Luke 19:41-44
Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
41. He beheld the city] The Temple was at that time magnificent with gilding and white marble, which flashed resplendently in the spring sunlight and the city was very unlike the crumbling and squalid city of to-day. But that “mass of gold and snow” woke no pride in the Saviour’s heart. Few scenes are more striking than this burst of anguish in the very midst of the exulting procession.
It was a very different view of what the traveller of the present day would see from the same spot. Though Jerusalem, when Jesus Christ was teaching on earth, was subject to the stranger Herodian, and the Herodian to the great Italian power, yet the beauty and glory of the city were remarkable. Still glittered amid the great city that "mass of gold and snow" as the temple. The far-extending suburbs were covered with the gardens and palaces of the wealthy Jews. But the mighty memories which hung so thickly round the sacred city and the glorious house of God after all constituted it destroyed charm. What might not that city have been! what splendid and far-reaching work might it not have done l and now the cup of its was just brimming over; only a few more short years and a silence the most awful would brood over shapeless ruins of what was once Jerusalem and her house on Zion, the joy of the whole earth.
Wept over it] Not merely edakrusen ‘shed silent tears’ as at the grave of Lazarus (John 11:35) but eklaasen ‘wept aloud;’ and that although not all the agonies and insults of four days later could wring from Him one tear or sigh.
Jesus wept over the Jerusalem city as in a few days it would be destroyed. This weeping was not the same as the weeping over Lazarus' death, that was silent weeping but this was a loud weeping as though you lost someone you lost.
Jesus had all the reasons in the world to rebuke and to destroy the city but instead, He was crying for it. Today we may have any or many reasons to hate any city or the nation but they will never be as worst as this city Jerusalem. How much are you troubled within yourself by seeing the cities destroyed, nations being destroyed, when is the last time you have pleaded for nation India, o God have mercy on my nation when is the last you cried for Goa, O God it's my state, I am born here these are my people, I don't want to see them in eternal fire.
Abraham plead for the city
Genesis 18:22-33
[22]Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord.
[23]And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
[24]Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it?
[25]Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
[26]So the Lord said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.”
[27]Then Abraham answered and said, “Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken, and upon myself to speak to the Lord:
[28]Suppose there were five less than the fifty righteous; would You destroy all of the city for lack of five?” So He said, “If I find there forty-five, I will not destroy it. ”
[29]And he spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose there should be forty found there?” So He said, “I will not do it for the sake of forty.”
[30]Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Suppose thirty should be found there?” So He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
[31]And he said, “Indeed now, I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: Suppose twenty should be found there?” So He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty.”
[32]Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more: Suppose ten should be found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.”
[33]So the Lord went His way as soon as He had finished speaking with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.
If you read the verses carefully here Abraham is not pleading for his nephew Lot and his family, and so many times we misunderstood this scripture that Abraham was pleading for those fifty righteous or forty-five people or the ten righteous, he was pleading for the entire city. He was asking the Lord to spare it, his main prayer was not for the righteous but his main prayer was for the sinners, we have to love sinners but hate the sin.
We have to have a genuine love for the perishing souls, why don't we love these souls? Do you know? Have you ever thought about this question? Because you never realised that they belonged to you.
a) All the souls belong to the Lord.
As long as you don't have that belongingness you don't have that concern, that lost soul matters to its Master His blood. Think about it, the price our BMW will not buy at all, even all of our property will not buy, its owner paid the ransom for it that is his blood, let us plead for the soul. The rich man understood the pain therefore he was pleading for his brothers. That pain is unbearable my friends, let us use our knees, let us use our feet, let us use our tears, let us use all our strength to win the souls for his Kingdom, not to become the first mega Church, not to become the only church building in the town, not to become the first digitalized church, not be first, not to be anything for us but to be everything for the Lord.
b) God is looking for the people who will plead for his people.
Ezekiel 22:30
[30]So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.
God found no one, today also God is looking for someone to stand in the gap, to plead for his people. The harvest is ready but the labourers are few, a really few indeed, all are busy in themselves, nobody is thinking about God nobody is thinking about the souls that are being lost, just imagine your father and mother in the jail, you do all that can to bail them out, the lost souls are waiting for us, they are thinking who will bail us out. Let me quote Isaiah, Who will go for us.
c) God is never happy to destroy the land.
He came down to see Sodom and Gomorrah, he had sent Jonah to Nineveh to preach about repentance, The whole of the city including its king repented.
If we work for God and him alone we are sure to have the nations bowing before God.
2) Jesus foresaw the destruction
V. 43. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side,
[44]and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
The time hastens on and will soon arrive; that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee — And thou shalt suffer all the hardships of the closest siege. The original phrase is, pe??ßa???s?? ?a?a?a s??, which Dr. Campbell renders, will surround thee with a rampart, observing, the word “?a?a? does not occur in any other place in the New Testament, but in some places wherein it occurs in the Septuagint, it has evidently the sense here given it. Indeed, a rampart or mound of earth was always accompanied with a trench or ditch, out of which was dug the earth necessary for raising the rampart. Some expositors have clearly shown that this is a common meaning of the word in Greek authors. Its perfect conformity to the account of that transaction given by the Jewish historian, is an additional argument in its favour.” And keep thee in on every side — So that, with all thy numerous inhabitants, thou neither shalt be able to resist nor to escape them. To the prophecy here uttered by Jesus, foretelling the principal circumstances of the siege of Jerusalem, the event corresponded most exactly. “For, when Titus attacked the city, the Jews defended themselves so obstinately, that he found there was no way to gain his purpose but to compass the city round with a trench and mound. By this means, he kept the besieged in on every side, cut off from them all hope of safety by flight, and consumed them by famine. The work which he undertook was indeed a matter of extreme difficulty, for the wall measured thirty-nine furlongs, or almost five miles, and the towers were thirteen in number, every one of them ten furlongs in compass.
We are also very much sure that the world is heading towards its destruction. How are you pleading with God, like Abraham like Jesus, Like Paul, it was not a quite feeling sorry, no, nooo, it was a loud weeping.
As Jesus is looking for people to stand in the gap, who will go for him, let us pray for the Lord of the harvest, that the harvest is ready and plenty but the labourers are few.
Matthew 9:36?-?38
But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
That is the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ, he moves with compassion, because they were weary and scattered. People have lost hope, they are in a dillema, do not know what is happening around them, show them the way, take their cases before the Lord. Plead for their souls to the Lord not to destroy them but to have mercy one last time. God have mercy on these people harvest is really plenty but labourers are few.
Will you be that labourer for the Lord that faithful servant, whom God will say well done my good and faithful servant.
