AS A HEN DOTH GATHER HER BROOD UNDER HER WINGS

Who would have thought of depicting the Saviour as a hen? But look again. In our passage we see two creatures; a fox and a hen! Pictures of two people, Herod and the Lord Jesus Christ. What a contrast! A fox is a predator, intent on wanton destruction. A hen is a protector, caring for her own at all costs.

And so the Pharisees warn Jesus that unless He moves quickly out of Galilee, He will fall into the hands of Herod. Herod had slaughtered the boys of Bethlehem, beheaded the Baptist of Jordan, and would surely destroy Jesus of Nazareth.

Unmoved by their veiled threat, the Saviour sends a message to the ‘Fox’: tell him that I am performing miracles at present but that soon I will finish my work and it will be in Jerusalem. The ‘Fox’ will have his day. He will have the Saviour sent to him by Pilate, and will, with his men of war, ridicule and mock the Lord Jesus and return Him to Pilate dressed as a king.

The Saviour then addresses the inhabitants of Jerusalem, as representing the nation of Israel. Israel had a track record of per­secuting and killing the prophets sent to them by God. Finally, in His longsuffering and love, God had sent His Son, only for Him to be rejected. Even now they were plotting His death.

Against this dark background the Saviour laments; how often He would have gathered them together, like a hen gather­ing her brood under her wings. How often He had called them to Him, but they would not come! They failed to see their need, refused to repent and acknowledge Him as sovereign, refused the offer of protection under His wings. Soon they would reject Him by demanding His crucifixion at the hands of the Romans.

How safe they could have been! In Christ is salvation, satis­faction and security. Instead, they chose empty religion. God’s house now became ‘your house’. God was no longer in it. But the Saviour anticipates the day when He will return in glory, Israel will repent and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will welcome Him saying, ‘Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord’. How blessed are we who have responded to the Saviour’s call and nestle in the warmth and security that He alone provides.