No way! They will never leave or forsake their Master! Now the Lord prophesies that even these disciples, they who’d confessed that He had the words of eternal life, would also fall away on account of Him. “This is a hard teaching,” they had said, “Who can accept it?” Many had turned back and no longer walked with Him. So many had fallen away already on account of his words. Peter probably spoke for them all when he protested in verse 33,“Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.” Here is Jesus, and following Him is what is left of the church He had gathered. Now He drops, as it were, another bombshell among them: “This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written: ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered’” (v. It is during this walk that the Lord begins to speak again to his disciples. Soon they leave Jerusalem through the Sheep Gate, the towering walls of the city rapidly fading into the darkness behind them as they walk the short distance to the Mount of Olives. Imagine the disciples, now a bit relieved, following their Master through the dark streets of the city. But finally, when the Lord had led them in the singing of a hymn, things had almost returned to normal. These things had made them sad, afraid, and confused. The Lord had also spoken of his body which would be broken and his blood which would be poured out. The Lord had told the disciples that one of them would betray Him, which made each of them consider whether he was the one who’d do such an awful thing. Arriving at the bottom, they walk eastward through the streets of Jerusalem. In our mind we can see the Lord and his disciples, coming down the steps from the Upper Room where they had celebrated the Passover. 1 In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.Ģ And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land.ģ And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live for thou speakest lies in the name of the LORD: and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth.Ĥ And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision, when he hath prophesied neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive:ĥ But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.Ħ And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.ħ Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.Ĩ And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die but the third shall be left therein.ĩ And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.“I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.”
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