John 7:52, Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee

Here is a challenge the Pharisees make to Nicodemus. And my heart was led to accept the challenge. I did what they said, search the scriptures. My bible reference note led me to 2 Kings 14:25 

2 Kings 14:25 (ESV): He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.

Here I recognized the name Jonah but asked is that the Jonah and the whale, Jonah? Running from God Jonah? 8 word message and the whole city gets saved Jonah?

Jonah 1:1 (ESV): Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,

So then I found in Jonah 1:1, the same description not just a generic Jonah, but the same thing “Jonah the son of Amittai”. It was at this point my mind immediately thought of how Jesus spoke of Jonah and why He spoke of him.

Matthew 12:38–41 (ESV): Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

When Jesus spoke about Jonah, He was dealing with a people that refused to hear God’s present word and was walking in rebellion to Him, He was dealing with them wanting a sign, and He was prophesying to what the fulfilling of God’s way of salvation would look like. In other words, He is giving them a sign to remember when it happens, so they can know that He told them what would happen and how it would happen beforehand and in that, they would know He was Who He said He was.

My next question from text was where is Gath-hepher?

2 Kings 14:25 (ESV): He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.

So I found a map searching for Gath-Hepher. I was familiar with where Nazareth and Capernaum were from previous studies of the terrain, like the “Feeding of the 5000” and the Matt. 4:13, reference of where it says when Jesus started His ministry, He left Nazareth and went and lived in Capernaum. This is connected to the “Feeding of the 5000” because John 6:24, says when they lost Jesus, they went back to Capernaum to find Him. That makes sense because that is where He lived and eventually would come back to. The above picture reveals a few important and interesting things.

It points out how close Gath-Hepher was to Nazareth. For 30, years Jesus would have lived in and area that was very familiar with the prophet Jonah. 5 km apart from one another and Gath-Hepher was on 1 km from Cana where Jesus turned water into wine. 

And one other verse that came up in my study for consideration was Isa. 9:1-2, which is quoted in the Matt. 4:13-16 passage. The Isaiah prophecy was directions for the religious leaders of John 7:52. If they were to take their own advice to “search the scriptures” this is a text that says a day is coming when a great light will dawn on the region of Galilee. Whether that be a prophet or the Christ, either way they were clearly in error for not accurately doing what they was challenging Nicodemus to do.

A final observation is just that Isa. 9:1-2, references The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, 2 of the tribes of Israel. The below image is a territory map of the 12 tribes, and it shows essentially where Jesus spent most of His life. Another way that the scriptures were pointing to a reality that the leaders were not aware of. If you compare the two maps and look at the mountain ranges, you can determine that Nazareth and Gath-Hepher was in Zebulun and Capernaum was in Naphtali.

In the 12 tribes of Israel unpacked in Gen. 29 and 30, we see 4 women. Leah and her servant Zilpah and Rachel and her servant Bilhah . Leah has 4 sons, then Rachael gets Bilhah her servant involved producing the 5th and 6th son to Jacob. The 6th son was Naphtali. After this Leah got her servant involved Zilpah and she produce the 7th and 8th son. Then after Rachel and Leah got into it over some mandrakes Rachel gave Jacob to Leah where she conceived 2 more times producing the 9th and 10th son, with the 10th being Zebulun. Finally Rachel had children to produce the 11th and 12th tribes of Israel.

I hope this was a fun Bible journey for you and puts some of the pieces of scripture we have together in a way that more clearly paints the awesomeness of the work of the God of the Bible.