The traditional catalog of seven is: 1) the water changed into wine (2:11); 2) the healing of the nobleman’s son (4:54); 3) healing the man at Bethesda; 4) feeding the 5000; 5) walking on water; 6) healing the blind man; and 7) raising of Lazarus. See, for example, Merrill C. Tenney, “Topics from the Gospel of John, Part II: The Meaning of the Signs,” Bibliotheca Sacra 132 (1975), 147-154. These are the ones narrated in some detail; Brown, John, p. cxxxix. While in Jerusalem between sign one (2:11) and sign two (4:54) Jesus performed many signs (2:23) showing that the emphasis is upon signs one and two occurring in Cana. Those who disavow 2:23 as signs either attribute the comment to the redactor rather than the sign source, or disregard the significance, so Brown, p. 528. The best explanation is, however, that neither early or late versions of the gospel envision a seven sign limitation. Some disagree with this list of seven signs. John Marsh and Stephen Smalley, amongst others, have suggested six initial signs (seeing the walking on the water as part of feeding the 5000, rather than a separate sign in itself), and that the seventh sign is the crucifixion of Jesus and the resurrection appearance to Thomas (20:26–29). [5]

Six thousand miles away, President Truman sat in the Oval Office reading a statement. He signed his approval and noted the time: 6:10 p.m. One minute later, the White House press secretary read the release to the world. The United States had officially recognized the birth of the modern nation of Israel. Many of the signs posted along our modern roads are informational; they tell us what we need to know. Interstate 5 San Diego, for example. Or Exit 74, 5 Miles. Other signs are invitational; they seek to capture our attention and pique our interest. Think of signs such as Welcome to Texas or Great Food This Exit! Some of the most important signs we encounter on our highways are warning signs; they alert us to possible dangers on the road ahead. I pay attention whenever I see a sign marked Detour, for example, or Right Lane Closed. While the Qur'an itself is a unitary, coherent source of knowledge, there is not a single Qur'anic message. The Qur'an - like all sacred literature - requires study. The act of studying its form, content and transmission over time is called interpretation. For the Qur'an, as for the Torah or the Bible, interpretation requires a form of human labour inseparable from the conscious or unconscious decisions of the labourer. Each interpreter must choose. Each must follow a principle of interpretation. No matter who the interpreter, no matter the time or place from which she or he looks at the Qur'an, certain themes, issues and accents will be selected and emphasised over others. The major difference is between narrow and broad selection of Qur'anic texts - or, more precisely, between taking certain verses and passages out of context rather than viewing them in their full context when making claims about a normative Islamic world-view.An epic and authoritative guide to biblical prophecy, The Book of Signs is a must-have resource for Christians seeking to navigate the uncertainties of the present and embrace God’s promises for the future with a renewed sense of hope and purpose. Collins, “The First of His Signs,” p. 89. “He is contrasting the old era of God’s gifts to his people, the era of the Jewish dispensation, with the new era of Jesus’ messianic gifts to the people, effected in the hour of his glorification.” Cf. Ernst Haenchen, John (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984) I, p. 179. The term land... used in the Bible, means exactly what it says. It is not talking about heaven. It is talking about a piece of real estate in the Middle East. After all, if all God was promising Abraham was heaven, he could have stayed in Ur of the Chaldees. Why go on the long journey? Why be a pilgrim and a wanderer? No, God meant land. ⁹ During my years as a pastor, I have been asked many times whether I believe Israel’s return to its land fulfills all the biblical prophecies concerning its future. What people are really asking is this: Now that Israel is restored to its land, is this the end? The promise to Abraham is an everlasting promise because it is an unconditional covenant based on the grace and sovereignty of almighty God. There may be delays, postponements, and chastisements, but an eternal covenant cannot be abrogated by a God who cannot deny Himself. WHY DID GOD CHOOSE ISRAEL?

Today we see this prophecy being fulfilled right before our eyes. In 2006, Israel became home to the largest Jewish community in the world. From the 650,000 who returned when the Jewish state was founded in 1948, the population of Israel is expected to exceed 20 million by 2065. ¹⁴ Terms such as these are both fascinating and frightening for any student of God’s Word. They point to key questions people have wrestled with for centuries, including:Midrash Mekilta on Exod 15:26 J 16 Jesus Goes from Galilee to Jerusalem (John 7:1-13; Aland # 238-39)

In the context already established in John, the events at the wedding established with additional clarity that Jesus was the “Word become flesh,” the “only Son from the Father,” (1:14). His glory was manifested (2:11), that is, his divinity, the same as when God tented among his people in the past, pinpointed by the presence of his glory (Exodus 40:34-38).

