Spoken on the final day of teaching in the temple to the scribes and Pharisees, priests, lawyers and elders, the words call hypocritical leaders who carry on their forefathers' opposition to God's messengers to complete the guilt their fathers began. To fill up the measure is to cherish in the heart the same spirit that slew the prophets and to commit the same crimes, though they build the prophets' tombs and claim they would not have shared in their blood. That completion would come by rejecting Christ Himself and by killing, crucifying, scourging and persecuting from city to city the prophets, wise men and scribes He would send. The nation's guilt was not yet complete, for God grants a period of probation and further light before judgment, but when children receive greater light through Christ and His apostles and reject it they become partakers of their parents' sins and fix their own guilt, and when persistent rejection wears out divine patience probation ends. As a generation of vipers they cannot escape the damnation of hell but must answer for all righteous blood from Abel to Zacharias son of Barachias, with judgment falling upon that generation in the destruction of Jerusalem, which typifies the destruction of the world. The same woes will fall on later generations who act in the same way, for the Jewish nation represents people of every age who scorn divine love, and the last-day church repeats its history by rejecting light, abusing religious authority and persecuting those who proclaim warning, until the world rapidly filling its measure calls forth speedy and final retribution.
Temple Setting and Audience
The command belongs to the final day of teaching in the temple, spoken in the temple courts on the last day there. It was uttered when Christ confronted the rulers and elders who had rejected and despised His teaching. There He exposed their character and condition, laying bare the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and lawyers. It was a warning that exposed their state and the retribution that would follow persistence in evil, condemning them in words intended to reach people of every tongue and nation through the close of time.
It was spoken to scribes, Pharisees, lawyers, priests and elders as hypocrites, deceitful and unjust leaders and murderers. It was a fearless and unsparing denunciation of their hypocrisy and deceit, exposing artful intrigue and dishonest practices while they professed godliness yet resisted God's law and truth. Their speech revealed what power ruled the heart, for Christ's rule produces words marked by purity and truth while the enemy's influence echoes his sentiments. They continued the wickedness of those before them, using religious authority for wrong ends and continuing their forefathers' opposition to God's messengers, rejecting the prophets and the light brought by Jesus. Their outward piety did not excuse transgression, for Christ rebuked falsehood and impurity without sparing rulers or teachers, and those who reject received light are responsible for their course and its consequences, as even His accusers knew He had condemned them in these terms.
The denunciation was keen and searching, uttered with burning earnestness and words of terrible severity against grave sin that was an abomination to God. Yet it showed no irritated temper, retaliation, or stirring of unholy passion, for His indignation was righteous. Love and mercy were thus joined with firm opposition to sin. He would not allow the people to be deceived by false claims to righteousness and sanctity, and this requires those who hear wrong sentiments and false statements to stand free from binding influence that would hold them speechless, to refuse to verify what they know is untrue, and to protest and correct error rather than listen in silence.
Meaning of Filling Measure
To fill up the measure is to complete the guilt begun by the fathers by continuing their wrongdoing and bringing it to its full completion. It means cherishing in the heart the same spirit that slew the prophets, walking in the same path, manifesting that same exacting and intolerant spirit, rejecting the Lord's reproof, and setting the stumblingblock of iniquity before the eyes, which leads to committing the same crimes. Those who do so will receive the same judgments that fell upon the Pharisees.
Though they build the tombs of the prophets and protest that they would not have shared in their fathers' blood, their own works witness against them that they are children of those who killed the prophets. Outward honoring of the prophets does not excuse following the same deceitful and unjust course as the ancestors who killed them, and refusal of God's prophets and of Christ despite given light makes them responsible for divine rebuke. Inherited religious practice and appeal to the fathers' accepted sacrifices cannot justify rejecting Christ and continuing the fathers' course, for it is no defense for refusing further truth.
