The Wonderous CrossShembull

The Crowds Who Fulfilled Prophecy

The crowd laid down palm branches and their outer cloaks, carpeting the dusty road for the coming King. The spring air was sweet with the fragrance of cherry blossoms, and the people’s praises. A chorus from Psalm 118 rang out among the crowd, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! The King of Israel!”

All creation had been waiting for this moment, and it was finally here! After three years of public ministry, it was finally time for Jesus to be received as Israel’s King. But this moment wasn’t just the culmination of the three years of his ministry or even the thirty-three years of his earthly life. This was the plan from eternity past, and the fulfillment of a prophecy given by Daniel 483 years earlier.

In Daniel 9, the Israelites were nearing the end of seventy years of captivity in the Medo-Persian empire. Jerusalem lay in ruins, and Daniel was wondering what was going to happen next. He was praying when the angel Gabriel interrupted him and shared God’s vision for the future of Israel.

Gabriel gave Daniel a vision that seventy weeks were left to finish Israel’s transgression and to make an end of sins. In order to understand the timeline, there’s a bit of prophetic math involved but consider this simple equation. A week equals 7 years, not days.

Gabriel told Daniel,

“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. Daniel 9:24

So the clock would start ticking when the command was given to restore and build Jerusalem. In Nehemiah 2, Artaxerxes gave that very decree, on March 14, 445 B.C. Using a Jewish 360-day solar year, biblical scholars have calculated 69 prophetic weeks from that date and found that equals 173,880 days or 483 years.

March 14, 445 BC plus 173,880 days equals April 6, 32 A.D.

What happened on April 6, 32 A.D.? Many biblical scholars agree this was the very day Jesus rode into Jerusalem as Messiah the Prince! What accuracy!

Studying prophecy shouldn’t be an academic exercise just to make us biblically smarter. Instead, it should strengthen our faith in the present, and emboldened us for the future. Even when we don’t understand his timing, we’re reminded time and time again, that he’s always on time.