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Audio
Tablet Thirty-One
Chapter 21
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"And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were
come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent
Esa
two disciples,"
"Saying unto them, Go into the village over against
you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her:
loose them, and bring them unto me."
"And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say,
The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them."
"All this was done, that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by the prophet, saying,"
"Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King
cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal
of an ass."
"And the disciples went, and did as
Esa commanded them,"
"And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them
their clothes, and they set him thereon."
"And a very great multitude spread their garments
in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed
them in the way." (Matthew 21:1-8)
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<1>Christ
prepared himself to enter Jerusalem as the King of the
Jews, but in a humbling
and humiliating manner. That was done to show that greatness is not
because of the wealth of the person, but how much
Christ had overcome the lower nature.
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"And the multitudes that went before, and that
followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he
that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest."
(Matthew 21:9)
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<2>People who knew him praised him on his way
to Jerusalem as their king. They knew he had come in the name of the
Lord ( / ).
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"And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the
city was moved, saying, Who is this?" (Matthew 21:10)
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<3>Because of the multitudes, the attention
of most of the city was directed to his coming to the city.
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"And the multitude said, This is
Esa the prophet of Nazareth
of Galilee." (Matthew 21:11)
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<4>Still very few truly knew him.
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"And Esa
went into the
temple of
God, and cast out all them
that sold and bought in the
temple, and overthrew
the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold
doves."
"And said unto them, It is written, My house
shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of
thieves." (Matthew 21:12-13)
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<5>Esa
started to cleanse and purify the
temple, and he threw out all the business activities from the
temple. He reminded them
that the temple is a
place of worship,
meditation, and a
Soul-to-Soul
relationship with the Lord, not a place of noise and business
activities.
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"And the blind and the lame came to him in the
temple; and he healed
them."
"And when the chief priests and scribes saw the
wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the
temple, and saying,
Hosanna to the son of David; they were sore displeased,"
"And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say?
And
Esa saith unto them, Yea;
have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou
hast perfected praise?"
"And he left them, and went out of the city into
Bethany; and he lodged there." (Matthew 21:14-17) |
<6>With power and truth, he broke all the
superstitions and
concepts that the
elders had created to bind their subjects. <7>He also showed
his spiritual powers by healing people. But the only thing the
priests and scribes could do was to try to mock him by pointing out
that the little children praised him, so with this break him. He
even won this by reminding them that <8>the true praise comes
from the pure in heart, "the babes and sucklings."
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"Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered."
"And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came
to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it,
Let no fruit grow on thee hence forward for ever. And presently the
fig tree withered away." (Matthew 21:18-19)
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<9>It was a tree with no fruit but only
leaves, like those with much talk (leaves) but no actions (fruit).
Such a person will give no fruit and will be withered away with no
positive effect in his life.
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"And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is
the fig tree withered away!"
"Esa
answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have
faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the
fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou
removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done."
"And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in
prayer, believing, ye shall receive." (Matthew 21:20-22)
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<10>That is why the slightest doubt will put
you millions of miles away from the Lord, and he who has no doubt is
with Him.
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"And when he was come into the
temple, the chief
priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was
teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and
who gave thee this authority?" (Matthew 21:23)
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<11>The elders saw his authority, and they
marvelled at who gave him this power and authority. That was because
whatever he did was true, so affected everyone. <12>Also they
wanted to point out that he had no authority to do these things and
it was they who could make laws around the
temple.
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"And Esa
answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if
ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do
these things."
"The
baptism of John, whence
was it? from heaven, or
of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say,
From
heaven; he will say unto
us, Why did ye not then believe him?"
"But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people;
for all hold John as a prophet."
"And they answered
Esa, and said, We cannot
tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I
do these things." (Matthew 21:24-27) |
<13>With this he did not answer them directly
and also showed their hypocrisy that they were afraid of men but not
of
God. <14>He was not
afraid of men and had the power of
God with him so his authority was from
heaven.
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"But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the
first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard."
"He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he
repented, and went."
"And he came to the second, and said likewise. And
he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not."
"Whether of them twain did the will of his
father? They say unto him, The first.
Esa saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans
and the harlots go into the kingdom of
God before you."
