Monday, August 3, 2020

The writings of Luke the physician starting with his version of the gospel - Luke 13:31-35 comments: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem





Luke 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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