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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 2
father Joseph. He had made no claims to distinction of greatness, and
his home was among the poor and lowly.
In marked contrast with this humble man was the expected Messiah
of the Jews. They believed that he would come with honor and glory,
and set up, by power of arms, the throne of David. And they murmured:
This cannot be the One who is to redeem Israel. Is not this Jesus, the
son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? And they refused
to believe him unless he gave them some marked sign. They opened
their hearts to unbelief, and prejudice took possession of them, and
blinded their judgment, so that they made no account of the evidence
already given when their hearts had thrilled with the knowledge that it
was their Redeemer who addressed them.
But Jesus now showed them a sign of his divine character by
revealing the secrets of their minds. “And he said unto them, Ye will
surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself; whatsoever
we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he
said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of
Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when
great famine was throughout all the land; but unto none of them was
Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was
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a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the
prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.”
Jesus read the inmost thoughts of those who were before him, and
met their questioning with this relation of events in the lives of the
prophets. Those men whom God had chosen for a special and impor-
tant work were not allowed to labor for a hard-hearted and unbelieving
people. But those who had hearts to feel, and faith to believe, were
specially favored with evidences of God’s power displayed through
his prophets.
By the apostasy of Israel in Elijah’s day, Jesus illustrated the true
state of the people whom he was addressing. The unbelief and self-
exaltation of the ancient Jewish nation caused God to pass over the
many widows in Israel, and the poor and afflicted there, to find an
asylum for his servant among a heathen people, and to place him
in the care of a heathen woman; but she who was thus especially
favored had lived in strict accordance with the light she possessed.
God also passed over the many lepers of Israel, because their unbelief