PALM SUNDAY

A REMARKABLE

MATHEMATICAL PROPHECY

OF

JESUS CHRIST

 

A REMARKABLE prophecy of Jesus Christ (Messiah) ...

  

   “He (Messiah)

     will be revealed

     7 weeks + 62 weeks

     (= 69 weeks of years)

     after the commandment

     to rebuild Jerusalem

     and its walls,

     then He (Messiah)

     will be cut-off.”

     (Daniel 9:24-26)

 

This is a MATHEMATICAL prophecy

 

- Week of years (shabua or shabu’im) = 7 years

- ‘Cut-off’... Hebrew karath = “executed!”

-  The 70th Week is a future 7 years (Apocalypse!)

 

This prophecy of the coming Messiah is both remarkable and extremely precise.  God gave the Jews the most sophisticated calendar on Earth.  It is both a Lunar and a Solar calendar.  The Jewish calendar uses a 360 day lunar (and prophetic) year and then adds a 'Leap Month' on specific years to accurately coincide with the Solar cycle we use on our 'Julian' calendar ...

 

The Bible uses 360 day years for prophecies and expects us to add the appropriate 'leap months' on schedule.  So, the easiest way to unravel this prophecy is to first convert this prophecy into days:

 

- Add 7 + 62 weeks  =  69 weeks of years

- Multiply 69 (weeks) x 7 (years) = 483 years

- Multiply 483 years x 360 days = 173,880 days

 

So, the prophet Daniel, who lived 500 years before Jesus (Yeshua) wrote that from the day of the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem and its walls, until the coming Messiah would be 173,880 days!  Remember ... this mathematical prophecy was also translated from Hebrew into Greek in the Septuagint around 300 years before Jesus made His prophetic entry into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey!              

 

To convert the 173,880 days found in this prophecy into our 365.25 day solar years (the .25 adjusts for leap years) ...

 

173,880 days ÷ 365.25 (days per year)  =  476 yrs

 

So, the prophet Daniel told us it would be 476 years from the "commandment to rebuild Jerusalem and its walls" to the time the Messiah of Israel would first be revealed to Israel (and to the world.)

 

The Commandment ...

 

This prophecy of the coming Messiah is both remarkable and extremely precise.  There were other orders to rebuild the Temple, but, there was only one commandment to restore Jerusalem and its wall.  On March 14th, 445 BC, as confirmed by modern archaeology, King Artexerxes I of Persia issued the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem and specifically included its wall (Nehemiah 2:2-9 records and details all the events surrounding the rebuilding of this wall.)

 

(As a note, in 2007 archeologists in Israel found, uncovered, and excavated this ancient wall, sometimes translated "moat," which Nehemiah rebuilt around Jerusalem.)

 

 Prophecy fulfilled ...

 

Now take the 476 years in this prophecy and simply start counting from March 14, 445 B.C. (when the command to rebuild the city Jerusalem and its wall was given) and you end on the exact year (even the very day) Jesus (Yeshua) rode 'triumphantly' into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday), being praised as King and Messiah by thousands upon thousands of the Jewish people who had gathered from all over for the Passover Holidays.  Honored, yet lowly, riding on a donkey - exactly as another prophet, the prophet Zechariah, said He would ...

 

   "Rejoice greatly,

     O daughter of Zion (Israel)!

     Behold, your King (Messiah)

     is coming to you;

     He is just and having salvation,

     yet He is lowly and riding on a donkey."

     (Zechariah 9:9 ... written around 500 B.C.)

  

Thus, on the 10th day of Nisan ("Palm Sunday") 32 AD ... 476 years after the command was given to rebuild the city and its wall ... Jesus (Yeshua) made His famous "triumphal entry" into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey.  It was the only day that He ever allowed Himself to be honored as Messiah or King (Mark 11:1-12) as the people of Israel cried out and sang "Hosanna to the Son of David (this is a Psalm of the Messiah), blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!" from Psalm 118 ... (and all this took place just a few days before He was "executed" exactly as Daniel's prophecy said He would!)

 

 A remarkable prophecy ...

Simply count the years!

                       

March 14, 445 BC  (Artexerxes command)

to  April 6, 32 AD  (Palm Sunday - Messiah!!)

 

   =  477  years

    -       1  year       (Subtract one for no "0" A.D. or B.C.)

   =  476  years       (Exactly!!!)

 

Who else around 32 A.D. fulfilled all these many prophecies? 

 

No one!!!  Only Jesus (Yeshua) of Nazareth, born in Bethlehem, in the line of King David ...

 

The promised Messiah!

