Where Are Those Who Weep Over Santa Maria

As promised, another title in the form of a question. It is also the last one of the titles I heard during worship last Sunday. That could be a good thing since it is already Saturday evening and who knows what might come up tomorrow. Of course the Lord does speak at other times than during the worship time on Sunday mornings, but that is a good time to hear Him if you are listening. We would suggest that if you are having difficulty at that time, you might try reading some scripture before you go to church. At those times when I have had the most difficulty hearing from God, I have found that reading even a few verses before church seems to open me up just a bit more to whatever the Lord has for me there. It seems to even work better to read a few verses just before bed Saturday night then a few more Sunday morning before church.

"Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, 'If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will...surround you and close you in on every side...because you did not know the time of your visitation.'" (Luke 19:41-44)

Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem. He was not just weeping over a city though. Jerusalem was the capital of a nation, the nation of Israel. Depending on who you think is right, He was either the first or second person to fill the office of prophet in the New Testament. Some think John the Baptist was the first New Testament prophet. Others would argue that he ended the line of Old Testament prophets. (There is no extra charge here for that information.) Our position is that it really does not matter. John came as a prophet to prepare the way for Jesus. Jesus came as prophet, priest, and king. As such, He changed all the rules of spiritual life between God and man.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem and Luke is very specific as to why He did that. He was weeping because they had no spiritual insight. They did not recognize the Messiah, the promised One. Throughout the Bible, beginning with the protevangelium in Genesis 3:15, God had promised to provide a Savior for the sins of mankind. The leaders in Israel had failed to recognize Jesus even though they knew the scriptures from the inside out, forward and backward.

The nation of Israel was in distress. They were under the iron fist of the Roman Empire. They were free to exercise their religion only as long as the Romans allowed it. The Romans recognized Herod as the legitimate head of Israel. That is another teaching all together. The Jewish ruling body, the Sanhedrin, was the group that ran the Jewish religion. They were the ones who decided Jesus should die for the good of the nation. We have discussed their reasons for that in a previous post. With the possible exception of Herod, all Israel was awaiting the revelation of the Messiah on earth. They expected a king to come and throw off the yoke of Roman bondage. When Jesus came, humbly, riding on a donkey (Matthew 21:5) He did not fit the picture they had. God was building a spiritual kingdom from the ground up as He had from the time He called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees. The Jews were looking for a physical kingdom to come on earth. They missed God, missed what He was doing in their midst because they erred in their theology. Let us not make the same mistake.

Where are the people who are weeping over the Santa Maria valley as Jesus wept over Jerusalem? Where are you? We know a few of you. God is seeing your tears and hearing your prayers. It took us over twenty years to get to this place. No doubt some of you have been praying a good portion of the time, possibly even prior to that. We know God called us to this city and to this valley for such a time as this. Although it took twenty years to figure out exactly why He issued that call, at least we can now say we know. These are exciting times in Santa Maria. Let us not miss what God is doing. He is at work in ways we do not yet see to demolish the strongholds of the enemy wherever they exist. We will tell you the first place to look for those strongholds in the next post.