Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/403



REJECTION OF THE TRUE SHEPHERD 387

out the wicked counsel of Caiaphas, who said : " It is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not," and handed Him over to the Romans. But the very thing they feared, and on account of which they decided on committing the great national crime of betraying their Kinsman-Redeemer into the hands of the Gentiles, came upon them, for these very Romans did come, " and take away both their place and their nation."

But, terrible as is the punishment which came upon the Jewish nation in consequence of their rejection of the Good Shepherd, we must beware of wrong conclusions, and of perverting Scripture by false interpretation. Thus, Hengstenberg, Pusey, and other commentators who are great literalists as far as the threatenings and curses are concerned in applying them to the Jewish people, but "spiritualise" and misapply all the promises lay great stress on the last words of the 6th verse : " I will not deliver them," in proof that the captivity of the Jewish nation brought about by the Romans " shall be without remedy or end." Pusey, for instance, quotes with great approval the words of Jerome : " Hear, O Jew, who holdest out to thyself hopes most vain, and hearest not the Lord strongly assert ing, / will not deliver them out of their hands, that thy captivity among the Romans shall have no end."

But this is a one-sided perversion of the truth. As far as the generation which is contemplated in this pro phecy is concerned, there was " no remedy," or " deliver ance," as was the case also with the generation of the time of the first Captivity and the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonians, of which similar expressions are used ; and as is the case in every generation with those who prove themselves obdurate, and persistently harden their hearts and refuse God s gracious call : " Turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways : for why will ye die, O house of Israel."

But, as far as the purpose of God with the Jewish nation is concerned, it ever abides unchanged and unalter able, for the unchangeable God remains true and faithful.