By Mrs. E. G.
White
"Thus
saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel,
Fear not; for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art
mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through
the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire,
thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am
the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour; I gave Egypt for thy
ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou
hast been honorable, and I have loved thee; therefore will I give men for thee;
and people for thy life."
God
brought his chosen people out of Egypt with mighty signs and wonders. He laid
the land desolate by plagues, and slew the firstborn of the Egyptians in order
to bring deliverance to his people. He opened to them a path through the Red
Sea, and in the pillar of cloud and fire he stood as a wall of protection
between his people and Pharaoh, who with his armies, chariots, and horsemen
came in pursuit of Israel. At the word of command the Red Sea rolled upon the
hosts of the Egyptians, while Israel sang songs of triumph and praise.
The
Lord brought his chosen people out of Egypt in order that they might keep holy
the Sabbath day, and fulfill the precepts of his law. He fed them with manna in
the wilderness, and by a double miracle placed his seal upon the sacredness of
the Sabbath institution. In awful grandeur the Lord came down on Mount Sinai
and proclaimed his law to the people. The Israelites had so long lived in the
midst of idolatry that they were shaping their religious life after the
idolatrous customs of the land of their bondage. The Son of God gave to them
his law of Ten Commandments, and proclaimed to them the rules and statutes of
God in heaven and earth.
He
represented his people as a wild vine that he had taken from Egypt, and planted
in Canaan, where he nourished and cared for it; but when he looked for it to
bring forth grapes, it brought forth wild grapes. His people forgot God, and
went into rebellion, but he did not withdraw his love. He sent his prophets to
warn them, he instituted the sacrificial system so that they might have before
their minds the one great Sacrifice, the one efficient Offering that was
prefigured in their typical system. But for all his love and care, Israel
abused their privileges from age to age, and their religion became a hollow
formalism. Christ saw Pharisaical pride, self-exaltation, cruel, Satanic
attributes, developed and cherished by the people who bore his name. They would
not accept his invitation of mercy, and from national apostasy came a spirit of
cruel persecution that ended in killing the very messengers that he sent to
warn them of the result of their evil course. Christ saw his vineyard spoiled
through cruel husbandmen until it became fruitless through ingratitude, through
grace resisted, through their refusal to accept the opportunities and
privileges which the God of compassion and love provided for them. For a
thousand years they multiplied transgression upon transgression, and even
rejected the Son of God, and were ready to put him to death. The cloud of God's
retributive judgment was about to burst upon them in unrestrained fury.
Jesus
had dealt with Israel as would a loving father with a son. His love to Israel
was represented in the parable of the prodigal son; but they had beaten back
the waves of mercy, and, knowing what would fall upon Jerusalem, as he stands
upon the mount of Olivet, his form is shaken with sobs of anguish. His heart is
breaking with yearning. Tears flow forth from his eyes as he says, "How can I give thee up?"
The
careless and the impenitent go on in their reckless course of disobedience, and
harden themselves in rebellion against God; but they do not consider the value
of the human soul. The world's Redeemer was constantly seeking to lead men to a
true appreciation of the value of the soul. He asked the question, "What
shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" A world sinks into
insignificance in comparison with the soul. When Christ wept upon the mount of
Olivet, he beheld with prophetic eye, not only the loss of one soul, but the
destruction of a nation.
The
world's Redeemer had come from his royal courts, stepped down from his royal
throne, had clothed his divinity with humanity, and for our sake had become
poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich. In accepting Christ the
sinful nations who were about to be destroyed might have accepted the riches of
heaven, obtained an eternal weight of glory. Must his offering be in vain? In
his mission on earth among men he had displayed the same power as he had
displayed in delivering the nation from Egyptian bondage, in opening a path
through the Red Sea, and in discomforting the army of Pharaoh. He had revealed
enough of his divinity to show them that he was the Son of God, and that he was
able to deliver them from the Roman yoke, if it so pleased him, and to give
them temporal triumph; but it was the fact that he did not exercise his power
in bringing to them temporal benefits in the way they desired, that led the
scribes and the Pharisees to reject the world's Redeemer. He bore a message
denouncing every abomination in the land. He exposed their hypocrisies, and
revealed the fact that their sanctity was only a cloak to iniquity.
The
untainted purity of his life, the faultless character of his words and works,
was a bitter reproof to the self-righteous but unclean pretenders to religion.
