This past week I was on the end of recovering from covid while keeping up with three other brothers in Christ who were also fighting it. One of my brothers ended up in a real battle as the virus attacked his lungs, and he developed pneumonia. I felt anguish rise in my heart as I pleaded with the Lord to both restore him to health and calm his heart. At the same time, by God’s providence, I happened to be preparing a sermon starting with Matthew 23:27. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”
In the middle of Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem, our Savior reveals the nature of his heart. His great desire was to gather Jerusalem to himself like a hen gathers its chicks under the protection of its wings. The sad reality of Matthew 23 is that Jerusalem was not willing, but for the one who knows the saving grace of God in Christ, they have this protection and love. This beautiful image of chicks taking shelter under the wings of a hen is not some baseless platitude from Jesus to a disobedient people. Jesus is revealing the unchanging heart of God for his people.
As Israel was to move into the promised land, God affirms how much he loves those he chose to be his people. Deuteronomy 32:9-11 “But the LORD's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage. 10 He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. 11 Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions.”
In Ruth, a Moabite woman leaves her people to live with her Hebrew mother-in-law and trusts in the one true living God of Israel. As the Israelite, Boaz, receives Ruth, he says, "All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. The LORD repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!" (Ruth 2:11-12).
In the Psalms, David sings of the providential care of God. Psalm 36:7 “How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.”
Isaiah calls a floundering Israel to put their trust in God while other nations seek to bring their destruction. “Like birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it; he will spare and rescue it." (Isaiah 31:5).
This week my brother was struggling to breath, seeking any type of medical help available, and living in the uncertainty of human outcomes. Yet, he was also securely under the shadow of the all-protecting wings of our God who covers his children like a hen covers its chicks. To be in Christ is to have a confident reality of life that unbelievers can never know. My brother knew that no matter the outcome of his struggle, there is an eternal, all-powerful wing covering his every breath. We can be confident about this because this providential care that comes from God is something God desires to give to his children. It’s a yearning desire.
Listen to Jesus say it one more time: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem…How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings…” This sounds like it’s something Jesus truly wants to do.
Well, if you are in Christ, it’s what he is willingly doing for you right now. He’s doing it for my brother right now. Under Christ’s wings…There is no more secure place to be.