In Matthew 23:37–39, Jesus brings His final public indictment against Jerusalem to its devastating conclusion. The city of peace had become a city of blood. The city that was supposed to receive the prophets murdered them. The city that was supposed to teach the Law to the nations rejected the messengers who called her back to that Law. Yet Christ’s words are not cold judgment. They are judgment through tears.
He had long summoned Jerusalem under the shelter of His wings, but she was unwilling.
So Jesus pronounces the sentence: “Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!”
This is not vague end-of-the-world language. It is the covenantal abandonment of the old-covenant temple order, fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70. The house was left desolate because Immanuel had departed.
But is the a failure of God’s promises? God forbid! It is their fulfillment in Christ. The old house is abandoned because the true Temple has come. The old priesthood is eclipsed because the true Priest has come. The old sacrifices are finished because the true Sacrifice has come. And the new house is being built in Him.
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