O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! 35 See! Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ” (
Luke 13:34-35)
We need to notice what was addressed here. These words were not addressed to the individuals standing around. Nor were they addressed to the priests that had rejected Him. Nor to the Pharisees and Sadducees. They were addressed, and specifically addressed, to a city, Jerusalem. Jesus said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!” (And in both passages, the wording of this sentence is identical.) The fact that Jesus accused Jerusalem of killing “the prophets” and of stoning “those who are sent to her,” Jesus was unquestionably addressing the city of Jerusalem in a multi-generational sense.
Yes, Jesus was addressing the city of Jerusalem in a multi-generational sense as the priests of Jesus' time did not kill the OT prophets, but who did Jesus say would pay the price for the all the righteous blood shed since abel? It was those of Jesus' generation.
Matthew 23:33-36
You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
34Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.
35And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.
So Jesus was unquestionably saying that there was a time coming, in which this wicked and rebellious city would finally say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” (And again, in this sentence as well, the wording of both of these passages is identical.)
At this point, Jesus is talking to the audience in front of him, and not a future generational one.
Matthew 23:39
For I tell
you,
you will not see me again until
you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’
c ”
The greek word here for see is:
idēte ἴδητε
It means: to see, look upon, experience, perceive, discern, beware.
AND properly,
see, often with
metaphorical meaning: "
to see with the mind" (i.e. spiritually see), i.e. perceive (with inward spiritual perception).
It is the same word that is used when Jesus tells the Pharisees:
Matthew 26:64
64Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you,
from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven
So the Jews would who rejected Jesus at the time Jesus was speaking in Matthew 23, would not see/perceive him as the messiah until they said Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
This prophecy was fulfilled. There were thousands of Jews who rejected Christ initially, but later converted and "saw/perceived" that he was the messiah. These are just a few of the conversions recorded in the book of Acts.
Acts 2:40-41
“
Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”
41So those who received his word were baptized,
and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
The conversion of saul
Acts 9:4
falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
Acts 9:22
22But Saul increased all the more in strength,
and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by
proving that Jesus was the Christ.
Acts 28:23
23When they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers. From morning till evening he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets.
24And some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved.
Again, we read:
“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.” (
Luke 21:24)
But we need to notice that the time specified by the words “until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” does not end at the fall of Jerusalem.
This all depends on one's belief of what the times of the gentiles means. Unfortunately, I have not seen if there is a reference to the time of gentiles in the OT. If there is, maybe someone can point it out. What we do know, is that the Jerusalem that is trampled by the gentiles is about PHYSICAL JERUSALEM. I assume we agree that heavenly Jerusalem can never be trampled.
So when did Jerusalem begin to be trampled by Gentiles? was it in 70AD? No, it was much earlier. The trampling of Jerusalem by Gentiles began under Babylon. It was predicted that 4 different kingdoms would rule the earth until God would set up his everlasting kingdom (Daniel 2 and Daniel 7). Jerusalem, with no Davidic king, was trampled by the Babylonians, then the Persians/Medes, then the Greeks, and then the Romans, until earthly physical Jerusalem was completely destroyed in 70AD. After 70AD and the official end of the old covenant, physical earthly Jerusalem no longer mattered. Even Paul states that earthly physical Jerusalem will not inherit with the free Jerusalem that is above.
And what do we know of God's kingdom?
1.) it is not of this world
John 18:36
36Jesus answered, ‘
My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my officers had struggled that I might not be delivered up to Jews; but now my kingdom is not from hence
2.) it does not come with observable signs.
Luke 17:20
20And having been questioned by the Pharisees, when the reign of God doth come, he answered them, and said, ‘
The reign of God doth not come with observation
If physical Jerusalem is important in the future, then Paul was wrong about the slave woman's inheritance.
Galatians 4:25-27,31
25Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia;e she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.
26But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.
27For it is written,But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of
the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31So, brothers,
we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.
If physical Jerusalem is important in the future, then the writer of Hebrews was wrong about the heavenly country that the OT saints desired
Hebrews 11:15-16
AND IF, indeed, t
hey had been mindful of that from which they came forth, they might have had an opportunity to return,
BUT now they long for a better, that is, an heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God,
for He did prepare for them a city.
_______________________________________________________________________
It's interesting that the Jews were waiting for the messiah to come and overthrow the romans and set up an eternal earthly kingdom, where Jerusalem ruled the world. And now there are Christians waiting for the messiah to come and overthrow the world powers to set up an earthly kingdom, where Jerusalem rules the world. History repeating itself right there.
But what of the second of the two pronouncements we are currently discussing? In
Romans 11:25 we read that “blindness in part has happened to Israel.” Now many want to insist that in the New Testament, “Israel” means “the church.” But this passage is clearly not saying that “blindness in part” has happened to “the church.”
Yes, part of natural (ethnic) Israel was hardened. Why were they hardened?
1.) To make known his riches to the vessels of mercy
romans 9:22-24
And if God, willing to shew the wrath and to make known His power, did endure, in much long suffering, vessels of wrath fitted for destruction,
23and that He might make known the riches of His glory on vessels of kindness, that He before prepared for glory, whom also He did call — us —
24not only out of Jews, but also out of nations
2.) To make salvation go to the nations
say, then, Did they stumble that they might fall? let it not be!
but by their fall the salvation [is] to the nations, to arouse them to jealousy;
Spiritual Israel=the body of Christ, and is one unit. Not 2 separate units. During the time of Paul it consisted of the Remnant, chosen by grace natural Israel, and gentiles who grafted in.
Romans 11:17
17And if certain of the branches were broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wast graffed in among them, and a fellow-partaker of the root and of the fatness of the olive tree didst become —
ONLY THE REMNANT was saved
Romans 9:27
Isaiah doth cry concerning Israel, ‘If the number of the sons of Israel may be as the sand of the sea,
the remnant shall be saved;
The rest of Israel was destroyed and became as Sodom and Gomorrah by the roman armies, as Christ predicted.
Romans 9:29
29and according as Isaiah saith before, ‘Except the Lord of Sabaoth did leave to us a seed,
as Sodom we had become, and as Gomorrah we had been made like.’
Matthew 23:35-36
35And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.
