ALIVE: Chapter 151, His Presence Pays Respect to the Prophets
/“Let’s move on. Give thanks to God and go.” Jesus turned to John and His men who gave the nod to Manasseh and Ari to get the people in formation to start walking again. They only had a half a day to go, but Jesus had plans to first take them to the tomb of the prophets to pay their respects. Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi were waiting for Him.
Hours later Manasseh shouted, “Look! I think that’s the holy city! I see it! I see it!” Manasseh had a reason to be so excited since this was the first time he had been to Jerusalem. It was a dream come true. He knew so much about the City and its walls that in his dreams he imagined he was there walking in the footsteps of King David, Solomon and the prophets, Habakuk and all the others. What his ancestors went through! It was overwhelming. What a place of refuge for his people, like David’s gift to Father Abraham, a holy city in his Promised Land.
“In front of my very eyes! Glory to God! Thank you for this moment!” Manasseh was choked up with teary joy.
Jesus said, “Manasseh, peace, there is time to enter Jerusalem. First we go to the Tomb of the Prophets near Mt Olive. Follow Me.”
Jesus, at the head of His very large entourage was the first to spot His destination. As He approached the holy tomb there was a quake in Hades. Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi whose dry bones had been buried for over five centuries sensed the footsteps of the Lord on the earth near them. Yet, there was nothing they could do to greet and hail Him. They lay there with hearts ablaze as Jesus approached followed by a crowd.
Aware in His spirit of their delight, Jesus too was pleased to bring these people to this holy ground, so long abandoned, to visit and to honor these men of vision, these servants of the Lord who when they walked on this earth, like holy antennae received the prophecies of God to give His people hope and guidance. Jesus came to connect those visions with their fulfillment, in their sight, and in the sight of the people and in the sight of His Father.
To the prophets the sound of the approaching crowd was like that of an army holding candles instead of swords. This place so deserted, yet so near the hubbub of the big city suddenly was the scene of tremendous activity, spiritual and material.
Jesus was the first to reverently approach the mouth of the tomb. The chattering of the crowd gradually lessened as if a volume knob turned down and then to the off position. The golden goblet of silence gradually filled with thoughts and prayers. The air was dense with angels who wanted to be present at the reunion of the God-man with the prophets who had heard His Holy Spirit in their breathing days.
While you and I live here and now. We see the birds migrating south in a massive array with stragglers, and acrobats; we eat our meals when hungry, wait for the bell. While the here and now, the physical world, contains at its core the virtue of solidity and trust, there are men and women with foresight. Their antennae are alert to a wavelength that comes from the future where the timeless God lives. “I knew you were coming!” “I was just thinking about you.” “Funny to run into you here.” Most people get a glimpse of that, while the select few, the qualified, see the future as clearly as we see the room around us. They know everything about you from the first meeting, “How is your wife Alexandra since the operation?” You reply, “How do you know me; I’ve never even met you before, and I don’t know anyone who has?”
Haggai was a visionary who foresaw the second temple and then helped make it happen. In 538 BC, newly crowned King Cyrus had been inspired to publish a decree allowing the captive Jews to return to Palestine, encouraging them to rebuild their temple at Jerusalem. Yet, nothing happened for another two decades, while God was giving the Jews time to consider this second Exodus from captivity.
During the reign of the next king, Darius, in his second year, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month to be specific, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Haggai who said to Zerubbabel, who was then the governor of Judah, and Joshua, the son of the high priest, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house. But then the word of the Lord came to me saying: “Is it time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while My house lies in ruins? Consider how you have fared. You have sown so much, and harvested too little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink but you never have your fill; you clothe yourself, but no one is warm; and you earn wages to put them into a bag with holes. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored, because My house lies in ruins, while all of you hurry off to your own houses.”
Indeed, Solomon’s temple gradually fell into ruins during the captivity of the Jews in Babylon. God observe the suffering of His people in exile that brought many of their children’s children to their knees in sorrow and hope. He was ready to return and be worshiped, but first they had to prepare His temple for Him, and in doing so prepare the hearts of the people who built it and those who observed the building of it.
God told Haggai and Haggai told the people, “My Spirit abides among you, do not fear, Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all the nations, so that the treasures of the nations shall come, and I will fill this house with splendor. The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine. The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, and in this place I will give prosperity.”
