You remember the story that Palm Sunday when Jesus rode on the donkey into Jerusalem exactly as the prophet Zechariah had predicted in Chapter 9:

⁹ Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.

It should have been a great day but Jesus wept. Why?

Because of what they had done to the prophets He sent them

Because they would not allow Him to gather them to His protection

Because they would not receive Him as the Messiah He is rather than the Messiah they wanted

Because they did not recognize God in the flesh

Because the Pharisees (the religious elite) wanted the throng silenced

Because they did not know what belongs to their peace

Later on the way to Calvary, after being condemned to death, whipped, beaten on the head, mocked, spit upon and now struggling on the road to Calvary, Jesus encounters the residents of Jerusalem.

Luke’s record in chapter 23:

²⁷ And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. ²⁸ But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. ²⁹ For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. ³⁰ Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. ³¹ For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?

Note: ‘daughters’ is a collective term for residents of a city.

The prophecies and the history.

You remember King Solomon’s son split the kingdom into Judah (2 tribes) and Israel (10 tribes). Israel went into captivity to Assyria in the 8^th century B.C, but this prophecy was given to Zedekiah, King of Judah (2 tribes) 697-586 B.C.

Jeremiah 22: ¹ Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, ² And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates: ³ Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place. ⁴ For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people. ⁵ But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation. ⁶ For thus saith the LORD unto the king’s house of Judah; Thou art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon: yet surely I will make thee a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited. ⁷ And I will prepare destroyers against thee, everyone with his weapons: and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the fire. ⁸ And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this great city? ⁹ Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.

King Zedekiah did not heed the warning. The Babylonians conquered Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, took King Zedekiah captive to Babylon.

Jeremiah 52: ¹ Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ² And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. ³ For through the anger of the LORD it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, till he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. ⁴ And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it, and built forts against it round about. ⁵ So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. ⁶ And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. ⁷ Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden; (now the Chaldeans were by the city round about:) and they went by the way of the plain. ⁸ But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him. ⁹ Then they took the king, and carried him up unto the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; where he gave judgment upon him. ¹⁰ And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: he slew also all the princes of Judah in Riblah. ¹¹ Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death. ¹² Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, which served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem, ¹³ And burned the house of the LORD, and the king’s house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the great men, burned he with fire: ¹⁴ And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down all the walls of Jerusalem round about. ¹⁵ Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive certain of the poor of the people, and the residue of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude.

While the Jewish people were captives in Babylon, God gave prophecies of hope. Ezekiel was a priest living with the captives in Babylon when he records this prophecy in chapter 43:

¹ Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east: ² And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory. ³ And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city: and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my face. ⁴ And the glory of the LORD came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east.

Notice the route Jesus took to enter Jerusalem on Palm Sunday was from the Mt. of Olives which would have led directly to the eastern gate

Luke 19: ³⁷And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; ³⁸ Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.

And Ezekiel records this prophecy in chapter 44:

¹Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east; and it was shut. ² Then said the LORD unto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the LORD, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut. ³ It is for the prince; the prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; he shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate, and shall go out by the way of the same. ⁴ Then brought he me the way of the north gate before the house: and I looked, and, behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD: and I fell upon my face.

The Gate of Mercy in the eastern Temple-Mount wall is also called the Golden Gate or the Eastern Gate. This gate was sealed by the Muslims in the 700s A.D. to keep out the Messiah with a cemetery placed in front of it expecting a holy man would not defile himself to walk through a cemetery. After an ancient gate below this gate was discovered in 1969 due to heavy rain, the Muslims enclosed this area with an iron fence.

The residents of Jerusalem surely knew both the prophecies and the history. They knew the reason for the fall of Jerusalem- they forsook the covenant of the LORD, worshipped other gods and served them. They also knew how the King would come to them.

About 70 AD the Romans ransacked Jerusalem and destroyed the temple by fire. Again, the prophecy was clear but the people did not heed it.

But Jesus wept and warned as Luke recorded in chapter 19:

⁴¹ And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, ⁴² Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. ⁴³ For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, ⁴⁴ And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

The Holy City (Jerusalem)

Lyrics by Frederick Weatherly; Music by Stephen Adams

Last night I lay a-sleeping There came a dream so fair,
I stood in old Jerusalem Beside the temple there.
I heard the children singing, And ever as they sang,
Me thought the voice of angels From heaven in answer rang
Me thought the voice of angels From heaven in answer rang.

Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Lift up your gates and sing,
Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna to your King!

And then me thought my dream was changed, The streets no longer rang,
Hushed were the glad Hosannas The little children sang.
The sun grew dark with mystery, The morn was cold and chill,
As the shadow of a cross arose Upon a lonely hill.

As the shadow of a cross arose Upon a lonely hill.

Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Hark! How the angels sing,
Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna to your King!

And once again the scene was changed; New earth there seemed to be;
I saw the Holy City Beside the tideless sea.
The light of God was on its streets, The gates were open wide,
And all who would might enter, And no one was denied.
No need of moon or stars by night, Or sun to shine by day;
It was the new Jerusalem That would not pass away.
It was the new Jerusalem That would not pass away.

Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Sing for the night is o’er!
Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna for evermore!

Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna for evermore!

Questions for Reflection

1) When Jesus told them repeatedly that He is God, why did they refuse to acknowledge Him?

2) Is there an area in your life where you refuse to acknowledge His Lordship?

3) How do you acknowledge Jesus as God in your daily life?

Our challenge – Hebrews 12: ¹Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, ² Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. . ³For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds

Our focus -Dearly Beloved,

Run with your eyes on Jesus alone!

Run in faith that Jesus loves you, has uniquely designed and created only one you, has a good  plan for your life, runs with you and will accomplish His purposes for you and through   you!

Run in His strength alone!

Run with your eyes on the prize!

Run with the desire to finish strong!

Run with the desire to finish with your lamp burning!

Run with the expectation of being in His physical presence when you cross your finish line!

Run to His glory alone!

Run and keep on running!

Coach Patti