What does the time and day of visitation mean?
“and will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.” Luke 19:44
The Jewish leadership refused to recognize Jesus as their Messiah during the “time” he visited them on earth. The word “time” in Luke 19:44 (Strong’s #2540) means “occasion, proper time or due season”.
In one sense, the “time” refers to the whole forty years beginning with Jesus’ ministry until the destruction of the Temple and the dispersion of the Jewish nation. The end of the forty-year period marked the end of Israel’s favor with God. In a more immediate sense, the time refers directly to Jesus’ three and a half year ministry.
Although many Jews were in expectation of the Messiah, they thought only of the prophecies pertaining to Messiah’s greatness and overlooked others that pointed to a work of suffering and death. They expected Messiah to redeem Israel from Roman rule. They were not in the proper heart condition to understand or appreciate that the Messiah came to redeem the entire human race from the curse of death due to sin and to call out a special people (the faithful Jews) to a life of sacrifice in order to reign with Him in heaven. If, during the three and a half years of Jesus’ ministry, the Jews had been in a condition to receive Him, the visitation would have been a blessing, but, instead, it became a visitation of ultimate wrath.
The opportunity to reign with our Lord in heaven was then opened to Christian Jews and Gentiles.
“Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” Romans 8:17
Therefore, the present time is the visitation for the faithful true Christian who selflessly is following in the Master’s footsteps.
What is the “day of visitation” and how is this different?
“Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may on account of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.” 1 Peter 2:12
The word “day” in the above verse is Strong’s #2250 and figuratively means a period of time, years, or judgment. “The day of visitation” or, “of their visitation” refers to a future time (the Day of Judgment) when the world will be favored with the knowledge of the Lord and have an opportunity to live righteously and obtain life everlasting on earth. The world will not have the same opportunity as faithful Christians have now or, as the Jewish nation had and forfeited, of reigning with Jesus in heaven.
We hope we have explained the meanings of the three visitations; first to the Jews when Jesus walked the earth, second to Christ’s followers now, and lastly to the world during the Millennial Age.
To learn more about God’s plan for mankind listen to, “Did Jesus REALLY Die for Everyone?”
