John 10:39 - Meaning and Application

Here we have the result of Jesus’ discussion with the Jews. One might have expected it to convince them and soften their hearts, but they remained hardened. We are told how they attacked him with force. “They were seeking again to seize him” (John 10:39).

They did this, first, because he had fully answered their charge of blasphemy and cleared himself of it. They could not, with any shame, keep trying to stone him, so they planned to arrest him and charge him as an enemy of the state. When a crowd had stopped their earlier attempt, they tried to see what they could do through legal means. See (Revelation 12:13). Or, second, because he kept speaking the same witness about himself, they kept their malice against him. What he had said before, he was still saying in effect, because a faithful witness does not back away from what he has once said. So, with the same offense in their eyes, they showed the same hatred, and they justified one attempt to stone him with another attempt to seize him. That is the nature of a persecuting spirit, and its policy is to cover one evil act with another, so the first one will not be exposed.

Here also we see how he escaped them by leaving. This was not a shameful retreat, as if there were anything weak or human about it, but a noble withdrawal, showing great divine power. He got away from them not because some friend stepped in to help him, but by his own wisdom. He drew a veil over himself, or put a mist before their eyes, or restrained the hands of those whose hearts he did not change. No weapon formed against the Lord Jesus will succeed (Psalm 2:4). He escaped, not because he feared suffering, but because his hour had not yet come. And the one who knew how to deliver himself surely knows how to deliver godly people from temptation and make a way of escape for them.

We also see how he used his time in retirement. “He went away again beyond the Jordan” (John 10:40). The shepherd of our souls did not come to stay in one place, but to move from place to place, doing good. This great helper was never out of place, because wherever he went there was work to do. Jerusalem was the royal city, yet he often made kind visits to the countryside, not only in Galilee, his own region, but also in other places, even those far beyond the Jordan.

Notice, first, the shelter he found there. He went into a quiet part of the country and stayed there. There he found some rest, when he could find none in Jerusalem. Even if persecutors drive Christ and his gospel out of their own city or land, they cannot drive him out of the world. Jerusalem was not gathered, and would not be, yet Christ remained glorious and would continue to be so. His going beyond the Jordan also pointed ahead to the kingdom of God being taken from the Jews and given to the Gentiles. Christ and his gospel have often found better welcome among plain country people than among the wise, powerful, and noble (1 Corinthians 1:26-27).

Notice, second, the success he found there. He did not go there only to protect himself, but to do good there. He chose to go where John had first baptized (John 1:28), because some impressions of John’s ministry and baptism would still remain in that area and prepare people to receive Christ and his teaching. It was not yet three years since John had been baptizing there, and Jesus himself had been baptized at Bethabara. Christ came there to see what fruit remained from all the work John the Baptist had done among them, and what they still remembered from what they had heard and received.

The result was, in part, what might be hoped. Many came to him (John 10:41). When the means of grace return to a place after being absent for a while, they often stir people deeply. Some think Christ stayed at Bethabara, the “house of passage,” where the ferryboats crossed the Jordan, so that crowds coming and going there could hear him. In this way, many who would not have gone out of their way to hear him could still listen when it came naturally in their path.

They also spoke well of him and looked for reasons to believe in him, while the people in Jerusalem looked for objections. They said wisely, “John did no miracle, but everything John said about this man was true.” They thought about two things as they remembered what they had seen and heard from John and compared it with Christ’s ministry. First, Christ was far greater than John the Baptist’s power, because John did no miracle, but Jesus did many. From this it is easy to see that Jesus is greater than John. And if John was such a great prophet, how great must Jesus be! Christ is best known and honored when compared with others, because that comparison shows him to be far above them. Although John came in the spirit and power of Elijah, he did not work miracles like Elijah did, so people would not be left unsure between him and Jesus. Instead, the honor of miracles was kept for Jesus as a crown jewel, giving clear and unmistakable proof that, though he came after John, he was greater than John.

Second, Christ fully matched John’s witness about him. John not only did no miracle to pull people away from Christ, but he said much to lead them to Christ and hand them over to him, as it were, like apprentices to their master. This now came back to their minds. Everything John said about this man was true, that he would be the Lamb of God and would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. John had said great things about him, which had raised their expectations. So although they had not been eager enough to go into his own country to look for him, once he came into their land and brought his gospel to their doors, they admitted that he was everything John had said he would be. When we become personally acquainted with Christ, and know him by experience, we find that everything Scripture says about him is true. More than that, the reality is greater than the report (1 Kings 10:6-7).

John the Baptist was now dead and gone, yet his hearers still benefited from what they had heard earlier. By comparing what they had heard then with what they now saw, they gained a double benefit. First, they were confirmed in their belief that John was a prophet, since he foretold such things and spoke of the greatness Jesus would reach, even though his beginning seemed so small. Second, they were prepared to believe that Jesus was the Christ, because they saw in him what John had predicted. From this we learn that the success and power of preached truth do not end with the preacher’s life, nor do they stop when he dies. What seemed like water spilled on the ground may later be gathered up again (Zechariah 1:5-6).

And in that place many believed on him.

Believing that the one who worked such miracles, and in whom John’s predictions were fulfilled, was truly what he said he was, the Son of God, many gave themselves to him as his disciples (John 10:42). We should notice two things here. First, many believed in him. Those who received and embraced his teaching in Jerusalem were only like the few grapes left after a harvest, but those who believed in the country beyond the Jordan were like a full harvest gathered in for him.

Second, we should notice where this happened. It was in the place where John had preached and baptized, and where he had great success. There many believed in the Lord Jesus. Where the message of repentance has already been received well, the message of reconciliation, meaning peace with God through the gospel, is often received well too. Where John has been welcomed, Jesus will not be unwelcome. The trumpet of the jubilee sounds sweetest to those who, on the day of atonement, have humbled themselves over their sin.