The Comings of the Lord
34O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!
35Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Luke 13:34-35
I recently read an article that cited the above scripture as evidence that all natural Israel will be saved through the physical return of Jesus to the city of Jerusalem. To the contrary, I believe that this scripture (for those who have ears to hear) is saying something very different to natural Israel regarding the manner of His coming (or comings…but I will get to that later).
For the nation of Israel, the ministry of Jesus represented the last chance for the Jewish nation, en masse, to turn from their rebellion and unbelief and accept Him as Messiah. He came to His own to fulfill and complete the Law and to usher in the age of the Spirit which was dynamically inaugurated on the day of Pentecost. On that glorious day, the Spirit of God began the fulfillment of the prophecy of Jesus in Luke 22:29-30:
29And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; 30That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Those Jews from every corner of the world who gathered at Jerusalem on that day of Pentecost represented the 12 tribes of Israel. As the 120 disciples poured out of the upper room anointed with the Spirit of the risen Christ, the Jews who gathered around them were in actuality standing before the judgment seat of God. On that day, 3000 Jews responded to the call to repentance and every day since then, individual Jews have responded to that same call. I believe that in the coming years multitudes of Jews (as well as Moslems, Buddhists, Hindus, etc.) will receive Jesus as Messiah and Savior. But it will not be as a result of Jesus returning in a physical body to inhabit a physical temple in a physical city in the Middle East.
We need to understand verse 35 in Luke 13 to see how these massive conversions will take place. The interpretation of this scripture that many Christians have accepted can be paraphrased as follows: “OK, you have killed My prophets, stoned My messengers and rejected Me as your Messiah even though I have done miracles in your midst and spoken words that no man has performed or uttered since the world began, but I will eventually let you set up a secular state in this land and one day I will return to that state to establish My throne and will rule and reign in such glory that you will all get saved.”
To me, this reading is very different from what Jesus was actually saying. Jesus prophesies desolation for natural Israel and says in effect: “You had your chance to see a physical Messiah, to hug My neck, kiss My feet, hear My words first hand and view God in flesh form with your natural eyes. I made it easy for you. But now, because you reject me, your salvation will come when you receive the revelation that I have set up my habitation in My SONS who will come to you in My Name, with My nature and My power wherever you live.”
Unfortunately for most Christians -- who look forward to seeing the physical Jesus, hugging His neck and kissing His feet -- Jesus is saying here to the Jewish nation, and to all creation, that the day for that is over. Henceforth and forever, all people (Jew or Gentile) will get saved through the foolishness of preaching and by revelation of the Spirit. As Paul says in 2 Cor 5:16:
16Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
Christians have been so focused on a future physical coming of Jesus that they fail to see or appreciate the forest for the trees. His comings are multiple and more of a process of unfolding revelation within His people (at least within those that look for him) than an outward event. Glorious events will happen as more and more of His people come to the realization that unfortunately, a physical, glow-in-the-dark Jesus will not materialize in old Jerusalem to bail out (or replace, after we have sailed out) a weak and ineffectual Church that has fallen into apostasy. The awesome and frightening truth is that the responsibility is on US to manifest Him in the earth, in Jerusalem, in Tehran, in Damascus, in London, and in every other corner of the world.
21And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD's. Obadiah 21