All who are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and come out.

What a moment that was when the Lord, looking up to heaven, stood before Lazarus' open tomb!

All was quiet inside the cave, for death was there; and all must have been quiet outside, while the Son of God prayed to His Father in heaven.

The first sentence shows His faith. “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.” (John 11:41)

The next showed His confidence in His Father's love — “I know that You always hear Me.” (v. 42)

The last displayed His own love to sinful people — “Because of the crowd standing here I said this, so they may believe You sent Me.”

He knew their unbelief, and He wanted to convince them that He and the Father were One.

Who can conceive the breathless expectation that filled every heart when He uttered the words, “Lazarus, come out?” (v. 43)

If that voice had not been obeyed, it would have been little wonder that the sisters had never again seen their brother; the hopes of all the dead, the hopes of all the living, the hopes of future generations, were hanging on the event of that moment.

Had no movement been heard in that tomb, then all the dead would have slept forever.

But now we know that all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and come out; those who have done good things, to the resurrection of life.

They shall come out as Lazarus did; not like him to die again, but to live forever.

They shall come out, not wrapped in burial clothes, but robed in white; not with muffled faces, but with faces shining like the sun at midday.

John has not described the meeting of Lazarus with his sisters and with his Lord; we may try to imagine the joyous greetings, and it is possible for us to conceive the joy of that loving family; but it is impossible for us to form any idea of the meeting of the saints above, with each other and with their Lord.

Lazarus found his sisters the same as he had left them, and they found him the same mortal creature as before. But one day every saint will regard his companion with delighted surprise.

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