For ages the wise men and the poets of the Jews had foretold the coming of a King, one Who would lead them into battle, which in every case would be victorious, and would enthrone Jerusalem above the nations of the earth. But when He came and was crucified in their Capitol; when they found that His emissaries were not princes and nobles but poor fishermen of Galilee, their hard hearts became like granite; their hatred intense, their spite was keen and inexhaustible, and they left no stone untouched or unturned that they might throw at the bulwarks and battlements of the Christian Church.
When the day would come in which He would reign, all Judah's foes would be subdued. Jerusalem, the beloved City of the Jews, would be the Capitol of the World, and they would rule the nations of the earth in regal splendor. He would be their King, and they His loyal subjects. He was to be of noble parentage, a Son of King David, of a family whose great name was "like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth." (II Samuel 7:9)
But when Christ was born in Bethlehem, He was of a family whose home was with the despised inhabitants of the Roman Province of Galilee. His father was a carpenter, and most of His relations were fishermen. He was born in a manger, the only lodging available in the City where Joseph went to pay taxes. Jesus' birth, however, brought to pass a prophecy uttered many hundreds of years before: "But, thou, Bethlehem, Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me That is to be ruler in Israel; Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." (Micah 5:2)
The humble birth of Jesus was not what the Jews expected of their King. And Nazareth, by the blue waters of Galilee, where, as a child, He played, grew to manhood, and studied, was of so little repute that when Philip told Nathaniel: "We have found Him, of Whom Moses in the Law, and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph," Nathaniel replied, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:45-46)
Truly, Christ's forefathers were of the kingly and illustrious "House of David," but when he came, its glory had departed, and its splendor was remembered only in song.
"And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of its roots." (Amos 8:18) The voice of God's holy prophets had been stilled. The Jews roamed in the twilight of a brilliant past. When compared to the time of David, when Christ was born, all was changed. A story we tell softly and in the spirit of holiness is: On an occasion a huge throng was assembled in Pilate's Council Chamber. The Son of God, Jesus, the King of the Jews, the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, stood amid scorn before the judgment bar of man, rejected, condemned; His Own received Him not. As was the custom at this holiday time of each year, the Judge, a Roman Procurator, offered to release to the people one who was accused of crime. Pilate, seeing no evil in Jesus, offered to them His release, or that of Barabbas, a well-known culprit. To this suggestion they shouted: "Not this man, but Barabbas." "What then," said Pilate, "shall I do with Him Who you call King of the Jews?" And in their ignorance and infatuation they again shouted: "Crucify Him; Crucify Him." "My own received Me not." (v. 16)