He wanted to save them.

Thursday   11-26-15    Thanksgiving Day, Modesto, California

Scripture reading:   Matt 23 - 25

S=Scripture O=Observation A=Application P=Prayer  SOAP for the soul.

S.  Matt 23:37-39  "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God's messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn't let me.   And now look, your house is left to you, empty and desolate.  For I tell you this, you will never see me again until you say, 'Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord!'"  NLT

O.  Jesus could see a few decades ahead when in 70 AD Jerusalem will be devastated.  The Roman army will overwhelm a Jewish rebellion and with respect for nothing and no one... will wreak havoc and destroy its people and even its temple of massive cut stones.  He lets them know that He, Who wanted to shield them from danger, has been rejected and will soon disappear from the scene and not return to this doomed city until they cry out, “Blessed be the One who comes in the name of the Lord!”

A.  Something of the broken heart of God seems to be revealed in the pathos and love expressed in Jesus’ metaphor of a hen gathering her endangered chicks beneath her wings.  He will soon be displayed as a condemned criminal, covered with his own blood from the cruel lashes, the blows, the nails and the crown of thorns.  He will be cursed by the religious elite and hung naked to die.  Yet His tender heart cries out, not for His own rescue, but for the innocent war victims that will suffer.  And wonder of wonders... He is dying there in my place... the perfect sacrificial Lamb of God!

P.  Father, give me a heart like the heart of Jesus... a heart that beats for the lost and dying victims of this doomed planet.  May I not measure my personal sacrifice!  May I abandon myself into Your hands with no holds barred!  Push me forward by the power of Your unchanging love... and may I give and give again... until I breathe my final breath... and there is nothing more to give.  Consume me in Your quest to save the lost.  Amen.

Ralph