Matthew 20:17-19 KJV
17 And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them,
18 Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death,
19 And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.

What was it like for the disciples to hear the prophesy of death from Jesus and then for it to happen. Prophesy can sound eerie and can sound wonderful too. However prophesy of death is not something that sound glorious. If we focus only on the prophesy of death and not the resurrection or the coming of hope, we see only glum and not hope, not peace, not anything but destruction. To have a love one, or a friend prophesy death is something you really do not want to experience even if it about themselves. Prophesy with knowledge is not prophesy in the since of illness is going to cause me to die. Prophesy concerning a death of someone it could of easily been poison or drug abuse in some way. What Jesus was prophesying concerning his death was a death that was done to murders, thieves, crimes against humanity and so forth. Jesus had not done anything yet to die. Nothing to produce suspicion of his words. Nothing to say he would commit a crime to his disciple to get hung on the cross. Nothing that said what was going to happen would be because of innocence.

Isaiah said he would be led like a lamb to the slaughter. One has to weigh in all the events that lead to the cross were they crimes against God, man, or even society. Did Jesus come like Lamb to the cross. He definitely was not innocent man, he was man that came in peace like a lamb. They would lead to the cross like a lamb to the altar. He would be lead to his fait of the government and the crowd. Publicly humiliated by a beating, by a mocking, by scourging, and by a cross. The events that lead to the cross, one has to decide if it came by a rebel, or by God who came in the form of innocent man of who he truly was, and yet his own people knew him not or who he claimed to be. Chief priest and the scribes were the first to condemn him to death by Jewish laws, but could do nothing until Roman law would condemn or allow the mob to crucify him with their help.

To describe the prophesy Jesus was describing the innocents of a lamb to the crime they were about to commit against Jesus the Son of God. A son with all equality of the Father God and his Spirit. Commiting sin agains the word and the light of God. Yet man commits this sin everyday when we fail to uphold to the word of God writen in how we live, act and do. Man kills the very word of God and steps all over the power of God until one day God is going to destroy what we know as earth. Destruction not of his fleshly creation of a man, but of his word that created the heavens of the earth. A demonstation of the word being destroyed by God that man can not restore, only God can restore with a new heaven and a new earth.

Yet we think not of the earth being totally destroyed but mankind finding another place to live and moving the people to another world as science search the universe looking for the perfect planet to live on, because they see the end time of our own planet because of its own decay of our enviroment coming because of pollution made by man. For those that are conservationist earth day is April 22. Time to work on cleaning the planet, but it going to take more then one day a year for this to be done. People cleaning the planet of even sin takes more then one day a year too. It a continual process in the lives of the believer. The continual work of not man but the Holy Spirit within not not only one man but all generations,spurring him to live for Jesus, by obeying God's word with foremost of belief.

The prophesy of death here is something to examine how it came to the disciples with all truth and humility of what is to come in the life of the one they follow who was Jesus. It was time to back out now if you did not have faith enough to follow through the cross. Time to look away in unbelief. Yet no one received it necessarily as truth. No one understood those words that pertained to what was to come to the Messiah Jesus. Isaiah's words would of been known without understanding.

Very last statement is of hope, yet often missed because of the type of death prophesied did not produce hope. Jesus said he would rise again. Jesus said he would rise again. Yet all the disciples could see was the cross before them not the hope of I will rise again. I have seen death prophesied and I will say this, no one ever said they would rise again, though some were believers. Yet some did claim they be home with Jesus very soon. Though I never witnessed the actually death of a person, I do know that their claim was probably so.

Dear Heavenly Father, when you words prophesy death help us to understand Jesus also prophesied the hope of his resurrection. Help us to hold to the truth of hope that Jesus said he would rise again and did. In Jesus precious name, Amen.

Continual Scripture Study: Isaiah 53:1-12 KJV
1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.