Chapter CXXXVI.—The Jews, in rejecting Christ, rejected God who sent him.

“For you see how He now addresses the people, saying a little before: ‘As the grape shall be found in the cluster, and they will say, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it; so will I do for My servant’s sake: for His sake I will not destroy them all.’527    Isa. lxv. 8 f. And thereafter He adds: ‘And I shall bring forth the seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah.’ It is plain then that if He thus be angry with them, and threaten to leave very few of them, He promises to bring forth certain others, who shall dwell in His mountain. But these are the persons whom He said He would sow and beget. For you neither suffer Him when He calls you, nor hear Him when He speaks to you, but have done evil in the presence of the Lord. But the highest pitch of your wickedness lies in this, that you hate the Righteous One, and slew Him; and so treat those who have received from Him all that they are and have, and who are pious, righteous, and humane. Therefore ‘woe unto their soul,’ says the Lord,528    Isa. iii. 9. ‘for they have devised an evil counsel against themselves, saying, Let us take away the righteous, for he is distasteful to us.’ For indeed you are not in the habit of sacrificing to Baal, as were your fathers, or of placing cakes in groves and on high places for the host of heaven: but you have not accepted God’s Christ. For he who knows not Him, knows not the will of God; and he who insults and hates Him, insults and hates Him that sent Him. And whoever believes not in Him, believes not the declarations of the prophets, who preached and proclaimed Him to all.

[136] Ὁρᾶτε γὰρ ὡς πρὸς τὸν λαὸν νῦν λέγει, ἀνωτέρω εἰπών: Ὃν τρόπον εὑρεθήσεται ῥὰξ ἐν βότρυϊ, καὶ ἐροῦσι: Μὴ λυμανῇ αὐτόν, ὅτι εὐλογία ἐν αὐτῷ ἐστιν, οὕτω ποιήσω ἕνεκεν τοῦ δουλεύοντός μοι: τούτου ἕνεκεν οὐ μὴ ἀπολέσω πάντας: καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο ἐπιφέρει: Καὶ ἐξάξω τὸ ἐξ Ἰακὼβ καὶ ἐξ Ἰούδα. δῆλον οὖν, εἰ ἐκείνοις οὕτως ὀργίζεται καὶ ὀλιγοστοὺς καταλείψειν ἀπειλεῖ, ἄλλους τινὰς ἐξάξειν ἐπαγγέλλεται οἳ κατοικήσουσιν ἐν τῷ ὄρει αὐτοῦ. οὗτοι δέ εἰσιν οὓς εἶπε σπερεῖν καὶ γεννήσειν: ὑμεῖς γὰρ οὔτε καλοῦντος αὐτοῦ ἀνέχεσθε οὔτε λαλοῦντος ἀκούετε, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ πονηρὸν ἐποιήσατε ἐνώπιον κυρίου. τὸ δὲ ὑπερβάλλον ὑμῶν τῆς κακίας τὸ καὶ μισεῖν, ὃν ἐφονεύσατε, δίκαιον καὶ τοὺς ἀπ' αὐτοῦ λαβόντας εἶναι ὅπερ εἰσίν, εὐσεβεῖς καὶ δίκαιοι καὶ φιλάνθρωποι. τοιγαροῦν Οὐαὶ τῇ ψυχῇ αὐτῶν λέγει κύριος, διότι βεβούλευνται βουλὴν πονηρὰν καθ' ἑαυτῶν, εἰπόντες: Ἄρωμεν τὸν δίκαιον, ὅτι δύσχρηστος ἡμῖν ἐστιν. οὐ γὰρ καὶ ὑμεῖς τῇ Βάαλ ἐθύετε, ὡς οἱ πατέρες ὑμῶν, οὐδὲ ἐν συσκίοις ἢ μετεώροις τόποις πέμματα ἐποιεῖτε τῇ στρατιᾷ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, ἀλλ' ὅτι οὐκ ἐδέξασθε τὸν Χριστὸν αὐτοῦ. ὁ γὰρ τοῦτον ἀγνοῶν ἀγνοεῖ καὶ τὴν βουλὴν τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ ὁ τοῦτον ὑβρίζων καὶ μισῶν καὶ τὸν πέμψαντα δῆλον ὅτι καὶ μισεῖ καὶ ὑβρίζει: καὶ εἰ οὐ πιστεύει τις εἰς αὐτόν, οὐ πιστεύει τοῖς τῶν προφητῶν κηρύγμασι τοῖς αὐτὸν εὐαγγελισαμένοις καὶ κηρύξασιν εἰς πάντας.