When Jesus first heard about Lazarus, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God.” He had that unique, wonderful faculty, the power and the faith of relating a dead man in the tomb, one who had been there for four days, and all that impossible situation, to the glory of God.
Everyone wants to relate something that is particularly victorious to the glory of God, but He related a seemingly impossible situation to His glory. Why? Because He had spintual perspective. He did not look at the tomb nor the stone, but He looked at the glory of God and said, “Father, this relates to Your glory,”
because He had faith and proper perspective and vision not to be overcome by the stone or the tomb. He looked straight past the tomb and past the dead man and saw the entire situation related to the will of God. In the economy of God it is related. Yes, even a dead man is in the plan of God, in His pattern and purpose, and will yet speak of His glory.
Can you relate your dead man that way? I refer to the one you have in the tomb and are worried about. I am not speaking of a man with two arms and two legs: I am talking in riddles. I am speaking of the man you want resurrected as soon as possible. Have you come to the place where you have a Lazarus? Your Lazarus? Have you faith to relate him to God and to His glory, or are you still under the power of looking at a dead man?
Then, a little later, when He met the sisters, the word He gave to them was, “Thy brother shall live.” Isn’t that a positive statement of truth? Would you want anything more clear? He does not beat all around the bush, speaking in mystical language, but He states very plainly, “Thy brother shall live.” So the “Said I not” referred to that. That is the thing He said, the truth He had given, that is what He had in mind relative to this terrible tragedy. His idea, His pur pose, and His promise were that Lazarus should live.