Full of Compassion

TEXT: LUKE 19:41-48

Key Verse: “And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it” (Luke 19:41).

A father had a son over whom he had laboured greatly. He provided all that the son needed, sent him to the best schools and invested greatly in estates to prepare him for a better future. Then one day, while looking through his son’s room, he saw strange substances and documents. His son was a cocaine user and a member of a deadly secret cult. As he considered the implications of this discovery - a wasted future, investment gone down the drain, lost privilege, and so on - he wept. The boy wasted his life because he could not appreciate or discern the heritage he had.

Jesus looked at the children of Israel and saw how they wasted their heritage. Israel is God’s special and peculiar vineyard, fenced for protection, planted as the choicest vine with tower and winepress (Isaiah 5:1-7). The law and prophets came from them.

As Jesus looked at Jerusalem and the pain and anguish that was going to befall them, He wept. He saw pain instead of peace, gloom instead of gain and blight instead of blessings. He said: “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes” (Luke 19:42). Many people like Jerusalem waste their lives, golden opportunities and the things that belong to their peace and then attract destruction.

Maybe, you have gone away from the Lord already, despite all that He has invested in you or reserved for you in glory. You need to retrace your steps back to Calvary. If, as a prodigal son, you have wandered away from the sheepfold, today you can return to the Chief Shepherd and all that the enemy has taken away from you will be restored. And you can pledge to live the rest of your life for God, while expecting to be with Him in eternity for greater, richer rewards.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Be careful so that you will not cry, “had I known.”