Nathanael-How Did He See Me Under The Fig Tree?

By Mary Vee
John 1

From the Apostle Nathanael's Notes

Photo Courtey

My name is Nathanael. I'd finished mending my nets for today and was taking a break by sitting under a fig tree. The shade felt good. The breeze felt good too.

I must have fallen asleep because I woke and found Philip shaking my shoulder. Philip and I have been friends a long time.

Anyway, he shook my shoulder and told me to wake up. He rambled on about seeing some man and how he wanted me to go with him to see this person.

Not likely. I wanted to rest before taking the boat out to fish tonight.

"Nathanael, I'm telling you this is for real. I heard him."

"Heard who?"

"I saw Peter and Andrew walking with a man." Philip laughed. "I spoke with the man. It's him!"

"Him who?" This was getting annoying.

"Nathanael, we have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and the prophets wrote about later. He is here! It's Jesus of Nazareth. The son of Joseph the carpenter."

"You have to be kidding me. Nazareth? Can anything good come from there?" I didn't mean Nazareth was a bad city. It just, well, Nazareth is off the main road and on the other side of the mountains. They don't keep up with the times in anything. Food. Clothes. All the new ways of doing things. Nazareth is just a small nothing of a city.

Philip put his hands on his hips. "All right then. Come and see." 

I had to admit, Philip was pretty determined and he was my friend. So, I dragged myself up to a stand and walked with him. "Where are we going?"

"Just a little farther. Hurry. I don't want him to leave before we get there." Philip sped up the pace. 

Just because he was my friend, and only because he was my friend, I walked faster.

We stopped near a small group of men. I saw Peter and Andrew and greeted them. There was a man standing with them that I did not recognize. He looked at me and said, "Ahh, now here is a true Israelite in whom there is nothing false."

How strange. He acted like we'd met before. "How do yo know me?"

Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip woke you and asked you to go with him."

That was all I needed to hear. I believed what Philip said earlier right then. "Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel." I hardly knew what to do. Should I bow? Should I fall to the ground? Should I...I didn't know.

Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that." 

I was very curious what he meant by that. 

Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, you will see heaven open, and the angels of God going up and coming down to the Son of Man."

He definitely had my interest. And yes I did believe this man was the Messiah. I just never imagined that I would live to see him. Yet there He was.



Come back for the next story.

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sources: 
*A Harmony of the Gospels for Historical Study, An Analytical Synopsis of the Four Gospels by William Arnold Stevens and Ernest DeWitt Burton, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1932
*New International Version, New King James Version. 
*My Bible College training.
*My notes and walk through classes I've taught in Children's church. Answers to student questions, etc.
*Pastoral sermons on this time
*Matthew Henry Commentary
*F. LaGard Smith Commentary