We all love our country, and there is nationalism in all our blood. When we see our country going the wrong way, the kind of leaders it selects in ignorance, divisions, hatred, injustices happening, and when we think what terrible things will come in the future on this nation, it sometimes breaks our heart so much that we cannot even sleep. But we are just born in this nation and may leave this world after a few years. If we experience such pain when we see our nation perishing, can you imagine the profound depth of pain of God who, of all nations on earth, loved one with special love, gave birth to it, formed and protected that nation for thousands of years, made a covenant, gave His laws, blessed it with great privileges, put His name and presence on them, and after all those, that nation is going to utter destruction? That pain He must feel we cannot grasp. That is what is expressed in today’s verses.
We are shocked to see how Ukraine is attacked today and people suffered, but there is no nation which has been more attacked, destroyed, besieged, massacred, persecuted, and harassed like Israel. Jewish people have suffered like no other nation in history. Their utmost suffering started in A.D. 70 when the whole nation was destroyed and scattered, and since then, if you trace all history, they have been suffering, suffering. After Christianity spread and even became a national religion for many countries, there was an anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic feeling throughout the world in all centuries. In the Middle Ages, they were tortured, blamed for everything, often made to live outside the community in separate neighborhoods. During the time of the Crusades, the Roman Catholic Church wanted to conquer the Holy Land from Turks who were desecrating it, so they wanted to fight them, but they didn’t want Jews also fighting on one side in between. So they would go to Jewish towns in all Europe, tell them to convert to Christianity, or the whole town was killed and destroyed. Terrible, heartbreaking stories you hear of Jews killing themselves before the Crusaders came to them. Many children and women were destroyed and raped. Through the centuries, they were killed, burned, destroyed, chased from country to country. From Romans, the Western world, the Middle East Islamic, Russian, Germany, Nazi—all tortured and tried to exterminate Jews. In World War II, can you imagine how vast the number of people was? Hitler unbelievably, indescribably, exterminated nearly six million Jews in the Holocaust.
Now, all of that is to say this: Why? Why? And that is the question on the lips of Jews throughout their history. Why? Why is it this way with us? Why do we suffer so long? Generations after generations we suffer. Why? They cry out to a heaven that never answers. Why? They were God’s special people, given the covenants and the law. Why? Why have we suffered so and so long?
The answer is in our passage. Look at Matthew 23:37–39:
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
It is this curse on them, this judgment of the Son of God. After 23 chapters of His birth, His ministry, His message, His miracles, and full revelation to Israel as their Messiah, this is the last public sermon of Lord Jesus Christ, and these verses are the final verdict. When they had the full revelation of the Messiah, they rejected it.
We saw it is a sermon against false spiritual leaders who have led the nation to this point of rejection. It doesn’t mean that the people weren’t as guilty—they followed these leaders. After pouring eight woes on them, in verse 32, He used terrible words as if removing His preventing grace: He said, “Fill up the cup of wrath,” because you have cumulatively rejected God’s revelation of all the past prophets. You had the Old Testament, the preaching of John the Baptist, and now the full revelation of the Son of God. The cup of your fathers that it took centuries to fill is going to take centuries equally to pour back out. On you will be imputed the guilt of all the blood of righteous men. “How can we be guilty of the sins of the past?” Because they knew the sins of the past and didn’t learn from them, they inherited their guilt. They accumulated the guilt of all of it because they followed in the sins of their fathers, never learning the lessons their fathers’ pain and God’s chastening and punishment should have taught them. So they had a cumulative guilt. They had rejected full light, full revelation. Therefore, they became the apostates of all apostates, rejecting the culmination of all revelation to them, which was summarized, epitomized, and maximized in the coming of Jesus Christ. So He says because of this, verse 36, “all these things are going to come on this generation.” This is the most guilty generation in the history of Israel because it rejected the light that had accumulated through thousands of years of divine revelation. And it’s all going to come on you.
These verses are the parting wail of rejected love. It is filled with emotion and tears. After the lightning flashes of the eight woes, they end in a rain of pity and tears. They will face terrible judgments because they reject Jesus Christ. May we listen to this with fear and trembling because Scripture says, “If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus, let him be accursed” (anathema)—the worst curse will come upon him in this life and eternally.
