30th Mar 26 | 13:54
Studies by Book
LUKE 19 41-44 YOU DID NOT KNOW THE TIME OF YOUR VISITATION 05 The confirmation, unity, and surety of God’s word
📖 Luke 19:41-44
25Jan2021 - *The confirmation, unity, and surety of God’s word* - _Luke 19:41-44_ - YOU DID NOT KNOW THE TIME OF YOUR VISITATION 5 – Bible reading: _Jeremiah 6:6-7_
The Lord longs for man and all of creation to be restored to Him, into the habitat of God. Jerusalem and the Jewish people were those whom the Lord longed for, to be reconciled with Him and live in the fullness of God but this was not to be.
_Luke 19:42 saying, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes._
_Luke 19:43-44 For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, (44) and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation."_
We read a fuller prophecy of the Lord of what would happen to the Jewish people.
_Luke 21:20-24 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. (21) Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. (22) For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. (23) But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. (24) And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled._
As we read this and other prophecies and then look at history, we are astonished at the literal fulfilment of prophecy. We are also able to see that the fulfilment of prophecy was of both near as well as of far-reaching consequences.
Fulfilment of prophecy was literal and specific and at the same time generic and instructional. As we read, understand and see the fulfilment of prophecy, we cannot consign these to the Jewish people alone but we need to see the significance and the reverential response that is required of all of us.
This prophecy, which was prophesied by our Lord Jesus, was prophesied in the Old Testament too. The Bible is complete. The Bible is not just a collection of pithy sayings but the communication of God to a world that needs to hear, repent, surrender and submit to the lordship of Christ.
This is exactly what the world does not want. If we were to treat the Bible as a purely leadership or management training manual, then everyone will be happy and will have no problem with the Bible but the word of God calls people all over to surrender to Jesus the King.
Consider friends, the prophecies of the Old Testament, link it with what Jesus prophesied and then observe the ongoing fulfilment of these prophecies in history. It would blow our mind at the enormity of God’s canopy. We would realise that we stand before the God of heaven and earth to whom we are answerable and accountable.
_Jeremiah 6:6-7 For thus has the LORD of hosts said: "Cut down trees, And build a mound against Jerusalem. This is the city to be punished. She is full of oppression in her midst. (7) As a fountain wells up with water, So she wells up with her wickedness. Violence and plundering are heard in her. Before Me continually are grief and wounds._
God’s anguish is over the state of man and all of creation, over which man was to be the vice-regent of God. What have we done to our world? We have brought our world to a state of grief and wounds. Should and will not the owner of all of creation respond to what we have done to His creation?
_Isaiah 29:1-4 “Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt!_ (the city of Jerusalem) _Add year to year; Let feasts come around. (2) Yet I will distress Ariel; There shall be heaviness and sorrow, And it shall be to Me as Ariel. (3) I will encamp against you all around, I will lay siege against you with a mound, And I will raise siegeworks against you. (4) You shall be brought down, You shall speak out of the ground; Your speech shall be low, out of the dust; Your voice shall be like a medium's, out of the ground; And your speech shall whisper out of the dust._
Josephus, the historian, relates that Caesar Titus, after he had taken Jerusalem, ordered his soldiers to demolish it, except for three of the largest and most beautiful towers and the western wall of the city; all the rest was levelled, so that they who had never before seen it, could scarcely persuade themselves that it had been inhabited.
Jewish writers also inform us, that Turnus Rufus, whom Titus had left in command, ploughed up the very foundations of the temple. When Dr Richardson (Archaeologist) visited this sacred spot in 1818, he found one part of Mount Zion supporting a crop of barley, and another undergoing the labour of the plough. The soil which was turned up consisted of stone and lime mixed with earth, such as is usually met with in foundations of ruined cities.
The Lord is calling people all over to repent. This is the time of God’s visitation to the nations of the world. The church must be the mouthpiece, the spokesperson, the voice of God to our world that the time of God’s visitation is on us.
*Thought to ponder*
Will the church remain content with a theology of how good God is to ‘me’ or will we awaken to our task of proclaiming to our world, the visitation of God?