The Lament of the LORD Over His Rejection At Jerusalem

Luke 13.34-35

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD.'”

Things were leading up to this, many things.

There is no city like Jerusalem on earth. It is unique.

Its location: the navel of the earth. Ancient maps, Land Bridge

Its position: in the middle of a nation, surrounded by mountains, no river or ocean. No port.

The old city to this day is best navigated on foot with its narrow streets stone walls and time warp.

It is the center of religion for the world. Previously it had been the center of worship but Jesus changed all that. He announced it to a Samaritan Woman one afternoon at Jacob's well:

John 4:19-24 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” 

Today the most coveted Rabbinical schools are located inside the old city. Orthodox Jewish young people from all over the world go there to study even if just for a year and then return to pursue studies in towards a profession.

 

1. The History of Jerusalem

Melchizadek, King of Salem -Genesis 14.18-20

Abraham, the region of Moriah Genesis 22

Unable to conquer it until

David from Jebusites  II Samuel 5

Fell in 587, BC to Nebuchadnezzar

Various Empires

1967 Six Day War. Jerusalem back in the hands of Israel.

Capital of Israel under David

1982 Modern State of Israel Knesset proclaimed it Eternal capital of Israel

2. The Love of God for That City

He chose it

1 Kings 11:36 And to his son I will give one tribe, that My servant David may always have a lamp before Me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for Myself, to put My name there. 

2 Kings 21:4 the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem I will put My name.” 

It is where worship of the LORD took place under the Old Covenant.

The tabernacle was set up there.

The temple was built there.

The temple was destroyed and rebuilt.

Jesus rode into that temple on Palm Sunday, died on Good Friday and rose again on the first Day of the week.

God blessed Jerusalem. 

He answered prayer uttered in the Psalms.

Psalm 122.6-7

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels.”

God granted success in battle. But these were warning signs, wake up calls, Divine Disturbances that something was not right.

As Jesus said they killed the prophets and those sent to them they stoned.

3. The Judgement That Had To Come Because of Their Rejection of Him.

Love rejected has huge consequences. Ex/ A child who rejects parent's

Even more so when it comes to God.

Chaos and confusion and decline are consequences of rejecting God.

Proverbs 14:34 Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. 

Both times when judgment came upon Jerusalem and they were being warned by Jeremiah and then by Jesus they rejected the message, the Truth. They took false comfort in their past. They distorted God and His Word to fit their rebellion. They refused to listen to the overtures of the LORD Who loved them. They even compared themselves to other nations forgetting that they had received the blessing of being entrusted with God's Word.

They left God no choice but to judge them.

God's heart breaks during judgement.

Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’ 

Jerusalem's final rejection took place on Palm Sunday. They did not recognize the time of God's coming to them.

It was what finalized a decision that had been centuries in the making. The rejection in the wilderness that wiped out the whole generation of those who left Egypt, the failure to heed the warnings when they came into the land about forgetting God, the failure of the people to follow the LORD and asking for a king, the idolatry, the rejection of the prophets, the exile under Nebuchadnezzar and now the rejection of God's Son, the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

God works. He is the God of the second chance and sometimes the third and fourth. But after continual rejection at some point judgement must come.

Galatians 6:7-8 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. 

Jerusalem was also the head of the Jewish faith. Religious leaders were there. The chief priest lived there. As today so in the first century young people like Saul of Tarsus came to Jerusalem to study the law.

This put it in a  special category. To whom much is given much is required.

Luke 12:48b For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more. 

The spiritual privileges, the entrustment of God's Word and blessings bring responsibility. Rejected decline and disaster follows.

Jesus we are told by Isaiah :

Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

Part of the grief came from John 1:11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 

This culminated during Holy Week. In fact after Palm Sunday, there is no longer hope offered for the city. On Palm Sunday Jesus prophesied concerning its destruction within the current generation.

As we journey with Jesus to the cross, as we remember His death for us, remember that Jerusalem's rejection was deeply painful to Him.

Also remember that there is an empty tomb there today and that He reigns from the right hand of God the Father. His rejection at Jerusalem was used to by His Father so He could die for the sins of the world so that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.