Prophecy and Praise

Since I've inadvertently fallen behind in my daily posting, this is the first of two or three short postings today, and perhaps more short postings tomorrow. Hope you're enjoying the Passion Journey with me...we are in the REAL anniversary week now, you know, and Saturday is really Crucifixion Day.

Amidst a jubilant, shouting, singing throng, Jesus rode his little colt toward Jerusalem, but not everybody in the crowd appreciated what was being proclaimed about him. Some Pharisees--teachers and religious hypocrites--stood together by the side of the road, and when Jesus passed by, they called out to him, "Teacher! Rebuke your disciples!" To them, the songs of Messiah were blasphemy, for they were certain Jesus could not possibly be the long awaited savior of Israel. But had they known the Scriptures...

More than 500 years before this day, Daniel the Prophet had a vision in Babylon. In that vision, God revealed to the prophet that He had set aside a period of time, 490 years in length, to fulfill His dealings with the nation of Israel. 483 of those years would transpire between two events--from the decree to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem to the arrival and cutting off of Messiah.

Here's the cool thing about that particular prophecy--it was exact, down to the day. The Biblical year, what some scholars have called the Prophetic year, was 360 days in length, twelve months of thirty days each. 360 days multiplied by 483 years is 173,880 days. The decree to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem was given in by the Persian King Artaxerxes in 446 BC, on or about April 1. 173,880 days later was April 20, 31 AD--the date of the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ. Those students of the Scriptures, who had studied it from early childhood and picked it apart through their adulthood, should have known to the day when to expect Messiah. I suspect some of them may have understood the timing of Christ's arrival. But on that fateful day, they did exactly what Daniel saw they would do. Those highly placed people, who could have led an entire nation in embracing their destiny, rejected their only hope of salvation because He didn't fit their expectations of what a king should be.

From the moment of their rejection, the countdown on God's prophesied clock stopped and allowed for an unspecified period of time in which those who were not of His Chosen People could become His Chosen People. For nearly 2000 years, the Gospel has gone out to the nations of the world, saving the Gentiles while the Jews as a nation and people continue in their rejection of Jesus as their Messiah. But God still has seven years left in which to deal with Israel, and the Bible has promised that before the end, all of Israel will be saved.

And in response to the demands of the Pharisees, that He rebuke his disciples for their worship, Jesus replied, "If these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out." Sometimes rocks are brighter than the supposed people of God, for all creation has been designed to recognize and praise its Creator! Sometimes I may have a stony heart and rocks for brains, sometimes I may show that I'm still a little rough around the edges, but I'm in God's polisher, and today I want to praise Him!