Blinded to the Truth

“And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it, 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”.  Luke 19:41-42

Jesus overlooked Jerusalem and, knowing what was coming upon it in the future, began to weep for the city and the people who made Jerusalem their home.  He was sad because He knew the people, by and large, would reject Him and His offer of salvation.  He knew how Jerusalem would be attacked by the Roman government in 70 A.D. several years after His resurrection.  The temple would be destroyed, and the Jews would be scattered to other parts of the world.  It would take nearly 1,900 years before Israel would be unified as a nation again (May 14, 1948).

Israel is united as a nation now, but they are still threatened on a daily basis by their enemies who surround them.  They have been threatened with annihilation, but that will not happen.  Scripture is clear that Israel will survive and be blessed, coming to know Jesus as Lord and Savior when He returns.  However, before that time, the Jews will be subject to the antichrist and his hostility toward them.  When the antichrist appears on the scene and becomes the one-world ruler, the world will be in such turmoil that people will demand a leader to pull them out of their misery.  We think the world is in bad shape now, but the coming days, months, and years only portend more hardships and troubles among earth’s inhabitants.  We can only pray that God will give us a reprieve, a world-wide revival, to postpone the inevitable.  Only God knows if a revival will take place.

When the antichrist appears, the people of earth, including the people of Israel, will be so tired of war and chaos that they will fall for his lies and deceptions.  He will make a covenant with Israel, promising peace and safety.  He will confirm this covenant for a period of seven years and will even allow the Jews to worship in the rebuilt temple.  Half-way through these seven years, however, he will show his true colors, becoming a dictator and setting himself up as a god.  He will stop the Jews from their worship of God and force them to worship him (Revelation 13:14-15; Daniel 9:24-27).  At the end of the seven years, Jesus will return to earth, and the antichrist, and his followers will be banished to hell for 1,000 years, then let out, be defeated, and be returned to hell forever (Revelation 20).

When Jesus came the first time, Israel, as a whole, was blinded to the truth of Jesus’ true identity, the Messiah for whom they had been looking.  But they are not the only ones who are blinded to the truth.  I don’t know for certain, but I imagine that Jesus weeps for America and all the other nations as He did for Jerusalem.  New polls keep coming out that more and more Americans are abandoning God, the church, and Christianity.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that church attendance is down, particularly since COVID, but it was already declining before COVID struck.  Likely, those who were “on the fence” about their commitment to God’s house, used COVID as an excuse to drop out completely.  Some watch services online, which is wonderful for shut ins and those who aren’t able to attend for various reasons but have become the only way to worship for some.  However, there is something special about gathering with other believers in corporate worship that can’t be experienced online.

Many who love our nation grieve over its decline which is directly traced to the continuing abandonment of God and Biblical principles by both unbelievers and believers alike.  People just seem to be blinded to the truth and oblivious to coming judgment in which all people will be held accountable, unbelievers for their rejection of Christ and believers for how they served Christ.  Jesus said that the knowledge of how people can be at peace eventually becomes hidden to them.  Jesus is always the “Common Denominator”, not common in the sense of ordinary, but rather in the sense that all individuals will be answerable to the name of Jesus Christ.  Where folks stand in relation to Jesus will determine their eternal destination.  Judgment is coming and most likely is already on its way.