Chapter 9 - Thursday, 3/23/89
This morning
started out with a time of conversational prayer in Shepherd’s Field, outside
of Bethlehem. This is the area where the
lowly shepherds watched their flocks.
How touching that God chose to reveal the birth of His Son through
angels to the humblest class of society.
Today the Church of the Nativity is built over the place where Jesus was
born. Not too far from there is the
Herodian, a huge mountain that King Herod had constructed with palace like
living at the top. It was to be his
tombstone, for he wanted a shrine built for everyone all around to see and
remember him by.
King Herod
had wealth beyond imagination....Jesus was born in poverty. Herod ordered men to serve him....Jesus came
to serve men. Herod was cruel, killed
maliciously, was hated by everyone, and people rejoiced when he died. His season of reign was finally over. Jesus came in love, came to die for us, and
now He lives forever and will one day reign as King throughout eternity. He who is last shall be first...he who is
least shall be greatest. I can truly
worship such a God as that!
We journeyed
to Bethany, a two mile distance from Jerusalem, located at the foot of the Mount
of Olives. We went there to walk the
walk that Jesus took on Palm Sunday.
First we stopped at the tomb of Lazarus, where Jesus had wept over the
death of His friend...or did He weep over the lack of faith and understanding
of those He had spent so much time with?
Does it break His heart today when we show that same lack of faith in
Him?
We continued
our walk up the hill to Bethpage where Jesus cursed the barren fig tree that
represented the Saduccees. Outwardly
they were spiritual, but they bore no fruit.
This disciples were not to worry about them, for the Saduccees would
perish even as the fig tree did. It was
at Bethpage that Jesus mounted a donkey to ride into Jerusalem in fulfillment
of the prophecy of Zechariah (9:9)...”Rejoice
greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout,
Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king
comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on
a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
It was also
on the Mount of Olives that Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem. I believe He looked down through the ages and
saw all that God’s chosen people, the Jews, and holy city of Jerusalem would go
through. It was knowing they could have
chosen Him and avoided their destruction that broke His heart. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the
prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your
children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were
not willing. Look, your house is left to
you desolate. For I tell you, you will
not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord.’” In their rejection of Him
they marched on toward the Holocaust.
The Mount of
Olives represented other events in the life of Jesus also. It was here that He gave His Olivet
discourse. Here on this Mount he prayed
in the Garden of Gethsemane, surrendering Himself to His Father’s will. And it was on the Mount of Olives that He
ascended into heaven. Jesus had spent
much time in this area, and as we sat in the church at the Garden of Gethsemane
and sang “Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine”, tears flooded my eyes. I thought of Jesus on that day of His trial,
with the crowd jeering at Him, and all of the humiliation He went through. In quiet submission He faced His death to give
me blessed assurance.
Thursday
night we were served a Passover Supper in a very natural setting with low
tables and oil lamps as our source of light.
We were served unleavened bread, wine (grape juice), stew (beef in place
of lamb), and bitter herbs (onions, radishes, peppers, garlic). This meal was symbolic of the last of the
plagues in Egypt when the death angel passed over those homes with blood on
their door posts. They were saved from
the sorrow of their first born being killed, and were then let go from
Egypt...freed from bondage. In like
manner we are freed from bondage to sin by the blood of the Lamb. Thank you, Jesus.
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