Volume 2

256
Life of Jesus Christ
followed Hinl quietly to the synagogue and listened to His
instruction. The Pharisees, and among them those fifteen
from the other cities, sat around His chair, forced to treat
Him with respect and hypocritical reverence. They gave
Him the Scriptures, and He taught from Isaias 49, that God
had not forgotten His people. He read aloud: HIf even a
woman should forget her child, yet would not God forget
His people"; and then explained from the following verses
that the impiety of men could not restrain God, could not
hinder Him from realizing His thoughts of mercy. The time
of which the Prophet speaks, that the eyes of God are always
on the walls of Sion, had now come, now should the
destroyers flee and the builders commence their labor. The
Lord would gather together nations to ornament His
sanctuary. There will be so many good and pious souls, so
many benefactors and leaders of the poor nations that the
sterile synagogue will say: Who has begotten to me so many
children? The Gentiles shall be converted to the Church,
the kings of the earth shall serve her! The God of Jacob
shall snatch from the enemy, from the perverted synagogue,
her children; and they that like murderers lay hands on the
Saviour, shall rage against one another, and choke one
another. (Isaias 50: 1 et seq.) Jesus explained this as referring
to the destruction of Jerusalem, since it would not
receive the Kingdom of grace. God demands whether He
has separated from the Synagogue, whether He has given
her a bill of divorce, whether He has sold His people. Yes,
on account of their sins, have they been sold! On account of
her transgressions, has the Synagogue been abandoned! He
has called, He has warned, and no one has heeded. But He
is the mighty God, He can cause Heaven and earth to tremble.
Jesus applied all to His own time. He showed that all
had been led astray, those that had been forsaken by the
Synagogue. And then, as if speaking to Himself, He uttered
the words of this passage of Isaias: "The Lord hath given
me a learned tongue, that I should know how to uphold by