Matthew 23: 37-38

One of the saddest passages in the New Testament is Matthew 23: 36-38. 

 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

 Jesus has just been enumerating the hypocrisies of the scribes and pharisees.  He basically starts with small indiscretions like making big phylacteries and broad boarders on their clothes, and flaunting privilege (v. 5-6). Then he talks about them taking advantage of the vulnerable and misleading converts (v. 13-14). He accuses them of extortion and finally, of seeking to persecute and kill God's true servants (v. 25, 34). 

 I read this chapter in Greek this week and something popped out at me at the end of the chapter.  In verse 33 Jesus calls them "serpents" and "generation of vipers".  This automatically rings a bell for someone who knows the Old Testament.  Clear back in Genesis 3 a serpent became the symbol of Satan, the tempter and adversary.  Calling the Jewish leaders the "generation of vipers" is equivalent of calling them children of Satan.  It also hearkens the reader's mind back to the story of the Fall.  

 You may remember an earlier post I did about The Fall.  In it I mentioned that Adam means "earth" in Hebrew, meaning arable soil. When Adam is cast out of the garden, God calls him, instead, "dust" or dry ground that cannot grow things "for dust though art, and unto dust shalt thou return." (v 19).  

So, this is in my mind as I read Matthew 23: 38.  In the KJV it says, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate," but that is a loose translation.  What it says in Greek is ἰδού, ἀφίεται ὑμῖν ὁ οἶκος ὑμῶν ἔρημος, or "behold, your house is given up to the desert." I live in a desert state.  I have seen what happens to abandoned homes that are taken over by the desert.  Of course, "house" here doesn't mean a physical domicile.  It means a clan, or "your people".  Juxtaposed against the idea of them being children of the serpent, I think Jesus is intentionally telling the Jewish leaders that they are going to remain in their fallen state. Because of their iniquity, they and all their "house" are "dust" instead of "adamah" fertile ground. 

 According to the podcasts I listened to this week, (particularly Talking Scripture with Mike Day and Bryce Dunford) within a century of Jesus' death, Jerusalem fell before the Romans, and became a "desert", at least as far as the Jews were concerned.  The temple was, indeed, thrown down, and any Jew that didn't flee was killed. It was the end of the ancient Jewish state, and Judaism only lived on in isolated pockets outside of Jerusalem. I believe Jesus knew this was going to happen. He was seeing the end of his people, just as Moroni saw the destruction of the Nephites.  That is why he was so sad.