13:23 ¶ Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few
that be saved? And he said unto them, 24
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will
seek to enter in, and shall not be able. 25
When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the
door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord,
Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence
ye are: 26 Thenshall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence,
and thou hast taught in our streets. 27
But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from
me, all ye workers of iniquity. 28
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham,
and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves
thrust out. 29 And they shall come from
the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in
the kingdom of God. 30 And, behold,
there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.
Here, based on the
context, seems to be a direct attack on Israel’s unfaithfulness. Verses 28 and
29 show that this passage is referring to them and to the multitudes of
Gentiles who will believe and turn to God through Christ. It is also clear that
many people who claim to be Christians are not and this will be sorted out in
time. It is possible to attend church, even to pray and read your Bible, and no
more have a heart of faith and belief than someone who claims to be an atheist.
2Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the
faith; prove your own selves.
Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be
reprobates?
The Jews here who do
not come into the kingdom of God are said to be workers of iniquity. This is a phrase used frequently in the Old Testament
writings. In the following it is evildoers.
Psalm 37:1 « A
Psalm of David. » Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be
thou envious against the workers
of iniquity.
The trouble with the
religious elite of Christ’s day on earth was that their disobedience to the
spirit of God’s commands expressed itself by their creating volumes of rules
and regulations that had nothing to do with Him but only their own
self-righteousness and that their actions prevented others from believing in
faith. This is not unlike many Protestant Fundamentalists today in America.
Matthew 23:15 Woe unto you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one
proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than
yourselves.
Jesus makes it clear
here that there is a limit to God’s forbearance and patience and there will
come a time when they will plead too late to enter into God’s abode.
13:31 ¶ The same day there came certain of the
Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill
thee. 32 And he said unto them, Go ye,
and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to
morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. 33 Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow,
and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of
Jerusalem. 34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often
would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her
brood under her wings, and ye would not! 35 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate:
and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when
ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
On one level, Christ
reveals the three days of His time in the tomb and preaching in Hell. It is
important to note the use of perfect
and perfected have to do with being
complete and finished, possessing what you need to fulfill your purpose.
2Chronicles 8:16 Now all
the work of Solomon was prepared unto the day of the foundation of the house of
the LORD, and until it was finished. So the house of the LORD was perfected.
Colossians 4:12 Epaphras,
who is one of you, a servant of
Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye
may stand perfect and complete in
all the will of God.
James 1:4 But let patience
have her perfect work,
that ye may be perfect and entire,
wanting nothing.
And so, when the work
was done and the man who was also God had paid the price for our sins…
John 19:30 When Jesus
therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished:
and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
On another, more
literal level, He is referring to His ongoing work and that He will arrive in
Jerusalem, to accomplish His mission, in three days. Jerusalem is a place, He
says ironically and with no small bit of sarcasm, that seems to have a monopoly
on killing prophets sent from God.
God’s sarcasm and His
sense of irony is found in several places in the Old Testament.
Isaiah 44:9 ¶ They that
make a graven image are all of
them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see
not, nor know; that they may be ashamed. 10 Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven
image that is profitable for
nothing? 11 Behold, all his fellows
shall be ashamed: and the workmen, they are
of men: let them all be gathered together, let them stand up; yet they shall fear, and they shall be ashamed together. 12
The smith with the tongs both worketh in
the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with the strength of
his arms: yea, he is hungry, and his strength faileth: he drinketh no water,
and is faint. 13 The carpenter
stretcheth out his rule; he
marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out
with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the
beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house. 14 He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the
cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the
forest: he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it. 15 Then shall it be
for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth
it, and baketh bread; yea, he
maketh a god, and worshippeth it;
he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto. 16 He burneth part thereof in the fire; with part
thereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied: yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I
have seen the fire: 17 And the residue
thereof he maketh a god, even
his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith,
Deliver me; for thou art my
god. 18 They have not known nor
understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot
understand. 19 And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding
to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon
the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I
fall down to the stock of a tree? 20 He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath
turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is
there not a lie in my right hand?
Isaiah 22:18 He will surely
violently turn and toss thee like a ball into a large country: there shalt thou die, and there the
chariots of thy glory shall be
the shame of thy lord’s house.
