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We are
getting close to the end of Yeshua’s earthly life
and ministry. He has one week left to live on
Earth. Other than the week of creation, this may
be the most important week in the history of our
planet. Great things are happening! Prophecies
of the greatest importance are being fulfilled
(Zechariah 9:9, Daniel 9:24-27, Zechariah 12:10,
Isaiah 53, Psalm 16:10)! Things that will impact
not only Israel, but also the nations, God and
man, angels and demons, the Earth and the universe,
this world and the World-To-Come, time and eternity,
life and death, Heaven and Hell, are being affected
by the events of this very special week!
This is
Sunday, the first day of this special week. 11:1
As they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage
and Bethany (Bethany is directly east of Jerusalem,
about two miles from the city, near the Mount
of Olives (near the eastern slope of the mountain),
He sent two of His disciples, and said to them,
"Go into the village opposite you, and immediately
as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there,
on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and
bring it here. If anyone says to you, 'Why are
you doing this?' you say, 'The Lord has need of
it'; and immediately he will send it back here."
Yeshua
Ha-Navee (Jesus the Prophet) knows what is about
to happen. He understands, either through God
the Father revealing it to Him directly, or His
study of the Word of God (specifically the Messianic
prediction found in Zechariah 9:9-10), or a combination
of the two, that the rightful King of Israel,
who is the Savior of the world, will ride into
Jerusalem on a donkey - not on a great white stallion,
but humbly, on a donkey. Nevi Yeshua predicts
that a young donkey, on which not one has yet
sat (as if this donkey had been specially reserved
for the King’s use alone), will be in the village.
It will be tied up. If challenged, the people
of the village will give His disciples the donkey,
if they only tell them that He needs it.
Yeshua
Ha-Navee is a true prophet, in the little things,
as well as the greatest matters, and what He says
always takes place. They went away and found
a colt tied at the door, outside in the street;
and they untied it. Some of the bystanders were
saying to them, "What are you doing, untying the
colt?" The disciples were in fact challenged.
The colt was valuable. A couple of strangers just
don’t walk into a village and take it from the
village. But, they spoke to them just as Yeshua
had told them, and they gave them permission.
Yeshua owned very little, but He was always in
the will of God, and therefore God always supplied
what He needed to do His will. "Prosperity is
having what you need to do the will of God" (Voice
of the Martyrs Magazine, July 2005). They
brought the colt to Yeshua and put their coats
on it - out of honor, showing Him respect.
His disciples believed He was the Messiah, and
the King who was coming into the capital. Better
their clothes should be touching the donkey, rather
than the King! And He sat on it.
It wasn’t
only His disciples who were there and accompanied
Him on the road into the city. And many spread
their coats in the road. And others spread
leafy branches which they had cut from the fields.
Again, the popular, wise, miracle working
Rabbi was accompanied by huge crowds, who were
“rolling out the red carpet” for Him, to honor
the Rabbi they loved, to show Him the respect
that He deserved. They would honor Him as Israel’s
King, even if the leaders did not. And so they
carpeted the road with their clothes and leafy
branches. Why should this great prophet travel
on ordinary dirt or stone? The glorious King should
entire His capital city on a road strewn with
clothes and branches! What a beautiful scene!
A King
should have His heralds, those who go in front
to announce His presence. This is taking place
right before Passover, and they herald Him with
words from Psalm 118, which is a prophetic Psalm
about the Messiah, and His coming, and His death.
Those who went in front and those who followed
were shouting: "Hoshe-ah-na! (“please save
us” or “save now”!) Blessed is He who comes
in the name of the Lord (we welcome You! We
believe that God has sent You to us, to help us,
to rule over us as our King. You should be our
leader - not the Romans, and not our religious
leaders); blessed is the coming kingdom of
our father David (Yeshua, we look forward
with joy to You sitting on the throne of David);
Hoshe-ah-na in the highest!"
This crowd
was filled with messianic expectation, and fervor
for Yeshua, and love for Him. It must have been
tempting for Him to say, “You are right! I am
the King of Israel. I am the Messiah. I will rule
over you as soon as I get to the city. With the
miraculous power of God, I will defeat the Romans,
and clean out all the corrupt leaders of Israel.”