The completion would come by rejecting Christ and by killing and crucifying and scourging in the synagogues and persecuting from city to city the prophets and wise men and scribes He would send to them. Their claim that they would not have joined their fathers in killing the prophets is contradicted by their own conduct, and their coming persecution of those messengers would make them answerable for the righteous blood shed through the generations. The nation's guilt was not yet complete, and continued resistance would bring it to completion, with the fathers' teachings and example helping bring wrongdoing to its full measure. That pattern would be completed by the final murderous act of putting Christ to death, putting Jesus the Lord of Life to death.
The leaders in Israel had instigated the killing of the holy prophets because those prophets denounced the sins of men in authority. Refusal to be reproved, slighting of God's warnings, and holding their sins closer had already brought punishment in the captivity of the Jews to a heathen nation. In Christ's time the Jews lamented their humiliation under the Romans and condemned their fathers for stoning the prophets sent to correct them, yet kept the murderous spirit themselves.
The same pattern is shown in paying tithes of mint and anise and cummin yet omitting judgment, mercy, faith and love. Careful attention to small religious duties cannot excuse neglect of the weightier matters of God's law, including justice, mercy, and faith, by those who are spiritually blinded and fail to discern the relative importance of what they should understand. Those who outwardly appear righteous unto men but within are full of hypocrisy and iniquity thereby witness against themselves that they are children of those who killed the prophets.
Guilt Probation and Light
The guilt of the nation was not yet complete, and the command to fill up the measure of the fathers warned that continued resistance would bring it to completion by a final murderous act in putting Christ to death. Each century of profligacy and transgression and each age of bold apostasy adds to accumulated guilt and treasures up wrath against the day of wrath and the day of judgment. The fathers had killed the prophets, and their teachings and example had helped bring wrongdoing to its full measure, yet again and again God had checked their course by severe chastisement before they provoked Him, cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and at last refused to honor His only begotten Son. The filling takes place as nations act on shortsighted policy and priests and rulers by their course restore the lost ascendancy of the man of sin, while the blood of martyrs slain for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ ascends to heaven, and their wicked works are neither forgotten nor overlooked.
Children are not condemned merely for the sins of parents, but when they receive further light about Christ through His teaching and through the apostles and reject it, they become partakers of their parents' sins and fill up the measure of their iniquity. It was the rejection of the mercies and warnings offered in their own time that fixed their guilt, for the sins of the fathers were not counted against that generation apart from its own chosen course in following ancestral evil practices and persecuting God's messengers. Jerusalem's judgment was delayed for nearly forty years, giving people who had not received their parents' opportunities a chance to respond to the gospel.
God grants nations and people a period of probation and further opportunity before judgment and does not suddenly cast off transgressors or destroy entire nations. Punishment is withheld with strictness yet not in the extreme of indignation while some souls may yet break away from delusion and false dealing, repent and be converted, even while the mass persist in making void His law and working to deceive if possible the very elect. After long restraint of His own power and long patience with deception, impiety, and transgression of His law, He bids the abandoned to fill up the cup of their iniquity to its full measure, but He does not clear the guilty when they persist in rejecting Him. The Jewish nation filled up the measure of its ancestors' guilt by repeating their sins and stubbornly rejecting the light, truth, messages, and warnings God had given, and their final impenitence exhausted divine patience, brought judgment, and made their evil influence an example to the world.
God's patience has a limit, and when people persistently reject mercy, truth, salvation, counsel, messages and warnings, despise His mercy, repeat their history, and wear out His patience, probation ends and He must intervene with retribution, even if punishment has long been delayed. By continuing the fathers' rejection of God's warnings they repeated their history, brought punishment upon themselves, and were held accountable for the blood of the prophets their people had shed. Persistent rebellion and contempt for divine authority bring guilt to its full measure and make judgment just, for long-suffering does not excuse sin, and retribution comes when people persist in it and persist in contempt for God's law. Those who reject present warnings and follow their fathers' evil practices complete the measure of accumulated guilt, and the Jewish nation in scorning divine love represents people of every age who do the same, including professed representatives of Christ who deny Him by their lives.
