WHEN HE COMES AGAIN

"As Samuel poured oil on the head of Saul and anointed him to be captain over the Lord's inheritance........as he also poured oil on David and anointed him in the midst of his brethren.....and as Zadok took an horn of oil and anointed Solomon........so Mary of Bethany poured costly spikenard from her alabaster box upon the head of Jesus, and also anointed his feet, so that the next day, the ten thousands of Israel might acclaim him King and shout Hosanna to his name" (Bruce R. McConkie, Mortal Messiah Book 3, p 327)

As Jesus left his beloved village of Bethany and approached Jerusalem, He stood on the Mount of Olives, overlooking the splendor of the city and wept. As he wept, he lamented, "If thou hadst known...the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes" (Luke 19:42) for the people were 'divided into conflicting and contending sects, each professing more holiness and righteousness than the other and all closing their eyes to the truth' (The Life and Teachings of Jesus and His Apostles, p. 140). After all that He had done, all that was left to Him was to weep for the city which was too late to save.

Jesus entered Jerusalem riding 'lowly, upon an ass', not a symbol of humility but the symbol of Jewish royalty (McConkie Mortal Messiah Book 3, p 338), for it was His right to do so as the descendant of King David to whom the throne truly belonged. As His disciples, 'the children of the kingdom' (JST Matt. 21:13)  shouted hosannas to His name and proclaimed Him king for the first and only time of His mortal ministry, Jesus entered the Herodian splendor of the city. Not even the accolades which they heaped upon Him would have comforted Him as He contemplated their impending doom. What a strange Messianic triumph that was. On one hand they hailed Him as the one who could save but on the other they refused the salvation. With hope of deliverance from Roman rule pulsating in the heart of the glittering, golden Jerusalem, with its' imperial mantle of proud towers, a city regarded as a wonder of the world, who could have foreseen its' destruction? Just one, the one who sat upon 'the colt of an ass'.

Following His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus once again cleansed the temple of the 'den of thieves', the chief priests who saw themselves as the guardians not only of the temple but of 'the whole structure of Jewish religion. They glutted themselves on the profits from temple business, and so the temple was not just the source of their favoured social position (which they coveted so jelously) but also the source of their incomes - more, their fortunes' (The Life and Teachings of Jesus and His Apostles, p. 143). . During the first cleansing of the temple, Jesus referred to it as 'my Father's house' (John 2:16). This time, upholding his kingly welcome into the city, Jesus referred to it as 'my house' (Matt 21:13). One can only imagine the seething in the vengeful hearts of those who plotted His death upon hearing such words for Jesus' declaration of His messiahship was pure blasphemy to their ears. When the purging was over, those who accepted His declaration and believed Him to be the promised Messiah gathered around Him to receive the fruits of His ministry. There, in His house, surrounded by those who believed in Him Jesus once again healed the blind and the lame, an exquisite symbol of the spiritually blind and lame He came to save.

Jerusalem paid dearly for rejecting and crucifying their God. As they left Jerusalem, Jesus gave the Olivet Discourse to His disciples where He predicted the sacking of Jerusalem by saying that not 'one stone will be left upon another' (21:6) and that the desolation of which Daniel spoke (Daniel 9:27) would be fulfilled. Jesus also told them that this destruction would come in their day and warned that the righteous should flee when they see the signs of its' coming. Less than 40 years after His death Titus descended on Jerusalem with his Roman legions and leveled the city to the ground but not before Jerusalem had endured unimaginable suffering through oppression and famine which saw women eating their own children as prophesied by Moses (Deut 28) and witnessed by Josephus (The New Complete Works of Josephus, The Jewish War, p 893). The destruction was so brutal that 'hunger exceeded human endurance; blood flowed in the streets, destruction made desolate the temple; 1,100,000 Jews were slaughtered; Jerusalem was ploughed as a field; and a remnant of a once mighty nation was scattered to the ends of the earth. The Jewish nation died, impaled on Roman spears, at the hands of Gentile overlords' (McConkie, DNTC, 1:644-45). Only the righteous were spared, the saints who dwelt in Jerusalem at the time had heeded Jesus' warning and had fled, guided by revelation, to Pella in Perea.

