Paul a Prisoner
275
The case of Paul was not the first in which a servant of God had
found among the heathen an asylum from the malice of the professed
people of Jehovah. In their rage against Paul the Jews had added
another crime to the dark catalogue which marked the history of that
people. They had still further hardened their hearts against the truth
and had rendered their doom more certain.
Few realize the full meaning of the words that Christ spoke when,
in the synagogue at Nazareth, He announced Himself as the Anointed
One. He declared His mission to comfort, bless, and save the sorrowing
and the sinful; and then, seeing that pride and unbelief controlled
the hearts of His hearers, He reminded them that in time past God
had turned away from His chosen people because of their unbelief
and rebellion, and had manifested Himself to those in heathen lands
who had not rejected the light of heaven. The widow of Sarepta and
Naaman the Syrian had lived up to all the light they had; hence they
were accounted more righteous than God’s chosen people who had
backslidden from Him and had sacrificed principle to convenience and
worldly honor.
[417]
Christ told the Jews at Nazareth a fearful truth when He declared
that with backsliding Israel there was no safety for the faithful messen-
ger of God. They would not know his worth or appreciate his labors.
While the Jewish leaders professed to have great zeal for the honor of
God and the good of Israel, they were enemies of both. By precept
and example they were leading the people farther and farther from
obedience to God—leading them where He could not be their defense
in the day of trouble.
The Saviour’s words of reproof to the men of Nazareth applied,
in the case of Paul, not only to the unbelieving Jews, but to his own
brethren in the faith. Had the leaders in the church fully surrendered
their feeling of bitterness toward the apostle, and accepted him as one
specially called of God to bear the gospel to the Gentiles, the Lord
would have spared him to them. God had not ordained that Paul’s
labors should so soon end, but He did not work a miracle to counteract
the train of circumstances to which the course of the leaders in the
church at Jerusalem had given rise.
The same spirit is still leading to the same results. A neglect to
appreciate and improve the provisions of divine grace has deprived the
church of many a blessing. How often would the Lord have prolonged