"Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, (4) And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtlety, and kill him. (5) But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people."
From what hath been observed before, in the introduction of this subject, in holding forth Christ, as the representative of his Church and people, we shall now enter upon it with a clearer apprehension, in beholding the chief priests here forming their council for killing Jesus. And although they had no consciousness, what instruments they were in the Lord's hand, for the accomplishing the sacred purposes of his will; yet they were. (as Peter told some of them, after his soul was enlightened by the, coming of the Holy Ghost, on the day of Pentecost), by wicked hands, doing all that they did, by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Acts 2:23. See also to this purport, Acts 13:27-28; Acts 13:27-28
Reader! it is very blessed to behold Christ thus representing: his redeemed as their head and husband; and the Chief Priests and Scribes, thus becoming God's instruments, for the purpose of bringing Christ into the very situation, where our sins must have brought us, but for his interposition. His being made both. sin and a curse for us, became the only possible means, whereby we might be redeemed from both forever. We shall have the clearest views of these grand points, as we prosecute the subject, if so be, the Lord the Holy Ghost be our teacher! Matchless instructor! vouchsafe this blessing!