Jeremiah, the weeping Prophet does remind of an incident with Jesus.
Luke 19:
41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it,
42 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.
43 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
44 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.”
Thank you Fos, this reminds me that there is a recurring theme of God's people going away from God and continuing on and on to destruction. In all of these stories (or nearly all? I haven't thought thoroughly) there is a remnant saved through grace, like an ember snatched from the fire (though that's an image from Zech 3.2 and I'm not sure how it fits in).
I suppose with this idea coming up again and again in scripture, it must be intended to teach us something important about God, his character and how we are to perceive him.
I suppose it also serves us as a warning and a prediction for our own times, although I can see how we could suppose that these things changed fundamentally with Jesus.
Regarding connection to Jesus, I was struck by chapter 25 as I was reading through. I noticed the "cup", and thought how Jesus spoke about this, asking that the cup be taken away from him. I thought what was in his heart about the "cup" and it's a terrifying image.
thus the Lord, the God of Israel, says to me, “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it. They will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them.” and going on and on through to verse 27 to hammer it home.
To think of Jesus having done no wrong, having this terrible image of the cup in his mind, the cup to be drunk by those who had rebelled against our Father, the people of whom he cleansed the temple (for example); and facing the possibility that this was our Father's will for him - what injustice (from one perspective), but he made himself obedient.
And I wondered whether he was struck by the next verses
Thus says the Lord of hosts: “You shall surely drink! For behold, I am beginning to work calamity in this city which is called by My name, and shall you be completely free from punishment? You will not be free from punishment; for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth,” declares the Lord of hosts.’ (the emphasis is in my head) and a little later, where it says the shepherds will be struck, and Jesus already considered himself the Shepherd -
So to think that he had chosen to identify with us, to love us to the end, and that this is what we bring and what he faced.
Thank you to any dear reader if you've read this far. Please bless me with wisdom if it is in your heart from the Spirit of God.
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