What does the four days of Lazarus' death mean for Israel?
The four days of Lazarus’ death picture Israel’s national condition: since Abraham, about 4,000 years, Israel has been spiritually dead. Using Scripture’s day-as-a-thousand-years analogy, the four days indicate Israel’s 4,000-year spiritual deadness, after which Israel is brought back to life.
Les teaches that Lazarus had lain in the grave four days. He connects this with 1 Peter’s statement that a thousand years is but a day and a day is but a thousand years. Applying that analogy to Israel, Les says the nation has been spiritually dead for 4,000 years, going back to Abraham around 2,000 B.C. Thus the four days of Lazarus’ death indicate that Israel nationally is spending 4,000 years spiritually dead. But at the end of the 4,000 years, Israel is going to be brought back to life.
Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already.