Confronting Entrenched Evil

KEY VERSE: “The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner.” —Mark 12:10

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Mark 11:8-10, 15-19, 27-33

THE first part of our lesson today involves Jesus in the fulfilling of a prophecy in a most remarkable way. The prophecy is in Zechariah 9:9 and reads as follows: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just and having salvation, lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” As Jesus approached Jerusalem, he instructed the disciples to go ahead, and at a place designated they would find an ass tied, and a colt with her. They were to release the ass and colt and bring them to Jesus. The account in Luke 19:36-40 continues: “And as he went, they spread their clothes in the way. And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and to praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.” Jesus was making the point that this prophecy concerning his messiahship and its fulfillment and announcement to the nation of Israel was by divine decree, and could not be countermanded. If it were denied proclamation by human voice, the stones themselves would cry out.

The account in Luke continues, “When he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee: and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.” (vss. 41-44) Because the Jews did not accept Jesus, this part of the prophecy was literally fulfilled in A.D. 70, when Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jewish people were scattered to the four corners of the earth. Jesus was the chief cornerstone in the Lord’s arrangement for the nation of Israel and eventually for the whole world of mankind, but the Jews did not recognize the day of their visitation and special invitation, and they rejected him.

After this witness concerning his messiahship, Jesus went into the Temple and there he found moneychangers, and dealers selling animals for sacrifice at exorbitant prices, a circumstance that greatly distressed him. “And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.” (John 2:17) For when Jesus surveyed the scene in the Temple, he made a scourge of small cords, and drove them out of the Temple, and the sheep and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables. Then Jesus said to them, “Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.” (John 2:14-16) The sin of the nation of Israel was their obsession with the letter of the Law, and their complete neglect of the spirit of it. The Apostle Paul expresses the thought, “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” (Rom. 10:3) Because of their distorted view of the things of God, they saw nothing wrong with using the Temple as a marketplace. But, as Jesus said, “Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? But ye have made it a den of thieves.”—Mark 11:17

The next morning Jesus and his disciples passed by the fig tree Jesus had cursed on the previous evening, and they were astounded that it had withered away. In this demonstration, the fig tree was used to picture the nation of Israel, and Jesus was showing that because the Jews failed to recognize the day of their visitation, their house was left unto them desolate so far as the exclusive hope for Israel as an elect nation was concerned.—Mark 11:19-21; Matt. 23:37,38

| Home Page | Table of Contents |