Neglecting granted light and turning from a holy calling leaves people in darkness in a worse and more unfavorable position than those Jews, and the chance for peace may pass out of sight. Professing to have light far in advance of others while works do not correspond with profession brings the same rebuke that fell on the Pharisees for hypocrisy and vain pretense, while even those who have spent life in sin but gladly accept truth when opened and come to God in penitence with a sense of sinfulness are accepted and stand in a more favorable position for perfection of Christian character. Neglect to improve granted light and opportunities is what leaves men and women in darkness, and the woe pronounced on the Jews shows the danger of resisting light until judgment reaches its full measure.
Judgment and Retribution Foretold
Addressed as serpents and a brood of vipers, the leaders are told they cannot escape condemnation to hell but must answer for all righteous blood shed on earth from Abel to Zacharias son of Barachias, who was slain between the temple and the altar, with all these things coming upon that generation. Their profession that they would not have shared in their fathers' shedding of the prophets' blood is contradicted by their own works, which witness against them as children of prophet-killers. The filling up is completed by rejecting Christ and by killing, crucifying, scourging in synagogues, and persecuting from city to city the prophets, wise men and scribes He would send to them.
Sin practiced under a cloak of godliness brings especially heavy and severe retribution. Christ's burning denunciation falls more sharply on hypocrites, vain pretenders and fruitless professors who bear no fruit to His glory than on open sinners. The open sinner has more hope and stands in a more favorable position for perfection of Christian character if he gladly accepts truth when opened, comes to God in penitence with a sense of sinfulness, and is accepted even though he has spent life in sin and been chief of sinners. By contrast, professing to have light far in advance of others while works do not correspond with profession, and neglecting to improve granted light and opportunities, leaves men and women in darkness and brings upon them the same rebuke that fell on the Pharisees. The warning therefore calls fruitless professors to become fruit-bearers and do their duty.
Each century of transgression added to accumulated guilt and stored up wrath against the day of wrath, with wicked works neither forgotten nor overlooked. Again and again God checked the stubborn, impenitent nation in its wicked course by severe chastisement, yet they provoked Him, cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and at last refused to honor His only begotten Son. When the time of retributive judgment was fully due, the mandate went forth from the sacred place of the Most High for the vindication of God's honor and the magnifying of His law, ending long forbearance in the destruction of Jerusalem. That destruction of Jerusalem also typifies the destruction of the world, while the Christian church in the last days repeats the Jewish nation's history by rejecting light and resisting the Spirit of grace.
God does not suddenly cast off transgressors or destroy entire nations, but grants probation and restrains His own power in long patience with deception, impiety and transgression of His law while some souls may yet break away from delusion, repent and be converted. During that restraint the mass persist in false dealing, make void His law, work through Satan's science to deceive if possible the very elect, and treasure up wrath against the day of wrath, and cities and places given to satanic possession and satanic agencies are punished with strictness yet not in the extreme of indignation. The abandoned of the present day are bidden to fill up the cup of iniquity begun before to its full measure. When the measure is full and divine patience is worn out and exhausted, God will arise speedily in authoritative power and show before a transgressing world that He is God, pouring out wrath signally, unexpectedly and fiercely with no further opportunity for repentance.
Jerusalem completed ancestral guilt by continuing violence against the prophets and the Son of God, continuing to oppose God's messengers and reject Christ. By repeating ancestral sins and stubbornly rejecting light, truth, messages and warnings, the Jewish nation filled up the measure of its ancestors' guilt. Their repeated sins exhausted divine patience and their final impenitence brought judgment, leaving the city under threatened divine wrath. Their influence for evil also made them an example to the world of stubborn impenitence, illustrating that God gives nations and people a period of probation and further opportunity before judgment but does not clear the guilty when they persist in rejecting Him.
