9) The time of your visitation

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And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” (Luke 19:41-44 ESV)

This is perhaps one of the most poignant moments in the life of Jesus as he approached Jerusalem for the final visit. John’s Gospel relates previous occasions when he went to Jerusalem, to try and present to them the message of repentance and the good news about God’s Kingdom. John records the very mixed reception which Jesus received, especially from the religious leaders.

His ministry had to end in Jerusalem. Its importance as a spiritual location went as far back as Abram giving tithes to Melchizedek the King of Salem (Genesis 14:18). When Israel, having been delivered from Egypt, approached the Holy Land, God said this:

Then to the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name – there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice possessions you have vowed to the Lord. (Deuteronomy 12:11)

Jerusalem was the place of sacrifice – Jesus was to complete his ministry there.

grace

Jesus describes his ministry to Jerusalem as ‘the time of your visitation’. That is, a special moment in history when God chose to reveal his presence and power. This is a hard saying for us because it discloses that God does not always visit in such generosity. In these three years of Jesus's ministry, there had been revolutionary teaching, irrefutable healings, miraculous provisions: God walking with people again as He had in the garden of Eden before sin broke the bond of closeness. But not everyone recognised this visitation for what it was; many opposed the light that was shining upon them.

This is a hard saying, because it represents a hard decision by God to make Himself vulnerable to sinful people, by sending His Son in human flesh. In His foreknowledge, God knew that Jesus would be killed despite all He had taught and demonstrated of the Kingdom of God. Yet in great grace, He granted this visitation, opening Himself up to abuse. He did this in love, and for the sake of those open-hearted people who embraced this visitation and its message of reconciliation. However, as well as love, God also had to demonstrate justice. In His divine purposes, people reap what they sow. Mostly, the people of Jerusalem sowed the seeds of rejection of the message and, in doing so, spat in the face of God, as literally demonstrated when Jesus was tortured (Matthew 26:67).

futile

By shutting their hearts to God, they were blinding themselves to the spiritual realities of this visitation:

“Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.

I suspect there was a degree of conscience at work in these religious leaders: doubts about whether or not Jesus perhaps was their Messiah. But hardness of heart and pride of position (or praise from people [Romans 2:29]) meant they went through with their determination to see Jesus executed. This was a sin which required a just judgment. They had sinned against the light: Jesus being the 'Light of the World'. The way the judgment works here is not that God is vindictive. Judgment works out because He withdraws His blessing. They would not accept His visitation so He left them to their own devices.

This principle was explained by Paul in Romans:

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts (Romans 1:18-24)

Wrath should be seen as judicial anger: applying without favour, the judgment of divine law. In this passage the revelation of God as Creator is being suppressed. Their thinking and understanding went awry because God was no longer operating in grace towards them. In the case of Jerusalem, the leaders were suppressing the truth that God was graciously visiting them. The judgment handed down was this: ‘God gave them over’. They were on their own; the visitation was finished; their end would be the result of their own decisions.

For Jerusalem, it was to be the permanent end of it as the centre of sacrificial worship:

For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you

As we know, this prophecy came true in AD70 when the Roman General Titus destroyed the Temple and razed the city. That destruction is still evident today. If you read the historical account written by the eye-witness, Josephus, you can see how Jerusalem's fall was engineered by poor choices made by the Jews of that time. God gave them over!

privilege

We can look at other visitation events and see the consequences of not welcoming God’s gracious presence. The children of Israel had been freed from slavery in Egypt. They experienced many miracles, ate manna from heaven and knew the presence of God in the pillars of cloud and fire. But they took this visitation for granted and suffered the consequences:

So, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, “Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.” So, I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.”’
See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today’, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. (Hebrews 3:7-13)

This was a remarkable visitation lasting forty years. It was an immense privilege to be alive as part of that generation. However, they were unbelieving and spurned the divine presence for other pleasures. God gave them over!

Another special visitation occurred when the Temple of Solomon was dedicated in Jerusalem:

Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, the singers raised their voices in praise to the Lord and sang: ‘He is good; his love endures for ever.’ Then the temple of the Lord was filled with the cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God. (2 Chronicles 5:13-14)

The visitation was so powerful that the worship had to cease. Solomon dedicated the Temple with a wonderful prayer of commitment, at which point the presence of God became even more manifest:

When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled it. When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the Lord above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshipped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, ‘He is good; his love endures for ever.’ (2 Chronicles 7:1-3)

Despite such a gracious visitation, Solomon slowly lost his commitment, his first love, and his faith in God. He became a compromised king. His glorious kingdom became divided after his death. God gave them over!

moment

Although these examples are saddening, it is always in the heart of God to bring an outpouring of his blessing and presence. Here is the promise to Malachi:

And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 3:10-11 ESV)

A visitation is like the days of heaven on earth when God’s presence brings His blessing in all kinds of ways. Sadly, not all hearts are tender enough to recognise this; and it does not happen as frequently as it probably could.

Surely Jesus was bringing heaven to earth in his presence and ministry. Yet people would not recognise this, preferring to allow their unbelief to control them:

As the crowds increased, Jesus said, ‘This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom; and now something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here. (Luke 11:29-32)

The Queen of Sheba recognised that God was visiting Israel in the time of Solomon. The people of Nineveh knew that God was visiting them when Jonah preached. But here, when Jesus was performing such powerful demonstrations of God’s presence, the people said it was insufficient: they demanded yet more powerful signs. Unbelief is like a cancer which is never satisfied; but wants to grow and grow until its greed finally kills it.

windows

The Day of Pentecost was a day of visitation. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit achieved miraculous things amongst that believing people. The book of Acts has many accounts of gracious visitations in the Mediterranean area which are so thrilling. But sadly, it was bound to be the case that some people would reject their visitation and quench their passionate response to the presence of the Holy Spirit.

We have an example in this letter written to the Ephesian Church:

These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: you have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. (Revelation 2:1-5)

This church began really well but at some point, lost its respect for the presence of God at work among them. They seemed to be faithfully going about their duties as a church yet were, at the same time, losing their way. This word to them was a rebuke so that they could recover that presence again.

The fearful thing for Christian church life is that warning: ‘I will come to you and remove your lampstand’. This represents the removal of God’s powerful guiding blessing through the Holy Spirit. Church life continues, but God discontinues his presence. Could this happen today? Does this happen today? I believe God does remove lampstands and that people are not aware when it has happened. This is a consequence of futile thinking and darkened hearts. God gave them over!

If we make a study of special moves of God over the centuries, we sadly see evidence of this happening. God opened the windows of heaven in something like the visitation of the Methodist revival or the Welsh revival. Yet after a number of years (only around three in Wales), the blessing began to dissipate. It would appear that it is difficult to experience God’s powerful presence indefinitely. This is really sad. But my response is not to focus on that negative conclusion. I pray that God will open his windows of blessing wherever he finds ready believing hearts. I would be quite happy if it were to happen somewhere other than where I am. It is such a wonderful, gracious thing to see a visitation of God. I pray that we will be faithful if it occurs, and allow God’s holy power to manifest itself freely in lives changed by Jesus.