For Israel (Matt. 23:37)
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" (Matt. 23:37).
How is the character of Jesus revealed in the above text? What does it tell us about God's love for His people? What does it tell us about the limits of what love can do? At the same time, before you start pointing fingers at anyone, ask yourself: How might those words be applied directly to me?
If God shared the same emotions as humans, then the story of His relationship with Israel would amount to four thousand years of almost continuous disappointment and frustration. To be sure, there were high points, times when the nation brought God joy, but those times were rare and comparatively brief. Eventually, His phenomenal patience running out, God gave the nation a period of 490 years (Dan. 9:24) that would reach to the coming of Messiah. Jesus was that Messiah; and what we see in Him, from start to finish, was an attitude of compassion, a love at once tough and tender.
How does Matthew 23:25-35 exemplify the toughness of Jesus love?
What we are watching here is the phenomenon of Divine patience nearing its end. Yet, however severely provoked, and however protracted the provocation, tenderness breaks through the outer crust of Jesus' toughness. He would not have spoken those harsh words were there not hope that some of these people eventually would see the error of their ways.
Read Acts 6:7. Notice who was also "obedient to the faith." Might some of them have been among those Jesus rebuked earlier? What is the message to us here about being quick to judge or condemn?
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