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.
Luke
19: 41-42 NKJV
One
of my favorite memories of when I was an intern at a church in Southern
California in the 70's was getting together with friends who were attending
seminary and come up with a list of questions we would use in a game we called
bible trivia. One of the questions we came up with was "how often does the
bible say Jesus wept?". Of course, though most wanted to say once, it was
obvious that by asking the question there must be a different answer.
Sunday was the day Christians around the world celebrate what is known as Palm Sunday.
It is the day that Jesus of Nazareth rode a donkey into Jerusalem to present
Himself as the coming Messiah promised by the prophets of the Old Testament.
But although virtually every Christian knows that, many don't know the circumstances
surrounding it, and the fact that those circumstances caused our Savior to
weep.
If
you look at the passage in Luke you will find that as Jesus approached the city
from the direction of the Mount of Olives, "He saw the city and wept over
it". Why would Jesus weep at the sight of the city of Jerusalem on the
very day He came to proclaim Himself as the Messiah? That question is answered
in the following verses where we see Jesus say that the people did not know the
"time of your visitation". In other words, Jesus was holding the
people accountable for not knowing the day that He was to appear.
"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."
Luke
19: 43-44 NKJV
Now
this obviously leads one to ask how they were supposed to know the exact day
the Messiah was to appear in their presence if God had never told them? The
trouble with that is what I have come to call "The Forgotten
Prophecy". You see, God had told them when the Messiah would come but the
religious leaders of the day, the Sadducees and Pharasees, and the people
themselves had totally forgotten it.
You may already know that there is a passage in the book of Daniel that reveals
the seventy week scope of Israel’s' future. What many fail to realize from this
prophecy, however, is the reason it is broken up into two parts, sixty nine weeks and the
seventieth week. You see what Daniel and the nation of Israel discover is that
this prophecy predicts the exact day that the Messiah would appear.
"Know
therefore and understand, [That] from the going forth of the command To restore
and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, [There shall be] seven weeks and
sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in
troublesome times.
Daniel
9:25 NKJV
In
these verses Daniel is told that there will be 69 weeks from the decree to
rebuild Jerusalem until the Messiah would appear. The word here for
"weeks" is "shabua" which is what is called a
"heptad", meaning it stands for a group of seven. In this particular
case, it stands for a period of seven years, so what Daniel is being told is
that there would be a period of 69 "weeks of years" or exactly
173,880 days from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem to the day the Messiah
appeared. (69 x 7 x 360 days/year)
The
decree to rebuild Jerusalem was given by Artaxerxes Longimanus on March 14, 445
b.c. You can find that referred to in Nehemiah 2. If you add the period of time
Daniel was given, 173,880 days, you arrive at Sunday, April 6, 32 a.d. which we
now call Palm Sunday, the week before Easter and the very day Jesus wept when
He saw the city. Why did He cry? Because even though God had gone to such great
lengths to predict the exact day His Son would arrive as the Messiah, everyone
had forgotten it. We know from history that the nation of Israel paid a
terrible price for this forgetfulness as in 70 AD Jerusalem was destroyed by
the Romans and the period of wandering known as the diaspora began. This was
also prophesied in the passage from Daniel;
"And
after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And
the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the
sanctuary. The end of it [shall be] with a flood, And till the end of the war
desolations are determined.
Daniel
9:26 NKJV
So
today we begin the same week that saw the passion of our Lord so many years
ago. Every year many watch to see if God has something planned for us on the
anniversary of the first appearing, especially as we have plenty of evidence
from history that God does in fact choose to use the same dates on the Jewish
calendar to allow events to occur that have biblical significance. I personally
find it interesting to note that a tradition in Israel is to pour a cup of wine
for the prophet Elijah at the end of the Passover meal and to open the door to
let him in. Since many believe that Elijah is one of the two witnesses that
return at the beginning of the tribulation period, or the seventieth week of
Daniel, I can't help but wonder if this is a clue to the timing God has in
mind?
So
what does this all mean for us? Speaking only for myself, I can't forget the
fact that Israel paid a terrible price for not “watching” for the appearance of
their Messiah. The truth as well is that the diaspora was only the beginning of
their troubles because the seventieth week of Daniel, which we know as the
tribulation, is still in their future. That being the case, how can I not ask
myself if God has something planned for those who are not watching for Jesus'
return for His church as He commanded us to do in the New Testament? Just as
the people were unaware of the time of Jesus' first appearing, how many
believers today ignore the signs which Jesus' told us to watch for and are even
now happening all around us?
The
first three of the seven feasts of Israel occur in the next week, and the one
most of the world will celebrate is the Feast of First fruits which we know as
Easter. It's the day we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
tomb where He was laid after His crucifixion. Jesus has told us, His followers,
to watch for His return. He went to even greater lengths to tell us what to
watch for so we would recognize the time of His appearing. My question to you
is this: "Are you watching?" At this most holy of weeks when we celebrate
the Resurrection, let us not forget the promise of Jesus' return, and the
responsibility that goes along with the command to actively "watch"
for it. It's coming soon.
Keep
watching.