We will see this with three headings: Intense Pity, Unfulfilled Desire, and Final Destruction.
1. Intense Pity
He says, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem.” Now this passage is filled with so much emotion and compassion, I struggle to preach it and make you understand the depth of the emotion. Though all the while He poured woes on the leaders, now looking at the coming judgment of the city, He pities. There is a profound depth of divine compassion colliding with the reality of divine justice. Just like there was an outburst of wrath, now there is an outpouring of grief. Do you understand intense pity seeing great tragedy? In our culture, we express it by beating our breasts, putting mud on our head. Who can forget the images of grown men with gaping mouths and streams of tears, howling in anguish over devastation in an earthquake, or the tsunami, or the ravages of war? How can we explain the tearing of clothes, pulling out the beard, or falling in weakness to the ground apart from uncontrolled grief? Lamenting does more than simply express horror; it is the release of the soul that has considered a tragic plight and felt the depths of grief.
This is not only beyond all that, but all world grief combined will not be equal to this. Do you know how much pity and compassion there is in the heart of God? He has expressed that throughout the Old Testament. The most poignant/melting of laments can be seen in the prophets: Isaiah, Ezekiel, Micah, Amos, Hosea. One entire book, notably named Lamentations. It was God who was expressing His profound grief over sin and the destruction through the prophets. It was just a drop of God’s burden and grief and pity, but that was unbearable to those prophets; they were weeping, weeping for years in pity and crying uncontrollably. But here comes the final prophet, the dear Son of God. He knows the heart of God more fully than anyone. If the whole care, compassion, and pity of God was put in a human body, can you imagine how unbearable it can be for Him as a man? Do you at least catch a glimpse of this in those words: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem”? It is the climax of great emotion and compassion. Those words are filled with sorrow.
If you look at Luke 19:41–42:
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.”
He began to weep and weep and weep and say, “Oh, if you only knew, if you’d only known who was here, who was visiting you, this day, this opportunity, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.” He sorrowed, He wept tears. The tears of lament over a people about to have the hand of God’s protection removed from them, to be turned over to Satan.
Verse 37: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem.” The repetition is an indication of great emotion. In 2 Samuel, the cry of anguish in the heart of David over his son. He says, “O my son, Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom, if only I had died for you, O Absalom, my son, my son.” And so that repetition is the repetition of grief, the repetition of emotion.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem”—meaning “foundation of peace.” He characterizes the city. Not as the city of peace, not as the holy city, but: “You who are killing the prophets and you who are stoning them who are sent to you,”—that’s the city you are. “You are the city that kills prophets and stones messengers.” What a characterization of the holy city!
If you were a Jew or understand anything about Jerusalem, you would be shocked, have a heart attack, or at least fall from your chair. The city God chose to put His name and presence, the city of peace, the faithful guardian of the Word of God, a teacher of heavenly wisdom, the light of the world, the fountain of sound doctrine, the seat of divine worship, a pattern of faith and obedience, the city that should teach who God is to the world, the joy of all the world, from where true prophets should go to all the world, learning about God—go to Jerusalem.
It is monstrous that the holy city of God should have arrived at such a pitch of madness, getting to this low level, not that it didn’t want to listen to God’s Word, teaching less of God’s Word, or stopped teaching God’s Word, but opposed and rejected God’s truth so much and so long, endeavoring to extinguish the saving truth/doctrine of God by shedding the blood of the prophets.
Christ does not reproach them with merely one or another murder, but says that this custom was so deeply rooted that the city killed every one of the prophets that were sent to it. The present participle, “killing the prophets,” implies a fixed, permanent state that it will continue to do that no matter how many prophets you send. Even the Son of God, they were about to kill Him, and He was the supreme Prophet. “Who are stoning those who were sent to you,” they would also very soon after they killed Him, kill Stephen, and they would stone him to death.
They may have sinned many ways, but this is a sin God doesn’t tolerate. This sin is especially charged upon Jerusalem. At Jerusalem, where the Gospel was first preached, it was first persecuted (Acts 8:1), and that place was the headquarters of the persecutors; thence warrants were issued out to other cities, and thither the saints were brought bound. “You stone them”: that was a capital punishment, in use only among the Jews. By the law, false prophets and seducers were to be stoned (Deuteronomy 13:10), under color of which law, they put the true prophets to death.
