The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 28

These words faithfully described the corrupt and self-righteous
inhabitants of Jerusalem. While claiming to observe rigidly the precepts
of God’s law, they were transgressing all its principles. They hated
Christ because His purity and holiness revealed their iniquity; and they
accused Him of being the cause of all the troubles which had come upon
them in consequence of their sins. Though they knew Him to be sinless,
they had declared that His death was necessary to their safety as a nation.
“If we let Him thus alone,” said the Jewish leaders, “all men will believe
on Him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and
nation.” John 11:48. If Christ were sacrificed, they might once more
become a strong, united people. Thus they reasoned, and they concurred
in the decision of their high priest, that it would be better for one man to
die than for the whole nation to perish.
Thus the Jewish leaders had built up “Zion with blood, and Jerusalem
with iniquity.” Micah 3:10. And yet, while they slew their Saviour
because He reproved their sins, such was their self-righteousness that
they regarded themselves as God’s favored people and expected the
Lord to deliver them from their enemies. “Therefore,” continued the
prophet, “shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem
shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of
the forest.” Verse 12.
For nearly forty years after the doom of Jerusalem had been
pronounced by Christ Himself, the Lord delayed His judgments upon the
city and the nation. Wonderful was the long-suffering of God toward the
rejectors of His gospel and the murderers of His Son. The parable of the
unfruitful tree represented God’s dealings with the Jewish nation. The
command had gone forth, “Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?”
(Luke 13:7) but divine mercy had spared it yet a little longer. There were
still many among the Jews who were ignorant of the character and the
work of Christ. And the children had not enjoyed the opportunities or

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