times (we may think of Elijah, or Isaiah, or John the Baptist), Israel’s God was redefining his people, and was now doing so in and through the work of this one man. But what Jesus grasped, which so many of his contemporaries, like so many modern readers, failed to pick up was that Israel’s destiny was now moving swiftly towards its vital, crucial moment. Israel, the historical people of the one creator God, was swimming in the stream of history just above a roaring waterfall. If she didn’t watch