Today’s Prophecies about the 30 pieces of silver Judas accepted to betray Jesus in Today’s Catholic Reading were Prophesied 1,500 years before Jesus! Exodus 21:32 tells us: “If the bull gores a male or female slave, the owner must pay 30 shekels of silver to the master of the slave and the bull is to be stoned to death.”
In 650-570 BC, the Prophet Jeremiah 19:1-13 predicts what would happen to Jerusalem for paying 30 pieces of silver to get Judas to betray Jesus: “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! ‘I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned incense in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal-something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. So beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.
We see two Prophecies about the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BC and Romans in 70 AD: “In this place, I will ruin the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, at the hands of those who want to kill them, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds and the wild animals. I will devastate this city and make it an object of horror and scorn; (This is a Prophecy of what Vespasian and Titus would do to Jerusalem in 70 AD, when his Prophecy was fulfilled by Jesus: “Not one stone will be left standing” and Jerusalem was “flattened”.) All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff because of all its wounds. I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh because their enemies will press the siege so hard against them to destroy them.’ (That Prophecy was fulfilled! The great historian, Josephus, tells us there was cannibalism in Jerusalem during the Roman siege!)
“Then break the jar while those who go with you are watching, and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter’s jar with 30 pieces of silver is smashed and cannot be repaired. The houses in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled like this place . . . Topheth-all the houses where they burned incense on the roofs to all the starry hosts and poured out drink offerings to other gods.'”
The Prophet Zechariah lived a hundred years later, between 520-470 BC. He reinforces the two earlier Prophecies about “the 30 pieces of silver” in Zechariah 11:13:
“This is what the Lord my God says: ‘Shepherd the flock marked for slaughter. Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Praise the Lord, I am rich!’ Their own shepherds do not spare them. For I will no longer have pity on the people of the land,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will give everyone into the hands of their neighbors and their king. They will devastate the land, and I will not rescue anyone from their hands.'”
Then, Zachariah became a Living Prophecy of Jesus! “So I shepherded the flock marked for slaughter, particularly the oppressed of the flock. Then I took two staffs and called one Favor and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock. In one month, I got rid of the three shepherds. The flock detested me, and I grew weary of them and said, ‘I will not be your shepherd. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish. Let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.
” Then I took my staff called Favor and broke it, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations. It was revoked on that day, and so the oppressed of the flock who were watching me knew it was the word of the Lord. I told them, ‘If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.’ So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter’ the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord. Then I broke my second staff called Union, breaking the family bond between Judah and Israel.”
The fate of Judas and everyone who betrayed God for “30 pieces of silver” was Prophesied! “Woe to the worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! May his arm be completely withered, his right eye totally blinded!”
Catholics are blessed to respect the Prophets’ connections between Judas and see what God provides for all who attack the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church Spoken Into Being by He Whom Judas betrayed;
“And I say unto you thou art Peter and on this rock I build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I give you the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven.”
For the past 2,000 years, Catholics have been blessed to follow the unchanging Teachings of He Who Fulfilled The Prophecies. Jesus takes Living Form in our beloved Catholic Church for all who are blessed to see God’s Power to Provide His Living Body and Blood in the Holy Communion provided at every Catholic Mass for the past 2,000 years.
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Today’s Simple Rhyme: “Thirty silver pieces / keep many from leases / on life!”
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