Last week we studied the symbolic action of our Lord entering into the City of Jerusalem on a donkey. His action conjured up passages throughout the OT in which God promised to rescue His people from exile and restore them to fellowship with Him and with the land. Jesus’ action announced the fulfillment of those promises. God was acting in Him to rescue His people.
But the promises throughout the OT were mixed with warnings. When God arrived on the scene, He would come to save, come to deliver, come to rescue; but He would also come to judge unbelief, to condemn the wicked. His coming would be, as Malachi said, like a refiner’s fire, like fuller’s soap. Many of the Jews assumed that this meant He would rescue Jews and destroy Gentiles; the Jews were the chosen people, after all. But Jesus undermines that notion. The wicked who would be condemned were the leaders, the shepherds in Israel along with the sheep who were willingly following them in their idolatry and folly.
Today we study another symbolic action of our Lord – the point of the action this time pointing to the coming destruction of the Herodian Temple and the judgment of all who refused to give heed to His warnings.