On the off chance that thou hadst known, even thou, in any event in this thy day, the things which have a place unto thy harmony! in any case, presently they are stowed away from thine eyes. For the days will happen upon thee, that thine foes will project a channel about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on each side, and will lay thee even with the ground, and thy youngsters inside thee; and they will not leave in thee one Stone upon another; on the grounds that thou knewest not the hour of thy appearance."
From the peak of Olivet, Jesus viewed Jerusalem. Reasonable and serene was the scene spread out before him. It was the period of the Passover, and from all grounds the offspring of Jacob had accumulated there to praise the incredible public celebration. Amidst nurseries and grape plantations, and green slants studded with pioneers' tents, rose the terraced slopes, the dignified royal residences, and huge defenses of Israel's capital. The little girl of Zion appeared to be in her pride to state, "I sit a sovereign, and will see no distress;" as flawless at that point, and considering herself as secure in support of Heaven, as when, ages previously, the regal singer sung, "Lovely of circumstance, the delight of the entire earth, is Mount Zion," "the city of the incomparable King." In full view were the brilliant structures of the sanctuary. The beams of the setting sun illuminated the blanketed whiteness of its marble dividers, and shined from brilliant door and pinnacle constantly. "The flawlessness of magnificence" it stood, the pride of the Jewish country. What offspring of Israel could look at the scene without a rush of delight and reverence! Yet, far different musings consumed the psyche of Jesus. "At the point when he was drawing close, he viewed the city, and sobbed over it." Amid the general cheering of the victorious arrival, while palm branches waved, while happy hosannas stirred the echoes of the slopes, and a large number of voices pronounced him lord, the world's Redeemer was overpowered with an unexpected and baffling distress. He, the Son of God, the Promised One of Israel, whose force had vanquished demise, and called its prisoners from the grave, was in tears, not of standard despondency, but rather of extraordinary, unstoppable distress.
His tears were not for himself, however he no doubt understood whither his feet were tending. Before him lay Gethsemane, the area of his moving toward anguish. The sheep door additionally was in sight, through which for quite a long time the casualties for penance had been driven, and which was to open for him when he should be "brought as a sheep to the butcher." Not far off was Calvary, the spot of torturous killing. Upon the way which Christ was soon to step must fall the frightfulness of incredible obscurity as he should make his spirit a contribution for wrongdoing. However it was not the consideration of these scenes that cast the shadow upon him in this hour of joy. No premonition of his own superhuman pain obfuscated that unselfish soul. He sobbed for the destined large number of Jerusalem—as a result of the visual impairment and lack of contrition of those whom he came to favor and to spare.
The historical backdrop of in excess of 1,000 years of God's exceptional courtesy and watchman care, showed to the picked individuals, was available to the eye of Jesus. There was Mount Moriah, where the child of guarantee, a passive casualty, had been bound to the special stepped area,— image of the contribution of the Son of God. There, the contract of gift, the sublime Messianic guarantee, had been affirmed to the dad of the dedicated. There the blazes of the penance rising to paradise from the sifting floor of Ornan had turned aside the blade of the decimating blessed messenger fitting image of the Savior's penance and intercession for liable men. Jerusalem had been regarded of God over all the earth. The Lord had "picked Zion," he had "wanted it for his home." There, for a long time, blessed prophets had articulated their messages of caution. There, ministers had waved their censers, and the haze of incense, with the supplications of the admirers, had climbed before God. There every day the blood of killed sheep had been offered, pointing forward to the Lamb of God. There, Jehovah had uncovered his essence in the haze of wonder over the kindness seat. There rested the base of that spiritualist stepping stool interfacing earth with Heaven, that stepping stool whereupon blessed messengers of God slid and climbed, and which opened to the world the path into the holiest of all. Had Israel as a country saved her loyalty to Heaven, Jerusalem would have stood perpetually, the choose of God. In any case, the historical backdrop of that supported individuals was a record of falling away from the faith and insubordination. They had opposed Heaven's elegance, mishandled their advantages, and insulted their chances.
