Jesus grieves over Jerusalem

Luke 13:31-35

The Pharisees said to him, “Get out of here if you want to live, for King Herod is after you!”

Jesus replied, “Go tell that fox that I will keep on casting out demons and doing miracles of healing today and tomorrow; and the third day I will reach my destination. Yes, today, tomorrow, and the next day! For it wouldn’t do for a prophet of God to be killed except in Jerusalem!

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! The city that murders the prophets. The city that stones those sent to help her. How often I have wanted to gather your children together even as a hen protects her brood under her wings, but you wouldn’t let me. And now—now your house is left desolate. And you will never again see me until you say, ‘Welcome to him who comes in the name of the Lord.’” Jerusalem, the city of God, symbolized the entire nation. It was Israel’s largest city and the nation’s spiritual and political capital. Jews from around the world visited it frequently. But Jerusalem had a history of rejecting God’s prophets (1 Kings 19:10; 2 Chronicles 24:19; Jeremiah 2:30; 26:20-23), and it would reject the Messiah just as it had rejected his forerunners.

God’s Timing

The Pharisees weren’t interested in protecting Jesus from danger—they were trying to trap him. The Pharisees urged Jesus to leave because they wanted to stop him from going to Jerusalem, not because they feared Herod. But Jesus’ life, work, and death were not to be determined by Herod or the Pharisees. His life was planned and directed by God himself, and his mission would unfold in God’s time and according to God’s plan. When you are following God’s will, you must do whatever he calls you to do without letting any obstacles get in your way. God will make sure that his will is accomplished.

Do not let circumstances or people determine your life’s plan. The Father already has that mapped out for you. The blessing comes from making God’s plan your life’s work.

In Christ, Pastor Ed 08-31-2008