Warning for Later Generations
The rebuke of scribes and Pharisees was preserved as an admonition for later generations, because the same spirit of exalting human religious authority to rule conscience would continue throughout church history and lead people away from truth. Their rejection of clear evidence of Messiahship showed the same opposition to truth as their fathers, and the warning against abuse of authority and leading others astray belongs wherever that pattern appears. The woes pronounced on them will fall on all who act in the same way unless they repent.
That includes unconverted managers of God's work, people in sacred positions of trust, and priests and rulers who remain impenitent and oppose truth and righteousness. Appeals and warnings have no more effect on such hearts than Christ's appeals had on the Pharisees, who cherished an exacting and intolerant spirit, continued in the same path, rejected reproof, and set the stumblingblock of iniquity before the eyes, and continuing in that path is filling up the fathers' measure and will bring the same judgments. The marks are a Pharisaical spirit of pride, combative opposition and desire to rule others, with spiritual blindness, neglect of God's work and of justice, mercy and love, injustice toward others, and condemning lesser faults while excusing grave sins.
The Jewish nation in this represents people of every age who scorn divine love, and professed representatives of Christ who deny Him by their lives stand condemned by the same pattern of rejecting present warnings and completing accumulated guilt. Each century of transgression added to the guilt awaiting judgment, and when judgment was due Jerusalem's destruction vindicated God's honor and magnified His law, typifying the destruction of the world. The Christian church in the last days repeats that history by rejecting light and resisting the Spirit of grace, and its religious leaders repeat Pharisaic hostility when anger at questioned authority leads them to denounce the warning and stir persecution against its proclaimers.
What was literally fulfilled by the Jews in their treatment of Christ and the prophets, wise men and scribes He sent — killing, crucifying, scourging in synagogues and persecuting from city to city while tithing mint and anise and cummin, omitting judgment, mercy and faith, appearing outwardly righteous while full within of hypocrisy and iniquity, and witnessing against themselves as children of prophet-killers — will be carried to the full in these last days by men who nourish the same spirit, as marked their course both before and after the Minneapolis meeting, if their lives are spared. Christ is now bidding the abandoned of this day to fill up the cup begun by their fathers, and the world is rapidly filling its measure while nearly full of sin. This filling comes through shortsighted policy by which priests and rulers restore the lost ascendancy of the man of sin, through the blood of martyrs slain for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus, through failure to overcome appetite and lust which enslaves its servants, and through hearts left as desecrated shrines with a form of godliness without power, in apparent unconsciousness of hollow hypocrisy, formality, passion and envy, sowing seed that reaps a harvest after its kind. In this enlightened age iniquity and loss of virtue and modesty exceed anything before, under light that would long ago have brought Sodom and Gomorrah to repentance, so that Sodom and Gomorrah will rise in the judgment and condemn them, and every professed chosen soul who imitates that example in any degree will perish with them; it is a terrible thing to wear out God's patience, and when the cup is full He must interfere with tremendous consequences on the disobedient.
The warning calls hypocritical, fruitless professors to become fruit-bearers and do their duty, for an open sinner has more hope than a pretender bearing no fruit to His glory. Christ with burning earnestness and terrible severity denounced the abominations He saw in church and world and would not allow the people to be deceived by false claims to righteousness and sanctity. His example requires standing free from any binding influence, standing in God-given manhood with freedom of speech and freedom of faith, refusing to harmonize with wrong plans or to be cowered into silence by a masterful spirit, refusing to verify what is known to be untrue, and protesting and correcting error, false statements and wrong sentiments rather than listening in silence. Meeting and rebuking the powers of darkness requires much of God's love, grace and power, keeping the way of the Lord, looking to Jesus as Author and Finisher of faith and Light of the world in whom is no darkness, trusting Him, allowing no discouraging word to pass the lips, but speaking faith and courage and praise and telling of His love and wonderful works.
