories and wonders of day and night. But this voice is a sound of awe, without a message to him who knows not the God of grace.
III. The voice in our hearts.—The restlessness, the ache, the reaching-out of empty hands to grope for we know not what. To many these are rebels that must be crushed. But some know the meaning of such voices, and cry out, ‘My soul is athirst for God.’ To them Christ will give rest.
IV. The voice of the Gospel.—To some this is an empty sound; they hear the voice, and seek to know what it is. Others seek no Gospel; content without a God. To the best of us how far less meaning does this voice convey than we ought to discern in it!
‘He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.’
—
Bishop Chadwick.
Illustration‘The reason why persons so seldom hear God speaking, and sometimes even go the length of doubting whether He does speak nowadays, is that they do not go to Him with a mind prepared to receive everything He says, and so ask Him to speak to them. When they read the Scriptures, they do not read them without a bias; they are determined to cleave to their old ways and habits of life, though the Scriptures should forbid them; and, as to their religious opinions, they have made up their mind upon those before they go to the Bible, and whatever the Bible may seem to say, they do not mean to change them. Or, if they think of praying to God for guidance in any perplexity, they pray with some secret inclination to one line of action, or some secret aversion to another, and are not perfectly open and ready to take any line whatever which God may indicate. Let not such persons think that they shall ever hear God’s voice. He is a searcher of the heart.… We must go to Him with singleness of purpose, really bent upon carrying His will into effect, however hard the doing so may be to flesh and blood, if we desire the guidance of His wisdom.’
A DIVIDED CROWD
I. A severe trial (it must have been) to the men of His generation to believe on the Lord. Why did God so disguise Himself as the carpenter’s son? Why did He not reveal Himself so that all might recognise Him? In reply to these queries see that to have done so would have (1) violated the whole order of the universe, would have overturned the whole principle of God’s dealings with men. That principle is to try men and to prove them. We are sent into the world for a probation of our faith and obedience; and (2) there is no reason to think that any wonder in heaven above or earth beneath could have altogether prevented unbelief. Here comes in text. Men of our Lord’s day wanted proof; but what proof could be greater than a voice from heaven?
II. Upon all the verities of God the multitude, from the first Advent until now, have been divided. See how it is now with ourselves—
(a) The coming of Christ to judge the world. Large numbers wholly disbelieve; large numbers still practically disbelieve.
(b) The Church of Christ. It is the very Kingdom of the Eternal Son, God’s own Household, to forsake which is to forsake Him. Yet half of those who hear the Creed, ‘I believe in the Holy Catholic Church,’ believe not. To some it is the truth of God; to others it is nothing.
(c) How is it with the Sacraments? Baptism and the Lord’s Supper? To some a source of spiritual thought; to others a common thing, neglected, forgotten.
III. With whom shall we range ourselves?—The whole world, every parish, every family divided between those whose ear is opened, and those whose ear is stopped, to the voice from heaven. The voice is speaking even now.
—
Bishop Woodford.
Illustration‘This verse apparently is meant to describe the various opinions of the crowd which stood around our Lord, about the voice which spoke to Him. Some who were standing at some little distance, and were not listening very attentively, said it thundered. Others, who were standing close by, and paying great attention, declared that an invisible being, an angel, must have spoken. Both parties entirely agreed on one point. Something uncommon had happened. An extraordinary noise had been heard, which to some sounded like thunder and to others like words. But nobody said they heard nothing at all. That the voice must have been very loud seems proved by the supposition that it was “thunder.” That the reality and existence of angels formed part of the popular creed of the Jews seems proved by the readiness of some to take up the idea that an angel had spoken. Some think that the Greeks, not knowing the Hebrew langage in which probably the voice spoke, fancied the voice was thunder, and the Jews of the crowd thought it an angel’s voice.’