THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

The Hope of Israel: What Is It? 207
it is appropriate to call attention to the fact that, what
Paul was inspired to reveal in detail in Romans and
Galatians, had been briefly foretold by the Lord Himself
in His last words spoken to chief priests and elders
of the people just before His death. It is recorded by
Matthew that, after speaking to those Jewish leaders
the parable of the Wicked Husbandmen, the Lord put
to them a question which led them to pronounce the
doom of their nation. For, replying to His question
"What will he [the lord of the vineyard] do to those
wicked husbandmen ?" they said :
"He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let
out his vineyard to other husbandmen, which shall render him
the fruits in their season" (Mat. 21:33-41).
Little did they imagine that, in so speaking, they
were uttering a true prophecy of what was about to
happen to that nation. But the next words of Jesus
make this clear ;
for He said :
"Therefore I say unto you, The Kingdom of God shall be
taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits
thereof" (v. 43).
What Christ declares in these words is the same
thing in substance as what Paul afterwards stated,
when he said: "Israel hath not obtained that which
he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it" ;
for
obviously, "the election" is that "nation" to which,
according to the words of Christ, the kingdom of God
(which Israel was seeking for) was to be given. The
election is that "holy nation," which "in time past were
not a people, but now are the people of God" (1
Pet.
2:9).
Further discussion of the subject of the people of
God, and particularly of the place which Gentiles have