The Chosen People
For more than a thousand years, the
Jewish people had awaited the
Savior’s coming. Upon this
event, they had rested their
brightest hopes. In song and
prophecy, in temple rites and
household prayer, they had enshrined
His name. And yet at His coming they
knew Him not. The Beloved of heaven
was to them “as a root out of a
dry ground;” He had “no for
nor comeliness;” and they saw in
Him no beauty that they should desire
Him. “He came to His own, and
His own received Him not.”
Isaiah 53:2; John 1:11.
Yet, God had chosen Israel. He had
called them to preserve among men the
knowledge of the law, and of the
symbols and prophecies that pointed
to the Savior. He desired them to be
as wells of salvation to the world.
When Abraham was in the land of his
sojourn, when Joseph was in Egypt,
and Daniel in the courts of Babylon,
the Hebrew people were to be among
the nations. They were to reveal God
to men.
In the call of Abraham the Lord had
said, “I will bless
thee…and thou shalt be a
blessing…and in thee shall all
families of the earth be
blessed.” Genesis 12:2,3. The
same teaching was repeated through
the prophets. Even after Israel had
been wasted by war and captivity, the
promise was theirs, “The remnant
of Jacob shall be in the midst of
many people as a dew from the Lord,
as showers upon the grass, that
tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for
the sons of men.” Micah 5:7.
Concerning the Temple at Jerusalem,
the Lord declared through Isaiah,
“Mine house shall be called an
house of prayer for all
peoples.” Isaiah 56:7, R.V.
But the Israelites fixed their hopes
upon worldly greatness. From the time
of their entrance to the land of
Canaan, they departed from the
commandments of God, and followed the
ways of the heathen. It was in vain
that God sent them warning by His
prophets. In vain, they suffered the
chastisement of heathen oppression.
Every reformation was followed by
deeper apostasy.
Had Israel been true to God, He could
have accomplished His purpose through
their honor and exaltation. If they
had walked in the ways of obedience,
He would have made them “high
above all nations which He had made,
in praise, and in name, and in
honor.” All people of the
earth,” said Moses, “shall
see that thou art called by the name
of the Lord; and they shall be afraid
of thee.” “The nations
which shall hear all these
statutes” shall say,
“Surely this great nation is a
wise and understanding people.”
Deuteronomy 26:19; 28:10; 4:6. But
because of their unfaithfulness,
God’s purpose could be wrought
out only through continued adversity
and humiliation.
They were brought into subjection to
Babylon, and scattered through the
lands of the heathen. In affliction,
many renewed their faithfulness to
His covenant. While they hung their
harps upon the willows, and mourned
for the holy temple that was laid
waste, the light of truth shone out
through them, and knowledge of God
was spread among the nations. The
heathen systems of sacrifice were a
perversion of the system that God had
appointed; and many a sincere
observer of heathen rites learned
from the Hebrews the meaning of the
service divinely ordained, and in
faith grasped the promise of the
Redeemer.
Many of the exiles suffered
persecution. Not a few lost their
lives because of the refusal to
disregard the Sabbath and to observe
the heathen festivals. As idolaters
were roused to crush out the truth,
the Lord brought His servants face to
face with kings and rulers that they
and their people might receive the
light. Time after time, the greatest
monarchs were led to proclaim the
supremacy of the God whom their
Hebrew captives worshiped.
By the Babylonish captivity, the
Israelites were effectually cured of
the worship of graven images. During
the centuries that followed, they
suffered from the oppression of
heathen foes, until the conviction
became fixed that their prosperity
depended upon their obedience to the
law of God. But with too many of the
people, obedience was not prompted by
love. The motive was selfish. They
rendered outward service to God as
the means of attaining to national
greatness. They did not become the
light of the world, but shut
themselves away from the world in
order to escape temptation to
idolatry. In the instruction given
through Moses, God had placed
restrictions upon their association
with idolaters; but this teaching had
been misinterpreted. It was intended
to prevent them from conforming to
the practices of the heathen. But it
was used to build up a wall of
separation between Israel and all
other nations. The Jews looked upon
Jerusalem as their heaven, and they
were actually jealous lest the Lord
should show mercy to the Gentiles.
After the return from Babylon, much
attention was given to religious
instruction. All over the country,
synagogues were erected, where the
law was expounded by the priest and
the scribes. And schools were
established, which, together with the
arts and sciences, professed to teach
the principles of righteousness. But
these agencies became corrupted.
During the captivity, many of the
people had received heathen ideas and
customs, and these brought were
brought into their religious service.
In many things, they conformed to the
practice of idolaters.
As they departed from God, the Jews
in a great degree lost sight of the
teaching of the ritual service. That
service had been instituted by Christ
Himself. In every part, it was a
symbol of Him; and it had been full
of vitality and spiritual beauty. But
the Jews lost the spiritual life from
their ceremonies, and clung to the
dead forms. They trusted to the
sacrifices and ordinances themselves,
instead of resting upon Him to whom
they pointed. In order to supply the
place of that which they had lost,
the priest and rabbis multiplied
requirements of their own; and the
more rigid they grew, the less of
love of God was manifested. They
measured their holiness by the
multitude of their ceremonies, while
their hearts were filled with pride
and hypocrisy.
With all their minute and burdensome
injunctions, it was an impossibility
to keep the law. Those who desired to
serve God, and who tried to observe
the rabbinical precepts, toiled under
heavy burden. They could find no rest
from the accusing of a troubled
conscience. Thus, Satan worked to
discourage the people, to lower their
conception of the character of God,
and to bring the faith of Israel into
contempt. He hoped to establish the
claim put forth when he rebelled in
heaven, - that the requirements of
God were unjust, and could not be
obeyed. Even Israel, he declared, did
not keep the law.
While the Jews desired the advent of
the Messiah, they had no true
conception of His mission. They did
not seek redemption from sin, but
deliverance from the Romans. They
looked for the Messiah to come as a
conqueror, to break the
oppressor’s power, and exalt
Israel to universal dominion. Thus,
the way was prepared for them to
reject the Savior.
At the time of the birth of Christ,
the nation was chafing under the rule
of her foreign masters, and racked
with internal strife. The Jews had
been permitted to maintain the form
of separate government, but nothing
could disguise the fact that they
were under the Roman yoke, or
reconcile them to the restriction of
their power. The Romans claimed the
right of appointing and removing the
high priest, and the office was often
secured by fraud, bribery, and even
murder. Thus, the priesthood became
more and more corrupt. Yet, the
priests still possessed great power,
and they employed it for selfish and
mercenary ends. The people were
subjected to their merciless demands,
and were also heavily taxed by the
Romans. This state of affairs caused
widespread discontent. Popular
outbreaks were frequent. Greed and
violence, distrust and spiritual
apathy, were eating out the very
heart of the nation.
Hatred of
the Romans, and national and
spiritual pride, led the Jews still
to adhere rigorously to their forms
of worship. The priest tried to
maintain a reputation for sanctity by
scrupulous attention to the
ceremonies of religion. The people,
in their darkness and oppression, and
the rulers, thirsting for power,
longed for the coming One who would
vanquish their enemies and restore
the kingdom to Israel. They had
studies the prophecies, but without
spiritual insight. Thus, they
overlooked those scriptures that
point to the humiliation of
Christ’s first advent, and
misapplied those that speak of the
glory of His second coming. Pride
obscured their vision. They
interpreted prophecy in accordance
with their selfish desires.
