What is the significance of the first words from Mat 24:1 in light of the preceding context? See Mat 23:38-39 and recall that Jerusalem’s “house” refers primarily to the temple. Having departed from the temple, did Jesus ever return to it again? What happens to any habitation when God’s presence forsakes it? See Mat 23:38,…
Recall that after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem and cleansing of the temple the previous two days, Jesus was met and soundly rejected on Tuesday of Passion Week by the religious leaders who sought in various ways, though in vain, to ensnare Him in something He might say so they could deliver Him up to…
What central part of Jewish worship located in Jerusalem was regularly referred to as a house throughout the Old Testament Scriptures that Jesus said was being left to her desolate? See 2Ch 7:20-21, 2Ch 36:19-21, Mic 3:12, and the immediately following context in Mat 24:1-2. As the temple was the house of God in which…
What does Jesus say in Mat 23:38 was the result of the worldly Jerusalem’s refusal to be gathered under the Lord’s wings of refuge by giving heed to His messengers? What does it mean to be desolate? See Lev 26:31-33,43, Neh 2:17, Job 15:28, Isa 5:9, 6:11, and cf. Jeremiah’s similar lament in Jer 4:19-27a. …
For what purpose does a hen gather her chicks together under her wings? Cf. Ruth 2:12, Psa 17:8, 36:7, 57:1, 91:4. From the immediate context, by what means does God seek “again and again” to gather His people together under His wings to protect them? See Mat 23:37a, as well as Mat 23:34. What does…
Against whom has Jesus been pronouncing woe and judgment throughout this chapter? See Mat 23:25,27,29, etc… What then is the significance against whom His lament in Mat 23:37 is addressed? Was it the case that the judgment for all the righteous blood that would fall upon the scribes and Pharisees would overtake and touch them…
Consider again Jesus’ words in Mat 23:35-36 and Luk 11:49-51 that all the righteous blood shed on earth would be charged against the wicked and adulterous generation of which the scribes and Pharisees were a part. Regarding Abel, the very first person whose righteous blood was shed, see Gen 4:10. Regarding Zechariah the son of…
Recall the enormity of the crimes committed by the likes of the scribes and Pharisees against Jesus that He says would allow all the righteous blood shed on the earth to be charged against them. For in sinning against the greater light of Christ they demonstrated by their actions what they would do in lesser…
Recall that in summary of the seven-plus woes He has just pronounced upon the scribes and Pharisees Jesus in Mat 23:33 asked rhetorically how they could escape the sentence of hell. In order that they might fill up the measure of the guilt of their fathers He then stated that He would therefore send to…
Recall again the self-deceiving and self-destructive nature of sin that makes it so utterly sinful: For every step a person takes in sin he must of necessity harden his heart against the very thing God has given him for his preservation. In this way his own pride, which supposes it knows better than God what…