Palm Sunday in Daniel

Daniel 9:24-27

Where should we turn to read the story of Palm Sunday? Matthew, Mark, Luke, John? No, let’s rewind to the OT.

Zechariah 9:9

⁹ Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.

That is a great prophecy, given hundreds of years before it happened. But let’s back up further, to Daniel 9. Sir Isaac Newton wrote that we could stake the truth of Christianity on this prophecy alone.

In our text, Israel is essentially no longer a nation. They no longer have land; they no longer have a capital city; they no longer have a temple, which was the focal point of their worship. And it is that temple that is referred to, at the end of verse 20, as “the holy mountain of my God,” because that temple sat on Mount Zion. So they have literally been decimated and reduced to nonexistence.

Daniel wants to understand how this fits into the plan of God. After all, Israel is God’s chosen people; and many promises have been given to Israel about a great and wonderful future of blessing, starting with the promise to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12. So Daniel is trying to figure out exactly what is going on in God’s plan.

He prays about God’s will for the future of his people, and before he can finish his prayer he is touched by an angel, Gabriel, who was sent from God to give him a very precise future history of Israel.

vv. 24-25         “Messiah the Prince” = this is the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and we will see that it is predicted right to the very day.

v. 24        ‘seventy weeks’ = Literally in Hebrew: seventy sevens of years. These are weeks of years. So seventy times seven would be four hundred and ninety years. Four hundred and ninety years of history are decreed by God for the people of Israel and the holy city.

Now, notice the word “determined.” It is a word that means “to cut out.” God has literally spliced out of history a four hundred and ninety-year period, to bring Israel to its final destiny, that He Himself has predetermined. And in these four hundred and ninety years God will fully restore Israel, that’s the idea.

Look at the six things God is going to accomplish at the end of the four hundred and ninety years.

One, “to finish the transgression.” He doesn’t say, “to finish transgressions,” but “the transgression.” What is the dominant transgression that has characterized Israel? Apostasy, unbelief, rejection of the true God, idolatry. Throughout all of Israel’s history, even to this very day, the nation rejects God in rejecting the Messiah, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. So what you have here is a prophecy of four hundred and ninety years until God brings Israel’s apostasy to an end.

Zechariah 12:10

¹⁰ And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem…and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son…

God’s going to give them grace and repentance; and they’re going to look at Christ and say, “We have killed the Messiah.”

Zechariah 13:1

¹ In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.                                                 It is the day of Israel’s salvation.

Zechariah 13:9

^… they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.

At the end of four hundred and ninety years Israel’s apostasy is over. They repent, they are given grace, and they are saved. That is yet future. There have only been 69 weeks of years. [slide] The final week is the Tribulation.

Go back to the v. 24. Not only is there going to be the finish of the transgression, but the next objective, “to make an end of sins,” literally means “to bring judgment on sin with finality.” With the salvation of Israel comes judgment on those who reject.

So to finish the transgression, to bring judgment on sin, thirdly, to bring or make reconciliation [atonement] for iniquity, or, to cover sin. At that time God will cover their sin. This is provided for by the death of Jesus Christ.

These are three negatives that have to do with sin, then immediately there are three positives that have to do with bringing in everlasting righteousness, and sealing up vision and prophecy; that is, to bring an end to all prophecies for all will be fulfilled. And then one final objective, to anoint the most holy place. Thirty-nine times the most holy place is referred to in the Old Testament; and every time it means the temple. What that says is that when the Lord comes back and brings salvation to Israel and sets up His kingdom there’s going to be a temple. Yes, there’s going to be a temple in the millennial kingdom. That temple is described for us in Ezekiel 40-43.

This is what Paul was looking at in Romans 11:26 when he said, “So all Israel will be saved.”

Now, who will do this?

v. 25        That’s who will do it, Messiah the Prince. They all knew Messiah, son of David, the seed of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head. They all knew the prophet who would come, the Righteous Branch.

So can we know when it starts? Go back to verse 25. We know when it starts: with the issuing of a decree to rebuild and to rebuild Jerusalem.

And when was that? It’s recorded in Nehemiah 2:1-8. The decree was made by Artaxerxes, king of the Medo-Persian kingdom. The year was 445 B.C. and Artaxerxes made a decree under the influence of God for the people to rebuild their city 445 B.C., the first of Nisan, or March 14th – even the day was known. That’s a starting point for four hundred and ninety years of history until Messiah does all of this for Israel.

But it also says Messiah will come after seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. This next slide is helpful. Seven weeks after this is forty-nine years later. Forty-nine years later is 396 B.C., the closing of Nehemiah’s career, the rebuilding of that second temple after they went back, the end of the book of Malachi; so the close of the Old Testament Canon. Forty-nine years from then all of that would take place. Sixty-two weeks of years later, or sixty-two times seven is four hundred and thirty-four years later, the Messiah the Prince will come. Total of forty-nine years and four hundred and thirty-four years. Four hundred and eighty-three years from then the Messiah would come.

