O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! How often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would have none of it!
Luke 13:34 NET
As Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem and the cross, he expressed his grief for Jerusalem and the Jewish nation as a whole. He began by accusing Israel of killing the prophets and stoning those sent to them with God’s message. Israel’s history had been mainly one of rebellion, rejecting God’s messengers and often abusing or killing them.
But throughout their history, including their exile, Jesus, as God, had desired for them to turn to him. He wanted to gather them together like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. To shelter and protect them. To have them trust him as their Lord and God.
But they refused to respond to his entreaties through the prophets. And when Jesus came as their long-awaited Messiah, he was not what they wanted, and they rejected him. To be sure, not everyone in the nation rejected him. Some did accept him as their Messiah. But most did not.
God Allows Us to Choose
This verse reflects the tension between God’s sovereignty and human free will. God wanted Israel to do one thing: to come to him. But they did something else: rejecting his entreaties.
God could undoubtedly have forced them to do what he wanted. But he didn’t, allowing them to turn their backs on him. And the story of Israel demonstrates this over and over again.
God desires for all of us to come to him (John 3:16; 2 Pet. 3:9; 1 Tim. 2:4). But in his sovereignty, he allows us to choose (Josh. 24:15, Jam. 4:4). Will we repent and turn to Jesus as our Lord and Savior? Or will we reject God’s call and face eternal loss?
