27
A little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me.
34 Yo shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither yo cannot come.
35 Then said the Jews among them- selves, Whither will he go, that we
shall not find him? will he go unto tho dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles ?
36 What maimer of saying is this that he said, Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am thither ye cannot come ?
We see in these verses, the obstinate blindness of the un- believing Jews. We find them defending their denial of onr Lord's Messiahship, by saying, " We know this man whence He is : but when Christ cometh no man knoweth whence He is." And yet in both these assertions they were wrong !
They were wrong in saying that they "knew whence our Lord came." They meant no doubt to say that He was born at Nazareth, and belonged to Nazareth, and was therefore a Galilean. Yet the fact was, that our Lord was born at Bethlehem, that He belonged legally to the tribe of Judah, and that His mother and Joseph were of the house and lineage of David. It is incredible to suppose that the Jews could not have found this out, if they had honestly searched and inquired. It is notorious that pedigrees, genealogies, and family histories were most carefully kept by the Jewish nation. Their ignorance was without excuse.
They were wrong again in saying " that no man was to know whence Christ came." There was a well-known prophecy, with which their whole nation was familiar, that Christ was to come out of the town of Bethlehem. (Micah v. 2 ; Matt. ii. 5 ; John vii. 42.) It is absurd to suppose that they had forgotten this prophecy. But apparently they found it inconvenient to remember it on this oc- casion. Men's memories are often sadly dependent on their wills.
The Apostle Peter, in a certain place, speaks of some as " willingly ignorant." (2 Pet. iii. 5.) He had good