<p>13:35<i> Look, your house- </i>The temple had always been called &quot;The house of Yahweh&quot;. But now it is was theirs, as the &quot;feasts of the Lord&quot; become the &quot;feast of the Jews&quot;. The Lord's table became&nbsp;<i>their</i>&nbsp;table (Ps. 69:25,22). They had hijacked God's institutions, just as men today have hijacked the Lord's table and imposed their own guest list and rejection policy upon it. Likewise the Lord called the law of God through Moses as now being &ldquo;<i>their</i>&nbsp;law&quot; (Jn. 15:25). The breaking of bread ritual practiced by the Corinthians was eating their&nbsp;<i>own&nbsp;</i>supper and therefore their gatherings were &ldquo;<i>not</i>&nbsp;to eat the&nbsp;<i>Lord's</i>&nbsp;supper&quot; (1 Cor. 11:20).&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p><i>Is left to you desolate- </i>The Greek word is used many times and always in the sense of a wilderness. This is the fulfilment of Hos. 2:3, where God through Hosea had threatened to make His beloved &quot;a wilderness&quot;. This is the link with the Olivet Prophecy in chapter 23, which develops this theme of the desolation of the temple and a desolating abomination which was to be placed there. Clearly, therefore, the primary intention of the Olivet prophecy was to the Jewish generation and temple in which immediate context the Lord was speaking. The fact the prophecy clearly has latter day applications and did not completely fulfil in AD70 shows that there was a change of plan, as has often happened in the Divine program, with prophecies being delayed and reapplied in their fulfilment.</p><p><i>And I say to you, you shall not see me- </i>The same words are used in Mt. 13:14, &quot;You shall not perceive / see&quot; Christ. Previously, they had 'seen' Christ as Messiah, realizing that this was the heir, and desiring therefore to kill Him. But now the Lord was giving them over to the blindness of their hatred. They would not knowingly crucify God's Son. But He was saying that He now was going to stop them 'seeing' / perceiving Him for who He was, so that they would crucify Him. And they would only again perceive Him as God's Son all too late, when at the day of judgment they uttered the words of Messianic welcome &quot;Blessed is He that comes...&quot;. And yet even in this terrible judgment there was interwoven a possibility of hope. They would only perceive Him again as God's Son&nbsp;<i>when</i>, or,&nbsp;<i>until the time that</i>, they recognized Him as Messiah in the Messianic words &quot;Blessed is He that comes...&quot;. Once they made that repentance, they would again perceive / see Him. However, it could be argued that that is axiomatic. The thrust of the Lord's words is surely that in the day of judgment, all too late, they would perceive Him again as He is in truth. But all too late.</p><p><i>Until you shall say- </i>When they are appointed their portion with the hypocrites and there is wailing and gnashing of teeth,&nbsp;<i>then&nbsp;</i>shall the Kingdom be likened unto the five wise and five foolish virgins.&nbsp;<i>Then</i>&nbsp;the rejected will understand the principles of that parable, crystal clearly. Members of the ecclesia of Israel will say &quot;Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord&quot;- but be rejected. Likewise the Egyptians, fleeing in the mud from Yahweh as they vainly hoped against hope that the returning waters wouldn't somehow reach them... they came to know Yahweh (Ex. 14:18). It could well be that this knowing of Yahweh involves a desperate recounting of their sins, seeing that one of the purposes of condemnation is to make men aware of their sinfulness and the depth of God's grace.</p><p><i>Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord</i>- When Jerusalem sees Jesus again, they will be saying: &ldquo;Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord&rdquo;. This would suggest they are waiting for Him. And these words being taken from the Passover hallel, it could be that the Lord returns to them at Passover time, when they traditionally expect Him. Indeed, Jerusalem will not see the Lord&nbsp;<i>until</i>&nbsp;they say &ldquo;Blessed is he&hellip;&rdquo;- as if the time of His return depends upon their &lsquo;seeing&rsquo; / perceiving Him beforehand.</p><p>At the day of judgment, nobody will be passive and indifferent. Everyone will want to be accepted. All of us who come there will see there is only one way we want. Self-examination will be the order of the day. The virgins will knock on the door and plead for it to be opened. The first century Jews will say &quot;Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord&quot;. They will want to be on Messiah's side then. None of us will be vacillating between total commitment and the lazy drifting of our human nature. And our judgment seat is going on now, today. &ldquo;This splitting of the decision between only two alternatives may seem an over-simplification: we fondly think of ourselves as faced with a continuous range of possibility over which to decide, but in the ultimate that range may be broken down into a number of discrete two-way choices, each one a decision between good and evil&rdquo; (Ralph Lovelock).</p>