Destruction of Jerusalem
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which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children
together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and
ye would not!’ [
Matthew 23:37
.] Oh that thou, a nation favored above
every other, hadst known the time of thy visitation, and the things that
belong unto thy peace! I have stayed the angel of justice, I have called
thee to repentance, but in vain. It is not merely servants, delegates, and
prophets, whom thou hast refused and rejected, but the Holy One of
Israel, thy Redeemer. If thou art destroyed, thou alone art responsible.
‘Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.’” [
John 5:40
.]
Christ saw in Jerusalem a symbol of the world hardened in unbelief
and rebellion, and hastening on to meet the retributive judgments of
God. The woes of a fallen race, pressing upon his soul, forced from
his lips that exceeding bitter cry. He saw the record of sin traced in
human misery, tears, and blood; his heart was moved with infinite pity
for the afflicted and suffering ones of earth; he yearned to relieve them
all. But even his hand might not turn back the tide of human woe; few
would seek their only source of help. He was willing to pour out his
soul unto death, to bring salvation within their reach; but few would
come to him that they might have life.
The Majesty of Heaven in tears! the Son of the infinite God
troubled in spirit, bowed down with anguish! The scene filled all
Heaven with wonder. That scene reveals to us the exceeding sinfulness
of sin; it shows how hard a task it is, even for infinite power, to save
the guilty from the consequences of transgressing the law of God.
Jesus, looking down to the last generation, saw the world involved in a
deception similar to that which caused the destruction of Jerusalem.
[23]
The great sin of the Jews was their rejection of Christ; the great sin
of the Christian world would be their rejection of the law of God, the
foundation of his government in Heaven and earth. The precepts of
Jehovah would be despised and set at naught. Millions in bondage to
sin, slaves of Satan, doomed to suffer the second death, would refuse to
listen to the words of truth in their day of visitation. Terrible blindness!
strange infatuation!
Two days before the Passover, when Christ had for the last time
departed from the temple, after denouncing the hypocrisy of the Jewish
rulers, he again went out with his disciples to the Mount of Olives,
and seated himself with them upon a grassy slope overlooking the city.
Once more he gazed upon its walls, its towers, and its palaces. Once