Recapitulation
After
Jesus’ woeful audit of the religious leaders in Jerusalem, He pronounced
judgment on that unfaithful generation. Of
course, it is not the final judgment which is reserved for the end of the
age. It is temporal judgment which
removes God’s blessing from the nation for this generation and pronounces a
curse upon it. It is not permanent
because Scripture tells us that one day their children will believe and bring
blessing upon the whole world (Isaiah 59:20-21). Neither is it exhaustive for the majority of
the first believers were Jewish.
Temporal
Judgment on the Nation
This
is like the temporal judgment on the unbelieving Israelites who had been
miraculously rescued out of the house of bondage in Egypt but refused to enter
the promised land because of unbelief and so were consigned to forty years of
desert wanderings. But their children entered
the land. Similarly, forty years after
Jesus’ resurrection the Romans under Titus would come and destroy Jerusalem and
enslave the population of Israel. Israel
would be renamed Palestine and would retain that name for nearly 1900
years. Finally, in 1947 it became Israel
again. Someday, Israel will repent and believe
in her Messiah when He comes the second time.
Persecution
of Believers
In
Matthew 23:34 and 35 Jesus’ announced action encompasses the entire nation of
Israel as represented by her capital city, Jerusalem. “Therefore, I send you prophets and wise men
and scribes.” Because of the failed
audit, Jesus will send His messengers to them.
He is still looking for His remnant who will believe, but He knows that,
in the main, Jerusalem and Israel will kill and crucify and flog some of them
“in your synagogues.” The synagogues
were located all over the Roman Empire – wherever there was a significant
Jewish population. He knew the believers
would be persecuted from “town to town” – not just in Jerusalem.
Jesus
knows, before it happens, about the suffering and persecution and even
martyrdom of His children. In this case,
they become part of His instruments of temporal judgment by being witnesses of their
evil treatment. The word “martyr” comes
directly from the Greek and originally signified “witness.”
A Measure
of Justice for the Murder of God’s Messengers
Here
we learn that the murder of all those past righteous people (from A to Z or
from Abel to Zechariah) was not simply winked at. When a society begins to think that sin is
normal then God acts to bring a different message to the next generation
whether it be a messenger of God or temporal judgment. In this case, temporal judgment, but worse
yet, there is a final reckoning still to come.
“All
these things will come upon this generation.”
This judgment is imminent. It
involves this generation who has rejected the Messiah Who has promised to bring
salvation. In forty years—one
generation—this came to pass.
Jesus
Wept Again
Now
in verse 37, Jesus weeps over the beloved city of Jerusalem. Is God just passive and unemotional? No, He is deeply moved by the refusal of this
generation to repent. Jesus weeps
because this city that God loves is the city that “kills the prophets and
stones those who are sent to it.” “God
so loved the world.” But “He came to His
own and His own received Him not.” They have utterly rejected the Owner of the
vineyard and His Son.
Israel
Rejects the Messiah’s Outstretched Hand
“How
often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood
under her wings, and you were not willing.”
There are those who might say that our will is so corrupt that we can
never do anything right. Yes, it is
corrupt indeed. But God gives His Spirit
to convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment (Jn
16:8). Remember how the Pharisees were
called out by Jesus for blaspheming the Holy Spirit when they attributed His works
to Satan instead of to God (Matthew 12). They knew because the Holy Spirit made
them able to know—that is conviction—yet they determined to reject the
conviction of the Spirit and for that Jesus said there was no further
remedy—no forgiveness. They were not
willing to let Jesus be their “mother hen” of protection—even when the Spirit
made them able to choose.
The
Desolate House
For
that Jesus announced to Jerusalem that “your house is left to you
desolate.” This language of desolation
of your house links this pronouncement to the “abomination of desolation”
“standing in the holy place” in 24:15. They are not the same event but they
both have the same effect: desolation of
the holy place—the house of God.
Desolation refers to a place that is deserted or unusable because it is
unclean and impure. The Temple would be
destroyed and the precincts would become unclean and impure and unusable.
This
had happened several times before in their history on a smaller scale
perhaps. Like when Nebuchadnezzar had
burned the temple and the city and 70 years later the place had to be
consecrated all over again before they rebuilt it. And again, when the Greek general Antiochus
Epiphanes sacrificed a pig on the altar and set up his own image in the temple
to be worshiped. After Antiochus died,
it took a massive effort to purge the temple for worship again. To the Jew, the
Temple was the ultimate symbol of their nation.
Jesus says there is no hope for them until—
Hope
for the Second Coming of the Messiah
Until
they say, “Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord.” Then they will see the Messiah again! He will return bringing salvation and the
beloved city will no longer be desolate—as Jerusalem remains today—with the
temple mount still occupied by the followers of another God.
The
Glory Departs
With
that, Jesus left the temple for the last time in Chapter 24:1-2. And as he walked out, his disciples began
pointing out the magnificent buildings of the temple complex. Contemporary historians have described the
gleaming white limestone walls and the golden roofs that made even the jaded
Roman soldiers gaze in astonishment.
Perhaps they thought that Jesus pronouncement of doom was unbelievable
for such a place as this.
Total
Destruction of the Temple
But
Jesus remarked, “You see all these, do you not?
Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another
that will not be thrown down.” And in
fact, that is exactly what happened.
Titus initially hoped to use the Temple complex after he conquered it in
AD 70 perhaps as a pagan temple. But the
sight of the gold plated inner walls was too much for his soldiers and they
tore it down stone by stone to get at the gold and then set the cedar roof
beams on fire to melt the gold that had been hammered into every crack. Archaeologists have verified that many of the
ancient stones there have microscopic globules of molten gold attached to them
in a way only explicable under extremely high heat.
Today,
only the foundation walls supporting the huge temple platform remain
standing. The most famous one is called
the “western wall” or the “wailing wall.”
In
grade school, we used to sing “God Bless America” and most of us meant it. For years, most Americans believed that God
had blessed America and would continue to do so as long as we honored Him. What about individuals? Why does God bless any person or nation here
and now? Psalm 67: “That Thy way may be
known upon the earth.” It is God’s intervention in history to allow His message
to be heard. The blessing of an
individual or a nation can be given or removed at any time.
So,
were Jesus’ prophecies all fulfilled in AD 70?
Some obviously were. Next time we
will take up further questions from Jesus’ disciples on this issue.
©
2018 Eric Thimell
No comments:
Post a Comment