How did the nobleman's son's sickness illustrate Israel's spiritual condition in John 4?
The nobleman's son was sick but not dead, and that condition pictured Israel's spiritual state when Jesus ministered: the nation was not dead but seriously sick. The sickness signified Israel's spiritual infirmity, needing Christ's healing, as the second sign in John's Gospel.
Les teaches that this second sign in John 4, the healing of the nobleman's son, follows the first sign at Cana. The nobleman's son was sick, not dead, though he was at the point of death and did not have much time left. Les then asks where Israel was spiritually at that time and answers that Israel was exactly there: they were sick, not dead, but oh, they were sick. The physical sickness of the nobleman's son thus illustrates Israel's spiritual condition.
So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum.
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