246. The Jewish nation used to be like this. Because it possessed the Word, the Lord compared it to a rich man who wore purple and fine linen and gloriously indulged himself every day, but did not get enough truth or good out of the Word even to show compassion to poor Lazarus, covered with sores, who was lying in front of his door [Luke 16:19-20]. The members of that nation not only failed to assimilate any truths from the Word, but they assimilated falsities in such quantities that in the long run nothing true was apparent to them. Falsities do not simply cover up truths; they obliterate and annihilate them. This was why the Jews did not acknowledge the Messiah even though all the prophets had announced his coming.