In the second verse of God’s covenant with Abraham, He said, I will make you a great nation. The ultimate greatness of the nation of Israel awaits the Millennium, but by all the common standards of evaluation, Israel is a great nation today. Professor Amnon Rubinstein gives us an impressive summary of Israel’s national achievements: We think Smalley, “Recent Studies,” p. 104. is essentially correct, “. . . we can allocate . . . three major steps in its composition: stage 1, the apostle John in Palestine transmits his version of the Jesus tradition to his immediate circle of disciples; stage 2, the Johannine group, with the apostle, moves to Ephesus, and the fourth evangelist begins a first draft of the Gospel, at which point the distinctiveness of the Johannine account of the Christian gospel begins to emerge; and stage 3, after the death of John, the beloved disciple, the Fourth Gospel is redacted, authenticated and published by the Johannine church.” The seven signs are seen by some scholars and theologians as evidence of new creation theology in the Gospel of John, the resurrection of Jesus being the implied eighth sign, indicating a week of creation and then a new creation beginning with the resurrection. [4] Other lists of seven signs [ edit ] Because this was Yahweh’s sovereign covenant with Abram, not an agreement between equals, symbols of God (a smoking oven and a burning torch) passed between those pieces; Abram did not. The LORD made the covenant with no conditions—independent of Abram—and He would fulfill it in His time. ⁷

With people for whom signs create belief one discovers a curiosity, an openness to the prospect that there is more to the specific word or action than meets the eye. Behind and beyond this physical event are powers reaching in from God himself. The steward had cause for wonderment, but he knew little about the chain of events. The servants knew from where the liquid in the jars came, but they knew little about Jesus. The disciples, however, were primed with expectancy. They were open. “His disciples believed in him,” (2:11). Their faith had now reached a higher plateau. This was not yet the apex, but they were launched. 37 Even after the resurrection, signs from earlier moments etched indelibly on the memory, additionally deepened faith (2:18-21). It was the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s rule over Babylon. Although all the king’s enemies were subdued or in captivity, he nevertheless was anxious about the future. His anxiety stemmed from a dream sent to him by God—a nightmare he could not understand, though he sensed its ominous implications. So the king called in his counselors. Since he had forgotten important details of the dream, he demanded that his counselors not only interpret the nightmare but also give him a vivid description of it. In a powerful speech to the United Nations General Assembly on October 1, 2015, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu summarized the miraculous preservation of the Jewish people: Isa 35:6 LXX J 9 A Second Galilean Sign: The Healing of a Royal Official’s Son (John 4:43-54; Aland # 32, 85)Through Abraham, God gave His written Word to the world. With the possible exceptions of Luke and Acts, every book of the Bible was authored by a Jewish writer. ¹³ And through Abraham, God gave His Son to the world, blessing all humanity with the means of escaping the grip of sin and death, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith (Gal. 3:14). All the other promises in God’s covenant with Abraham are in support of this one universal promise that affects every person who has ever lived. AN ETERNAL COVENANT We now turn to the surprising presence of these stages in the encounters of Jesus with Nathanael, Nicodemus, and the Samaritan woman at the well, but developing at length only the latter. On John's grounds, extraordinary statements during the encounters qualify at minimum as faith inciters, but we are justified, we think, in perceiving them as signs even though scholars with empirical predilections locate the signs in action rather than in words. 40 Kysar paves the way by noting that the path to faith involves hearing as well as seeing, 41 but he fails to follow through, identifying as signs only actions which may be seen. When I first began studying prophecy, I remember reading an offbeat little rhyme about Israel by British journalist William Norman Ewer: How odd of God to choose the Jews. When you think about it, this poetic quip expresses a valid observation. Doesn’t it seem a little odd that of all the people on earth, God selected these particular people to be His chosen nation? Why would God choose the Jews? As the text now stands, Andrew affirmed that Jesus is Messiah, though earlier he had called him Rabbi. Other disciples attached themselves to Jesus; one unnamed (1:35-41), as well as Peter, Philip and Nathanael. It is these disciples and perhaps others who were invited to the wedding in Cana. Since the disciples are the ones singled out, we need to focus on them.