Thoughts From Luke - Day 84

                                              Luke 19:41-44

41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another,because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

         I gotta' admit, I'm skeptical about applying Biblical texts to America. How many times have I heard messages on or seen this passage quoted;

"if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chron. 7:14

             I always take it with a grain of salt because the context there is to the nation of Israel, God's chosen people who were ideally, a theocracy with God as their king. This has nothing to do with America, right? And then we have the national repentance and sparing of Ninevah from the judgement of God. Maybe this relates a little better to America because it was a pagan nation but wasn't it being judged because of its sins against God's chosen people, Israel? So maybe that doesn't relate too much either, plus it was Old Testament before Jesus introduced the new covenant. So as Franklin Graham went around the U.S. on his Pray For America Tour, although I love him and his ministries and support him, I was a bit skeptical about the whole Biblical premise for it. But then I see this passage that is a New Testament passage where the Jews have already fulfilled God's purpose for them of bringing the Messiah to the Earth. This warning could even relate to America.

        Jesus views Jerusalem and He weeps because He knows what is coming. In 70AD Jerusalem will be razed. Josephus, a Jewish historian describes it like this;

...As the legions charged in, neither persuasion nor threat could check their impetuosity: passion alone was in command. Crowded together around the entrances many were trampled by their friends, many fell among the still hot and smoking ruins of the colonnades and died as miserably as the defeated. As they neared the Sanctuary they pretended not even to hear Caesar's commands and urged the men in front to throw in more firebrands. The partisans were no longer in a position to help; everywhere was slaughter and flight. Most of the victims were peaceful citizens, weak and unarmed, butchered wherever they were caught. Round the Altar the heaps of corpses grew higher and higher, while down the Sanctuary steps poured a river of blood and the bodies of those killed at the top slithered to the bottom...

       Jesus knows the future and weeps because He says basically, all this could have been prevented if they would have recognized that He was the Messiah and received the Kingdom of God at hand. This sounds an awful lot like Jonah's warning to Ninevah although Ninevah listened. It makes me wonder, if the Jews had received Jesus how could He have accomplished His mission of dying for our sins? Certainly He would not have set up His Kingdom on Earth then, thus avoiding the 70AD slaughter because He repeatedly tells people that is not what He is here for. Maybe, if they had embraced Him, the Romans would have found a reason to crucify Him, thus not thwarting His plans, and the Jews, following His teachings of pacifism would have submitted to the Romans thus avoiding the destruction. Maybe this is just a hypothetical situation that could not have happened if Jesus was to die, but Jesus still grieves over it. Maybe this is not referring to 70AD but right before Armageddon (see the last Left Behind book). That's a lot of "maybes". Let me throw one more in there. Maybe, if America would repent and turn to God, the inevitable judgement on our country for rejecting Him could be thwarted. No, we aren't the nation of Israel. No we aren't God's chosen people. But we are a people who have rejected Christ and He weeps for us knowing judgement is coming and could have been avoided. 

        Lord, I pray for my nation. Bring about repentance. Bring about revival. Spare my kids and grandkids from the judgement that is coming for rejecting You. Amen