Comment: The citation for today echoes a familiar strain in the history of the Jews: that of stubbornness or disobedience to admonitions form the servants of God. God does not force people to worship Him. But He provides abundant evidence of His love for mankind on the basis of which all right-thinking people should what is right to do. Right from Eden, the devil had taught people to believe they would never really die but could “be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5) Thus, through force and deceit, the devil succeeded in drawing most of the Israelites to His side.  But since God will not punish without giving sufficient warning, He continued to send His servants to preach to the people.. Instead of repenting in sack lot and ashes, they manhandled and mistreated the prophets until their cup was full and most of the people were either killed or carried into Babylonish captivity. (2 Chronicles 36:17-21) The travails of messengers of God is hereby brought into focus in the text for today as proof of their strong faith in their Maker. It shows that majority is not always right as far as spiritual matters are concerned. St. Paul asked: “For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar…” – Romans 3:3, 4.