"The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant...."(Luke 4:18-20)
Remember what the Angel Gabriel told Jesus’ mother, Mary, in Luke 1:33? "...the Lord God will give Him (Jesus) the THRONE OF HIS FATHER, DAVID. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end."
Jesus was sent to set up the VISIBLE Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. Do you know what that means? It means that if Israel had accepted Him as her Messiah in His first coming, HE WOULD HAVE BEEN KING OVER ALL THE EARTH AND BE REIGNING FROM JERUSALEM!
Jesus was sent to set up the VISIBLE Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. Do you know what that means? It means that if Israel had accepted Him as her Messiah in His first coming, HE WOULD HAVE BEEN KING OVER ALL THE EARTH AND BE REIGNING FROM JERUSALEM!
How different the last 2,000 years would have been, huh?! Can you imagine? There would have been no need for hospitals because no one would be sick. No need for courtrooms because there'd be no criminals. No need for weapons because there would have been no wars. There would have been no famines, no poverty, no lack of any kind because THE KING OF ALL KINGS was ruling over the whole world!
All Israel would have been saved and, through her, the entire world would have been saved because Jesus was sitting on the throne of His father, David. But that didn’t happen. Israel rejected her Messiah and the rest is history.
They had The King of Kings in their presence. He was there; He was right there...IN THE FLESH! That's why He went about preaching, as did His cousin, John: "Repent! The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!" because it really was! He was telling them that THE KINGDOM, what they so dearly desired, was so near if they would only hear and accept Him.
All the signs, wonders and miracles Jesus performed were Him showing them what life would be like if He were in charge. He healed the sick, opened the eyes of the blind, cleansed the lepers, He raised the dead and He cast out devils.
You see, where THE KINGDOM is, there is NO death, NO disease, NO poverty, only blessing upon blessing, health, wholeness and total provision! He went about doing good! But they rejected Him.
So from the cross Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they are doing." By saying those words He was putting them all, the entire nation, under the LEVITICUS TRESPASS OFFERING which says:
Leviticus 5:15 “If a person commits a trespass, and SINS UNINTENTIONALLY in regard to the holy things of the Lord, then he shall bring to the Lord as his TRESPASS OFFERING a ram without blemish from the flocks, with your valuation in shekels of silver according to the shekel of the sanctuary, as a trespass offering."
The trespass offering covered anyone who committed a sin of which he was unaware, kind of a just-in-case offereing; you know, just in case I forgot one. Jesus put the entire nation under ignorance; in other words, under the trespass offering so that their guilt for rejecting their Messiah would be less.
Did God give up on His people? Yes, for a while. You can see He is hurt. He is deeply grieved by their rejection because He loved them so much! Love can be hurt, you know, but it takes the chance anyway. It risks rejection. Better to love and get hurt, than never to have loved at all.
But understand this: Even though He is grieved, He has not rejected or forgotten His natural family. The Church has not replaced Israel, NO. They are still a people under the Abrahamic covenant.
That's why when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, He wept so vehemently. His heart was literally breaking for His people. He wept audibly over His them because He saw their future without His protection. He saw the Romans destroying His people in 70A.D; He saw 2,000 years of trials and troubles; He saw the holocaust. That's why He said, "How I wish I could have gathered you under my wings like a mother hen gathers her chicks, BUT YOU DIDN'T WANT ME." And without Jesus to protect them, fully 2/3 of all the world's Jewish population were cut off in the holocaust.
He saw His loved ones being destroyed because they didn't want Him. They rejected the only One Who could protect them. You see, He is an awesome respector of your free choice. He will not even force His protection on you.
Had the Jews accepted Him back then they would never have seen Rome come in and destroy them in 70AD and, most assuredly, there would never have been a Holocaust.
Please join me in Part 7 where we'll look at the prophecies of the Old Testament. They wrote about all these future events; about the suffering Messih and the conquering King. But did they understand any of this?
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