IF THOU HADST KNOWN by M. E. K.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 3, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 22.

“IF THOU HADST KNOWN.”

By M. E. K.

THE incident related in the nineteenth chapter of Luke of the weeping of Christ over Jerusalem, the unrepentant city, soon to be destroyed, is one of the most pathetic and moving narratives in the Scriptures. Judah was the one tribe preserved. The others had gone into perpetual captivity. That tribe and the scepter of its kingdom had been kept up by special providence until the Messiah should appear. Gen. 49:10. It was the last plant of the Lord’s vineyard, tended and pruned with great care, in the hope that fruit would appear. And the people of Jerusalem, its capital city, represented the last of that people whom God had called out of Egypt, and by divine power, and in a manner to astonish the world, placed in the land of promise. How long he bore with their sin and rebellion! How tenderly he cared for them when they had lost all care for themselves! He had sent them prophets, but they had shamefully treated them, “beating some, and killing some.” Mark 12:5. “Last of all he sent unto them his Son, saying, They will reverence my Son.” Matt. 21:37. And now as that Son, who, begotten of God, was by a mysterious miracle joined to that people as one of them, looked from the hill of Olivet upon that city which rejected him and his message of love, he burst into weeping, exclaiming, “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.”

They did not know; and in their blind ignorance they took the life of the Son of God, killed the last messenger of mercy which God sent to us as a nation. Says Peter, “Ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from

the dead; whereof we are witnesses.” Acts 3:14, 15.

How did they come to make so deplorable a mistake? “And now, brethren, I wot [know] that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.” Verse 17. Yes, they were ignorant. They did not know that he was their promised Messiah; they did not know him. “Which none of the princes of this world knew; for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” 1 Cor. 2:8.

Jesus looked down from Olivet upon the city whose people were so soon to cry out, “Crucify him, crucify him,” and his heart was full of compassion. He saw the city of David and of Solomon, with its teeming thousands, and with prophetic eye saw the Roman armies encompassing it, the famine, the pestilence, the burning temple, the fleeing multitudes seized, cut down, crucified, or sold into hopeless slavery; saw the long ages of Jerusalem’s degradation and the scattering of her children among the nations. Could we see it as he saw it, we would not wonder at the weeping, the sighs, the groans, and the exclamation, “If thou hadst known.” He knew it, and tried to warn them of what surely would come unless they repented. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” Matt. 23:37. The storm of wrath was gathering and would soon break. He would gladly shelter them, but they would not. They did not know.

The closeness with which the destruction of Jerusalem and the second coming of Christ and the end of the world are connected in Matthew 24, Luke 21, and other scriptures, evinces that the condition of the world at the time of the second advent will be very similar to the condition of Jerusalem at the time Christ wept over it. We are now living in the last days. God’s controversy, not with one nation only, but with all nations, is drawing to a close. As Christ bore a last warning message to the nation of the Jews, so now does he, through the preaching of the “everlasting Gospel,” as foretold in Rev. 14:6–12, proclaim the last warning message to the world. That message is being proclaimed. By the preached Word, by books and tracts, by correspondence, by numerous periodicals, by fireside teaching, in many ways, the momentous truths of the Lord’s soon coming, and the necessity of a preparation to meet him in peace, are being made known to the world.

Will the people of the world believe it?—Some will. They read in his Word, “So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.” Luke 21:31, 32. They read these words; they see the things—the signs foretold—come to pass; they recognize the fact that, since they see the signs, they must help to compose the “generation” referred to, and they believe, yes, know.

Others do not believe; they see no signs; they say, “My Lord delayeth his coming.” They ask, “Where is the promise of his coming?” They do not know. Why?—“But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matt. 24:37–39. Thousands will not know that the coming of the Lord is near.

But what keeps them from knowing? What prevented the Jews from knowing that Jesus was the Messiah? They did not know it. Was it not that very common sin of unbelief?—Yes; and is it not so to-day? God has spoken; but men look wise, shrug their shoulders, shake their heads; they do not know. That is what thousands are doing to-day. And can not we hear once more that voice from Olivet, saying to the men of this generation, as to the people of Jerusalem, “If thou hadst known”? Brother, sister, friend, wake up. “Know that it [margin, “he”] is near, even at the doors.”

To know that the Lord is near will be a mighty stimulus to get ready to meet him. Jesus stands ready to exchange his righteousness for our sinfulness. Faith to lay hold of his Word in humble obedience will make us know that he is near, and that we are accepted in him.