DESOLATE – RESTORED

DESOLATE – RESTORED

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! "For I say to you, from now on you shall not see Me until you say, 'BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!'" Matt. 27:37-39

The King's Final Lament over Jerusalem

                In this brief and moving lament our Lord presents in summary the entire history of Israel, past and future, in relation to the Mediatorial Kingdom of God on earth. It is, in fact, a philosophy of all human history. The God of history is here, the eternal and incarnate Son, whose hand is always present in the affairs of men: "How often would I," He identifies Himself. The grand purpose of history is here: to gather sinners beneath the wings of God. The tragedy of history is here in the words: "Ye would not." By reason of the precious but perilous gift of freedom, man is able to say "No" to God. But the triumph of history is also here: for the nation which killed the Prince of life will someday greet Him as the Blessed One who comes "in the name of the Lord." But now, viewing the words of Christ in their more specific and immediate reference to Israel, we shall consider several things.

                First, it is no longer only the Pharisees and scribes, but "Jerusalem" and her "children," which are the objects of His concern. This hallowed name not only pointed to the center of the ancient Theocratic Kingdom in the highest flower of its historic glory, but was a symbol of the total nation; for, as Lange observes, "All Israelites were children of Jerusalem." This city which should have been a blessing to all. nations is now designated as the habitual murderess of the prophets and the stoner of the messengers of God (Matt 23:37). And she was about to climax the long history of iniquity with the murder of her own divine King.

                Second, in the words, "How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings", Christ reveals Himself as the God of Israel who, through the centuries of Old Testament history and to that present hour, had striven for the good of the nation, and through Israel for the ultimate good of all mankind. Alford agrees that "our Lord's words embrace the whole time comprised in the historic survey of Matt. 23:35."

                The beautiful figure of the sheltering wings is often used in the Old Testament of Jehovah's care: "He shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust" (Psa. 91:4). And the idea may have been associated with the cherubim of the tabernacle that covered "the mercy seat with their wings" (Exod. 25:20). It was there that God as the Protector of Israel was manifested in His Glory and communed with His people. The ancient Rabbins often used the figure of a bird's wings to picture the shelter of the Shekinah-Glory. Christ's use of the figure may, therefore, be intended to remind Israel that He had come to offer once more in His own Person the protecting divine Glory that had departed from the temple and city when the Theocratic Kingdom ended with the Babylonian captivity. Lange speaks of the figure as something that "signifies that He would have taken Jerusalem under the protection of His Messianic glory, if it had turned to Him in time."

                Third, the words "Ye would not" bear clear witness to the moral freedom and responsibility of the nation. What they did, in rejecting the King, they were free and bound morally not to do. Commenting on the clause, the learned Philip Schaff has said that these words "are important for the doctrine of the freedom and responsibility of man which must not be sacrificed to, but combined with, the opposite, though by no means contradictory doctrine of the absolute sovereignty and eternal decrees of God." And he further quotes with approval the comment of Alford: "The tears of our Lord over the perverseness of Jerusalem are witnesses of the freedom of man's will to resist the grace of God." This means, if words mean anything, that if Israel's rejection of the King was morally genuine, so also must the offer have been. And we must not overlook the tense chosen by our Lord in referring to Israel's decision: it is an aorist, showing that the act was regarded as past and done.

                Fourth, the judgment of Matt 23:38, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate," must refer primarily to the temple, for the lament of Matt. 23:37-39 is followed immediately by the statement, "And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple" (Matt. 24:1). But we must not exclude the city and the nation itself (Acts 15:16; Isa 18:2, 7; James 1:1; 1 Pet 1:1); for the temple was the center of the theocratic nation. In the historical kingdom the visible presence of Jehovah had been manifested in the temple. And from the precincts of the temple the Shekinah-Glory had gone forth in token of the end of that kingdom (Ezek. 9:3; Ezek. 11:23). Now once again for a brief season, the Glory of God in the Person of the Messianic King had been present in the temple (Luke 19:47; John 12:41). But the nation had rejected Him; and as He leaves this temple, it is no longer named "my house" (Matt. 21:13) but "your house" (Matt. 23:38). Ichabod. And by reason of His rejection and withdrawal, Israel's house is left "desolate." With a proper feeling for the historical importance of our Lord's word and action, Lange remarks, "The word marks the moment at which Jesus leaves the temple, and leaves it for a sign that it was abandoned by the Spirit of the theocracy." A. T. Robertson speaks of it as "a tragic moment." The desolation, thus inaugurated by our Lord's judicial departure, will reach its dreadful climax in something named by Him "the abomination of desolation" (Matt. 24:15), when the Jewish temple will once more have a regal occupant this time, Satan's own great pretender and usurper whose presence there will loose upon the nation its most terrible "time of trouble" (Matt. 24:21-22; 2 Thess. 2:3-4).

                Fifth, the light of divine hope mercifully relieves the darkness of judgment in our Lord's lament. For the nation that is left "desolate" will some day acclaim the same rejected King with joyous cry, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord" (Matt. 23:39). These words cannot refer to any other future time except the Second Advent of Christ and the conversion of Israel. In this final and "exquisite" utterance of our Lord, therefore, we have the inspired refutation of the modern and popular theory that God is done with the nation of Israel. Covenant Theology. For the day will come when Israel shall it no more be termed "Forsaken," and her land shall no more "be termed Desolate" (Isa. 62:4).

                But between the Lord's historic abandonment of Israel's "house" and the glad day of His return, there will be an interval of time. Two conditions will characterize this interval: first, the Messianic King will be absent - "Ye shall not see me"; and, second, the desolations of Israel will continue without relief - "your house is left unto you desolate." The interval will end with the second advent of Messiah and the conversion of the nation - "till ye shall say, Blessed is be that cometh." In the guarded language of divine inspiration, however, the length of the interval is left wholly indeterminate. But there is no intimation that the end might not come within the lifetime of the generation to which He spoke: "Ye shall not see me ... till ye shall say. . . ." (Matt. 23:38-39).