The Desire of Ages
by Ellen G. White
Chapter 2: The Chosen People
For more than a thousand years the Jewish people had awaited
the Saviour's coming. Upon this event they had rested their brightest hopes. In
song and prophecy, in temple rite 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 form nor
comeliness;" and they saw in Him no beauty that they should desire Him.
"He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." Isaiah 53:2;
John 1:11. {DA 27.1}
Yet God had chosen Israel. He had called them to preserve
among men the knowledge of His law, and of the symbols and prophecies that
pointed to the Saviour. He desired them to be as wells of salvation to the
world. What Abraham was in the land of his sojourn, what 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. {DA 27.2}
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 the 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. [28] {DA 27.3}
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. {DA 28.1}
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 hath
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; Deuteronomy 4:6.
But because of their unfaithfulness, God's purpose could be wrought out only
through continued adversity and humiliation. {DA 28.2}
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 a 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 a Redeemer. {DA 28.3}
Many of the exiles suffered persecution. Not a few lost
their lives because of their 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. {DA 28.4}
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 [29] 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. {DA 28.5}
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 priests and 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 were
brought into their religious service. In many things they conformed to the
practices of idolaters. {DA
29.1}
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 priests and rabbis
multiplied requirements of their own; and the more rigid they grew, the less of
the love of God was manifested. They measured their holiness by the multitude
of their ceremonies, while their hearts were filled with pride and hypocrisy. {DA 29.2}
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 a heavy burden. They could find
no rest from the accusings 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. {DA 29.3}
While the Jews desired the advent of the Messiah, they had
no true [30]
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 Saviour. {DA 29.4}
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 a 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. {DA 30.1}
Hatred of the Romans, and national and spiritual pride, led
the Jews still to adhere rigorously to their forms of worship. The priests
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 of One who would vanquish
their enemies and restore the kingdom to Israel. They had studied 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. {DA 30.2}
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"The Fullness of the Time"
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