Why is it important for us to know about the destruction of Jerusalem? Because the destruction which will befall the wicked at the time of His Second Coming will be akin to what the Jewish nation endured in 70 AD. History will repeat itself because the world is still rejecting the Saviour, stoning the prophets and disregarding the word of God. During His Olivet Discourse Jesus spoke of the last days and the signs of His coming: "All the desolation and waste which attended the former destruction of Jerusalem is but prelude to the coming siege......In the coming re-enactment of this 'abomination of desolation', the whole world will be at war, Jerusalem will be the center of the conflict, every modern weapon will be used, and in the midst of the siege the Son of Man shall come, setting his foot upon the mount of Olives and fighting the battle of his saints (Zech. 12:1-9). Speaking of these final battles which shall accompany His return, the Lord says: 'I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city'. However, the final end of the conflict shall be different this time than it was anciently. 'Then shall the Lord go forth', the prophetic record says, 'and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives....and the Lord shall be king over all the earth' (Zech. 14). (McConkie, DNTC, 1:659-60)

During the Olivet Discourse Jesus told His disciples that when He returns one will be destroyed and one will be left. The two He spoke of were the wicked and the righteous. Those that shall remain on the earth and not be destroyed will be those who are honest and upright and who are so living that they would at least inherit terrestrial kingdom at the time of resurrection. As the Millenium will reflect the terrestrial glory, those who are living by telestial standards will not be able to remain on earth. Those of the telestial world are: 'sorcerers; adulterers; false swearers; those who oppress the hireling, the widow, and the fatherless in their wages; those who lead men away from the truth; those who do not fear God; members of the true Church who do not pay an honest tithing; they that work wickedness; and the proud. All these, he says, shall be as stubble when the day comes that shall burn as an oven. (Mal. 3:4; D&C 64:23-25). (McConkie, DNTC, 1:669)

Jesus wept when He reflected on the destruction of Jerusalem. Will He lament over us as He did over Jerusalem before he unveils His face? Will He weep over His saints who had abandoned their covenants and gone after the pleasures of the world? Will He sorrow over the lost sheep that have not been found? Will His heart break over those who profess to know Him but are found with empty oil lamps and regrets they are too late to rectify? When the comfort zone is ended it will be too late to put up the necessary defenses and watchtowers against the evils of the world. The day of preparation will be past and some of us will be found wanting. We live in the day preceding His return, the day of wars and rumors of wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes, the day when iniquity is abounding causing the love of men to wax cold. These are all Saviour's predictions found in the scriptures. He has described His Second Coming as 'the great and dreadful day of the Lord' (D&C 110:16), dreadful for those who are in the clutches of iniquity but great for those who are seeking after righteousness and who are waiting with anticipation for the day of the Lord when all His promises shall be fulfilled. The question begs to be asked, are you scared or are you excited?

When He comes again, He will come as the Lord of Lords and King of Kings and He will seek out His own that He might dry the tears from their eyes and embrace them in the arms of His love. A God of power, a God of majesty, a God of glory, but most of all, a God of love.

BESIDE ME THERE IS NO SAVIOUR

GOD'S WINGS -

An article in National Geographic several years ago provided a penetrating picture of God's wings. After a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park, forest rangers began their trek up a mountain to assess the inferno's damage. One ranger found a bird literally petrified in ashes, perched statuesquely on the ground at the base of a tree. Somewhat sickened by the eerie sight, he knocked over the bird with a stick. When he gently struck it, three tiny chicks scurried from under their dead mother's wings. The loving mother, keenly aware of impending disaster, had carried her offspring to the base of the tree and had gathered them under her wings, instinctively knowing that the toxic smoke would rise. She could have flown to safety but refused to abandon her babies. When the blaze had arrived and the heat had scorched her small body, the mother had remained steadfast. Because she had been willing to die, those under the cover of her wings would live.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how oft would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathered her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!"  Matthew 23:37

As the unrepentant Judah neared Babylonian captivity, prophet Isaiah made a valiant attempt to bring the covenant people to a remembrance of the God of Israel. Chapters 40-47 of Isaiah are written in a completely poetic style and contain the most beautiful scriptures about the promised Messiah in all the standard works. Even when prophesying of captivity, Isaiah does not leave the covenant people without hope revealing Judah's future deliverance from bondage and the destruction of Babylon that had been Judah's oppressor. Isaiah brings the Saviour to the world's attention as its' only hope of deliverance from sin, oppression, despair, fear, hopelessness and death. Over and over Isaiah reiterates that there is only one Saviour and beside him there is no other:

