Rebellious Jerusalem

Luke 13:34-35 – “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'”

“Jerusalem” is the holy city of Judaism, representing the core group of Jewish leaders. These leaders had an outward appearance of piety but lacked genuine inner substance. The Jewish people typically stoned four kinds of people to death: idolaters (Deuteronomy 17:5, 7), sorcerers (Leviticus 20:27), adulterers (Deuteronomy 22:22), and false prophets (John 8:33; 11:8). The Jewish leaders considered the apostles sent by the Lord to be false prophets, and therefore stoned them to death.

Jesus visited Jerusalem many times (John 2:13; 5:1; 7:10, etc.), calling on the people who were called by God’s name—the Jews living in Jerusalem—to turn back to God. He also prophesied that God would abandon the city of Jerusalem and the Temple (Matthew 24:2), which was completely destroyed by the Roman Empire in 70 AD. (Historically, the prophet Jeremiah issued the same warning in Jeremiah 12:7, after which the Babylonians destroyed the First Temple.) Jesus declared that He would no longer preach to the Jewish leaders who rejected Him, until His second coming.

​However, when Jesus comes again, the Jewish people will acknowledge Him as the Messiah, saying, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” (Psalm 118:26). At that time, “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26).

(Edited and compiled based on the Chinese Union Version Bible and Comprehensive Biblical Interpretation)