He rebuked their course in weaving human traditions and the maxims of men into
the laws of God, so that men were confused in regard to the laws of God's
government, and were led to make void his law through following human
inventions. He said to them: "This people honoreth me with their lips, but
their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for
doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye
hold the tradition of men, ... making the word of God of none effect through
your tradition." He charged the religious teachers with being ignorant
both of the Scriptures and of the power of God.
The
Jews hated Christ because he bore a beautiful, spotless character. He could
hate but one thing, and that was sin. This hatred of sin on his part provoked
their bitterest hostility. If he had given license to their pride, had fostered
their ambition, and passed over their evil passions, their injustice, their
fraud, their robbery of the poor, they would have applauded Jesus. They would
not have been displeased that he healed the sick, that he had compassion on the
suffering, that he raised the dead; but they were displeased because he
condemned their evil works, and put them to an open shame by exposing their
evil motives. He rebuked their long prayers on the corners of the streets, and
the wearing of their long robes for the purpose of making people think they
were very pious, when at the same time they would devour with exactions widows'
houses. They would not consent to reform and to be transformed in character;
but they were determined by any possible means to get rid of Him who revealed
their true character to the people, and paid no regard to their claims of
superior sanctity. The fiercest and most inveterate enmity was put between
Christ and these bigoted pretenders. The whole energy of the ranks of apostasy
was called forth, and evil men conspired with evil angels for the destruction
of the Champion of God and truth.
On
the mount of Olivet Christ took a retrospective view of the ages and centuries
that had passed, and realized what would be the crowning act in the nation's
apostasy. In putting to death the Son of the Infinite God they would add the
last figure to the sum of their guiltiness. Can we wonder that the heart of
Christ was filled with grief, and that while he wept in agonizing sobs, his form
swayed as a tree before the tempest? He saw the retribution that would fall
upon Jerusalem, and exclaimed: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest
the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have
gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her
wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate."
"If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things
which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days
shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and
compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even
with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee
one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy
visitation."
The
sheep gate was before Christ, and the path which led to the temple, and for
centuries the victims had been conducted thither for sacrifice. The lambs that
had been slain had been a representation of the great anti-typical sacrifice
that in a few hours would be made for those who rejected his grace and
compassion, the refusers of his offers of mercy. The only-begotten Son of the
Infinite God would be led through the sheep gate as a lamb to the slaughter,
while through the priests and rulers and through the common people would be
manifested Satanic attributes. For a few moments the Son of God stands upon
Mount Olivet, expressing the intense yearning of his soul that Jerusalem might
repent in the last few moments before the westering sun shall sink behind the
hill. That day the Jews as a nation would end their probation. Mercy, that had
long been appointed as their guardian angel, had been insulted, despised, and
rejected, and was already stepping down from the golden throne, ready to
depart. But, O, that the rejecters of God's mercy, full of zeal to sustain
themselves in their own way, might yet turn from their man-made inventions,
repent, and seek reconciliation with God! The shadows of twilight are beginning
to gather, and, O, that Jerusalem might know the things that belong unto her
peace! But now the irrevocable sentence is spoken, because "she knew not
the time of her visitation."
Jesus
hears the tramp of the besieging army. He sees the temple in ruins. He sees
famine and distress in the city. His prophetic eye sees Calvary, the hill upon
which he shall be lifted up, planted with crosses as thick as the forest trees.
He sees the very ones nailed thereon who clamored for his condemnation, and who
cried out under their Satanic delusion, "His blood be on us and on our
children." The retribution that has fallen upon them is most terrible; for
they are left to the mercy of the leader they have chosen, and Satan and his
confederacy of evil angels wreak their spite upon the human family.
All
this Jesus sees as the result of their refusal to accept his offers of mercy.
Thus they have worked their own present and eternal ruin, and as a nation
divorced themselves from God. He could say to the whole nation as he had said
to Philip, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known
me?" They had refused the messages of warning, of reproof, and mercy, that
had been sent to them through the prophets, God's delegated servants, tho these
messengers had been sent to save them from taking such steps as would prove
their ruin. At last God had sent his Son, and they had said, "This is the
heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours."
"Have
I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me?" These words
are applicable to very many in our own day. Many do not know him, tho he has
been lifted up for us and crucified. They do not know him, tho a mighty angel
from heaven parted the darkness from his track, and rolled back the stone from
the door of the sepulcher, and Jesus, the Lord of light and glory, came forth
from the rent sepulcher proclaiming himself the resurrection and the life.