I love how in just a few short words, Christ can teach us of mercy and judgment. On one hand, if we come to Christ, we receive mercy. On the other hand, if we reject Him via rejecting His messengers, we are damned.
Matthew 23:37-38 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate.
In this passage, Christ uses a tender metaphor to teach Jerusalem, the Scribes and the Pharisees what He intends to accomplish for repentant sinners. Christ explains that the gospel work He came to accomplish is like that of a hen tucking her chicks under her wings. A hen will do this to provide protection for her little precious ones. Protection from what? From foxes, from hawks or from whatever dangerous predators may lurk out there. In the event that an animal comes to attack the chicks, the hens wings will be the first line of defense. Whatever wounds are meant to come upon the chicks will indeed be inflicted upon the hen. In may even be that the hen gives her life for her chicks in order for them to live.
Thus it is with Christ, as He says. "How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!" Sinners need protection under the wings of Christ. Protection from what? From foxes? From hawks? From what? From God. God and sinners are opposed to each other. As a just God, God will punish and inflict judgment and eternal death upon sinners. Violating God's holy nature is that serious, that offensive, that ugly. Yet our God is a merciful God. The Father, Son and Spirit had an eternally existing plan that was meant to provide protection for sinners. This plan entailed our coming under the wings of Christ so that when God comes to strike us down for our sin, our Christ edures the pain, the stripes, the punishment, the death blow.
We are safe from eternal danger because Christ is to us what a mother hen is to her chicks. Those outside the wings are Christ will be stricken, smitten and afflicted by God. They will be left desolate just as Jerusalem was.
Isaiah 53:4-12 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.
Matthew 23:37-38 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate.
In this passage, Christ uses a tender metaphor to teach Jerusalem, the Scribes and the Pharisees what He intends to accomplish for repentant sinners. Christ explains that the gospel work He came to accomplish is like that of a hen tucking her chicks under her wings. A hen will do this to provide protection for her little precious ones. Protection from what? From foxes, from hawks or from whatever dangerous predators may lurk out there. In the event that an animal comes to attack the chicks, the hens wings will be the first line of defense. Whatever wounds are meant to come upon the chicks will indeed be inflicted upon the hen. In may even be that the hen gives her life for her chicks in order for them to live.
Thus it is with Christ, as He says. "How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!" Sinners need protection under the wings of Christ. Protection from what? From foxes? From hawks? From what? From God. God and sinners are opposed to each other. As a just God, God will punish and inflict judgment and eternal death upon sinners. Violating God's holy nature is that serious, that offensive, that ugly. Yet our God is a merciful God. The Father, Son and Spirit had an eternally existing plan that was meant to provide protection for sinners. This plan entailed our coming under the wings of Christ so that when God comes to strike us down for our sin, our Christ edures the pain, the stripes, the punishment, the death blow.
We are safe from eternal danger because Christ is to us what a mother hen is to her chicks. Those outside the wings are Christ will be stricken, smitten and afflicted by God. They will be left desolate just as Jerusalem was.
Isaiah 53:4-12 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.
2 comments:
Without Christ I have no hope. But, what a refuge Christ is to those who run to Him from the wrath to come. He is our hiding place and our shield!
Thank you for this post. Encouraged!
Hi sister. God bless you the body of Christ in India. Glad to hear we are hiding under the same wings.
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