SPIRITUAL
DIAIRY FOR 9/15/2016 9:16 AM
My
Worship Time Focus: Intro to John 12:12-16
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: John 12:12-16
Message of the verses: “12 On the next day the large crowd who had come to the
feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 took the branches of the palm trees and went
out to meet Him, and began to shout, "Hosanna! BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN
THE NAME OF THE LORD, even
the King of Israel." 14 Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it;
as it is written, 15 “FEAR NOT, DAUGHTER OF ZION; BEHOLD, YOUR KING IS COMING,
SEATED ON A DONKEY’S COLT." 16 These things His disciples did not
understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered
that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to
Him.”
The
first thing I want to do here is to quote from Warren Wiersbe’s commentary as
we look at an introduction to this section:
“What did this event mean to Jesus?
For one thing, it was a part of His obedience to the Father’s will. The Prophet Zechariah (Zech. 9:9) prophesied that
the Messiah would enter Jerusalem in that manner, and He fulfilled the
prophecy. ‘Daughter of Zion’ is another
name for the city of Jerusalem (Jer. 4:31; Lam. 2:4, 8, 10). Certainly Jesus was openly announcing to the
people that He indeed is the King of Israel (John 1:49), the promised
Messiah. No doubt many of the pilgrims
hoped that now He would defeat the Romans and set the nation Israel free.
What
did this demonstration mean to the Romans?
Nothing is recorded about the Roman viewpoint, but it is certain that
they kept a close watch that day. During
the annual Passover feast, it was not uncommon for some of the Jewish
nationalists to try to arouse the people; and perhaps that they thought this
parade was that kind of an event. I
imagine that some of the Roman soldiers must have smiled at the ‘Triumphal
Entry,’ because it was nothing like their own ‘Roman triumph’ celebration in
the city of Rome.”
As
I look at this event which is seen in all of the four gospels, it once again
reminds me of when I first became a
believer, something that I have written about in many of my SD’s. What we see here is the fulfillment of a part
of the seventy week prophecy from the ninth chapter of Daniel: “25 “So you are to know and discern that from
the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the
Prince there will be seven
weeks and sixty-two
weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of
distress. 26 “Then after
the sixty-two weeks the
Messiah will be cut off and have nothing (Daniel 9:25-26a).” We have written about the seventy weeks is
weeks of years as the Hebrew says “seventy sevens.” A total of 490 years is in this prophecy and
Daniel mentions a couple of divisions in it; seven weeks (49 years) and also
sixty-two weeks ((434 years) this gives us a total of 483 years, and the event
we have in front of us is the culmination of those 483 years as Jesus comes and
offers Himself as the King of Israel which will ultimately lead to His death or
as Daniel says He will be cut off. Luke
19 tells us that the Pharisees rebuked Jesus’ disciples “37 As soon as He was
approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the
disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles
which they had seen, 38 shouting: "BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE
NAME OF THE LORD; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" 39 Some of
the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, "Teacher, rebuke Your
disciples." 40 But Jesus answered, "I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry
out!’” The answer to why Jesus
said this is because this was the 173,880th day since the prophecy
in Daniel began which is seen in the second chapter of the book of
Nehemiah. Nehemiah was given permission from
the king to go and help restore the temple and the city of Jerusalem which set
off this prophecy. Jesus goes on to say
in Luke 19: 41 “When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city
and wept over it, 42 saying, "If you had known in this day,
even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.” Jesus offers Himself to be King of Israel and
was turned down which set the stage to his crucifixion, which was the plan of
God.
John
MacArthur writes the following “In this section, which describes the event
commonly known as the triumphal entry, Jesus officially presented Himself to
Israel as the Messiah and Son of God. By
so doing, He set in motion the chain of events that would quickly lead to His
death at the exact time foreordained by God.
As the King came to die, He did so at the proper moment, with the
passionate multitude, in the predicted manner, and to the perplexity of His
men. In keeping with the theme of his
gospel (20:31), John highlighted Jesus’ fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy
throughout this account.” In our next
SD, Lord willing, we will look at “On the next day (John 12:12a).
“Blessed
is the one who comes in the name of the LORD; We have blessed you from the
house of the LORD (Psalm 118:26).” This is the verse that was quoted by Jesus’
disciples and it was to be said when the Messiah came, and it was.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Everything was done exactly the way that God
planned it even though that was not the way that the disciples wanted it to be
done, and I have to say that this has happened in my life on many occasions,
but that is where faith comes into play.
If the disciples would have gotten their way then Jesus would not have
died for their sins, nor mine or anyone else.
My
Steps of Faith for Today:
Trust the Lord even when things don’t always work out the way that I
want them to.
Memory verses for the week: (Romans 12:10-11) “10 For the death that He
died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to
God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to
be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “It is good for nothing” (Matthew 5:13).
Today’s Bible question: “Who said ‘Lord, that I might receive my
sight’?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/15/2016 10:25 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment