When the Word became flesh and was born of the virgin Mary, his presence as a man had the effect of personally confronting his adulterous wife. There was an opportunity to repent but she continued in the same fashion as the generations before her. This is not so far fetched, as Paul teaches that in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9). Philip was told, “When you see me, you see the Father” (John 14:9, cf. John 1:1-14). Jerusalem and her lovers conspired to kill Jesus. When the disciples prayed after Peter and John were released from the Sanhedrin, they quote Psalm 2:1-12. There it speaks of the rulers gathered together against the Lord and His anointed in the city of Jerusalem. Luke identifies them as being “Herod, Pontus Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the peoples of Israel” (Acts 4:27). Peter had said that the men of Israel crucified and killed Jesus by the hands of lawless men (Acts 2:23), her Gentile lovers. His death at their hands terminated His marriage contract (cf. Romans 7:1-6, Col. 2:14) and she refused to acknowledge that she was in any kind of mourning over him (Rev. 18:7). You will, also, recall that the Sanhedrin brought Peter and John before them, being irritated that they were accusing them of killing Jesus (Acts 5:28, cf. Matthew 27:25). They refused to accept any responsibility for his death.
However, they didn’t have the last word. Jesus returned, as he had promised, and executed judgment upon Jerusalem for her sins against God and man. No marriage could be more dead than this one because both the man and the woman died within the space of 40 years. This is an exceptional case because the first one who died is alive forevermore and has the keys of death and hades, while the second one suffers death without any hope of eternal life. God had promised a new and everlasting covenant through the prophet Ezekiel (16:60-62) but even though the covenant was nailed to the cross, the Hebrew writer, when speaking of the old and new covenants writes, “But that which is becoming old and waxeth aged is nigh unto vanishing away” (Hebrews 8:13). So, during that 40 year period, these two covenants co-existed. Similarly, David had been anointed by Samuel long before Saul’s rule had ended. The old had not fully vanished away, but it was near its end. The blood of the lamb had been slain to purchase the new Jerusalem but the day of the Lord’s appearing and destruction of Jerusalem was the one thing that was preventing the marriage of the Lamb to take place. Hebrews 9:8 reads, By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age).
As long as Jerusalem was still standing, and that present age remaining, the new could not be opened. The marriage of the Lamb could only be consummated at the death of Israel, his unfaithful bride. Afterward, a new and glorious relationship is seen in the true people of God, the called out (ekklesia).