<p>14:1- see on 17:3.</p><p><i>Do not let your heart be disturbed- </i>John has used this very phrase for a troubled or &quot;disturbed&quot; heart in describing the stress felt by the Lord as He faced the eternal issues of human salvation which were before Him (11:33; 12:27; 13:21). That is enough emphasis for us to safely conclude that the Lord meant- and means- that He is taking our stress and &quot;trouble&quot; about salvation onto Himself, and we need not worry about. For all the issues concerning whether we shall be saved were carried by Him. And it is surely alluded to when He urges them after His resurrection not to be &quot;troubled&quot; (Lk. 24:38). &quot;Let not your heart be troubled&quot; is an allusion to 1 Sam. 17:32, where Israel were not to fear Goliath because of the salvation which would be achieved through David.</p><p><i>Believe in God, believe also in me</i>- For first century Jews, belief in God was taken as natural and normal. If they believe that He is from the Father and one with the Father in a functional sense, then they should believe also in Him. And the belief in view is faith in salvation (see on :1).</p><p>The Lord's goodbye address in Jn. 14-16 has many connections with those of Moses and Joshua, in which they expressed fear that after their death there would be a mass falling away within Israel, and their guise of spirituality would give way due to their lack of a real faith. This further indicates the weakness of the disciples. Our Lord's speech was shot through with doubt of the twelve and recognition of the weakness of the disciples, which needs tabulating to show its full force:</p><div align=center><table border=0 cellspacing=12 cellpadding=0 width=80%>    <tbody>        <tr>            <td width=5% valign=top>            <p>14</p>            </td>            <td width=7% valign=top>            <p>:2</p>            </td>            <td width=88%>            <p>&quot;If   it were not so&quot; - implying they doubted</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td>            <p>&quot;If   I go... I will come again&quot; - using logic to answer their implied doubt.</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>:5</p>            </td>            <td>            <p>&quot;We   know not whither Thou goest&quot;</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>:7</p>            </td>            <td>            <p>&quot;If   ye had known me&quot;</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>:9</p>            </td>            <td>            <p>&quot;Have   I been so long with you, and yet hast thou not known me?&quot;</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>:10,11</p>            </td>            <td>            <p>&quot;Believest   thou?... believe me&quot;</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>:14</p>            </td>            <td>            <p>&quot;If   ye shall ask...&quot;</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>:15</p>            </td>            <td>            <p>&quot;If   ye love me... if ye loved me, ye would rejoice...if a man love me&quot;   (v.28,23)</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>15</p>            </td>            <td valign=top>            <p>:4</p>            </td>            <td>            <p>&quot;Abide   in me... no more can ye, except ye abide in me... without me ye can do   nothing...if ye abide in me&quot;</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>:9,14,15</p>            </td>            <td>            <p>&quot;Continue   ye... ye are my friends, if ye...I have called you friends&quot; - implying   'But you've got to live up to it'.</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>:17</p>            </td>            <td>            <p>&quot;These   things I command you&quot; - emphatic, desperate warning</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>:20</p>            </td>            <td>            <p>&quot;Remember   the word&quot;</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>16</p>            </td>            <td valign=top>            <p>:1</p>            </td>            <td>            <p>&quot;That   ye should not be offended&quot;</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>:5</p>            </td>            <td>            <p>&quot;None   of you asketh me, Whither goest Thou?&quot; - implying Jesus was disappointed   that they hadn't. &quot;Sorrow hath filled your heart&quot; (v.6) seems a   similar rebuke.</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>:24</p>            </td>            <td>            <p>&quot;Hitherto   have ye asked nothing in my name; ask...&quot;</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td valign=top>            <p>:31</p>            </td>            <td>            <p>&quot;Do   ye now believe? (said almost sarcastically)... ye shall be scattered, every   man to his own, and shall leave me alone&quot; - cp. Joshua and Moses   questioning Israel whether their commitment was really what they claimed, and   warning that after their death they would soon fall away.</p>            </td>        </tr>    </tbody></table></div><p>&ldquo;Let not your heart be troubled&hellip; neither let it be afraid&rdquo; (:1,27) repeats Moses&rsquo; final encouragement to Israel to &ldquo;fear not, neither be dismayed&rdquo; (Dt. 31:8; 1:21,29; 7:18). Inheritance of the Kingdom was assured- if they believed.</p><p>I think it is worth all of us pausing to ask the most basic question: Do we <i>really</i> believe that God exists? &quot;Those who say that they believe in God and yet neither love nor fear him, do not in fact believe in him but in those who have taught them that God exists. Those who believe that they believe in God, but without any passion in their heart, any anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, without an element of despair even in their consolation, believe only in the God-idea, not in God&quot;. The Jews must have been shocked when the Lord told them to &quot;believe in God&quot; (Jn. 14:1 RVmg.). For there were no atheists amongst them. What the Lord Jesus was saying was that their faith was in the God-idea, not in the real God. For if they believed the Father, they would accept His Son. We must ask whether we feel any real passion for Him, any true emotion, any sense of spiritual crisis, of radical motivation&hellip;&nbsp; See on Acts 16:34.</p><p>There are many other references in the Upper Room discourse to Moses- without doubt, Moses was very much in the Lord&rsquo;s mind as He faced His end. Consider at your leisure how Jn. 14:1 = Ex. 14:31; Jn. 14:11 = Ex. 14:8. When the Lord speaks in the Upper Room of manifesting the Father and Himself unto the disciples (Jn. 14:21,22), He is alluding to the way that Moses asked God to &ldquo;manifest Yourself unto me&rdquo; (Ex. 33:18 LXX). The Lord&rsquo;s allusion makes Himself out to be God&rsquo;s representative, and all those who believe in Him to be as Moses, receiving the vision of God&rsquo;s glory. Note that it was that very experience above all others which marks off Moses in Rabbinic writings as supreme and beyond all human equal. And yet the Lord is teaching that that very experience of Moses is to be shared <i>to an even higher degree</i> by all His followers. It would&rsquo;ve taken real faith and spiritual ambition for those immature men who listened to the Lord that evening to really believe it&hellip; And the same difficult call comes to us too.</p><p>The command not to be troubled is also an allusion to &ldquo;Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them&rdquo; (Dt. 1:41). Yet the contrast is with Moses, who fain would have gone ahead into the promised land to prepare the place, but was unable.</p>