If a spirit can smile, Haggai did at the moment of seeing Jesus approach, being so filled with joy. They worked hard to build the Temple and so many people doubted that it could happen while others didn’t see the point, however true believers brought all they had for the project and were honored to be able to do so. It was a marvelous accomplishment and a beautiful edifice, some saying that it was more beautiful and thus a more fitting house for God than was Solomon’s temple.
Jesus prayed aloud, speaking for the people, “Father, thank you for your servant Haggai, for his love and courage. Thank you for giving him the message to build Your home.”
Just as Jesus finished these words, a young man named Lucas approached Him and loudly quoted from the book of Zechariah that he had, by coincidence, just memorized a few weeks before, saying, “Sing and rejoice O daughter of Zion! For lo, I will come and dwell in your midst, says the Lord. Many nations shall join themselves to the Lord on that day, and shall be my people ; and I will dwell in your midst. And you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. The Lord will inherit Judah as His portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem. Be silent all people, before the Lord; for He has roused Himself from His Holy dwelling.” …that was all Luke could remember, but then an older man, Saul, stepped forward.
He bellowed for the whole crowd to hear, “…for on the stone that I have set before you Joshua, on a single stone with seven facets, I will engrave it’s inscription, says the Lord, and I will remove the guilt of this land in a single day.”
Manessah heard that and wondered how the Lord could possibly remove all guilt, everyone’s guilt in a single day! He didn’t even hear what followed. ‘What could God do for such an astounding thing to happen; remove all guilt in a single day?’
Although it wasn’t the full scripture in order, Saul went on to recite,
“I see a lamp stand of gold, with a bowl on top of it . And by it are two olive trees, one on the right and the other on the left.” I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my Lord? … This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain; and he shall bring out the top stone amid shouts of “Grace, grace to it! ”
Lucas remembered and interjected, “What are these two branches of the olive trees, which pour out oil through two golden pipes?”
Saul bellowed the reply, “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth. Thus says the Lord: in those days ten men from nations of every language shall take hold of a Jew, grasping his garment and saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”
The people looked at each other, all being Jews to the last woman, and thought how odd that sentence was. Ariella knew that they were to be set apart from the nations. Who would want to join them? The pagans who lived among them, merely tolerated them. Perhaps it meant the few who had joined through the years consenting to be circumsized. How could everyone want to become Jews? Why would they want such an invasion of pagans? Never! God forbid!
Jesus was truly enjoying hearing these men recite Zechariah. He just sat back and listened, sometimes closing His eye for a while to take in the beautiful sound of their recitations. Zechariah too was listening all the way from Hades. It amazed him how his words lingered through the centuries. They had been memorized for decades until they could be written, and even then didn’t lose a syllable. Zechariah looked over at Haggai and Malachi and smiled a big proud spirit-smile (which is a transmitted feeling of joy.)
A moment of silence was broken by Ariella with her magnificent soprano tone who chanted the words, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your King comes to you; triumphant and victorious is He, humble and riding on a donkey.
He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and He shall command peace to the nations; His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.”
Listening to the woman chanting reminded Jesus of His mother which made Him look forward to seeing her. Possibly He would spend a night or two in her home, in His grandmother Anna’s, home.
The image of a king riding on a donkey was another very strange and unimaginable image, that most in the crowd could not grasp. ‘Why would a king ride a donkey, and how could that be triumphant!?’ All to whom the image of a king on a donkey caught, allowed the puzzling question to pass on the wings of the fleeting moment. But not Jesus, He listened attentively to that line, which He had read many times, and bowed His head in humility. He knew that someday all mankind would understand. To hear this with the people and He present, 500 hundred years after the image was given to Zechariah and only a year before the prophecy becomes actual, made the surrounding angels gasp at the magnificence of the moment.
Ari looked around at the crowd listening to these recitations and remembered the passage, “…the people wander like sheep, they suffer for lack of a shepherd.” And yet not these people, not this crowd. It was as if Jesus was their shepherd and all they wanted to do was to follow Him. Ari told himself that he would follow Jesus to the ends of the earth.
Again elderly Saul followed Ariella with his base voice, as if they had rehearsed this outpouring of prophecy, reciting more words of Zechariah, “Out of Judah shall come the cornerstone, out of them, the tent peg, out of them the battle bow, out of them every commander. I took my staff [named] Favor and broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples.”