"For John came unto you in the way of
righteousness, and ye believed him not; but the publicans and the
harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not
afterward, that ye might believe him." (Matthew 21:28-32)
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<15>The priests and elders were supposed to
be the good children of God
and they said they obeyed Him, but when His Prophet came unto them
they said, "No," and believed not. But publicans were supposed to be
the ones who did not walk in the ways of the Lord and said "No," to
Him. However, when his
Prophets
came they accepted them and did His Will.
<16>The priests and elders of any old
religions create so many
concepts and attachments to their ways that they lose their
common sense and cannot give up their
false egos. They do
not accept a humble Prophet and his truth. But those who are humble
and have nothing to hang onto have no big
false egos to prevent
them from accepting the truth.
<17>Also
Christ
established this truth in these verses that the authority of John
the Baptist had come from
heaven but they (the priests) did not accept it. So his
authority also came from the same Source, but still would be
rejected by them.
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"Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which
planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a
winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen,
and went into a far country:"
"And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent
his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits
of it."
"And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat
one, and killed another, and stoned another."
"Again, he sent other servants more than the first:
and they did unto them likewise."
"But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying,
They will reverence my son."
"But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said
among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let
us seize on his inheritance."
"And they caught him, and cast him out of the
vineyard, and slew him."
"When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh,
what will he do unto those husbandmen?"
"They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those
wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen,
which shall render him the fruits in their seasons."
"Esa
saith unto them, Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone
which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the
corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?"
"Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of
God shall be taken from
you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof."
"And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be
broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to
powder." (Matthew 21:33-44)
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<18>This entire parable is directed toward
the priests, elders, and all those who were supposedly chosen to
take care of
God's Kingdom. However,
they beat and killed his Messengers (servants) and rejected His
Kingship over themselves, "but they [Children
of Israel] have rejected me [God],
that I should not reign over them" (1Samuel 8:7). <19>Now he
had sent His First Begotten Son and they would kill him as
Christ that they might not hear the truth. With doing this
God would take the Kingdom from them and give it to another
nation, "The kingdom of
God shall be taken from
you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof."
<20>This end of the spiritual kingly
domination and lawgiving (scepter)
from the tribe of Judah by the coming of the
Messiah (Shiloh) was
prophesied by Jacob at the last moment of his death that, "The
scepter
shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet,
until
Shiloh come" (Gen.
49:10).
Shiloh or
Messiah (Esa)
came and with this parable finished the prophecy. <21>That is
why after
Christ, no other great
Prophet came from the
Children of
Israel, but from another nation, the Arabs, who also are the
Children of
Abram
(Abraham).
God had promised
Abram that they also
would have a great Prophet of their own; read
Children of Abram (Abraham), All Prophecies Are Fulfilled.
<22>Therefore we can say that there were
three parts in
Esa's mission to be
fulfilled: first to teach and symbolically show (to be crucified and
rise again) how to overcome the lower nature by crucifying it (false
ego), thus to be
born again
(rise to the
higher self);
<23>secondly, he came for the lost sheep of the
House of Israel
who were called "people" in Jacob's prophecy which he should have
gathered, "...until Shiloh
come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be" (Gen.
49:10), which he fulfilled (read
Children of Abram
(Abraham), All Prophecies Are Fulfilled); <24>and
thirdly, as described in the parables above, to finish and fulfill
the prophecy of Jacob that
the scepter and
lawgiving would be finished from the tribe of Judah, so consequently
from the
Children of
Israel, and would be given to another nation.
<25>Therefore he fulfilled all parts of his
mission. Again we can surely realize that
God never fails to fulfill His promises and the prophecies which
are given through His servants. They might take longer than the
human expects but they will come true eventually.
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"And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables,
they perceived that he spake of them."
"But when they sought to lay hands on him, they
feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet." (Matthew
21:45-46) |
<26>He gave his message to them and was
relieved from his duty to let them know what the message of the Lord
was for them, so it will be done -- they could accept it or reject
it, it was up to them now.
<27>That is the duty of a Messenger -- to
give the message to those he had been chosen to take it to. He is
not responsible for the consequence. It is up to
God.
<28>In truth his mission as Messenger was
finished here. But he should have continued until he was crucified
on the cross. So he stayed and taught further, and he pressed the
elders until they would do His Will. <29>For this reason the
next two chapters are described separately in an appendix. They are
his final attacks on the corrupt elders and some points which should
have been described.
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