There’s a week missing, right? If you count those years as the Jews counted them – three hundred and sixty days, not three hundred and sixty-five days, and feeding in the leap years – four hundred and eighty-three years later is the very year that Jesus entered Jerusalem to begin the Passover Week. The best-established date is Nisan 10, 30 A.D. or March 23. Daniel 9 is, among so many other things, about Palm Sunday!

Some have calculated it down to days: one hundred and seventy three thousand eight hundred and eighty days. There are a couple of different approaches to the math, but both of them come to the same conclusion that it comes down to the very time when Jesus entered Jerusalem.

And through the centuries there must have been many Jews who did the math. And like Daniel reading Jeremiah and saying, “Hey, the seventy years is up,” I wonder how many Jews were reading Daniel and saying, “Hey, the four hundred and eighty-three years is up.” Maybe Zacharias…and Simeon and Anna.

But then the message from God says in verse 26 that the Messiah will be cut off. Means “to kill,” “to execute.” The same term is used in Leviticus chapter 7, Proverbs 2, Psalm 37 for an official death penalty: execution. The Messiah will receive the death penalty and be executed. And He came into the city on Nisan 10, 30 A.D. –  and before the week was even over He was executed. This is a prophecy of the crucifixion.

They should have known. They should have known when He came into the city that He was the real Messiah, because the time was exact. They should have known that when He was crucified He was the true Messiah, because that’s exactly what the prophecy said would happen. And they should have known even more than that, certainly we should know more, because it tells us who killed Him. It tells us that the people of the Prince who was to come killed Him - the ones who would destroy the city and the sanctuary. That’s the Romans.

Forty years after the crucifixion of Jesus, who destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD? The Romans. The Romans massacred hundreds of thousands of people, plundered nine hundred and eight-five towns across the land of Israel. Massive bloodletting.

But it says something more about them. They are the people of the prince who is to come. Who is the prince who is to come? The prince who is to come is described in verse 27. He is the one who in the future will make a firm covenant with the many for one week. Now we find our missing week. The prince who is to come, He is the Antichrist, and part of the revived Roman Empire during the tribulation.

Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 both say there will be a final form of the revived Roman Empire at the end of human history, and that the prince is the Antichrist who leads that system. It even says in the book of Revelation that he’s associated with a city with seven hills, in a coalition, no doubt, with the Roman religious system, this prince that will come, this Antichrist. And he will make a firm covenant with many, including Israel, for a week, or the final 7 years.

And there’s something else in verse 27: “In the midst [middle] of the week” – in the middle of that final seven-year period, which the Bible calls the tribulation, he will come into the temple in an abominable way and make desolation of the temple and the sacrifice. Daniel refers to that as the abomination of desolation in chapter 11, verse 31; and our Lord predicted it.

Matthew 24:15

¹⁵ When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

Here’s what happens. Toward the end of human history the Jews are under persecution from all sides. They make a pact with the Antichrist who’s head of this massive world global power, likely partnering with the false religious system of Rome. He will become the protector of the Jews for the first half of the seven years. Revelation verifies the time frame of forty-two months. The Bible is explicit about this.

At the mid point of the 7 years he will come in and establish himself as the only one to be worshiped in the world. He will shut down Jewish worship, he will desecrate and abominate the temple; and with that all hell breaks loose on earth; and then all heaven breaks loose as well, as God begins the judgments of the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls in the book of Revelation. What starts in Revelation chapter 6 and runs all the way to chapter 19 the return of Christ are the horrible judgments of that time period. The Antichrist will come to his end, according to the book of Revelation, when Jesus comes back and defeats him and the armies of the world with just a word at the Battle of Armageddon.

So, four hundred and eighty-three years, right on schedule, Jesus died. Then there’s just one more week of 7 years in the future; and so today we’re in the gap in-between. God told us exactly when Jesus would come the first time into the city; He doesn’t tell us when He’s coming the second time. Jesus said, “It’s not for you to know.” But He said there will be signs.

We’re in that mystery period. This church age will end when the Lord snatches His church out at the rapture, and then begins the seven-year tribulation. And in it comes the salvation of Israel, and after it comes the establishment of the rule and reign of Christ in His millennial kingdom; and His reign and rule will last forever. That’s the future history of Israel. And it’s all triggered when Jesus walks into the city of Jerusalem as King, the triumphal entry. If that’s on schedule, believe me, the rest is on schedule. And every knee will bow and tongue confess Jesus is Lord.