John 7:2-5

7:2

The Feast of Tabernacles was one of the main Jewish Festivals, Passover and Pentecost being the others. It had a dual purpose. One was that it came around harvest time, but the primary purpose was that it reminded the Jews of the time that God had led them through the wilderness and they had lived in tents, so for the festival they lived in tents again. God had looked after them while they were in the wilderness, providing for all their needs, even when it looked it impossible. This is a reminder that it is God who provides. For each of us it is the Lord who provides for us. Sometimes our circumstances are easy, at others they are very difficult even threatening. Whatever the circumstances we should rejoice and dwell in safety, for the Lord is the same each day and His faithfulness endures forever.

7:3-5

His brothers did not believe at this point. Indeed throughout His earthly ministry they failed to understand what He was about. There were words perhaps contain a mocking tone to them, something along the lines of “if you think you are so good ....” So they urged him to go to Judea and do some miracles there then he could get a really big following. Now we need to realise that getting a big following was not the goal. Jesus came to do the will of the Father. The most important part of that at this stage was His going to the cross. Of course, Jesus did many miracles, but the overall purpose was not the same as his brothers thought it was. John adds verse 5 to stress to his hearers that there was nothing unusual about people not believing in Jesus.