Happy Palm Sunday!

A happy and blessed PALM SUNDAY to everyone!

Few Christians know the true significance of Palm Sunday in that it was Jesus' formal presentation of Himself as the Messiah to the leadership of the nation of Israel.  As He rode the donkey into Jerusalem, He fulfilled multiple prophecies of the coming of the Messiah and many of the Jewish people recognized it as such singing Messianic Psalms  (Ps 118, etc.) to the consternation of the Pharisees (Lk 19:39).

What even fewer Christians realize is that the exact day of this "Triumphal Entry" was given to the prophet Daniel by the Angel Gabriel more than 450 years earlier and recorded in one of the most amazing and precise prophecies of the Bible (Daniel 9:24-27).  In 1894, Sir Robert Anderson (Chief of Criminal Investigation Dept. of Scotland Yard - 1888-1896) published the book "The Coming Prince" in which he detailed the calendar, archaeology, and Biblical scholarship that shows that Gabriel's prophecy was fulfilled to the exact Day on April 6, 32 A.D.

Jesus Himself confirms this in Luke 19:41-44 where He holds the nation accountable for having missed this special day of days.  Even the Creation itself knew that "this [was] the Day the Lord has made..." (which is another prophecy concerning Palm Sunday, from Ps 118) as Jesus indicates that if His followers were silent, that "even the stones would cry out"  in praise of the arrival of the long-awaited Messiah (Lk 19:40).

Luke 19:41-44: "Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.  For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation."

Here, Jesus pronounces a national blindness ("now they are hidden") upon the Jewish people because they rejected Him on this day.  Yet God has promised that He is not finished with Israel.  For there will come a day, after the "fullness of the Gentiles has come in" when He will turn His face back to the nation of Israel. Paul emphasizes this heavily in Rom 9-11, but in particular verse 11:25-27 spells it out clearly:

Romans 11:25-27   "For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.  And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;  For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins."

Our God has always been a God who makes and keeps His promises. He is eminently trustworthy and His timing is always perfect - even when we were expecting something different or miss it entirely.  Jesus is always right on time.

For more information on the 70 Week prophecy see this link:
http://www.khouse.org/articles/2004/552

Or hear Dr. Missler teach the subject personally here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PywcLTSCs60

Grace and peace to you all this Holy Week and Easter.

- Tim -