Redeemer, the only hope of fallen man. They prayed that the clouds might rain down the Just One, and that the earth might bud forth the Saviour.
All was in readiness for the coming of our Lord, which event, according to signs and prophecies, must be near at hand. Four hundred years before the Birth of Christ, Malachias, the last of the prophets, could not restrain his joy at the near approach of the Messias. He told the Jewish priests that the Temple should soon be closed for ever, and the fires on their altars extinguished, for that their offerings had ceased to be pleasing to the Lord of Hosts. He said: “I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of Hosts, and I will not receive a gift at your hand. For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, My name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to My name a clean oblation. For My name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of Hosts.”
Nothing remained to be accomplished, save the prophecy of Jacob [1] to his son Juda. This last sign was not delayed. The Jewish people, tom and weakened by continual dissensions among themselves, called in the Romans to decide their quarrels, and the Romans, a great and powerful nation, settled the dispute by taking possession[2] of all Judaea, and placing on its throne Herod, a stranger[3], a satellite of the Roman emperor. Thus was the sceptre departed[4] from Juda, and that event ushered in the Redeemer of the world, the desired [5] of the nations. Herod reigned
- ↑ Prophecy of Jacob. See chapter XXVII.
- ↑ Taking possession. Under Pompey.
- ↑ A stranger. An Idumaean, who, in order to assure himself of the government, slew all the descendants of the Machabees, among others his own wife Mariainne and the two sons whom he had by her. Moreover, he oppressed the Jews with heavy taxes.
- ↑ Departed. Though the Jews had a ruler, he was a foreigner, and therefore the time had now come for the Advent of the Saviour, the “Expected of all nations”.
- ↑ Desired. The prophet Isaias thus expressed the longing of Israel for the Redeemer: “Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just; let the earth be opened, and bud forth a Saviour”, i. e. “as the dew falls from heaven, so may the Most Just (the Redeemer) descend from heaven; and as the earth brings forth plants, so in like manner may the Saviour be brought forth.” The hope and longing for the Redeemer was expressed by the Jews in the daily prayers recited in the synagogues, in which was found the following petition: “Build up Jerusalem for ever, and raise up David’s throne in the midst. Let' the seed of David, Thy servant, bud forth speedily, for we hope continuously for Thy redemption.” We can see in the case of Simeon, Anna, and those like them (New Test. VII), how very keen had become the expectation of the Messias in the fulness of time. The conjecture of the Jews that John the Baptist might be the Messias (New Test XI) points in the same direction, as also do the words of the woman of Samaria at Jacob’s well (New Test. XVI). We know, therefore, that the longing for the Redeemer was very general by the time that He came. However, only very few of the Jews thought of the Messias as being a Redeemer from sin, and a bringer of grace and truth; they expected, rather, that He would come to deliver them from the dominion of Rome and the tyranny of Herod, to set up the earthly throne of David, enlarge the borders of Judaea, and subject all nations to her rule. Even the influential Pharisees regarded a more complete revelation of God as impossible. That the Messias should be a Saviour of all men, Gentiles as well as Jews, was an idea quite inconceivable to their narrowminded selfishness.
