MESSIAH after having "FINISHED these PARABLES ...
DEPARTED thence" (Matthew 13:53) - "INTO HIS OWN COUNTRY" (Matthew 13:54):
There - HIS TEACHING was MET BY ASTONISHMENT and the QUESTION
OF UNBELIEF, "WHENCE hath this man THIS WISDOM and THESE MIGHTY WORKS" (Matthew 13:54)
This "GREAT ASTONISHMENT" of UNBELIEF concerning
HIS MIGHTY WORK (Mark 5:41-42) was also true of the "HOUSE" of the SYNAGOGUE RULER (Mark 5:35)
who had "LAUGHED HIM TO SCORN" (Mark 5:40)
HIS OWN COUNTRYMEN knew Him only by HIS HUMAN TRADE and
by HIS HUMAN FAMILY and so they INCREDULOUSLY ASK, "WHENCE then hath this man ALL THESE THINGS" (Matthew 13:55-56):
"For NEITHER DID HIS BRETHREN BELIEVE in Him"
BEFORE HIS DEATH (John 7:5),
BUT BECAME BELIEVERS AFTER HIS RESURRECTION (Acts 1:14)
"And when HIS FRIENDS heard of it ... THEY SAID,
HE IS BESIDE HIMSELF" (Mark 3:21)
THUS, was FULFILLED the PROPHECY concerning MESSIAH AND
HIS COUNTRYMEN - "HE is DESPISED and REJECTED of men ... WE HID as it were OUR FACES from Him: He was DESPISED
and WE ESTEEMED HIM NOT" (Isaiah 53:3)
HIS OWN COUNTRYMEN "were OFFENDED (STUMBLED) IN (AT)
HIM" (Matthew 13:57) and were thus REBUKED BY HIM, "a PROPHET is NOT WITHOUT HONOR,
SAVE in HIS OWN COUNTRY, and in HIS OWN HOUSE" (Matthew 13:57):
AT MESSIAH'S 1ST APPEARING - THEY FALL UPON HIM (Matthew 21:44)
AT MESSIAH'S 2ND APPEARING - HE FALLS UPON THEM (Matthew 21:44)
Resulted in - "He Did
Not Many Works There" (Matthew 13:58)
The RESULT OF THEIR UNBELIEF was that "HE DID NOT
MANY WORKS THERE" (Matthew 13:58):
Similarly, UNBELIEVING ISRAEL OF OLD, "OFT DID PROVOKE
HIM IN THE WILDERNESS ... YEA, they TURNED BACK and TEMPTED GOD, and LIMITED the HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL" (Psalms 78:40-41 cf.Numbers 14:1-4) - that UNBELIEVING GENERATION DIED IN THE WILDERNESS and, thus, were
DENIED ENTRANCE INTO THE LAND OF PROMISE (Numbers 14:26-34)
Even the WEAKEST FAITH is able to secure DIVINE BLESSING
(Mark 9:24-27)