“Bethphage; in Aramaic “place of young figs”): Near the Mount of Olives and to the road from Jerusalem to Jericho; mentioned together with Bethany – source
The road to and from Jerusalem goes something like this:
It descends east from the Temple, crosses the Kidron valley, past the Mount of Olives & Gethsemane [five furlongs], continues east through Bethphage [2000 cubits/1000 paces] to Bethany [a Sabbath Day's journey from Jerusalem].
I addressed the significant imagery of this journey of Jesus in an earlier SERIES
A.D. 30 - 2024 C.E. - The Controversial Place of God
RETURN to JERUSALEM along the ancient hillside roads from Bethany on this day prior to the Passover Sacrifice with JESUS ‘of Nazareth’ observing several controversies.
Controversies BEFORE CHRIST!
Opposition to the Lord God goes back BEFORE DAVID – yes, even before Moses and Abraham.
AND opposition to the One Living God of Scripture continues even NOW in these last days of 2024 of the COMMON ERA!
JERUSALEM, THE LAW & GOD’S BREATHED-OUT WORD all remain at the center of every opposition of twisted Truth, false prophets and stiff-necked resistance to God’s grace.
No Son of Man would ever be so controversial to a sinful world than Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior!
Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry.
And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it,
“Let no fruit grow on you ever again.”
Is this curse on Jerusalem for 'Good' Friday's Cross?
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or perhaps Anno Domini 70 when Rome will destroy it?
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or even some last day soon in the Common Era of 2024?
Every Jew coming to the festival knew all-to-well of our obligation to buy a kind of kosher indulgence.
We tried to follow this KING
ALL of Jerusalem was abuzz with this Jesus, who had ridden into our captive city like a KING! And this Son of Man (as he called himself) began the day overturning tables of moneychangers and chasing merchants and animals out of the Temple courts!
Of course the Temple police appeared (though unprepared for such a disturbance as this), then pharisees and priests and scribes, even the chief priests.
In fact — they WITNESSED the marvelous miracles, signs of JESUS’s power from God!
.. and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
Gospel of Matthew 21:15b New King James Version – witness of Jesus in the Temple
Rather than praising GOD as even the children were now doing, THEY BECAME INDIGNANT.
One of them said to him (I think it was a chief priest):
“Do You hear what these are saying?”
YES, this Jesus answered him AND then quoted a familiar Psalm.
“Yes, Have you never read,
‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?”
Gospel of Matthew 25:16 NKJV – Jesus’ response to children singing about Him
By now a few more Legions became clearly visible in the distance, yet the Temple police seemed to be nowhere in sight.
In general the crowds were JOYFUL and above all praising the healings which Jesus had been doing for some who came to Him.
This irked the officials of the Sanhedrin, although they now turned away from making any trouble today for this Son of Man and Son of David, who some zealots in the multitudes were urging to be KING.
This Jesus slipped out through the crowds quickly and headed toward a gate leading to the road to Bethany.
an earlier Passover
I'm trying to recall if it was last year [A.D. 29] or the year before that I had heard from someone that this was not unusual for this humble Nazarian Rabbi.
Jesus had shown signs to more than five thousand men near Nazareth.
Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said,
“This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.
Now I have to tell you, God’s Temple, with its several strict regulations of the Sanhedrin has always been a lucrative place for a Jew to do business.
The Pesach festival week this year had not seemed to be much different than any the last five decades since Herod the Great began construction of the still not-quite-finished Temple grounds for God’s ordinary people.
Trouble is that more and more Zealots have more openly attacked our occupiers’ Legions even though ROME has included Judea in its ‘peace‘ for a hundred years or so.
Every Jew coming to the festival knew all-to-well of their obligation to buy a kind of kosher indulgence.
This KING Jesus who called himself Son of Man (rather than son of David)would have none of it.
There were already dozens of these authorized vendors at work with hundreds of early bird customers like us.
When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!”
As a good Jew I thought I knew these sayings this new Prophet Jesus quoted. One is about the gentiles — and believe me they were all there too.
Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices Will be accepted on My altar; For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
You know what else I remember from this Prophet from seven centuries ago concerning Israel’s leaders?
His watchmen are blind..
And they are shepherds Who cannot understand; They all look to their own way, Every one for his own gain, From his own territory.
Isaiah 56:11b NKJV
Isaiah calls them ‘greedy dogs’ who are never satisfied.
It seems fit that this Man would clear the Temple of these dogs indulging our Council of leaders comfortably walled-up away from God’s place of worship.
THIS JESUS even knew that our captive weeping Prophet had called it “a den of thieves!”
We tried to follow this KING
This Jesus had our attention. He was right in everything he said and did.
But because of the crowds WE could only get glances of this King as He moved about the Temple courts.
WE kept hearing stories though — confirmation of things Jesus did that no other man or prophet could do.
Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.
