What a serious chapter! Poor Jesus, how His heart ached as He saw the result of His favored people's rejection of His love. Listen to His howl as His heart breaks in agony for what is coming upon Israel. We know that what is coming upon the world will be even worse. And, we know that His favored people today are not in any better condition than was Israel then. But, there is a difference. It was prophesied that Israel would be cut off. Not so for the seventh and last organized church. It will not be cut off, but clean water is being poured out upon her and she will see revival and reformation. But, many will not surrender all for Christ. Thus, we understand the great sorrow that fills our hearts as we know what is coming upo the impenitent who will not buy of Jesus gold tried in the fire.
Israel had been a favored people; God had made their temple His habitation; it was "beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth." Psalm 48:2. The record of more than a thousand years of Christ's guardian care and tender love, such as a father bears his only child, was there. In that temple the prophets had uttered their solemn warnings.
So it is today. What will come upon those who refuse to surrender self? What happened to Israel?
But the bright picture of what Jerusalem might have been fades from the Saviour's sight. He realizes what she now is under the Roman yoke, bearing the frown of God, doomed to His retributive judgment. He takes up the broken thread of His lamentation: "But now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation."
So it will be for those who continue to reject Christ knock at the door of the heart. His agony at the the thought of Israel's future, was also for those who today reject all that He has done to save them.
Christ came to save Jerusalem with her children; but Pharisaical pride, hypocrisy, jealousy, and malice had prevented Him from accomplishing His purpose. Jesus knew the terrible retribution which would be visited upon the doomed city. He saw Jerusalem encompassed with armies, the besieged inhabitants driven to starvation and death, mothers feeding upon the dead bodies of their own children, and both parents and children snatching the last morsel of food from one another, natural affection being destroyed by the gnawing pangs of hunger. He saw that the stubbornness of the Jews, as evinced in their rejection of His salvation, would also lead them to refuse submission to the invading armies. He beheld Calvary, on which He was to be lifted up, set with crosses as thickly as forest trees. He saw the wretched inhabitants suffering torture on the rack and by crucifixion, the beautiful palaces destroyed, the temple in ruins, and of its massive walls not one stone left upon another, while the city was plowed like a field. Well might the Saviour weep in agony in view of that fearful scene.
The most fearful event recorded in Scripture is about to fall upon those who have rejected the plea of Christ. The last plagues are coming soon. What does Christ feel for those who He has given so much?
Jerusalem had been the child of His care, and as a tender father mourns over a wayward son, so Jesus wept over the beloved city. How can I give thee up? How can I see thee devoted to destruction? Must I let thee go to fill up the cup of thine iniquity? One soul is of such value that, in comparison with it, worlds sink into insignificance;
How many in His church today does He weep over? It is not too late for many Laodiceans to turn to Jesus and give Him the whole heart. Search my heart, dear Lord. Do not let me be blind of my great need of thee continually.