Gods Sabbath

476

E NTERING INTO G OD ’ S S ABBATH R EST

and were not in fact the faithful Sabbath-keepers they proudly assumed themselves to be. How contrary this was to the course they should have pur sued! The witness of history should have told them that they could not make plans themselves which would successfully solve their problems. Deeply repentant for past mistakes, they should have emptied their minds of all schemes and submitted their dif ficulties to the Messiah, while being completely willing to accept whatever solution He might offer. Had they done this, their his tory would have been vastly different. Instead, before Christ came, they had already made all the plans for Him. In their view, all He had to do was add His mighty power to their schemes and success was guaranteed. Pretended messiahs, only too willing to support the plans made by the people, had come and gone before He arrived, but none of them possessed the marvelous capacities displayed by Christ. The people were soon convinced that He could do all they re quired and they eagerly followed Him, demanding that He fill the role they had appointed Him. Because Christ was born a Jew, as they were, they expected Him to hate the Romans as intensely and implacably as they did. If endowed as Christ was, they knew what they would do to their enemies, and therefore they required Him, as a son of Abraham, to do the same. Had He not been sent by their God, who, they supposed, favored them exclusively? Failing to honor the national will could be regarded as no less a crime than trea son. To fail to act as they had decreed that the One sent of God should act, was considered by them an even worse crime. For the first failure they condemned Him to death. For the second, they added the ignominy of crucifixion. It was as a traitor to the prin ciple of human plan making in God’s place, that Christ died.

Wrong Expectations

A careful study of the developments leading up to Christ’s execution provides lessons of great value to every person who has any desire to serve God truly according to His ways and principles.