Hearing that, nearly every man, woman and youth in the group gasped. Saul paused his recitation suddenly feeling embarrassed by his own words. Even though he spent hours in memorizing the passage, he didn’t consider the shock of those words. ‘Annulling the covenant’ Eyes turned to Jesus to see His reaction. Jesus was in deep prayer and contemplation, eyes closed. Rather than fretting as the people were, He was communicating with God. He knew that the people could not understand the meaning, the time had not yet come to understand them. Too much had to happen first.
Ariella too was discomforted by the thought of the covenant being broken. Could this explain why Israel suffered so, with Roman rule?
Saul continued, he had no choice and perhaps it was better not to think too much about the meaning of the words he was reciting, how could they really know what God meant by them, or cynically, if they were true. Saul bellowed louder and faster to say,“So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep merchants, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord. I then said to them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” So they weighed out my wages thirty shekels of silver and threw them into the treasury in the house of the Lord. Then I broke my second staff [named] Unity, annulling the family ties between Judah and Israel.”
Just then an unusual cold breeze wafted through the crowd. A gray cloud darkened the sky. A cloud?
Saul hesitated, he was too distracted to remember the next line. Lucas picked it up. “And I will pour out a spirit of compassion and supplication on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that when they look on the one whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a first born.” The Passover, a moment so powerful in the history of mankind that the echo of the wailing mothers and the wailing king could still be heard by the heart.
“Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd against the man who is My associate.” says the Lord. Strike the shepherd, that the sheep may be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones. In the whole world, says the lord. Two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive. And I will put this third in the fire, refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, “These are my people” and they will say, “The Lord is our God.”
At those words Jesus saw into a future of martyrs for their faith in Him, tortured, skins torn from bones, being burned in fire, tongues cut out, eyes gouged, beheaded martyrs. He could hear their prayers, their shouts and He could feel their courage and faith. This bravery gave Him strength for what He knew He too would have to endure. Oh stubborn Truth, Oh magnificent Love.
Lucas looked around at the crowd who were all fixed on the words of Zechariah. They looked at Jesus face covered with tears. He felt their gaze and looked up and around. It hit them how the bones of Zechariah, the man who first gave sound to this message from God, the bones of that prophet actually lay before them!
Awake to what was happening, and alert to the presence of the messiah at his tomb, Zechariah sensed the vibrations, the spiritual electricity of this scene. He knew what Jesus knew about the meaning of the words and about time, having spent the last five hundred years waiting, and it wouldn’t be much longer until the world would know the full meaning of the prophecy. How these prophecies managed to survive the centuries in darkness and ignorance, with all that was going on in the world, earthquakes, wars and peace, poverty and wealth, that was the real evidence of divinity. Zechariah rested in peace and unspeakable satisfaction.
Jesus looked at Saul and Lucas and said, “Thank you brothers. That was well done.” Then He looked around and shouted, “Does anyone know what Malachi said?”
A twelve year old boy who had been studying hard for his bar mitzvah came forward and said proudly, “I can!”
Jesus replied, “Let’s hear it then.”
The boy cleared his throat, and silently prepared, before saying in his sweet youthful tone, “See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before Me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple. The messenger of the covenant in who, you take delight —indeed He is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of His coming, and who can stand when He appears. …He will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness.”
The boy mistakenly skipped several lines, but no one noticed and Jesus didn’t mind. He went on, “Return to Me and I will return to you…then those who revered the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord took note and listened, and a book of remembrance was written before Him of those who revered the Lord and thought on His name. They shall be Mine, says the Lord of hosts, My special possession on the day when I act, and I will spare as a parent spares the children who serve them. Then once more you shall see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God, and one who does not. … Remember the teaching of My servant Moses, the statutes and the ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb (Sinai) for all Israel. Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse, umm,” said the boy after a long pause to think. “That’s all I remember.”
Jesus said, “You did well, My son. That is all we needed to hear. The Lord God will ultimately reconcile with His family.”
Silence fell upon the crowd again. Most of the people had no idea of the magnitude of what they had just experienced. The angels knew. The prophets knew. Jesus knew. The fire and the past nd the present had just collided. It was becoming dusk. Jesus said told Andrew to prepare the people to set up camp there and enter Jerusalem in the morning. Jesus went into the cave to sleep deep in there, with His prophets.