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The Desire of Ages
the loaves. This lesson Christ was seeking to open to His hearers in
the synagogue. Had they understood the Scriptures, they would have
understood His words when He said, “I am the bread of life.” Only the
day before, the great multitude, when faint and weary, had been fed by
the bread which He had given. As from that bread they had received
physical strength and refreshment, so from Christ they might receive
spiritual strength unto eternal life. “He that cometh to Me,” He said,
“shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.”
But He added, “Ye also have seen Me, and believe not.”
They had seen Christ by the witness of the Holy Spirit, by the
revelation of God to their souls. The living evidences of His power
had been before them day after day, yet they asked for still another
sign. Had this been given, they would have remained as unbelieving as
before. If they were not convinced by what they had seen and heard, it
was useless to show them more marvelous works. Unbelief will ever
find excuse for doubt, and will reason away the most positive proof.
Again Christ appealed to those stubborn hearts. “Him that cometh
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to Me I will in nowise cast out.” All who received Him in faith, He
said, should have eternal life. Not one could be lost. No need for
Pharisees and Sadducees to dispute concerning the future life. No
longer need men mourn in hopeless grief over their dead. “This is
the will of Him that sent Me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and
believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at
the last day.”
But the leaders of the people were offended, “and they said, Is
not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?
how is it then that He saith, I came down from heaven?” They tried to
arouse prejudice by referring scornfully to the lowly origin of Jesus.
They contemptuously alluded to His life as a Galilean laborer, and to
His family as being poor and lowly. The claims of this uneducated
carpenter, they said, were unworthy of their attention. And on account
of His mysterious birth they insinuated that He was of doubtful parent-
age, thus representing the human circumstances of His birth as a blot
upon His history.
Jesus did not attempt to explain the mystery of His birth. He made
no answer to the questionings in regard to His having come down from
heaven, as He had made none to the questions concerning His crossing
the sea. He did not call attention to the miracles that marked His life.