Spoken on the final day of teaching in the temple to the scribes and Pharisees, priests, lawyers and elders, the words call hypocritical leaders who carry on their forefathers' opposition to God's messengers to complete the guilt their fathers began. To fill up the measure is to cherish in the heart the same spirit that slew the prophets and to commit the same crimes, though they build the prophets' tombs and claim they would not have shared in their blood. That completion would come by rejecting Christ Himself and by killing, crucifying, scourging and persecuting from city to city the prophets, wise men and scribes He would send. The nation's guilt was not yet complete, for God grants a period of probation and further light before judgment, but when children receive greater light through Christ and His apostles and reject it they become partakers of their parents' sins and fix their own guilt, and when persistent rejection wears out divine patience probation ends. As a generation of vipers they cannot escape the damnation of hell but must answer for all righteous blood from Abel to Zacharias son of Barachias, with judgment falling upon that generation in the destruction of Jerusalem, which typifies the destruction of the world. The same woes will fall on later generations who act in the same way, for the Jewish nation represents people of every age who scorn divine love, and the last-day church repeats its history by rejecting light, abusing religious authority and persecuting those who proclaim warning, until the world rapidly filling its measure calls forth speedy and final retribution.
Temple Setting and Audience
The command belongs to the final day of teaching in the temple, spoken in the temple courts on the last day there. It was uttered when Christ confronted the rulers and elders who had rejected and despised His teaching. There He exposed their character and condition, laying bare the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and lawyers. It was a warning that exposed their state and the retribution that would follow persistence in evil, condemning them in words intended to reach people of every tongue and nation through the close of time.
It was spoken to scribes, Pharisees, lawyers, priests and elders as hypocrites, deceitful and unjust leaders and murderers. It was a fearless and unsparing denunciation of their hypocrisy and deceit, exposing artful intrigue and dishonest practices while they professed godliness yet resisted God's law and truth. Their speech revealed what power ruled the heart, for Christ's rule produces words marked by purity and truth while the enemy's influence echoes his sentiments. They continued the wickedness of those before them, using religious authority for wrong ends and continuing their forefathers' opposition to God's messengers, rejecting the prophets and the light brought by Jesus. Their outward piety did not excuse transgression, for Christ rebuked falsehood and impurity without sparing rulers or teachers, and those who reject received light are responsible for their course and its consequences, as even His accusers knew He had condemned them in these terms.
The denunciation was keen and searching, uttered with burning earnestness and words of terrible severity against grave sin that was an abomination to God. Yet it showed no irritated temper, retaliation, or stirring of unholy passion, for His indignation was righteous. Love and mercy were thus joined with firm opposition to sin. He would not allow the people to be deceived by false claims to righteousness and sanctity, and this requires those who hear wrong sentiments and false statements to stand free from binding influence that would hold them speechless, to refuse to verify what they know is untrue, and to protest and correct error rather than listen in silence.
Meaning of Filling Measure
To fill up the measure is to complete the guilt begun by the fathers by continuing their wrongdoing and bringing it to its full completion. It means cherishing in the heart the same spirit that slew the prophets, walking in the same path, manifesting that same exacting and intolerant spirit, rejecting the Lord's reproof, and setting the stumblingblock of iniquity before the eyes, which leads to committing the same crimes. Those who do so will receive the same judgments that fell upon the Pharisees.
Though they build the tombs of the prophets and protest that they would not have shared in their fathers' blood, their own works witness against them that they are children of those who killed the prophets. Outward honoring of the prophets does not excuse following the same deceitful and unjust course as the ancestors who killed them, and refusal of God's prophets and of Christ despite given light makes them responsible for divine rebuke. Inherited religious practice and appeal to the fathers' accepted sacrifices cannot justify rejecting Christ and continuing the fathers' course, for it is no defense for refusing further truth.
