22
The Great Controversy
that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity. They build up Zion with
blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof judge for reward,
and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine
for money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord
among us? none evil can come upon us.”
Micah 3:9-11
.
[27]
These words faithfully described the corrupt and self-righteous in-
habitants of Jerusalem. While claiming to observe rigidly the precepts
of God’s law, they were transgressing all its principles. They hated
Christ because His purity and holiness revealed their iniquity; and they
accused Him of being the cause of all the troubles which had come
upon them in consequence of their sins. Though they knew Him to be
sinless, they had declared that His death was necessary to their safety
as a nation. “If we let Him thus alone,” said the Jewish leaders, “all
men will believe on Him: and the Romans shall come and take away
both our place and nation.”
John 11:48
. If Christ were sacrificed, they
might once more become a strong, united people. Thus they reasoned,
and they concurred in the decision of their high priest, that it would be
better for one man to die than for the whole nation to perish.
Thus the Jewish leaders had built up “Zion with blood, and
Jerusalem with iniquity.”
Micah 3:10
. And yet, while they slew
their Saviour because He reproved their sins, such was their self-
righteousness that they regarded themselves as God’s favored people
and expected the Lord to deliver them from their enemies. “Therefore,”
continued the prophet, “shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field,
and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as
the high places of the forest.”
Verse 12
.
For nearly forty years after the doom of Jerusalem had been pro-
nounced by Christ Himself, the Lord delayed His judgments upon the
city and the nation. Wonderful was the long-suffering of God toward
the rejectors of His gospel and the murderers of His Son. The para-
ble of the unfruitful tree represented God’s dealings with the Jewish
nation. The command had gone forth, “Cut it down; why cumbereth
it the ground?” (
Luke 13:7
) but divine mercy had spared it yet a little
longer. There were still many among the Jews who were ignorant of
the character and the work of Christ. And the children had not enjoyed
the opportunities or received the light which their parents had spurned.
[28]
Through the preaching of the apostles and their associates, God would
cause light to shine upon them; they would be permitted to see how