People who prided themselves on being the city of God, the city of purity, the city of peace, the city of God, is called the city of killers. “You have become murderers of prophets, who spoke the truth and represented God.” That has become a habit. O Jerusalem, how basely profaned is the sanctuary of God! There never certainly was a city in the world on which God bestowed such magnificent titles, or such distinguished honor; and yet we see how deeply it was sunk by its ingratitude.
See the intense pity. It is one thing to love someone that loves you in return. We can all easily love a friend who loves us. But the lament of Christ over Jerusalem came, not for those loving Him, but for those who gave every evidence of hating Him. They showed their hate by killing those whom He sent, and also will kill Him. Who were these prophets and messengers? They belonged to Christ—having been sent to prepare them for the Messiah. They foretold of the coming Messiah that God would send as their Redeemer. The verb “sent” means to be sent authoritatively for a particular purpose. It was a divine commission, going to the people to deliver the Word of the Lord. Yet those who were sent by the Lord continually met with violent death (continuous action implied by the present participles, “kills…stones”).
2. Unfulfilled Desire
To these who killed His prophets and who will kill Him, Verse 37b: “How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”
We are familiar with Jesus being called both Lion and Lamb. But here He takes the most humble, the most lovely picture to express His compassion for them. No lion watching over the cubs, but a hen—a common hen. We will not pass one week without eating this. Yet these common birds have an uncommon love for their brood. The sight of a hawk circling causes the hen to spring to action, clucking out warnings to her chicks and gathering them to safety. We used to have this in our house; there would be eagles flying up trying to catch a chick. Immediately the hen would cluck, and all would come under the wings and cover it. They are very safe against any attack. Oh, it is a weak bird, but try going after her chick; you will know how strongly it will defend its brood.
There was a fire that quickly spread through a farm. As the farmer walked over the charred remains, he came to the sight of a hen, feathers blackened from the flames and lifelessly stiff as she was burned to a crisp. He gently pushed the dead hen over, when suddenly he was startled. From under the charred wings came running her chicks, having been sheltered from the blaze by her sacrificial care.
There’s a beautiful intimacy here. There’s a tenderness here, very warm. With such a motherly tenderness of affection as the hen does, which has, by instinct, a peculiar concern for her young ones.
How yearningly He says, “How often,” not just once, but that which was evident throughout the earthly ministry of our Lord and which preceded that time throughout Israel’s history. Very frequent: “How often!” Christ often came up to Jerusalem, preached, and performed miracles there; and the meaning of all this was, He would have gathered them. He keeps account how often His calls have been repeated. Here we find the desire of Jesus Christ: “how often I wanted to gather your children together.” The redoubled naming of the city is as if He might still win them, and how lingeringly unwilling He is to give up hope! How mournfully, rather than accusingly, He says, “How often,” how many times repeatedly I tried to do this.
It is no small wonder that our Lord used such a gentle picture to describe His own love and compassion. As the hen that devotes herself to her little chicks, our Lord passionately devoted Himself to securely embracing the people of Israel. Surely, His embrace will not only physically protect but give eternal protection for them. He gives eternal life. He desired to gather them together to Himself, under His wings where they would be safe from the wrath to come. That is Christ’s compassion and love, even for a people that killed His prophets and stoned His messengers, and were even planning to kill Him.
3. Unfulfilled Desire
Verse 37 end: “but you were not willing.” This is the important phrase. “I want, you are unwilling.” Yet, in spite of His compassion and desire, in spite of them killing His prophets, and often trying to gather them, they refused His approaches of love and life. The former was a sin without remedy; this is a sin against the remedy. The divine desire was for Israel to come to Him. Yet they spurned Him continually—this wicked nation, which had treated with disdain invitations so gentle, and proceeding from more than maternal kindness.
“How often I wanted,” Christ lamented, “but you were unwilling.” God had come among them and desired to gather these rebels to Himself in a loving, securing embrace of divine love. But they wanted nothing to do with Jesus Christ. Think of it: God the Creator and Sustainer of the universe walked among them, revealing Himself through His holy life, His miracles, His message of the Kingdom, and even the ironic testimony of demons. “But you were unwilling.” Though you saw so much and heard so much and even looked into the eyes of Jesus Christ, you were unwilling to come to Him.