But, He didn’t say that, because He knew that
He needed to meet our greatest need - not for
political freedom (as nice as that is, or for
better religious leaders - as important as they
are), but to be reconciled to the wonderful Creator
God from whom the whole world is estranged. And
only Messiah could do that, and it could only
happen by His death.
Jerusalem
is the center of the opposition, an opposition
that is hostile to the young Rabbi, and would
like to see Him dead. Will the Messiah enter the
city? Will He go into seclusion, and only come
out only for Passover, which starts in a few more
days? Will He stir up the city, and win the population
to His side and take control of the city?
Yeshua
entered Jerusalem and came into the temple
- boldly and courageously going into the very
center of the city, the stronghold of the religious
and political leaders. He is fearless. He will
not be intimidated by the fear of man. He will
do what God wills for Him (and so should we!);
and after looking around at everything (taking
a careful look, and observing the situation there),
He left for Bethany (back east, over the Mount
of Olives) with the twelve, since it was already
late (and it was safer and smarter to sleep
outside the city in Bethany, a couple of miles
away).
On
the next day (Monday), when they had left
Bethany, He became hungry. Seeing at a distance
a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if perhaps
He would find anything on it; and when He came
to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was
not the season for figs. He said to it, "May no
one ever eat fruit from you again!" And His disciples
were listening - as the Son of God cursed
this fruitless tree. The One through whom God
created the universe, and everything in it, wanted
fruit. But there was no fruit. And, so He cursed
this tree - as He had every right to do. And,
there is more to this than just a curse against
one tree. It is a prophetic sign of what awaits
any individual or nation that does not do what
God intends.
Then
they came to Jerusalem. Yeshua previously
went to the temple. Would He dare return? The
opposition was surely ready for Him. But the temple
is so important. Israel is the center of the world.
Jerusalem is the center of Israel. The temple
is the center of Jerusalem. It is the most important
place on Earth - where God specially manifested
His presence on Earth, where atonement that reconciled
us to God took place. The temple must be treated
with the greatest respect. It must be clean and
holy to function in the way it was designed to.
But, it wasn’t, and Yeshua knew it. It had been
turned from the most spiritual place, into a market
place for making money by the greedy and unscrupulous
- all supervised by corrupt and powerful religious
leaders. It would take tremendous courage to do
anything about this situation, and take on the
leadership in the center of their power. Most
people would not dare intervene. But, Yeshua did
not turn a blind eye to this situation, or allow
the fear of man to overcome His zeal for the Lord
and God’s holy house. He boldly and courageously
took immediate action, and went to the temple!
And
He entered the temple and began to drive out those
who were buying and selling in the temple, and
overturned the tables of the money changers and
the seats of those who were selling doves; and
He would not permit anyone to carry merchandise
through the temple. And He began to teach and
say to them, "Is it not written, 'My house shall
be called a house of prayer for all the nations'?
But you have made it a robbers' den" - quoting
from the prophets Isaiah (56:7) and Jeremiah (7:11).
The temple is designed to be a very special place,
where human beings can get closer to God, and
learn about Him and His ways, and talk to Him
and hear from Him. This special place is not just
for Israel, even though it is centered in Israel,
but it is meant to include all the nations of
the world. But, because of the sin of the Jewish
people, it stopped functioning the way it should.
It lost its holy purpose. Like it was in the time
of Jeremiah, right before the temple was destroyed
the first time, there was corruption in the nation,
and in the religious leaders, and in the temple.
This generation, Yeshua says, is doing the same
thing as Jeremiah’s generation - when the temple
was destroyed.
This bold
and embarrassing proclamation of truth, and this
interference in their business affairs, and this
challenge to their authority, infuriated the religious
leaders. The chief priests and the scribes
(the Torah-teachers, the religious experts)
heard this, and began seeking how to destroy
Him; for they were afraid of Him, for the whole
crowd was astonished at His teaching. The
leaders redouble their efforts to kill this One
they thought so evil. But, they dare not seize
and kill Him then - He was too popular, and too
loved by the majority of the people, and they
might interfere. The religious leaders must find
another way to kill Yeshua - when the people aren’t
around to protect Him.
When
evening came, they would go out of the city. As
they were passing by in the morning (Tuesday),
they saw the fig tree withered from the roots
up. It took only one day for the curse to
completely destroy the tree. Yeshua is a true
prophet. God hears the words of Yeshua - in every
situation, and when He blesses, it is blessed,
and, when He curses, it is cursed. Being reminded,
Peter said to Him, "Rabbi, look, the fig tree
which You cursed has withered." Peter is impressed
with this miraculous response to Yeshua’s curse.
The tree withered so fast! Judgment came so surely,
and so quickly - as it will to the nation of Israel
(see also Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28).
This tree
is a sign of God’s relationship to Israel. The
Lord created our nation to accomplish very special
purposes. He had the right to expect us to produce
good results -faithfulness toward Him, love for
our Creator, zeal for our gracious Redeemer, holiness
and love for the truth. But, He found very little
fruit among us at the most crucial time. What
good are religious leaders that lead us in the
wrong way, a holy nation that isn’t holy, a nation
that must know God, and be in a right relationship
with God, but isn’t, a people that must direct
the other nations to God, but can’t, a temple
that isn’t clean?
That withered
tree was a sign of the nation of Israel, and to
the nation of Israel. In the days to come, whenever
anyone saw that tree, the story could be told
that right before He died, the prophet Yeshua
cursed it, and He was a true prophet, and any
individual and the nation who persisted in rejecting
Him would be cursed. And, that is exactly what
happened. Within one generation, God’s judgement
fell on the nation, because the majority of the
nation followed the majority of the religious
leaders, and rejected the Messiah and the Prince
of Life. And when anyone rejects the only Savior,
and the Author of Life, only judgment remains.
There
is another lesson to be learned from the cursing
of the fig tree as well - a lesson on faith. And
Yeshua answered saying to them, "Have faith in
God. God responded to Yeshua’s curse because
Yeshua had genuine faith in God - the kind of
faith that we need to have. Our wonderful Messiah
really He knew God, and heard from God, and knew
that God wanted Him to curse that tree as a prophetic
announcement to the nation of Israel that judgment
was surely coming for the majority’s rejection.
Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain,
'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does
not doubt in his heart, but believes that what
he says is going to happen (because first
He knows that God wants that mountain moved. He
does not work himself up into a state of faith.
He is close to God, filled with the Spirit, hears
God speak that God wants that mountain moved,
and then speaks the words that he has already
heard God say. Then he waits expectantly on God
for the promised answer - it will be granted
him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which
you pray and ask, believe that you have received
them, and they will be granted you. But make
sure that you pray and ask correctly, according
to the will of God, praying as Yeshua would pray,
for the things He would pray for, prayers carried
along by the Holy Spirit, knowing that it is something
that God wants you to pray for!
And, there
is something else that we must do if we are going
to be able to pray so that God will hear and answer,
so that we are in a right relationship with God,
and the channels are clear, nothing impedes our
prayers. We must forgive. "Whenever you stand
praying, forgive, if you have anything against
anyone, so that your Father who is in Heaven will
also forgive you your transgressions. But if you
do not forgive, neither will your Father who is
in Heaven forgive your transgressions." And
He certainly will not be inclined to answer your
prayers if you have hatred, bitterness and unforgiveness
toward others.
Don’t
be like those religious leaders, so knowledgeable
about God and the Torah, and yet so utterly opposed
to the will of God, and the Savior, bringing down
a curse upon themselves and the majority of the
nation of Israel, which we have persisted in for
almost 2,000 years. Have genuine faith! Learn
how to really hear the voice of God, and trust
the Messiah!
Don’t
be like that fig tree! Produce the kind of results
that God is looking for! Find God’s will, find
out His plans for you! Love Him, serve Him, make
sure your life is a success in His sight. Get
your priorities in order. Produce good results!
Do what the Lord really wants you to do! Love
Him, serve Him, pray, read the Scriptures on your
own, serve at your congregation, do evangelism,
pitch in, help out.
Don’t
be like that mercantile temple! God’s man, God’s
woman, God’s teen, must be morally and spiritually
pure. You are a temple of the Living God. He wants
to live in you, and bring life and atonement and
truth to others. Put God, and drawing near to
God, and learning about God, and serving God first
- not business, and certainly not money first!
Be a temple that is clean and dedicated to God!
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