Bible Studies
“See! Your House is Left to You Desolate”
(Matt.23:28)
Jesus was grieved at the Jews’ stubborn refusal to see He was sent by God to teach them the way of righteousness. His sorrowful cry in Matt. 23: 37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, murdering the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a mother fowl gathers her brood under her wings, and you refused!” should have awakened a heartfelt response from His listeners, but they sought all the more to kill Him. Despite the healings and miracles He wrought they could not see beyond their hatred of Him.
The Jews grieved the Holy Spirit by accusing Jesus of performing His miracles and other wonderful works through the devil. Mark 3:28-29 Jesus said: “Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness but is subject to eternal damnation.” Blasphemy is also committed when one makes oneself equal with God/Jesus, and also when one is presumptuous to feel one has the authority to forgive sins. When Jesus told the paralytic “your sins are forgiven you,” “The scribes said within themselves. This man blasphemes.” Jesus, perceiving what was in their hearts said: “That you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”, He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” Matt.9:2-6.
See also Daniel 7:25:
“He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, Shall persecute the saints of the Most High, And shall intend to change times and law.”
The Saturday Sabbath has been changed to Sunday (the pagan day of the Sun) worship and the second commandment has been left out, and to complete the number ten, the tenth commandment has been divided into two.
A quote from Ellen White: When the human heart is settled in stubborn opposition to God and, thus, consciously refuses to give Jesus His due – the heart is hardened and fails to acknowledge the truth of the Holy Spirit’s testimony to God’s saving sacrifice in Jesus Christ. The sin is beyond the possibility of forgiveness, not because God is powerless or unwilling to forgive, but because the person is not able to recognize his or her sin. Therefore, he or she does not accept forgiveness through Jesus. This attitude, of course, has eternal consequences.”
When the disciples called Jesus’ attention to the temple, He answered them, “Do you see all these? Truly I tell you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” (Matt. 24:2). Jesus’ prophecy came to pass in 70 A.D. Jesus had told the disciples those things that when they did happen they would believe.
Abomination In The Holy Place
Jesus warned his disciples, that, "Therefore when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (whoever reads, let him understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." (Matt. 24:15-1
Prior to the destruction of Jerusalem the temple became a gathering place for wicked men. Jesus instructs the disciples that when they see such "abomination of desolation" they were to "flee to the mountains." When this "abomination of desolation" took place, those in "Judea" were to flee to the mountains –
Great Tribulation
Jesus warned His disciples that when the Roman army arrived, those in Judea should flee to the mountains and "let him who is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those with nursing babies in those days! And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be." (Matt. 24:17-21).
History tells us: “The Roman legions surrounded the city and began to slowly squeeze the life out of the Jewish stronghold. By the year 70, the attackers had breached Jerusalem's outer walls and began a systematic ransacking of the city. The assault culminated in the burning and destruction of the Temple that served as the center of Judaism.”
In Matthew 23:13-29 Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those entering to go in.” By not receiving the kingdom of heaven, that is the Gospel of Christ, they were hindering the common people whom they should be teaching from receiving that knowledge. He also accused them of outwardly appearing righteous to men, but inwardly they were full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Paul, after his conversion, zealously sought to convince the Jews and Pharisees, of which he was one, to accept that Jesus Christ was indeed the Messiah and that faith in Him alone was their guarantee to eternal life. He assured them that although the moral law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good they were not going to be saved by it. The apostle says, : "I delight in the law of God"; and in this same verse, "I myself with the mind serve the law of God." Romans 9:31,32 “but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why, because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law.” Clarks’s commentary “being ignorant of God’s righteousness, went about to establish their own”. In Romans 10:3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousnes, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. (4) For Christ is the end of the law for righteousnes to every one that believes.”
Deuteronomy 18:18 & 19 Moses tells his audience what God imparted to him: “I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him.” God’s word never returns to Him void. The Jews’ non-acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah, compounding their hatred with His crucifixion, brought about the burning and destruction of the temple and the onslaught of the Jews there. He (Jesus) had prophesied this very outcome to them in Matthew 23:28.
It is important that we search the Bible diligently, paying close attention to God’s words to obey His teachings and not those of persons who give their own self-styled interpretation of what God has put there for our direction . “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” (2 Tim. 3:16).
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