The Day Jerusalem should have known

Jesus didn’t ride into Jerusalem on some random afternoon.

Centuries earlier, God gave Daniel a prophetic countdown leading directly to the arrival of Messiah the Prince.

“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 9:25

Seven weeks plus sixty-two weeks equals sixty-nine weeks. These are understood as sixty-nine sevens of years, totalling 483 prophetic years.

The countdown would begin with the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem and lead to the public appearance of Messiah the Prince.

THE PROPHETIC CLOCK BEGAN

Nehemiah records that in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, during the month of Nisan, he received permission to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city.

Sir Robert Anderson used this decree as the starting point in his book The Coming Prince.

He dated the decree to March 14, 445 B.C. and calculated the sixty-nine weeks using 360-day prophetic years.

69 × 7 × 360 = 173,880 days

173,880 days later brought the timeline to April 6, A.D. 32, the day Jesus publicly entered Jerusalem as Messiah the Prince.

That wasn’t the day Jesus was crucified. Daniel said Messiah would be cut off after the sixty-nine weeks.

April 6 was the day the King presented Himself to Jerusalem.

BEHOLD, YOUR KING....

Hundreds of years before Christ, Zechariah described exactly how Israel’s King would arrive.

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation,

Lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey."

Zechariah 9:9

Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on that colt.

The crowds spread branches before Him and cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David.”

He was publicly fulfilling prophecy in front of the entire nation.

Then Jesus looked at Jerusalem and wept. "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”

Luke 19:42

Jesus didn’t simply say they should have recognized Him.

He said they should have recognized the day.

He later said Jerusalem would be surrounded and destroyed because it “they knew not the time of your visitation.”

Their King had arrived exactly as Scripture said He would, yet the nation’s leaders rejected Him.

MESSIAH WAS CUT OFF

Daniel continued:

"And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;”

Daniel 9:26

Within days of entering Jerusalem, Jesus was arrested, condemned and crucified.

He was cut off, but not for Himself.

He wasn’t dying for His own sin. He had none.

Messiah was cut off for us.

Daniel then prophesied that the people of a coming prince would destroy Jerusalem and the sanctuary.

In A.D. 70, Roman forces destroyed Jerusalem and burned the Temple.

The events happened in the order Daniel gave them.

Messiah appeared.

Messiah was cut off.

Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed afterward.

THE POINT OF THE PROPHECY

Some scholars debate the exact calendar details used in Anderson’s calculation, but the prophetic sequence remains clear.

Daniel predicted the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

He predicted the arrival of Messiah the Prince.

He predicted that Messiah would be cut off, but not for Himself.

He predicted that Jerusalem and the sanctuary would later be destroyed.

Jesus fulfilled that sequence.

Jerusalem wasn’t judged because God failed to give them evidence.

Jesus said they failed to recognize the time of their visitation.

The King came exactly as Scripture said.

He was rejected exactly as Scripture said.

He was cut off exactly as Scripture said.

And He was cut off for us.