Isaiah 43:10,11 - "...beside me there is no Saviour"
Isaiah 44:6 - "....beside me there is no God"
Isaiah 45:5,6 - "....there is none beside me"
Isaiah 45:14 - "...surely God is in thee and there is none else"
Isaiah 45:18 - "....I am the Lord and there is none else"
Isaiah 45:21,22 - "...there is no God else beside me"
Isaiah 46:9 - "...I am God and there is none like me"

Through modern day revelation we learn more of the Saviour's majesty, might and power and why He has the right to say that there is none other beside Him. Consider the following scriptures that speak this truth:

"O Lord God Almighty, hear us in these our petitions, and answer us from heaven, thy holy habitation, where thou sittest enthroned, with glory, honor, power, majesty, might, dominion, truth, justice, judgment, mercy and an infinity of fullness, from everlasting to everlasting." (D&C 109:77)

"He comprehendeth all things, and all things are before him, and all things are round about him; and he is above all things, and in all things, and is through all things, and is round about all things, and all things are by him, and of him, even God, forever and ever." (D&C 88:41)

Isaiah's exhaustive efforts to bring Israel back to their God provides a very thorough list of the Saviour's incomparable qualities. One cannot help but feel that this prophet knew the Saviour on a personal as well as revelatory level. Here is a list that in all reality teaches us that truly there is none other beside Him equal in wisdom, knowledge, might and power:

1. No one can teach Him or Counsel Him: Isaiah 40:13,14
2. He never fails nor gets weary: Isaiah 40:28-31
3. He created the heavens, the earth and the nations: Isaiah 40:12,15,16,21,22; 45:12,18
4. He can help when no one else can or will: Isaiah 41:17,18
5. He is never discouraged with us. He never quits or gives up: Isaiah 42:3,4
6. He will turn darkness into light and make crooked paths straight: Isaiah 42:16
7. He will stay with us in our trials: Isaiah 43:1-4
8. He will blot out our transgressions: Isaiah 43:25
9. He blesses our families: Isaiah 44:3,4
10. He carries us at all times: Isaiah 46:3,4
11. He will never forsake us nor forget us: Isaiah 49:14-16

Despite His majesty and power by which He can thrash the nations, the Saviour appeals to us mostly through sentiment enticing us back into His arms. The most effective metaphor which he uses to do this is one of motherhood. Could it be that we at present, in our mortal state, cannot relate to the grandeur of His godhood but can very well relate to the parental bond that exists between a parent and a child that is so much a part of mortality? Every woman that has experienced motherhood could understand this statement: "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?  Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee" (Isaiah 49:15). It is unthinkable, is it not, for a woman to forget to feed her newborn baby? Yet, that is more likely to happen than for the Saviour to forget to succor us. And consider the hen who would sacrifice her life for the sake of her baby chickens. Would not any mother do this? More than his qualities of power, the Saviour would have us know that his heart is like a mother's: loving to the point of self-sacrifice, relentlessly caring and aggressively protective. He would have us know that within the shadow of His wings, He gathers us and protects us from the world which seeks to tears us down. Israel of old led themselves into Babylonian captivity by committing two foolish sins: they had forsaken the one true and living God, and they placed their trust in the powers of the world instead. It tugs on the heart strings to hear the Lord's lamentation concerning this: "For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water" (Jeremiah 2:13). 

"In ancient times, a king was welcomed to his throne in a great processional, often after victory in battle. A new highway would be built for the king and his parade of soldiers; workers would level the road and straighten it to make a path for the royal progress to the throne. Isaiah counsels us to 'prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God' (Isaiah 40:3). This appeal is an invitation to welcome the Lord into our hearts, to enthrone Him there instead of the proud, deceptive king of Babylon who desires only to keep us enslaved" (Breck England, "Beside Me There Is No Savior", Meridian Magazine). 

We do not belong in Babylon. We belong in the shelter and shadow of His wings. We of the House of Israel wish to proclaim to the world that He is the King of Kings and that there is no other beside Him. We want to be gathered from all nations into his loving and protective care so that when He comes, this, His plea, will not be true of us:

"O, ye nations of the earth, how oft would I have gathered you together as a hen gathered her chickens under her wings, but ye would not!" D&C 43:24