“While the Jews desired the advent of the Messiah, they had no conception of his mission. They did not seek redemption from sin, but deliverance from the Romans. They looked for the Messiah to come as a conqueror, to break the oppressor’s power, and exalt Israel to universal dominion. Thus the way was prepared for them to reject the Saviour. GSAM 58.1
“The people, in their darkness and oppression, and the rulers, thirsting for power, longed for the coming of one who would vanquish their enemies and restore the kingdom to Israel. They had studied the prophecies, but without spiritual insight. Thus they overlooked the scriptures that point to the humiliation of Christ’s first advent, and misapplied those that speak of the glory of his second coming. Pride obscured their vision; they interpreted prophecy in accordance with their selfish desires. GSAM 58.2
“For more than a thousand years the Jewish people had waited the Saviour’s coming. Upon this event they had rested their brightest hopes. In song and prophecy, in temple rite and household prayer, they had enshrined his name. And yet at his coming they knew him not. The Beloved of heaven was to them ‘as a root out of a dry ground;’ he had ‘no form nor comeliness;’ and they saw in him no beauty that they should desire him. ‘He came unto his own, and his own received him not.’ ” 4The Desire of Ages, 29, 30-34. GSAM 58.3