And Herod with his men of war set him at nought, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate. Luke 23:11.
Past history will be repeated. A determined conflict is to be waged in the Christian world. People who are disloyal to the commandments of the living God will, in their supposed self-importance, be inspired by Satan to war against those who follow the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.... The result will be that people will become inhuman in their actions toward other people....
If the professed Christian world would take a lesson from the Jews’ treatment of Christ, and resolve in God never themselves to tread over the same ground, they would not make themselves responsible for the death of Christ in the person of His saints.
A large company of the priests and elders accompanied Christ to Herod. And when Christ was brought before Herod, these priests and rulers and scribes were all speaking excitedly, bringing in their accusations against Him. But the tetrarch paid little regard to the charges brought against Christ. He found Him to be innocent of all crime.
The Roman soldiers knew that they would please the low, coarse, hardened rabble and the priests and rulers if they should show Christ all the contempt that a wicked, corrupt soldiery could instigate. And they were helped on by the Jewish dignitaries themselves.... They set the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory, before them as a pretender, and treated Him as an object of derision.
They made the King of glory appear in as ridiculous a light as possible. They clothed Him with an old purple, kingly robe, which had done service to some king. They placed in His hands an old reed, and on His divine head a crown of cruel thorns, which pierced the holy temples and sent the blood trickling down His face and beard. The most contemptuous speeches were made before Him. But Christ did not cast upon them one reproachful look. They covered His face with an old garment and struck Him in the face, saying, “Prophesy, who is it that smote thee?” Then snatching the garment rudely away, they spat in His face, and smote Him with the reed with all the brutal force of a corrupt soldiery. The most grotesque attitude and the most vile language were used, while in mock humility they bowed before Him....
The Jews had desired evidence of His divinity by working a miracle, but here they had far greater evidence than any miracle that could have been wrought.—Manuscript 112, 1897.
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