Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/204

 the occasion of the opening of the prophet's eyes by the Spirit of God to behold the future glorious Temple, which in Messiah's time shall be established in Jerusalem as an House of Prayer for all nations, and to which even the Gentile peoples which are " far off" shall flock, bringing their worship and their offerings.

The incident recorded in John xii. 20-33 ma y m a sense be regarded as parallel to this. There the coming of Andrew and Philip to our Lord with the touching request made in the first instance to the latter of these two disciples by the Greeks who came up to Jerusalem among those who came up to worship at the feast: " Sir, we would see Jesus," took our Saviour's mind to the time when " all men," without distinction of race or nationality, shall be " drawn " unto Him, and to the only possible way by which this could be brought about. In the temple of His preresurrection body, as the Son of David, there was no room for these poor Gentiles. The Son of Man must be lifted up: except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. So here the appearance in Jerusalem of these strangers takes the prophet's mind from the Temple they were then building, over the second outer court of which when com pleted there was the inscription put up in Greek and Latin:

"No stranger may enter here on pain of death" to the