O JERUSALEM,
JERUSALEM
37 "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!
38 "See! Your house is left to you desolate;
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!'"
(Matthew23:37-39)
Jerusalem in the Scriptures is symbolic of the Church in general. The word "Jerusalem" means "city of peace".
Paul writing to the church at Galatia makes a
distinction between the two Jerusalems - the
natural one and the spiritual one. Both
Jerusalems are described symbolically as mothers
with children.
25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia,
and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is,
and is in bondage with her children;
26 but the Jerusalem above is free, which is
the mother of us all. (Galatians 4:25-26)
We see that when Jesus laments over Jerusalem,
He is actually lamenting over BOTH the natural
Jerusalem AND the spiritual one. From history
we know that Jerusalem had a record for killing
the prophets God sent to her to warn her to
repent of idolatry. The irony of it all, is that the
city of God had a tendency to reject God
Himself when He came to them in the form of
these men. This led to the ultimate of all ironies
- the rejection of the man Jesus, who was in fact
God in the flesh. And all this by those zealously
attempting to adhere to the principles of God
but at the same time rejecting the person of God
in Jesus.
37 "And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has
testifi ...