LEARNING DAILY

 

Matthew 23:37, :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 chicken gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”  Jesus

 

The Lord often uses those people and those things closet to us to teach us the truth of His Word.  Perhaps you can think of a time the Lord used a circumstance in your life to bring a portion of Scripture to life for you. It is not really important to explain the circumstance that led to this verse and I do not want to use it out of context. For some reason, it seems the Lord wanted me to understand this verse. Maybe He wants one of you to understand it.

 

Jesus is weeping over Jerusalem because He sees the suffering of his people there.  They were living in a dangerous world; it was a world filled with sin, death, and not a lot of hope.  He wanted to share His love with them, comfort them, protect them, save them so badly.  But they did not recognize Him; they rejected Him.  And He wept for them.

 

The world you and I live in is still dangerous, full of sin, deception, and hope seems to be far away from many people.  There is famine, disease, wars and rumors of war, and we just have a difficult time knowing who is telling the truth and who isn’t.  When Jesus was on earth, He told us these things would happen.  He wanted so much for His people to recognize that He was the promised Messiah.  But they were stubborn and had hardened hearts. “His tears over Jerusalem’s stubbornness bear witness to the freedom of the human will to resist the grace and will of God” (LSSB).  People today continue to be stubborn and hard hearted over following Jesus on the narrow way.  The lure of sin seems to be stronger than the will to follow Him.  I believe He must still weep over being rejected.

 

Psalm 91 tells us how we take shelter under “His wings”.  Verse 1and 2 tells us, “to abide under the shadow of the Almighty” for “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him will I trust”.  This psalm tells us that our security is in God.  This is because they commit themselves to the will and protection of the Lord and daily seek to walk on the narrow way that leads to His kingdom and eternal life. The more we commit to remaining in the shadow of the Almighty and making Him our place of security, the greater will be our peace and the greater will be our knowledge of His presence in our times of danger. 

 

From now on DJSB will be used to note information or quotes from the David Jeremiah Study Bible and LSSB will refer to information and quotes from the Life in the Spirit Study Bible.  I have added Jimmy Swaggart’s Expositor’s Study Bible to be referred to from now on as JSESB