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Lament over Jerusalem

³¹ At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” ³² And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. ³³ Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ ³⁴ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! ³⁵ Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

NOTES FROM JOE’S TEACHING

Jesus is wrapping up this teaching.  He had last told them about those who would be cast out of the kingdom and that the Gentiles would be in the Kingdom.  They had never heard anything like this before! They felt entitled for being Jewish. Jesus blows up that idea.  At the same time some of the Pharisees come and tell him, split cause Herod wants to kill you. By the way Jesus answers (speaking contemptuously of Herod, only time in the gospels he speaks contemptuously of leaders). This was the guy who killed John the B and wanted to hear Jesus speak.  Some feel his conscience is bothering him.  Herod wants Jesus off his hands.  He doesn’t want a riot or any kind of disturbance.  The pharisees and Herod get together on this, although they were enemies up until this point. The Pharisees and Herod get together on this.  Herod wants to kill you: the Greek word is wants or wishes, desires, to kill you.  Jesus uses the same word when he says I want or wish to gather your children together.  This is not just will but desire, and the will of the people who will not come.  The political powers and religious powers here are antagonistic to real believers who really believe the word of God…nothing ever changes.  Jesus isn’t threatened at all. He says go tell that female fox (vixen) that I am healing and casting out demons today and tomorrow and the third day I will be perfected. The Jews knew that this wasn’t three real days but rather an idiom that mean he will reach his goal on the third day.  His goal was the cross. Tell Herod I am going to clear out of his area but not because of his threat but because of a divine plan that was put in place before the beginning of the world.

No matter what political authority may threaten us, they have no power over us because we have a trajectory just like Jesus did: THE NEW JERUSALEM!  Jesus headed to this Jerusalem. We are headed for the New Jerusalem. In Jesus’ day Jerusalem to the religious people was the place where the prophets were killed. (Luke 9:51—Jesus sets his face like flint to go to Jerusalem.). Luke 19; going to Jerusalem where all things to be done to Him will be done.  He sees when on the donkey coming to Jerusalem and audibly convulses and weeps about what will happen to the city and its people.

We also have a course in life. All of our days were written out before one of them came to be. Paul wanted to finish his course, his race.  He tells timothy that he finished his course.  For each of us we need a purpose, a course, a goal.

He states that it is impossible that a prophet should die outside Jerusalem. Then he looks longingly upon the city…with the same sense of sad resignation as when he told peter that Satan wanted to sift him like what. Jesus had watched this city through the ages…from Melchizedek through David until now. Jesus does not delight in the death in 70 AD of those who will reject him now. He is saddened by it. He wants it to stop being rebellious and come to him. His will was to gather them together! The Jewish hymn book (psalm 17) says keep me as the apple of thy eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings.  This shadow of thy wings theme is common in the psalms. Psalms 17, 63, 91, 57, 36. Those same three “wills” are still at work today.  The world wishes to kill us, Jesus wishes to place the world under His wings and the world doesn’t wish to be under Jesus wings. He wants to protect and gather like a hen with the same heart but her children refuse. The world resists his grace.  He wants to save the world from a calamity so great that there is nothing to compare it to and the world doesn’t want to be saved.

In 70 AD 1, 100,000 Jews died, 97,000 carried away and sold into slavery. Plagues set in because of starvation and health conditions.  Titus Vespasian walked around the city and said God don’t hold me responsible for this and he wasn’t a believer. Women ate their own children. Josephus tells us that the blood ran into people’s front doors and put the fires out in their fireplaces. Jesus wept over that. It wasn’t his will; it wasn’t what he wanted.  He wanted to put his wings over them and protect them, but they would not.

Daniel chapter 9 tells us that when Messiah comes, he will be rejected and then what is appointed for Jerusalem is ages of desolations, which history has proved out.  He tells them that THEIR house (the temple is now theirs, not God’s) will be left desolate and they will not see him (Zechariah 12 prophesies—read it! It is sad!) until they say, “blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

We should cast our lots with Jesus. There is a time that will come where we are told to sin, the deny scriptures and we must cast our lot with Jesus. Not with the world.  We have an inheritance in heaven and our lives are not about saving American but saving Americans.  We must have the same confidence that we are finishing the course that the Lord has laid out for us.

QUESTION: What about this study struck you in a way that will affect your life and how you conduct yourself in these last days where persecution is going to rise and is rising.