“But you were unwilling” goes right to the heart, exposing a disposition that stands in defiance against God. It is a word revealing the human desire of unwillingness to receive Christ as Lord and to rely upon His death and resurrection for standing before God. The defiance is centered in the human will. Man’s will is enslaved to sin, in bondage to sin. He would not come in spite of the greatest invitation and expression of love of God. The will is wholly sold to sin. This is the state of human will in a depraved condition.
“I would, and you would not.” How emphatically is their obstinacy opposed to Christ’s mercy! He was willing to save them, but they were not willing to be saved by Him. Note, it is wholly owing to the wicked wills of sinners that they are not gathered under the wings of the Lord Jesus.
Our Lord exposed the problem of the hearts of the most spiritual men in Israel, and in so doing, He exposed every heart: “and you were unwilling.” “The great destroyer of man is the will of man,” wrote Spurgeon. “I do not believe that man’s free will has ever saved a soul; but man’s free will has been the ruin of multitudes.” Do not blame God for your lostness, if that is your condition. If you are there, you are following keenly after your own disposition of heart and mind. Spurgeon explained, “The human will is desperately set against God, and is the great devourer and destroyer of thousands of good intentions and emotions, which never come to anything permanent because the will is acting in opposition to that which is right and true.” It’s not that unconverted people among us consider themselves unwilling to come to Christ and be saved. They think that they are quite willing, but “not now.” Yet the fact is, they are not willing because they have no immediate disposition and inclination to flee to Christ, who warns of the wrath to come.
4. Final Destruction and Triumph
Verse 38: “See! Your house is left to you desolate.”
He pronounces Jerusalem’s doom. Both the city and the temple—God’s house and their own—all shall be laid waste. Their house shall be deserted. Christ was now departing from the temple, and never came into it again, but by this word abandoned it to ruin. When Christ went, Ichabod, the glory departed. Their city also was left to them, destitute of God’s presence and grace; He was no longer “a wall of fire about them,” nor “the glory in the midst of them.”
“It is left you.” You’re on your own. You’re a desert. “You want a temple without Me. Want to make it a den of thieves? It is left to you; take it, and make your best of it; I will never have anything more to do with it.” It shall be desolate; a wasteful wilderness. Christ’s departure makes the best furnished, best replenished place a wilderness, though it be the temple, the chief place of religion, for what comfort can there be where Christ is not? Though there may be a crowd, music, all drama going on, yet, if Christ’s special spiritual presence be withdrawn, that soul, that place, is become a wilderness, a land of darkness, as darkness itself. That is what many churches are today—dead churches, made desolate without His presence. Not long after, it was destroyed and ruined, and “not one stone left upon another.” When God goes out, all enemies break in.
Less than 40 years from that moment, Jerusalem would be leveled to the ground, its people dead from bludgeoning, burning, sword, and famine. Josephus, the ancient historian, had been a Jewish general and had been accepted to join Vespasian and Titus. He saw what was happening with his own eyes. His descriptions would defy belief had they not been an eyewitness account. He wrote, “To put it briefly, no other city ever endured such miseries, nor since the world began has there been a generation more prolific in crime.” Titus was sickened by the stench of rotting bodies thrown out by their own people. By the time that Titus entered the city, he found piles of corpses that his men had to walk on to access Jerusalem’s buildings. “Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!”
What His hearers thought impossible came true to Jesus’ Word. The city was razed to the ground. Nothing was left but one prominent tower and a part of the Western Wall, and the city was so flattened and so leveled—not one stone upon another—that a visitor coming to the area would not know that it was ever inhabited. It’s the divine payoff for rejecting Christ and the cumulative sin of a nation killing prophets, stoning the messengers of God.
The nation which had murdered so many prophets would itself be wasted by famine, pestilence, and the sword. And even those that escaped would be scattered to the four winds, and become, like Cain the murderer, “fugitives and vagabonds upon earth.” We all know how literally these sayings were fulfilled. Well might our Lord say, “Verily all these things shall come upon this generation.” That temporal desolation only began a far worse eternal desolation. But that doesn’t destroy the plan or the glory of God.
