Jerusalem had long been favored by the Lord. After so many messages and so many events that took place in this city, its people rejected the only mediator between God and man, Jesus. The destruction of this city was not easy for the Lord. It is the Lord’s last resort when someone has completely rejected God's grace.
It was never God’s plan for man to die. How dreadful is the consequence of sin. Its effects are not only seen when death separates people from their loved ones but also when it separates man from God. What the Lord desires most is that we be salved. Having given his life to redeem the sinner, with love He reaches out and waits patiently. The apostle Peter declares:
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9
But as we saw with Sodom and Gomorrah, God's grace has its limits. And it is dreadful when people cross the unknown line between the grace of God and His wrath.
Heavenly messengers visited Sodom, and told Lot of the impending destruction, and he was permitted to warn his relatives and friends, and to invite them to seek the protection of God. Lot earnestly besought them to believe his words. He knew that their destiny for life or death depended upon their decision to obey or reject the warning. But they had corrupted their ways before God, and Lot's message seemed to them but folly and madness. They mocked at his agonized entreaties. He tarried long with them, so loth to give them up to their own unwise decision, that the angels had to take him by force and hurry him out of the city with his wife and daughters. The angel gave the command, "Escape for thy life; look not behind thee." But notwithstanding the warning, Lot's wife, whose heart was in the city devoted to destruction, did not obey, but turned to look behind her, and was changed to a pillar of salt in the way. She did not appreciate the mercy that God had shown her, and was left as an example of warning for future generations. *1
In Lot’s days the angels went to the city to determine if there were at least 10 righteous living within its walls. Because they did not find any they proceed to save Lot and his family and then the cities were destroyed. Keep in mind the way in which the inhabitants of Sodom treated the messengers of heaven wanting to harm them.
When Christ came to the world, his own nation rejected him. He brought from heaven the message of salvation, hope, freedom, and peace; but men would not accept his good tidings. Christians have condemned the Jewish nation for rejecting the Saviour; but many who profess to be followers of Christ are doing even worse than did the Jews, for they are rejecting greater light in despising the truth for this time. *1
The Lord Jesus came into this world not only to bring a message of salvation for He is the plan of salvation. He tried time and time again, admonishing his people but they would not listen or change their ways. Worse than the treatment given to the messengers of heaven in Sodom, the inhabitants of Jerusalem crucified the Prince of the universe! However, our condition is even more frightening because we are rejecting greater light.
Just as the Lord did not conceal His plans from Abraham, Jesus repeatedly told his disciples what would happen in Jerusalem. And he also shared Jerusalem’s fate with the religious leaders of the time. But having crossed the unknown line between the grace of God and His wrath, this city was condemned to destruction
Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. Matthew 23:32-36
What a terrible condemnation the Lord pronounces! Over this generation God would avenge all the righteous blood shed since Abel. This is not surprising because Abel’s blood has cried out for justice since his death. Moreover, it has announced the coming of the Savior of this world, the savior who was not only rejected but cruelly crucified.
How could people have been so blind? Notice everything that had occurred here.
The history of more than a thousand years of God's special favor and guardian care, manifested to the chosen people, was open to the eye of Jesus. There was Mount Moriah, where the son of promise, an unresisting victim, had been bound to the altar--emblem of the offering of the Son of God. There the covenant of blessing, the glorious Messianic promise, had been confirmed to the father of the faithful. Genesis 22:9, 16-18. There the flames of the sacrifice ascending to heaven from the threshing floor of Ornan had turned aside the sword of the destroying angel (1 Chronicles 21) --fitting symbol of the Saviour's sacrifice and mediation for guilty men. Jerusalem had been honored of God above all the earth. The Lord had "chosen Zion," He had "desired it for His habitation." Psalm 132:13. There, for ages, holy prophets had uttered their messages of warning. There priests had waved their censers, and the cloud of incense, with the prayers of the worshipers, had ascended before God. There daily the blood of slain lambs had been offered, pointing forward to the Lamb of God. There Jehovah had revealed His presence in the cloud of glory above the mercy seat. There rested the base of that mystic ladder connecting earth with heaven (Genesis 28:12; John 1:51)--that ladder upon which angels of God descended and ascended, and which opened to the world the way into the holiest of all. Had Israel as a nation preserved her allegiance to Heaven, Jerusalem would have stood forever, the elect of God. Jeremiah 17:21-25. But the history of that favored people was a record of backsliding and rebellion. They had resisted Heaven's grace, abused their privileges, and slighted their opportunities. * 2
For so long God had manifested His mercy over Jerusalem! God had done so much that announced the coming of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! In the following study we will see all that Jesus personally did to reach out to this city He loved so much.
Although Israel had "mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets" (2 Chronicles 36:16), He had still manifested Himself to them, as "the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth" (Exodus 34:6); notwithstanding repeated rejections, His mercy had continued its pleadings. With more than a father's pitying love for the son of his care, God had "sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling place." 2 Chronicles 36:15. When remonstrance, entreaty, and rebuke had failed, He sent to them the best gift of heaven; nay, He poured out all heaven in that one Gift. *2
I tremble when reading these words. God’s love is immense! “He sent to [us] the best gift of heaven, nay, He poured out all heaven in that one Gift." The apostle Paul writes:
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21
It is precisely this love which has kept the Lord waiting patiently for His children. These are our words of warning. One might ask how could these people have been so rebellious when the Lord had manifested His grace in so many ways and for so long, but is our condition so different?
If a similar condition of things is to exist in our day, we should be intelligent concerning it, and have sanctified judgment…God has sent reproofs and warnings that men might repent of their transgressions, and forsake the evil of their ways, and so escape his threatened judgments. God has always made a refuge for those who have repented of their sins, believed in his love, and hoped in his mercy.* 1
We need to realize that we are living the last night of the history of this world. God’s judgment has begun. Our lives are now being determined be they for life or eternal death.
How can we disregard so great a love? Time is running out, the end is near!
1 * The Review and Herald, "God Warns Men Of His Coming Judgments", November 5, 1889 Ellen g. White
2 * The Great Controversy, "1. The Destruction of Jerusalem ", Ellen g. White
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