Gods Sabbath

T HE J EWISH T RAGEDY

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“Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.” John 6:15. In the people’s scheme, designed to guarantee that their plans for worldly aggrandizement would be carried out, there was not one thread of divine devising. Christ knew it was con trary to God’s intentions, so He could not possibly comply with their directives without destroying His entire mission. He re fused to accept people in God’s place as His Plan Maker. To do so would be to forsake the holy covenant and align Himself with the mystery of iniquity, thus surrendering the complete victory to Satan and his angels. What fiendish screams of exultation would have echoed throughout the satanic kingdom had Christ made such a fatal blunder. The Jews and the apostles could not have adopted a worse course. They were doing just what the devil would have them do, and it especially pleased him to see them so thoroughly deceived that they imagined they were serving God totally. It was most fortunate for the fate of humanity and the out come of the great controversy that Christ did not yield. Had the Saviour made any concession to the demands worked out in that hastily-convened committee meeting, He would have sacrificed His commission and destroyed all hope of salvation for the hu man race. Satan would have triumphed, not on a passing and limited scale but in totality. The consuming cancer of sin would have spread its destructive tentacles in ever-widening circles to wards the ultimate envelopment and annihilation of the uni verse. The prevention of this terrible outcome hinged on Christ’s utter refusal that day to allow anyone but God to be His Plan Maker. If Paul had done likewise in Jerusalem, what a different history the church would have had! While the multitude and the disciples eagerly moved out to do what they had decided to do, Christ recognized with crystal clar ity the principles they were violating and the grim consequences which would follow their actions. He therefore refused to be par ty to any of their scheming. An Illogical Stand?