Matthew 23:37–39 (ESV) — 37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate. 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.’ ”
NOTE: God is profoundly saddened by those he has chosen to specially love. They were not willing. And so, their house is desolate. The church, a new entity of Jew and Gentile, will be dominated by Gentiles. The Jews will be a small remnant. Israel, as a nation, will not recover their faith until the end of the church age and the end of the seven years of tribulation. Faith has to be willing. God does not force salvation. God does not force love. Predestination does not mean "no choice." The Jews were unwilling to be gathered and loved. Predestination is not just foreknowledge, and it is clearly something that is too difficult for our 3-pound brains to understand when it comes from an infinite God. God is sovereign. Man has free will. God does not force men to believe. Men choose. And the men who choose are predestined according to his foreknowledge and sovereign plan. But what does all of that seeming contradiction mean to me? We must choose our course -- to believe in Christ and his work on the cross to pay for our sins, or to reject him.
PONDER:
- Have I truly put my faith in the savior?
- Or do I think church attendance, good works, and statements of belief will save me? They will not.
PRAYER: O Lord, how we need a real and vibrant relationship with you, not religion, not motions, not traditions, but a personal relationship with the King of kings and Lord of lords.
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