NOT DESIRED by Frank Hope

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 3, 1887

"NOT DESIRED."

By Frank Hope

FROM the time when man fell in the garden of Eden a Saviour had been earnestly looked for. Ceremonies were performed that typified his work; prophets had prophesied of his coming; and many an Israelitish maiden had prayed that she might be the mother of the child that should be born. At the time of the first Advent many were expecting the Messiah, and some knew perfectly by the prophecies of Daniel that the time had come. Thus we read of one Simeon, a just and devout man, "who was waiting for the consolation of Israel" and who hailed the infant Saviour with joy. But the great majority, in spite of all their expectations and professions, would not receive him—he was not desired of them. The first thing we read about him in his life was that there was no room for him. The Saviour of the world had to be laid in a manger, for "there was no room for them in the inn."

All through his life we find this same thing; he was despised and rejected of men. He went about to do good, to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, to restore sight to the blind, and to set at liberty them that were bruised. Yet everywhere he was hated and scoffed at and forsaken. In his own country, when he announced himself to the people, they would have hurled him from the brow of the cliff, had he not miraculously delivered himself from their hands. When he visited the country of the Gadarenes, they besought him to depart from them. Because he did not come as a mighty prince to set up his temporal kingdom and deliver the nation out of Roman bondage, the haughty rulers would have nothing to do with him—save to slay him.

As it was with his first coming, so we are shown it will be with his second. When he shall "appear the second time without sin unto salvation," "to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe," to raise the righteous dead and to give rewards to the faithful, and to fulfill the blessed hope of the gospel, still he will not be gladly received; still he is not desired. By many the soon-coming of Jesus is regarded with regret if not with terror, and any serious thoughts upon that subject are dismissed from their minds as soon as possible. Their minds are all taken up with worldly cares, with thoughts of pleasure and amusement; but, like the Bethlehem inn, there is no room for Jesus there. Christ particularly told his disciples that these things would be so; said he, "As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be," and we read that before the flood "the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Paul also tells us that evil men shall "wax worse and worse." Is it to be wondered at that Christ will not be desired, if such men as these are to receive him? To them he will come with vengeance, to dash them in pieces as a potter's vessel, and they will hide themselves in the dens and the rocks of the mountains, and say "to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb."

There are also many to-day who, like the Jews of old, profess to expect the Saviour, but they too would try to force upon him a temporal kingdom. But how differently will he come from what they expect. To them Christ says as he said to the Jews, "My kingdom is not of this world." And "when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ," they too will not be glad and rejoice, for even by them he is not desired.

But there will be a people who at that time will desire him, for in Isaiah 25:9 we read of some who will look up and cry, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us; this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation." "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."