49 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
49 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
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title = "Luke 19:41–48"
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date = "2023-01-21"
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### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Lk19.41-48)
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Amidst all of the excitement of the Messiah coming to Jerusalem, with all the
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people praising God for fulfilling His promises, when Jesus sees the city He
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starts crying. And these aren't tears of joy, but of sadness. He explains why
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in His lament that Jerusalem doesn't know what's actually happening in it, in
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spite of all the hubbub and uproar that is presently happening around Him.
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Furthermore, it will not know because the city will be besieged and destroyed,
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and it cannot know because they have been hidden.
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This is a hard thing to come to grips with. God prevented the people from
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knowing what Jesus was really about, and thus the city was judged with
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destruction in A.D. 70. One might question how that is fair and just. I'm not
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sure I can fully answer that, but I can assert that it must be, because God is
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entirely just. I can also point out that if He hadn't, then Jesus might not
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have been crucified which would leave all of us in our sins forever, prove God
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a liar, and make all of reality a contradiction. But we have seen things like
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this througout the Luke's account, where plain truth is hidden from people
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until the proper time. The only proper response is to trust in God's
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unchangeable character and goodness.
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Luke spends less time on the cleansing of the temple, but all four Gospel
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writers include the event. The merchants who had set up shop in the temple were
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providing legitimate services; travelers would not necessarily bring their own
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sacrificial animals with them on a journey, and only a certain kind of coin was
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accepted as offerings. Having a place near the temple to get these things was
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convenient. However, it seems clear that the priests didn't care about the
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worship any Gentiles would offer because these merchants were set up in the
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only place the Gentiles were allowed in the temple. They had forgotten that
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Israel was supposed to be a blessing to all nations by being a visible sign of
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the Lord's goodness to the whole world.
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After cleansing the temple, Jesus begins teaching there every day. We are also
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told that "principal men of the people" are now trying to find a way to kill
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him along with the chief priests and scribes. I would not be surprised to learn
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that these men are the owners of the businesses Jesus disrupted. But Jesus is
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still extremely popular, so they aren't able to move against Him publicly or
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they would cause a riot.
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* * *
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Your goodness and Your power are the only hope we have for this life or the one
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to come.
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