Verse 39: “for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
The lament ends in triumph. The time was at hand, when He should leave the world, to go to His Father, and be seen no more. Our Lord looked ahead to that time of His return in triumph, “till the time of the restitution of all things.” In that day, every eye will see Him and every knee will bow and tongue confess that He is Lord of all. The day will come when all will bless the Lord: some will do so gladly as followers of Christ; others will do so as defeated adversaries of Christ. Then every knee shall bow to Him. One way or the other, each of us will one day exalt the name of the Lord: some in the ultimate triumph of the Gospel, others in the despair of having rejected the Eternal King.
Those who rejected Him now: “You shall see Me no more.” You will not see the light of the truth concerning Me, nor the things that belong to your peace. 1.) Wilful blindness is often punished with judicial blindness. If they will not see, they shall not see. With this word He concludes His public preaching.
“till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh.” When the Lord comes with ten thousand of His saints, He will convince all, and will force acknowledgments from the proudest of His enemies, of His being the Messiah. They will never be convinced, till Christ’s second coming convinces them, when it will be too late to make an interest in Him, and nothing will remain but a fearful looking for of judgment.
Here is the hope that lines Christ’s confession of triumph. He is Lord of all, and His Kingdom endures forever. Whatever rejections we may be facing now, though you may face persecution and oppression for following Him now, the day will come when that will be long forgotten, and you will be swept up into the grand procession of His triumph. So, be encouraged, struggling saint! Even the enemies of the Gospel will have to acknowledge its truth and our King one day. Don’t be on the wrong side of His triumph. Bless His name as your Lord, even now!
“Hitherto I have lived among you in humility and kindness, and have discharged the office of a teacher; and now having finished the course of my calling, I shall depart, and it will not be possible for you any longer to enjoy my presence. But him whom you now despise as a Redeemer and a minister of salvation, you will find to be your Judge.” In this manner the passage agrees with the words of Zechariah, “They shall look on him whom they pierced” (Zechariah 12:10; John 19:37). In short, He declares that He will not come to them until, trembling at the sight of His dreadful majesty, they shall exclaim—when it is too late—that truly He is the Son of God.
Applications
Theology Lesson
Verse 37: “How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” This is where a lot of debate goes on: about God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. No man has been able to tie both, but Scripture reveals both, and we believe both. It is only God who saves a man, but at the same time, when men go to hell, it is because of man’s sin. God is never the author of sin. Charles Haddon Spurgeon expressed it well: “We hold tenaciously that salvation is all of grace, but we also believe with equal firmness that the ruin of man is entirely the result of his own sin. It is the will of God that saves; it is the will of man that damns.”
Here He says, “I wanted to gather you, but you would not.” You may say, “But He is God. Could He not conquer their unwillingness and bring them to Himself?” Indeed, He does that for all that would come to Him when He effectually calls them. See here, He speaks not of His inviolable, unchangeable decree at this point but of His desire will. This is what people don’t understand and confuse.
Let me explain God in His complex attributes. He has mercy, and He also has justice. There are intermingling feelings He has within His being. Even at the human level, if a judge is judging his own son who has done something wrong, his love wants to forgive him with all his heart, but his sense of justice wouldn’t allow it. There is a conflict between his love and justice.
God has two wills. One is His preceptive will (or desire): a desire that all men should be saved. All should obey His commands. He doesn’t want any to perish. He wants all to repent. But in His justice, and decree, beyond all that, He has decreed some men to be saved. We should not mix that. This passage talks about His preceptive will or wish. He truly wants to save people. “The reference here is to the divine wish,” wrote John Broadus, “and not to the divine purpose. God’s will of purpose [decree] is always carried out; His preceptive will of desire does not.” He wants all to be saved as a wish, but all do not get saved. But His decree that the elect will be saved—they will be saved.
We see this worked out for us throughout Scripture. “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” Those verses speak of what Broadus calls, “God’s will of decree/purpose.” It is that which always comes to pass; it is His decreed will. But in our text, we find “God’s preceptive will or desire,” which “does not yet always come to pass on earth as it does in heaven.”
