Page 498 - Bible History

THE PASSION AND DEATH OF CHRIST 471
do know Him and do keep His word. Abraham, your father, rejoiced that he might see My day. He saw it and was glad.''
Hearing this, the scribes and the Pharisees became very angry and said to Him, '' Thou art not yet fty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?''
Jesus said to them, ''Amen, amen, I say to you, be­ fore Abraham was made, I am.''
The enemies of our Savior knew well the meaning of these words. They remembered that when Moses, kneeling before the burning bush, asked God what he should answer to the Israelites in Egypt if they asked him who it was that sent him to deliver them, God answered, ''I am Who am.'' By using these same words, Jesus made Himself equal to God. Therefore they took up stones to cast at Him, but Jesus hid Him­ self and went out of the Temple.
Herod hated Jesus because he was afraid of Him. The
He was a superstitious man and he thought that Jesus might be John the Baptist returned from the dead. Once when Jesus was in Galilee, some of the Pharisees came to Him and said, ''Depart and get Thee hence, for Herod hath a mind to kill Thee.'' But Jesus was not that easily frightened. He said, ''Go and tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out devils, and do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day My work is done.' Never­ theless, I must work today and tomorrow and the day following, because a prophet cannot perish outside of
Jerusalem.''
By these words our Savior showed His great con­
tempt for Herod and let him know that he had no
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