They will reverence My Son.' May we not say this is a divine hope? It is not worth while to make a difficulty of the bold representation. It is but parallel to all the dealings of God with men; and it sets forth the possibility that He might have won Israel back to God and to obedience. It suggests the good faith and the earnestness with which God sent Him, and He came, to bring Israel back to God. But we are not to suppose that this divine hope excluded the divine purpose of His death or was inconsistent with that, for He goes on to speak of His death as if it were past (Mark 12:8). This shows how distinctly He foreknew it.
Its highest aspect is not here, for it was not needed for the parable. With wicked hands ye have crucified,' etc., is true, as well as I lay it down of Myself.'
Let us lay to heart the solemn love which warns by prophesying, tells what men are going to do in order that they may not do it (and what He will do in order that He may not have to do it). And let us yield ourselves to the power of Christ's death as God's magnet for drawing us all back to Him; and as certain to bring about at last the satisfaction of the Father's long-frustrated hope: They will reverence my Son,' and the fulfilment of the Son's long-unaccomplished prediction: I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.'
