And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. Luke 4:24.
With what intense interest was this controversy watched by the heavenly angels and the unfallen worlds as the honor of the law was being vindicated. Not merely for this world, but for the universe of heaven and the worlds that God had created, was the controversy to be forever settled. The confederacy of darkness was watching for the semblance of a chance to rise and triumph over the divine and human Substitute and Surety of the human race, that the apostate might shout, Victory, and the world and its inhabitants forever become his kingdom. But Satan reached only the heel; he could not touch the head. Now he sees that his true character is clearly revealed before all heaven, and that the heavenly beings and the worlds that God has created would be wholly on the side of God. He sees that his prospects of future influence with them will be entirely cut off. Christ's humanity will demonstrate for eternal ages the question that settled the controversy....
What was it that moved His own nation to throw such scorn upon Jesus? The Jews were expecting an earthly prince who would deliver them from the power that God had declared would rule over them if they refused to keep the way of the Lord and obey His statutes, His commandments, and His laws. They had made their proud boast that Israel's king, the star arising from Judah, would break their thraldom, and make of them a kingdom of priests.
But it was not the absence of external honor and riches and glory that caused the Jews to reject Jesus. The Sun of Righteousness shining amid the moral darkness in such distinct rays revealed the contrast between sin and holiness, purity and defilement, and such light was not welcome to them....
That which Christ had specified would be His work was fulfilled. The sick were healed, demoniacs were restored, lepers and paralytics were made whole. The dumb spake, the ears of the deaf were opened, the dead were brought to life, and the poor had the gospel preached to them.... Every miracle wrought by Christ convinced some of them of His true character, which answered to the specifications of the Messiah of prophecy, but those who did not receive the light of heaven set themselves more determinedly against this evidence....
The teachings of Christ, in precept and example, were the sowing of the seed to be afterward cultivated by His disciples.—Manuscript 143, 1897.
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