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The People Who Should Have Welcomed Him
For more than a thousand years, the Jewish people had waited
for the Savior’s coming. And yet, when He came, they did not know
Him. They did not see any beauty in Him that was attractive to them.
See
Isaiah 53:2
. “He came to His own, and His own did not receive
Him.”
John 1:11
.
God had chosen Israel to preserve the symbols and prophecies
that pointed to the Savior, to be like wells of salvation to the world.
The Hebrew people were to reveal God among the nations. In the
call of Abraham, the Lord had said, “In you all the families of the
earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 12:3
. The Lord declared through
Isaiah, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
Isaiah 56:7
.
But Israel set their hopes on worldly greatness and followed the
ways of the heathen. They did not change when God sent them warn-
ing by His prophets. They did not change when they suffered the
punishment of heathen conquest and occupation. Every reformation
was followed by deeper apostasy.
If Israel had been true to God, He would have made them
“high above all nations which He has made, in praise, in name,
and in honor.” “The peoples who will hear all these statutes” will
say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”
Deuteronomy 26:19
;
4:6
.
But because they were unfaithful, God could work out His plans
only through trouble and affliction. They were brought to Babylon
and scattered through the lands of the heathen. While they mourned
for the holy temple that was destroyed, they spread a knowledge
of God among the nations. Heathen systems of sacrifice were a
perversion of the system God had appointed; from the Hebrews
many learned the meaning of the sacrifices as God had planned them
and in faith grasped the promise of a Redeemer.
Many exiles lost their lives because they refused to disregard
the Sabbath and observe heathen festivals. As idol worshipers were
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