‘Last Generation’
Mal 4:5-6 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will
turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children
to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
Before the great
and dreadful day of the Lord for the Jews, Elijah must come first to bring them
back to repentance and righteous living.
Luke 1:17 “He will also go before Him in the spirit and
power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the
disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the
Lord.”
John the Baptist
was Elijah, confirmed by our Lord Jesus.
Mat 17:12 “But
I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to
him whatever they wished. Likewise , the Son of Man is also about to suffer at
their hands.”
Mat 27:24-25 When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at
all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands
before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person.
You see to it.” And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and
on our children.”
All the Jews especially
the priesthood knew that Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of prophecies for
they had heard and seen with their own eyes from the birth of John the Baptist,
birth of Jesus till His crucifixion, yet they refused to accept God’s will.
They even condemned themselves and their descendants to the greatest sin of
killing the Son of God who came to be their Saviour. No sacrifice can cleanse
this sin except the blood of Jesus.
Mark 15:37-38 And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and
breathed His last. Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to
bottom.
Immediately after
the death of Jesus, God departed from the temple by tearing open the veil. The
killing of Jesus was the great and dreadful day of the Lord for the Jews as
prophesied by Malachi. Without Yahweh as their God, the Jews were no longer His
people.
Lev 26:14, 31-34 ‘But if you do not obey Me, and do not
observe all these commandments,...I will lay your cities waste and bring your
sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the fragrance of your sweet aromas.
I will bring the land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be
astonished at it. I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword
after you; your land shall be desolated and your cities wasted.
Because of their
disobedience, in 70 AD God allowed General Titus to conquer Jerusalem and
completely destroyed the Second Temple to prevent any further sacrifices which
God abhorred. Without Yahweh as their God and without a temple to offer
sacrifices for sins and feasts; Judaism is over.
In 131 AD, God
allowed Hadrian to forbid the Jews from entering Jerusalem; His Holy city.
In July 19, 362
AD, Emperor Julius (the Apostate) ordered the Jews to rebuild the temple of
God. It was recorded that the day after they started clearing the debris of the
former temple, there was a great earthquake. Many continued the rebuilding but
God stopped them by killing Emperor Julius the following year and replacing him
with a Christian emperor.
Brethren, our Lord had completed His salvation work on the
cross. As such, do not be another Emperor Julius by bringing back Judaism
(sacrifices, feasts, Jewish cultures).