FINAL CONFLICT AND DELIVERANCE 447
observed, is none other than Jehovah, " which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him " (ver. I ) ; and who in this I oth verse says : " / will pour out the spirit of grace and of supplications." This, as already observed above, is a great mystery comprehensible only to faith based on the Biblical revelation of the twofold nature of the Messiah ; but when perceived it is very precious and beautiful.
" They shall look upon Me"
The Jewish nation has hitherto regarded faith in our Lord Jesus as irreconcilable with faith in God, and have conceived of Him as being in opposition to God.
This was the chief ground of the blind hostility to Christ on the part of the scribes and Pharisees during His earthly ministry, and has continued to this day, not knowing that their hatred of Christ was in its essence nothing else than hatred of God, and their opposition to Him nothing else than a fighting against God. But, as Saul of Tarsus (whose experience and history are in many ways a foreshadowment of the history of his people in relation to Christ) was startled and surprised to learn from that voice on his way to Damascus, " / am Jesus whom thou persecutest," that those hated Nazarenes whom he was persecuting, even unto death, were one with Him who was now revealed to him as the risen and living Son of God, and that he who was touching them was touching " the apple of His eye"; so shall the Jewish nation in the day when the spirit of grace and of supplication is poured upon them, and " the eyes of the blind are opened " to behold the divine glory of their Messiah, be startled and surprised to discover that their having persecuted and " pierced " Him was equivalent to their having persecuted and pierced God, because of His being one with God, in a higher and deeper sense even than believers are with Christ.
But just as the words, " they shall look unto Me," set forth the essential oneness of the pierced One with Jehovah,
