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Where Is God’s True Israel?
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would appear. Their pride and false conceptions would prevent them
from honestly weighing the evidences of His Messiahship.
For more than a thousand years the Jewish people had waited
for the promised Savior’s coming. His name had been enshrined in
song and prophecy, in temple rite and household prayer. Yet when
He came they did not recognize Him. “He came to His own, and
His own did not receive Him.”
John 1:11
. They recognized in Him
no beauty that they should desire Him. See
Isaiah 53:2
.
Jesus’ life among the Jewish people rebuked their selfishness.
They hated His example of truthfulness, and when the test came
they rejected the Holy One of Israel and became responsible for His
crucifixion.
In the parable of the vineyard, Christ called the attention of the
Jewish teachers to the blessings bestowed on Israel and showed
God’s claim on their obedience. He pulled back the veil from the
future and showed how the whole nation was bringing ruin on itself:
“There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set
a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he
leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.
“Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the
vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. And the tenants took
his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. Again he sent
other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them.
Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect
my son’. But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among
themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his
inheritance.’ So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and
killed him.”
Christ now asked them, “Therefore, when the owner of the vine-
yard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?” The priests
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joined with the people in answering, “He will destroy those wicked
men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will
render to him the fruits in their seasons.”