2Kings 21:13 And I will
stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of
Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down. [Sorry,
fundamentalists, but it okay for a man to wipe a dish.]
It cannot be honestly
denied that God’s hand was in the revolt of the Jews against Rome that ended in
the disastrous siege of Jerusalem by the future emperor, Titus, and the Bar
Kokhba Revolt that led to the Emperor Hadrian’s rooting out of Jewish nationalism
in Judea, the murder of hundreds of thousands of Jews and the elimination of
thousands of villages, that ended in the loss of the Jewish homeland and the
greatest Diaspora of Jews throughout the empire and elsewhere.
It is not antisemitic
to explain that the Jews suffered greatly for their rejection of God through
Christ, a fact of history.
1Thessalonians 2:16
Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill
up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.
But, God is not done
with the Jews, the first people He created for Himself out of the Gentiles. Many
believe that Revelation, chapter 12, reveals a supernatural deliverance of the
remaining Jews who believe in Christ their Messiah, the Saviour of the world,
from Satan’s final holocaust.
Christ will appear to
them. In the following cross-reference comparison it is clear that the Jews are
being visited at the end of human-centered history.
Zechariah 12:10 And I will
pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit
of grace and of supplications: and they
shall look upon me whom
they have pierced, and they
shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his
only son, and shall be in
bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
Revelation 1:7 Behold, he
cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which
pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even
so, Amen.
For remember that it is
God’s own standard that determines this. Remember that Israel is God’s
firstborn as the church is His offspring through Christ (Psalm 22:30).
Exodus 4:22 And thou shalt
say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even
my firstborn:
And that Israel was
also God’s spouse as the church is the bride of Christ (2Corinthians 11:2).
Jeremiah 3:14 Turn, O
backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a
family, and I will bring you to Zion:
God, then, in this
figure of speech, has divorced the nation of Israel.
Jeremiah 3:8 And I saw, when
for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her
away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared
not, but went and played the harlot also.
But God has a standard
of treatment of a wife who is hated, which means despised, held in contempt,
not loved, as per the Bible definition found in Proverbs 5:12, Amos 5:21, Matthew
6:24, & Luke 16:13. Here, in the following it is the opposite of beloved.
Deuteronomy 21:15 ¶ If a
man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him
children, both the beloved and
the hated; and if the firstborn
son be hers that was hated: 16 Then it
shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that
he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn: 17 But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a
double portion of all that he hath: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.
At the end of the day
Israel shall be saved.
Romans 11:1 ¶ I say then,
Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the
seed of Abraham, of the tribe
of Benjamin. 2 God hath not cast away
his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how
he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, 3 Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and
digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. 4 But what saith the answer of God unto him? I
have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. 5 Even so then at this present time also there
is a remnant according to the election of grace. 6 And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if
it be of works, then is it no
more grace: otherwise work is no more work. 7 What then? Israel hath not obtained that which
he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded 8 (According as it is written, God hath given
them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should
not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. 9 And David saith, Let their table be made a
snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them: 10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not
see, and bow down their back alway. 11 I
say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to
provoke them to jealousy. 12 Now if the
fall of them be the riches of
the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much
more their fulness? 13 For I speak to
you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine
office: 14 If by any means I may provoke
to emulation them which are my flesh,
and might save some of them. 15 For if the
casting away of them be the
reconciling of the world, what shall
the receiving of them be, but
life from the dead? 16 For if the
firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be
holy, so are the branches. 17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and
thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them
partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; 18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou
boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. 19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken
off, that I might be graffed in. 20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken
off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: 21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not
thee. 22 Behold therefore the goodness
and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness,
if thou continue in his
goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. 23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief,
shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. 24 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree
which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive
tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree? 25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be
ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that
blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be
come in. 26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is
written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and
shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob: 27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I
shall take away their sins. 28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but
as touching the election, they are
beloved for the fathers’ sakes. 29 For
the gifts and calling of God are
without repentance. 30 For as ye in
times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
31 Even so have these also now not
believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. 32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief,
that he might have mercy upon all.
For now, though, Jesus is giving them warning after warning as the prophets
did before Him.
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