. . . We now return to Jesus' speech on the signs of the end of the age or, to be precise, his last words to the religious and political leaders of Israel, just before he explains himself to his disciples. He spoke prophetic words in Matthew 23:37-39, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord'". This echoes part of Psalm 118, a messianic Psalm looking ahead to the Messiah. It is also a theme in Hosea, Chapter 5, verse 15, "Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt. And they will seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek me."

Taking an informed glance into the future I would suggest that there is going to be a time, perhaps soon, when the political and religious leaders of the Nation of Israel are going to have to acknowledge the God of Israel. They are going to have to swallow their pride, despite having the third largest army in the World and the brains and ingenuity to deploy this army in unexpected ways. They are going to have to realize that it was the God of Israel who sustained them through the perilous times of the 20th Century in the Land, just as He had sustained them in the preceding 18 centuries outside the Land. But, I'm afraid, the journey to this realization from where they are now is not going to be an easy one and we can only pray that it will be short painless one. Pride is surely the deadliest sin of all and needs to be dealt with convincingly, before God can really work with His people.

God needs His people to call out to Him, to cry out to Him, before He can really act. In fact, the whole world needs this to happen, if we return to Matthew, Chapter 23, verse 39, "For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord'". Jesus is giving a key condition for his return. He will only return when they, the leaders of the Jewish nation ask him to return. Jesus will only return when the current leaders of Israel, from the Chief Rabbi to Prime Minister Barak, ask him to return. And for that to happen we are looking at a real miracle, because, before they can ask him to return, they have to believe in him in the first place. They have to believe that he came, 2000 years earlier, as their Messiah. And to do that they will have to admit that they had made a grave, tragic, heart-wrenching mistake, a mistake that led to 1800 years of sheer misery. And to do that their pride has to be broken, so that God can do a mighty work in t he heart of the nation of Israel. It may seem unlikely, but Scripture says it's going to happen. Returning to Zechariah Chapter 12, we see this theme repeated again and again. In verse 5, "Then the leaders of Judah will say in their hearts, 'the people of Jerusalem are strong because the Lord Almighty is their God'". This is at the time when the nations of the World come against Jerusalem and the warning that I gave earlier concerning these nations must be repeated, because verse 9 pronounces a dire warning, "On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem".

What an awesome day that will be. God will show His power, stronger than any Cruise or Scud missile and the whole world is going to realize what a terrible mistake it has made in turning its back against the One True God. The Jewish people will particularly be affected as the truth finally dawns on them. Their reaction to this knowledge will be significant. We read in the very next verse, verse 10, "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a first-born son". The awful realization of the identity of Jesus their Messiah, the 'one they had pierced', will initiate a national repentance, the like of which the world has never seen before. The next three verses bear testimony to this, speaking of every clan in the land weeping and mourning. Then, perhaps led by their re ligious leaders, Orthodox and Messianic believers together (though, of course, all will now be 'Messianic'), they will sing the messianic Psalm, Psalm 118, as Matthew 23:39 tells us, and the Lord Jesus will return.