So, what do we have in this passage, so full of both compassion and divine mystery? We discover that the eternal ruin of the lost is not due to a lack of divine compassion or even a lack of divine desire. It is due to the unwillingness of the human heart.
We must take the straight balance path Scripture teaches and not go to any extreme. On one side, we should be careful of Arminianism: “If he doesn’t want to come, everything depends on man’s will, God cannot do anything to save him.” And on the other side, the horrible influence of hyper-Calvinism: “Everything God will do, so no responsibility for man. Only the elect will come, so God has no desire or compassion for others.” Avoid both extremes. Go where Scripture takes you, and stop where Scripture stops. It is so important, like God says to Joshua: “meditate on my word day and night, don’t go to the right extreme or the left extreme.”
Spurgeon warned, “Any man may get himself into a terrible labyrinth (confusion) who thinks continually of the sovereignty of God alone, and he may equally get into the deeps that are likely to drown him if he meditates only on the free will of man.” Far too often we find brethren falling on one side or the other in this theological argument. Some even use the doctrine of God’s sovereignty in election as an excuse for their remaining in sin and unbelief. “Well, God has obviously not elected me, so it’s not my fault that I’m lost,” they say. But our text dispels such folly. Even with the most stubborn, we find the compassion of Christ desiring to gather them to Himself to protect them from the wrath to come. “And you were unwilling,” He explained. J. C. Ryle’s comments help us to see the emphasis that our Lord is making: “Let us understand that the ruin of those who are lost is not because Christ was not willing to save them, nor because they wanted to be saved but could not, but because they would not come to Christ…. Let it be a settled principle in our religion, that people’s ruin, if they are lost, is wholly their own.”
“I would, but you would not.” Man’s choice—don’t ever forget it—and anyone who goes to hell goes there because they would not.
Can anyone place the blame upon God for them being in hell? It is only a false, devilish-inspired understanding of God’s sovereignty that would come to such a conclusion. In the same way, it is equally a false, devilish-inspired understanding of man’s responsibility to repent and believe the good news of Christ, that would give himself even the slightest credit for making it to heaven.
As Believers, May We Learn to Have the Compassion of Christ for Sinners?
As believers, oh may we learn to have the compassion of Christ for sinners? Though He left His enemies in unbelief, He shows that He loved and pitied them to the last. Though they killed His prophets and were going to kill Him, how much He wanted to gather them with motherly love. In light of this, can we doubt the love and compassion of Jesus Christ for the mass of sinful men still living in darkness and rebellion? How He must feel compassion for our country, where millions of people are led astray. What He felt for Israel, does He not feel for the people groups where idolatry and superstition reign? When we speak of the patience of the Lord and the longsuffering of the Lord and the compassion of the Lord, it is not idle talk. We speak of Christ who felt compassion for the multitudes, who saw them as sheep without a shepherd. He still sees the shepherd-less multitudes and shows compassion by sending His messengers with the Gospel. Many of them have been killed and many more are yet to be killed for coming in love to sin-darkened people with the Gospel of Christ. Oh, may we learn to look at the world and our community with the eyes of Christ and weep for them? Only such weeping and burden God will use to prepare us for a ministry.
Yes, we pray for our country, for its blindness. How coldly we do it. Do we weep like Christ? “O Bangalore, Bangalore, O India, O India, how many times I have desired to gather you under My wings like a hen gathers her chicks.” May this weeping be part of our daily prayer, and may we learn to sympathize with Christ. He will use only such vessels with a burden to do something. Look at all the missionaries who have done anything for any nation still in darkness. It all started with weeping and a burden for that country, and many prayers for that place. May we start praying with tears for our community. The signs are there that our country may become desolate. May Christ not leave our country.
Now a Message for Those Who Haven’t Still Come to Christ
If you are here as a sinner who has not appropriated Christ’s work and person as your Savior, do you see the compassion of Christ for you? Will He not say to you: “O John, John, Rachel, Rachel, How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”
He does not allow you to go on sinning without calling you to repentance. How many times He wanted to gather you through sermons, many prayers, and messages Christ has called you. He knocks at the door of your hearts by sicknesses and afflictions. He assails their consciences by sermons, or by the advice of friends. He summons them to consider their ways by opening the grave under their eyes, and taking away from them their idols. They often know not what it all means. They are often blind and deaf to all His gracious messages. There was a voice in every providence, “Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?” (Ezekiel 33:11). As often as we have heard the sound of the Gospel, as often as we have felt the strivings of the Spirit, so often Christ would have gathered us.
