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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 3
planning to slay Him whom the Father had sent to them as a last and
only appeal. In the retribution visited upon the ungrateful husbandmen
was portrayed the doom of those who should slay Christ.
In the parable of the vineyard Jesus brought before the Jews their
real condition. The householder represented God, the vineyard the
Jewish nation hedged in by divine law which was calculated to preserve
them as a people separate and distinct from all other nations of the
earth. The tower built in the vineyard represented their temple. The
Lord of the vineyard had done all that was necessary for its prosperity.
So God had provided for Israel in such a manner that it was in their
power to secure the highest degree of prosperity. The Lord of the
vineyard required of his husbandmen a due proportion of the fruit; so
God required of the Jews a life corresponding with the sacred privileges
he had given them. But as the servants who demanded fruit in their
master’s name were to death by the unfaithful husbandmen, so had the
Jews slain the prophets who had come to them with messages from
God. Not only were these rejected, but when he sent his only Son
to them, the destined Heir to the vineyard, thinking to preserve the
vineyard to themselves, and to secure the honor and profit accruing
therefrom, the haughty Jews, the unfaithful servants, reasoned among
themselves, saying, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him.” Thus Jesus
revealed in his parable the dark purposes of the Jews against himself.
After Jesus had heard them pronounce sentence upon themselves
in their condemnation of the wicked husbandmen, he looked pityingly
upon them and continued: “Did ye never read in the scriptures, The
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stone which the builders rejected the same has become the head of
the corner; this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?
Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you,
and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever
shall fall on this stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall,
it will grind him to powder.”
The Jews had often repeated the words of this prophecy while
teaching the people in the synagogues, applying it to the coming
Messiah. But Jesus connected the heir so cruelly slain with the stone
which the builders rejected, but which eventually became the principal
stone of the whole building. Christ himself was the originator of the
Jewish system, the very foundation of the costly temple, the antitype
to whom all the sacrificial services pointed. The Jews had watched