priests, the leaders of His own people! What a picture of things! If we go to the time when the Jews will actually say, “To us a child is born,” we shall see it is after the very last and manifested form of the last evil—the evil of the last days. The Church knows it now, for it has the mind of Christ; and we are renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created us. That which we find here, then, is the purpose of God concerning the condition of His people producing one who was to rule all nations; and, instead of His doing so, He is caught up to God and His throne, and the condition of his people is left exposed to trial, misery, and pursuit of the great enemy, who had been waiting and seeking to devour the man-child when born. It, however, entirely escapes from him. Such is the general picture, which throws much light on the whole of the detail. If we apply it to Christ in person, then its accomplishment, as to heavenly purpose, whatever he might suffer here, is sufficiently manifest; the condition of God’s people being suffering and trial thereon. If we apply it to the saints, who overcome here (as we read) as He did, and to whom it is given to rule as He has received of His Father, then we find that, though the object of the enemy was to devour them too,