What a beautiful picture of salvation! You know what salvation is: coming under the wings of this almighty hen, under His safety, provision, blessings, and comfort. This hen really gave His life to protect you from the coming wrath; He was roasted by the wrath of God on the cross, so you can have life. Trust Him. Even today He is trying to gather you under His wings. How many times will you refuse Him?
Whenever the Word of God is preached, He opens His bosom to us with maternal kindness, and, not satisfied with this, condescends to the humble affection of a hen watching over her chickens. If we consider, on the one hand, the dreadful majesty of God, and, on the other, our mean and low, depraved condition, we cannot but be ashamed and astonished at such amazing goodness. For what object can God have in view in abasing Himself so low on our account? When He compares Himself to a mother, He descends very far below His glory; how much more when He takes the form of a hen, and deigns to treat us as His chickens? Besides, if this charge was justly brought against the ancient people, who lived under the Law, it is far more applicable to us. Our obstinacy is truly monstrous if we do not permit Him to gather us together in spite of so much light and so many invitations.
Think of the blessings of coming under His wings—a beautiful Old Testament picture. Converts to Judaism were said to come “under the wings of the Shechinah.” Boaz said to Ruth, “You have come under the shadow of the wings of the Almighty God.” It is only there you will find what you are seeking: comfort, belonging. He makes you His child, adopted into God’s family, God’s child, warm and embraced.
“Nobody seems to care about me.” Come to Christ; you will know infinite care under His wings. “No love, no satisfaction.” You will find infinite love and satisfaction. “Nobody loves me, I am pining, with an aching heart, for a love that can fill and satisfy it.” The love of Jesus fills to overflowing the heart of man, the fountain of love, and makes him well content under all circumstances. All that you seek is under His wings. He is the Giver of safety, the source of comfort. “It is a cold night, and they would be frozen if they remained outside, but she calls them in, and when they are under her wings, they derive warmth from their mother’s breast.” There is a deep, sweet comfort about hiding yourself away in God, for when troubles come, wave upon wave, blessed is the man who has a God to give him mercy upon mercy. When affliction comes, or bereavement comes, when loss of property comes, when sickness comes in your own body, there is nothing wanted but your God. Ten thousand things, apart from Him, cannot satisfy you, or give you comfort. There, let them all go, but if God be yours and you hide away under His wings, you are as happy in Him as the chickens are beneath the hen.
He will be an ever-present refuge when trouble comes; you can run to Him. All enjoy safety and rest who, by the obedience of faith, are gathered together to God, because under His wings they have an impregnable refuge.
Do you know what happens to chicks that don’t gather? They are eaten horribly by the eagles and destroyed. You don’t realize what warmth, comfort, and blessings you miss in this life. If you do not love Lord Jesus Christ and come under His care, Scripture says you are cursed with the worst curse.
He says, “How many times.” God keeps a count of how many times He called. You cannot keep playing with Him. Look what He did to His own people after repeated calls: He cursed by abandoning His own beloved people Israel. What do you think is going to happen to you if you continue to reject Jesus Christ? “See! Your house is left to you desolate.” A desolate waste will be our remaining life. “The Romans are coming, in very deed they are marching up towards the city!” How terrible will be your doom unless you repent! You will be subject to judicial blindness; things that give you peace will be hidden from you until you see God in judgment coming.
Don’t you feel ashamed to refuse such love? It is the crowning point of desperate and final depravity when men obstinately reject the goodness of God, and refuse to come under His wings. Don’t commit that sin.
II. Our Opportunities Despised Must Turn Into Divine Judgments. God’s dealings with us must have outcomes. We cannot play with them as we like. If God acts in mercy, He does not forego His claim. But it may be also shown that the treatment of our opportunities becomes a revelation of our character, and it reveals bad things. God’s judgments really come on character, and on acts only because they reveal character. Jerusalem sinners thoroughly needed and deserved their judgment. (R.T.)
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 