Luke 7:30 But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him. There they stood on the banks of Jordan, self-complacency written on their countenances, the calm peace of death upon their hearts; whispering to one another as they heard the fervid words of the preacher, "Never mind; you and I know better than that; we are not to allow ourselves to be carried away by this hot-headed enthusiast; we are too intelligent people for that; we are educated people; we have a certain refinement which, of itself, precludes our being so influenced. That is not the man for us; we will go back to our synagogue. I like to hear the calm, quiet exposition which Rabbi So-and-so gives of the Book of the Law; it is very interesting to listen to him, but this enthusiastic fanatic does us no good: come away, come away; we have had enough. He calls us 'a generation of vipers.' You cannot listen to a man that insults you." "But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected," &c. Yes, and that very moment "the axe was laid at the root of the tree." Yet another moment, and that axe should be lifted up by the hand of Divine judgment; a few short moments more, and that stroke should fall; only a few years were to pass over their heads, and the city they gloried in, and the temple they prided themselves about, were to lie strewn along the dust. Their name was to be obliterated from the roll of the nations of the earth; their national existence was to be trampled upon; their streets were to be drenched with blood; they themselves, as a den of robbers or a gang of murderers, were to be crucified round the wall of their own city, or dragged into captivity to adorn the triumphs of a foreign conqueror. All this was already in store; the edge of the axe was already sharp, and the hand of justice was already grasping it; and, all the while, these poor self-complacent men were flattering themselves that the message was not for them. "We have Abraham to our father; we are the children of privilege; what have we to fear?" And so they slept their sleep; and so they "rejected the counsel of God against their own souls." There are plenty of Pharisees in our own day, and they are just as true to the instincts of their own life as were the Pharisees of eighteen hundred years ago. What was the characteristic of these Pharisees? Self-complacency. They were satisfied with themselves. They had not yet found out "the plague of their own hearts." (W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.WEB: But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the counsel of God, not being baptized by him themselves. |
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