10
The Acts of the Apostles
works by love and purifies the soul could find no place for union
with the religion of the Pharisees, made up of ceremonies and the
injunctions of men.
Of Israel God declared: “I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly
a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a
strange vine unto Me?”
Jeremiah 2:21
. “Israel is an empty vine, he
bringeth forth fruit unto himself.”
Hosea 10:1
. “And now, O inhabitants
of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt Me and
My vineyard. What could have been done more to My vineyard, that
I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring
forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?
“And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I
will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break
down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: and I will lay
it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up
briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no
[16]
rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of
Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plant: and He looked for
judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.”
Isaiah 5:3-7
. “The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye
healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was
broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away,
neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with
cruelty have ye ruled them.”
Ezekiel 34:4
.
The Jewish leaders thought themselves too wise to need instruction,
too righteous to need salvation, too highly honored to need the honor
that comes from Christ. The Saviour turned from them to entrust to
others the privileges they had abused and the work they had slighted.
God’s glory must be revealed, His word established. Christ’s kingdom
must be set up in the world. The salvation of God must be made known
in the cities of the wilderness; and the disciples were called to do the
work that the Jewish leaders had failed to do.
[17]