The completion would come by rejecting Christ and by killing and crucifying and scourging in the synagogues and persecuting from city to city the prophets and wise men and scribes He would send to them. Their claim that they would not have joined their fathers in killing the prophets is contradicted by their own conduct, and their coming persecution of those messengers would make them answerable for the righteous blood shed through the generations. The nation's guilt was not yet complete, and continued resistance would bring it to completion, with the fathers' teachings and example helping bring wrongdoing to its full measure. That pattern would be completed by the final murderous act of putting Christ to death, putting Jesus the Lord of Life to death.
The leaders in Israel had instigated the killing of the holy prophets because those prophets denounced the sins of men in authority. Refusal to be reproved, slighting of God's warnings, and holding their sins closer had already brought punishment in the captivity of the Jews to a heathen nation. In Christ's time the Jews lamented their humiliation under the Romans and condemned their fathers for stoning the prophets sent to correct them, yet kept the murderous spirit themselves.
The same pattern is shown in paying tithes of mint and anise and cummin yet omitting judgment, mercy, faith and love. Careful attention to small religious duties cannot excuse neglect of the weightier matters of God's law, including justice, mercy, and faith, by those who are spiritually blinded and fail to discern the relative importance of what they should understand. Those who outwardly appear righteous unto men but within are full of hypocrisy and iniquity thereby witness against themselves that they are children of those who killed the prophets.
Guilt Probation and Light
The guilt of the nation was not yet complete, and the command to fill up the measure of the fathers warned that continued resistance would bring it to completion by a final murderous act in putting Christ to death. Each century of profligacy and transgression and each age of bold apostasy adds to accumulated guilt and treasures up wrath against the day of wrath and the day of judgment. The fathers had killed the prophets, and their teachings and example had helped bring wrongdoing to its full measure, yet again and again God had checked their course by severe chastisement before they provoked Him, cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and at last refused to honor His only begotten Son. The filling takes place as nations act on shortsighted policy and priests and rulers by their course restore the lost ascendancy of the man of sin, while the blood of martyrs slain for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ ascends to heaven, and their wicked works are neither forgotten nor overlooked.
Children are not condemned merely for the sins of parents, but when they receive further light about Christ through His teaching and through the apostles and reject it, they become partakers of their parents' sins and fill up the measure of their iniquity. It was the rejection of the mercies and warnings offered in their own time that fixed their guilt, for the sins of the fathers were not counted against that generation apart from its own chosen course in following ancestral evil practices and persecuting God's messengers. Jerusalem's judgment was delayed for nearly forty years, giving people who had not received their parents' opportunities a chance to respond to the gospel.
God grants nations and people a period of probation and further opportunity before judgment and does not suddenly cast off transgressors or destroy entire nations. Punishment is withheld with strictness yet not in the extreme of indignation while some souls may yet break away from delusion and false dealing, repent and be converted, even while the mass persist in making void His law and working to deceive if possible the very elect. After long restraint of His own power and long patience with deception, impiety, and transgression of His law, He bids the abandoned to fill up the cup of their iniquity to its full measure, but He does not clear the guilty when they persist in rejecting Him. The Jewish nation filled up the measure of its ancestors' guilt by repeating their sins and stubbornly rejecting the light, truth, messages, and warnings God had given, and their final impenitence exhausted divine patience, brought judgment, and made their evil influence an example to the world.
God's patience has a limit, and when people persistently reject mercy, truth, salvation, counsel, messages and warnings, despise His mercy, repeat their history, and wear out His patience, probation ends and He must intervene with retribution, even if punishment has long been delayed. By continuing the fathers' rejection of God's warnings they repeated their history, brought punishment upon themselves, and were held accountable for the blood of the prophets their people had shed. Persistent rebellion and contempt for divine authority bring guilt to its full measure and make judgment just, for long-suffering does not excuse sin, and retribution comes when people persist in it and persist in contempt for God's law. Those who reject present warnings and follow their fathers' evil practices complete the measure of accumulated guilt, and the Jewish nation in scorning divine love represents people of every age who do the same, including professed representatives of Christ who deny Him by their lives.
