… the only way to divine justice. By Ellen White

Reading time: 9 minutes

At times in ancient Israel, God would send prophets and messengers into his vineyard to receive his share from his husbandmen. Unfortunately, these messengers found that everything was being used for the wrong purpose. Therefore, God's Spirit inspired them to warn the people against their unfaithfulness. But even though people were made aware of their wrongdoing, they persisted and only became more stubborn. Pleas and arguments did not help. They loathed the rebuke.

what God endures

“When the time of fruit came,” said the Messiah in the parable of the vineyard, “he sent his servants to the vine-dressers that they might receive his fruit. So the husbandmen took his servants: they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Again he sent other servants, more than the first; and they did the same to them.« (Matthew 21,34:36-XNUMX)

Paul reports how the messengers of God were treated. “Women got their dead back by resurrection,” he explained, “but others who also trusted in God were tortured to death. They hoped for a better resurrection than just regaining their freedom. Still others endured ridicule and flogging, chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, sawed up and put to death with the sword. Homeless, they wandered around, wrapped in sheep and goat skins, suffering, harassed, mistreated. The world was not worth bearing such people who had to wander in deserts and mountains, in caves and ravines.« (Hebrews 11,35:38-XNUMX)

For centuries God watched with patience and forbearance this cruel treatment of his messengers. He saw His holy law broken, despised, and trampled upon. The inhabitants of the world in Noah's day were swept away with a flood. But when the earth was repopulated, men once more distanced themselves from God and met him with great hostility, boldly defying him. Those set free by God from Egyptian bondage followed in the same footsteps. After the cause, however, followed the effect; the earth was corrupted.

God's government in crisis

God's government came into crisis. Crime on earth took over. The voices of those who fell victim to human envy and hatred cried out from beneath the altar for vengeance. All of heaven was ready, at God's word, to come to the rescue of its chosen ones. One word from him, and the lightning bolts of heaven would have fallen upon the earth and filled it with fire and flames. God would have only had to speak, there would have been thunder and lightning, the earth would have trembled and everything would have been destroyed.

The unexpected happens

The heavenly intelligences braced themselves for a terrible manifestation of divine omnipotence. Every movement was watched with great concern. It was expected that justice would be done, that God would punish the inhabitants of the earth. But »God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.« (John 3,16:20,13) »I will send my beloved Son. They will have respect for him.« (Luke 1:4,10 NL) How incredibly merciful! The Messiah did not come to condemn the world but to save it. "In this is love, that we did not love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (XNUMX John XNUMX:XNUMX)

The heavenly universe marveled greatly at God's patience and love. To save fallen mankind, God's Son became man and took off his royal crown and royal robes. He became poor so that through his poverty we might become rich. Because he was one with God, only he was able to accomplish salvation. With that goal, he actually consented to becoming one with man. With his sinlessness, he would take upon himself any transgression.

A love that gives everything

The love revealed by the Messiah is not understood by mortal man. It is an unfathomable mystery to the human mind. The Anointed One truly united man's sinful nature with his own sinless nature, because by this act of condescension he was enabled to pour out his blessings on the fallen race. In this way he made it possible for us to partake in his being. By making himself a sacrifice for sin, he opened a way for people to become one with him. He put himself in the human situation and became capable of suffering. His whole earthly life was a preparation for the altar.

The Anointed points us to the key to all his suffering and humiliation: the love of God. In the parable we read: "But at last he sent his son to them, saying to himself, 'They will fear my son.'" (Matthew 21,37:XNUMX) Time and time again, ancient Israel had fallen away from the faith. Messiah came to see if there was anything else he could do for his vineyard. In his divine and human form he stood before the people and showed them his true state.

Those who love death are released into it in tears

When the vinedressers saw him, they said to themselves, 'This is the heir; come, let's kill him and take his inheritance! And they took him and pushed him out of the vineyard and killed him.” (verses 38.39, 23,37.38) The Messiah came to his own, but his own did not receive him. They returned him good for evil, love for hate. His heart was deeply saddened as he watched Israel slip further and further. As he looked out over the sacred city and thought of the judgment that would come upon it, he sobbed: 'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you! How often have I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings; and you didn't want to! Behold, your house shall be left desolate to you.« (Matthew XNUMX:XNUMX)

The Anointed One was "despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with sorrows" (Isaiah 53,3:18,5). Evil hands seized him and crucified him. The psalmist wrote of his death: “The bonds of death encircled me, and the floods of destruction terrified me. The bonds of death encircled me, and the ropes of death overpowered me. When I was afraid I called on the LORD and cried out to my God. Then he heard my voice from his temple, and my cry came before him in his ears. The earth shook and shook, and the foundations of the mountains moved and shook, because he was angry. smoke rose from his nose, and consuming fire from his mouth; Flames spurted from him. He bowed the sky and descended, and darkness was under his feet. And he rode on the cherub and flew; he soared on the wing of the wind.« (Psalm 11:XNUMX-XNUMX)

After telling the parable of the vineyard, Jesus asked his listeners, "When the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to the wicked vinedressers?" Among those who listened to the Messiah were the very men who were then planned his death. But they were so engrossed in the story that they replied, "He will bring evil to an end for the wicked, and will lease his vineyard to other vinedressers, who will give him the fruit in due season." (Matthew 21,41:XNUMX) They did not realize that they had just made their own judgement.

sequel follows

Review and Herald, 17. July 1900