 

This prophecy in the Book of Daniel (written over 500 years before Jesus was born) ALSO warned Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple ("Sanctuary") would be destroyed after Messiah (Jesus Christ) would be executed ...

 

   "And the people  (a prophecy of Rome)

     of the prince who shall come   (Antichrist)

     shall destroy the CITY (Jerusalem)

     and the TEMPLE ("Sanctuary")

     (Daniel 9:26)     

 

Don't miss this ... the Bible warned the Jewish Temple would be destroyed AFTER Messiah was revealed and executed!

  

Jesus then reveals a NEW prophecy that Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed ... (this prophecy was fulfilled by the Romans in 70 AD) ...

 

Right after the "Triumphal Entry," Jesus (Yeshua) wept over Jerusalem, knowing the children of Israel would ignore this prophecy (and all the other prophecies of Messiah) which were so specific that God held them accountable!  This is why the Temple was destroyed and the Jewish people were dispersed and scattered around the world ...

 

Here, Jesus then issued a new prophecy and warned Israel WHY it would happen ...

 

   "Now as He (Jesus) drew near,

     He saw the city (Jerusalem)

     and wept over it, saying,

     ‘If you had known,

     even you (the children of Israel),

     especially in this your day,

     (the day Messiah was revealed)

     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 (the Temple)

     one stone upon another,

     BECAUSE you did not know

     the time of your visitation.’"  

     (Luke 19:41-44)

 

Please note that God held them accountable for not knowing these prophecies!  Thus, within that generation, in 70 A.D., 38 years AFTER Jesus spoke this prophecy and was Crucified ("cut-off"), Jerusalem was besieged and brutally destroyed when Titus Vespasian, with the Fifth, Tenth, Twelfth, and Fifteenth Roman Legions did build a Roman siege wall ("embankment") around the city, starving and slaughtering over a million Jews, and then tore down the Temple, stone by stone, to retrieve the gold that had melted when Roman soldiers (against orders) set the Temple on fire, thus leaving not one stone upon the other ... exactly as Jesus Christ prophesied!

  

The Scriptures tell us there are TWO roles Messiah must fulfill:

 

First: As the Sacrificial “Lamb of God” who suffered and bore the punishment for all our sins on the Cross, and whose Resurrection opened the way to everlasting life in Heaven.

 

Second: As the “Lion of the tribe of Judah” who will return to save Israel from the armies of the world (Armageddon).  He will then restore the Earth and rule over all nations ... in peace.

 

The Scriptures also tell us the Messiah

  will return ... TWICE:

 

First: "As a thief in the night" FOR all believers

Second: "Every eye shall see" WITH all believers

 

 Remember ...

 

We, as followers of Christ, are to be a separate people - a people of honor, strength, and courage.  To obey Him, we must take the heart of a servant and be meek, humble, patient, kind, willing to forgive, willing to help and serve others, even our enemies.  This requires much strength.  This is strength.  We must pray for His strength.  Hold fast and endure in faith.  God watches us, hears us, and knows our hearts.  He is the God who lovingly offers a second (and third and fourth) chance.  He waits patiently for us to return to Him, and will forgive us when we ask.

 

If there was any other way into Heaven ...

 

Jesus knew what was about to happen when He prayed, “If there is any other way” three times in the garden the night before He was crucified.  If there was, or is, any other way to gain entrance into Heaven other than believing in the One who paid our debt, then Jesus suffered and died needlessly and in vain, on the Cross.  He lovingly laid down His life for you and for me.

 

   “The Lord is my shepherd ...”  

     (Psalm 23:1) 

 

And Jesus graciously tells us,

 

     “I am the good shepherd. 

       The good shepherd gives his life

       for the sheep.”  

       (John 10:11)

 

It is interesting to note the only prophecies found in other religions are either based on prophecies already found in the Scriptures, or point to a powerful world leader who will someday rise.  God warns to beware of this coming false messiah who will soon rise and will deceive many. 

 

God also makes it very clear there would be only one real Messiah.  If you are approached, or belong to any religion which denies Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of Man ... the Son of God, humbly ask them to show you the prophecies preparing the way and accurately describing their prophet ...

 

   “In the Beginning was the Word

     and the Word was WITH God,

     and the Word WAS God.

 

     And the Word became flesh

     and dwelt among us,

     and we beheld His glory,

     the glory as of the only begotten

     of the Father ...

     full of grace and truth.

 

     He was in the world,

     the world was made through Him,

     and the world did not know Him.

 

     He came to His own,

     and His own did not receive Him”

   

      (Excerpted from John 1:1-14)

 

 

 

 

Grace and Shalom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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