Neglecting granted light and turning from a holy calling leaves people in darkness in a worse and more unfavorable position than those Jews, and the chance for peace may pass out of sight. Professing to have light far in advance of others while works do not correspond with profession brings the same rebuke that fell on the Pharisees for hypocrisy and vain pretense, while even those who have spent life in sin but gladly accept truth when opened and come to God in penitence with a sense of sinfulness are accepted and stand in a more favorable position for perfection of Christian character. Neglect to improve granted light and opportunities is what leaves men and women in darkness, and the woe pronounced on the Jews shows the danger of resisting light until judgment reaches its full measure.
Judgment and Retribution Foretold
Addressed as serpents and a brood of vipers, the leaders are told they cannot escape condemnation to hell but must answer for all righteous blood shed on earth from Abel to Zacharias son of Barachias, who was slain between the temple and the altar, with all these things coming upon that generation. Their profession that they would not have shared in their fathers' shedding of the prophets' blood is contradicted by their own works, which witness against them as children of prophet-killers. The filling up is completed by rejecting Christ and by killing, crucifying, scourging in synagogues, and persecuting from city to city the prophets, wise men and scribes He would send to them.
Sin practiced under a cloak of godliness brings especially heavy and severe retribution. Christ's burning denunciation falls more sharply on hypocrites, vain pretenders and fruitless professors who bear no fruit to His glory than on open sinners. The open sinner has more hope and stands in a more favorable position for perfection of Christian character if he gladly accepts truth when opened, comes to God in penitence with a sense of sinfulness, and is accepted even though he has spent life in sin and been chief of sinners. By contrast, professing to have light far in advance of others while works do not correspond with profession, and neglecting to improve granted light and opportunities, leaves men and women in darkness and brings upon them the same rebuke that fell on the Pharisees. The warning therefore calls fruitless professors to become fruit-bearers and do their duty.
Each century of transgression added to accumulated guilt and stored up wrath against the day of wrath, with wicked works neither forgotten nor overlooked. Again and again God checked the stubborn, impenitent nation in its wicked course by severe chastisement, yet they provoked Him, cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and at last refused to honor His only begotten Son. When the time of retributive judgment was fully due, the mandate went forth from the sacred place of the Most High for the vindication of God's honor and the magnifying of His law, ending long forbearance in the destruction of Jerusalem. That destruction of Jerusalem also typifies the destruction of the world, while the Christian church in the last days repeats the Jewish nation's history by rejecting light and resisting the Spirit of grace.
God does not suddenly cast off transgressors or destroy entire nations, but grants probation and restrains His own power in long patience with deception, impiety and transgression of His law while some souls may yet break away from delusion, repent and be converted. During that restraint the mass persist in false dealing, make void His law, work through Satan's science to deceive if possible the very elect, and treasure up wrath against the day of wrath, and cities and places given to satanic possession and satanic agencies are punished with strictness yet not in the extreme of indignation. The abandoned of the present day are bidden to fill up the cup of iniquity begun before to its full measure. When the measure is full and divine patience is worn out and exhausted, God will arise speedily in authoritative power and show before a transgressing world that He is God, pouring out wrath signally, unexpectedly and fiercely with no further opportunity for repentance.
Jerusalem completed ancestral guilt by continuing violence against the prophets and the Son of God, continuing to oppose God's messengers and reject Christ. By repeating ancestral sins and stubbornly rejecting light, truth, messages and warnings, the Jewish nation filled up the measure of its ancestors' guilt. Their repeated sins exhausted divine patience and their final impenitence brought judgment, leaving the city under threatened divine wrath. Their influence for evil also made them an example to the world of stubborn impenitence, illustrating that God gives nations and people a period of probation and further opportunity before judgment but does not clear the guilty when they persist in rejecting Him.
Warning for Later Generations
The rebuke of scribes and Pharisees was preserved as an admonition for later generations, because the same spirit of exalting human religious authority to rule conscience would continue throughout church history and lead people away from truth. Their rejection of clear evidence of Messiahship showed the same opposition to truth as their fathers, and the warning against abuse of authority and leading others astray belongs wherever that pattern appears. The woes pronounced on them will fall on all who act in the same way unless they repent.
That includes unconverted managers of God's work, people in sacred positions of trust, and priests and rulers who remain impenitent and oppose truth and righteousness. Appeals and warnings have no more effect on such hearts than Christ's appeals had on the Pharisees, who cherished an exacting and intolerant spirit, continued in the same path, rejected reproof, and set the stumblingblock of iniquity before the eyes, and continuing in that path is filling up the fathers' measure and will bring the same judgments. The marks are a Pharisaical spirit of pride, combative opposition and desire to rule others, with spiritual blindness, neglect of God's work and of justice, mercy and love, injustice toward others, and condemning lesser faults while excusing grave sins.
The Jewish nation in this represents people of every age who scorn divine love, and professed representatives of Christ who deny Him by their lives stand condemned by the same pattern of rejecting present warnings and completing accumulated guilt. Each century of transgression added to the guilt awaiting judgment, and when judgment was due Jerusalem's destruction vindicated God's honor and magnified His law, typifying the destruction of the world. The Christian church in the last days repeats that history by rejecting light and resisting the Spirit of grace, and its religious leaders repeat Pharisaic hostility when anger at questioned authority leads them to denounce the warning and stir persecution against its proclaimers.
What was literally fulfilled by the Jews in their treatment of Christ and the prophets, wise men and scribes He sent — killing, crucifying, scourging in synagogues and persecuting from city to city while tithing mint and anise and cummin, omitting judgment, mercy and faith, appearing outwardly righteous while full within of hypocrisy and iniquity, and witnessing against themselves as children of prophet-killers — will be carried to the full in these last days by men who nourish the same spirit, as marked their course both before and after the Minneapolis meeting, if their lives are spared. Christ is now bidding the abandoned of this day to fill up the cup begun by their fathers, and the world is rapidly filling its measure while nearly full of sin. This filling comes through shortsighted policy by which priests and rulers restore the lost ascendancy of the man of sin, through the blood of martyrs slain for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus, through failure to overcome appetite and lust which enslaves its servants, and through hearts left as desecrated shrines with a form of godliness without power, in apparent unconsciousness of hollow hypocrisy, formality, passion and envy, sowing seed that reaps a harvest after its kind. In this enlightened age iniquity and loss of virtue and modesty exceed anything before, under light that would long ago have brought Sodom and Gomorrah to repentance, so that Sodom and Gomorrah will rise in the judgment and condemn them, and every professed chosen soul who imitates that example in any degree will perish with them; it is a terrible thing to wear out God's patience, and when the cup is full He must interfere with tremendous consequences on the disobedient.
The warning calls hypocritical, fruitless professors to become fruit-bearers and do their duty, for an open sinner has more hope than a pretender bearing no fruit to His glory. Christ with burning earnestness and terrible severity denounced the abominations He saw in church and world and would not allow the people to be deceived by false claims to righteousness and sanctity. His example requires standing free from any binding influence, standing in God-given manhood with freedom of speech and freedom of faith, refusing to harmonize with wrong plans or to be cowered into silence by a masterful spirit, refusing to verify what is known to be untrue, and protesting and correcting error, false statements and wrong sentiments rather than listening in silence. Meeting and rebuking the powers of darkness requires much of God's love, grace and power, keeping the way of the Lord, looking to Jesus as Author and Finisher of faith and Light of the world in whom is no darkness, trusting Him, allowing no discouraging word to pass the lips, but speaking faith and courage and praise and telling of His love and wonderful works.