Dave Watchman
Active Member
It was the self-righteous Pharisees and Sadducees who wanted to silence this prophet who was making them look bad. This one claimed to be the "son of God", the long awaited Messiah, produced by the seed of Abraham as promised through Moses. But as was brought out, being "sons of Abraham" did not grant these Jewish leaders and those who followed them, immunity for their disobedience and where they led the people.
John the Baptist said of them.....
"When he caught sight of many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to the baptism, he said to them: “You offspring of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Therefore, produce fruit that befits repentance. 9 Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones. 10 The ax is already lying at the root of the trees. Every tree, then, that does not produce fine fruit is to be cut down and thrown into the fire."
Their 'presumption' was an illusion, thinking that being "sons of Abraham" somehow absolved them from their responsibility to obey their God. They had a habit of silencing the prophets sent to them, instead of changing their ways. They never did produce "the fruits of repentance" and as a result, the ax was swung, and the tree "cut down and thrown into the fire".
Jesus summed up their aberrant behavior in Matthew 23:37-39......
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the killer of the prophets and stoner of those sent to her—how often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings! But you did not want it. 38 Look! Your house is abandoned to you. 39 For I say to you, you will by no means see me from now until you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in Jehovah’s name!’”
The Jews were "abandoned" as serial covenant breakers who murdered their prophets and stubbornly refused to change their ways....but those who followed the teachings of Jesus Christ were blessed with God's spirit and backing.
Some decades following Jesus' death and resurrection, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and its temple (the most sacred place in Jewish worship) but it was never rebuilt because Jesus' sacrifice removed the need for it.
Can Jews explain the reason why God allowed his Temple to be destroyed again? In times past it was allowed as a punishment and his people were exiled to a foreign land. But after an appointed time, God commanded that his people return to their homeland and his Temple be rebuilt.....and it was, in record time when a Jewish remnant returned from exile in Babylon to re-establish Jehovah's worship.
Have the Jews had God's blessing in the 2,000 years since Christ's death? Has their homeland known peace? Has their Messiah manifested himself with the necessary credentials to prove his claims? When the records were destroyed in Jerusalem in 70 CE by the Romans, no Jew can prove his lineage in a direct line of decent to King David, so there can be no verified Messiah in our time. (Psalm 89:3-4) In contrast, those ancestral records did exist in Jesus’ time.....and not even his enemies successfully challenged his claim of being a descendant of David. (Matthew 22:41-46)
Jesus did not come to establish a new religion but to institute a new covenant. The old covenant was dissolved and the new one replaced it, fulfilling God's promise to Abraham that people of all the nations would be blessed by this seed. (Genesis 22:17-18)
Despite an apostasy foretold for Christianity too, God was going to cleanse a people in "the time of the end" to preach his message of salvation "In all the inhabited earth" before he brought an end to this wicked world. (Daniel 12:4, 9-10; Matthew 24:14) These would be messengers of peace, no part of the world and its desires or goals, but dedicated to the task that Jesus assigned them. (Matthew 28:19-20)
Thanks for your reply, nice post.
I like this:
"and not even his enemies successfully challenged his claim of being a descendant of David.
That would have put an end to everything. It would have been the equivalent of finding a body after resurrection Sunday.
And even the Old Time Jews knew that He was a descendant of David.
I can tell that you love the Lord.
Can Jews explain the reason why God allowed his Temple to be destroyed again?
Have the Jews had God's blessing in the 2,000 years since Christ's death?
Has their homeland known peace?
Has their Messiah manifested himself with the necessary credentials to prove his claims?
You ask the crucial questions.
My answers would be no to all.
The Old Time Jews had one last chance to redeem the 70 weeks.
"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.
What if they WERE willing?
What if they DID allow Jesus to gather them as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings?
What would have happened next?
Would Paul get knocked off his horse?
Would Revelation still be written?
Would the Romans have crucified Jesus in the same way?
Or would He have been pierced by a different method that resulted in all of Israel mourning for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieving bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son?
Right now I see the Israel of today, specifically the rebuilding of the Old City of Jerusalem, as being there just for the purpose of holding up two sign posts, sign posts that are pointing to the Second Visitation of our Messiah.
"For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
This video is my favorite so far.
Lending evidence to Paul's verse.
Just the fact that they are there, and continue in the same demeanor since the Exodus in 1437 BC, proves the OT/NT as true.
Still as stiff neck as can be:
Suffice it to say that I don't think Jesus is coming back again for the purpose to start up Old Israel.
But that's just how i read it.
Peaceful Sabbath.