John 12:16. These things understood not his disciples at the first. What was it that the disciples did not understand at the time? The true application of the prophecy of Zechariah now pointed out? Certainly not. It was the events themselves now occurring that were dark to them. They were not seen in their true light as a magni fying, as a prefigurative glorifying, of a suffering Messiah, were not seen to contain within them the great mystery of exaltation through and in the midst of suffering. For similar want of appreciation by the disciples of what was passing before them, comp. chap. John 2:22, and note there.

But when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they did these things unto him. The ignorance of the disciples was corrected by experience. What they did not understand now, they understood when the resurrection and ascension had taken place. The light of that glorification shed light alike upon the sufferings and the partial glorifications of Jesus that had gone before.

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Old Testament