Late on the first Easter Sunday, after the Lord had risen from the sepulcher, ten of the disciples gathered for the evening in the upper room of a house in Jerusalem (John 20). They were afraid and probably confused. Since their leader had been crucified by the Roman power, as organized by their own Jewish leaders, they feared that now his followers might also be hunted down and punished. They closed and locked the doors. Were any of the women there? The story does not say, but Peter and John were, who saw and talked with the angels that morning, and the stories of the women were known. Some time must have been spent wondering and perhaps arguing - was He really alive? How could they know it was really Him? This kind of thing, coming back to life after you’re dead, this doesn’t happen in this real world, there must be some mistake!

Then two of the followers, not of the twelve, but the two that had gone to the village of Emmaus, came in, excited and bursting with their news. They had seen Him! They had walked with Him for seven miles and He had told them wondrous things! They had only recognized Him when He broke bread and ate with them. "Don’t doubt us, it really was Jesus!"

And then as they all talked and argued, there He was, standing with them in the room. "Peace be unto you," He said, and He showed them His hands and feet and His side, where he was wounded. He calmed them, and told them that just as he had come down to mankind, so they must go out and teach to all people all the true things that He had taught in the years He was with them.

It was these truths about how to live one’s life that were saving, not the disciples themselves. These saving truths have the power to remit or retain sins, because they were from the Lord, the disciples only transmitted them from the Lord to those who would listen and take them to heart. Then He breathed on them - representing His holy spirit - so that they would not only want to pass these truths on to people, but would also be given the words to say whenever the times came. And then He was gone again.

Thomas was not there that night. We don’t know why. And Thomas, when he heard the story, just could not swallow it. "Except I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe", he said. (John 20:25.)

The next verse tells us that the next Sunday they gathered again, and that Thomas was present this time. As before, the Lord was suddenly there, saying again, "Peace be unto you", and then directly to Thomas, "Reach hither thy finger… and reach hither thy hand… and be not faithless but believing". Now Thomas's response was, "my Lord and my God". It seems as if the Lord came this time just to convince Thomas, because it was Thomas who needed Him.

I think He does work this way. I am reminded of another story, from the gospel of Mark (Mark 9:17-27) where a father comes to Jesus with a young son who is possessed by a devil, and asks Jesus to cure him, and is asked in turn: "Do you believe I can do this?" In Mark 9:24 the father responds. Crying out, he said with tears, "I believe, help thou my unbelief."

I think many people have this conflict between lingering doubts and a desire to have the doubts taken away. If we carry on and make our decisions in life as if the doubts were indeed gone, then indeed they will lose their strength and actually will be gone.

These are the only details given of these two meetings in Jerusalem. Chronologically the next post-Easter stories are the ones that take place in Galilee.

John does go on to say at the end of his gospel "...many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this book. But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God...." (John 20:30-31). Perhaps there were more post-Easter stories that weren't written down, but the ones we do have are strong. For the disciples who were involved, there was an unstoppable impact from the life and teachings of the Lord, and His crucifixion, and physical death, and now - in these stories - His resurrection. Hearing the Lord's charges to them, these Galilean fishermen and their colleagues launch out into the wide world, and work to achieve the Great Commission, enduring hardships and persecution, and succeeding - probably beyond their wildest dreams!

7463. 'And Moses said, Behold, I go out from you' means the removal of the appearance of God's truth among them. This is clear from the representation of 'Moses' as the law of God, dealt with in 6723, 6752, thus God's truth also, 7014, 7381; and from the meaning of 'going out' as a removal, as above in 7404. For 'Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron' means the presence of God's truth, 7451, and therefore 'going out from him' here means a removal. In considering the presence and removal of God's truth among the evil, one should realize that truth from God sometimes appears to them, and that it does so through the presence of an angel near them. But with them truth from God does not come in by way of their interiors, as it does with the good, because their interiors are closed. It has an effect only on their exteriors. When this happens they are filled with fear and consequently self-abasement, for the presence of truth from God perturbs them and strikes fear into them that is like the fear of death. But when the truth from God is removed they return to their previous state of mind and have no fear. This is what is meant by the presence of the appearance of God's truth and its removal. It was also represented by Pharaoh, by his self-abasement while Moses was present with him, and his promise to send the people away to sacrifice to Jehovah, and by his 'making his heart stubborn after Moses had gone out from him', verse 28. For as shown above, 'Moses' represented the law of God or God's truth.

[2] The law of God and God's truth are one and the same because the law of God means the Word, and accordingly God's truth. The fact that 'the law means the Word and accordingly God's truth is clear from the following places: In John,

Jesus said, Is it not written in your law, I said, You are Gods? If He called them gods, with whom the Word came to be, and the Scripture cannot be broken . . . John 10:34-35.

'Written in the law' stands for the presence of those words in the Word, for they are written in David. In the same gospel,

The crowd said, We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. John 12:34.

These words too are written in David. In the same gospel,

Jesus said, In order that the Word written in the Law might be fulfilled, They hated Me without a cause. John 15:25.

This as well is found in David. In Luke,

It is written in the Law of the Lord that every male opening the womb should be called holy to the Lord; and that they should offer a sacrifice, in keeping with what is written in the Law of the Lord, of a pair of turtle-doves, or two young pigeons. Luke 2:23-24, 39.

This command is contained in Moses. In the same gospel,

A lawyer testing Jesus said, What must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said to him. What is written in the Law? What is your reading of it? Luke 10:25-26.

[3] In the same gospel,

The Law and the Prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God is proclaimed. It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the Law to fall. Luke 16:16-17.

There are other places besides this in which the Word is called the Law and the Prophets, such as Matthew 5:18; 7:12; 11:13; 22:36, 40. In Isaiah,

Bind up the testimony, seal the Law for the benefit of My disciples. Isaiah 8:16.

'The Law' stands for the Word. In the same prophet,

. . . lying sons, sons who did not wish to hear the Law of Jehovah. Isaiah 30:9.

In the same prophet,

He will set judgement on the earth, the islands hope for His Law. Isaiah 42:4.

This refers to the Lord, 'His Law' standing for the Word. In the same prophet,

Jehovah will magnify His Law. Isaiah 42:21.

In Jeremiah,

Thus said Jehovah, If you do not obey Me, to go in My Law which I have set before you, in order that you may hear the Word of My servants the prophets . . . Jeremiah 26:4-5.

Here 'the Law' stands for the Word, and in very many other places besides. From this it is evident that 'the Law' is the Word, and since it is the Word it is God's truth, as in Jeremiah,

This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, said Jehovah: I will put [My] Law in the midst of them, and will write it on their heart. Jeremiah 31:33.

Here 'Jehovah's Law' stands for God's truth.

[4] In a broad sense 'the Law' is the whole Word, in a narrower sense the historical section of the Word, in an even narrower sense the Word written through Moses, and in a restricted sense the Ten Commandments, see 6752.

From all this one may now see why Moses is said to represent both the law of God and God's truth.