Palm Sunday, part 3

Daniel 9:24-27 is a very key Biblical passage. It is in fact the only Old Testament passages which calls the Messiah “Messiah.” Elsewhere He is called “Shiloh” (Genesis 49:10), the “Root of Jesse” (Isaiah 11:10), the “Righteous Branch” (Jeremiah 23:5), the “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6), etc. But the name by which He is best known, “Messiah,” appears in only one passage: Daniel 9:24-27. Here is an excerpt from the passage:

"Seventy sevens have been decreed for your people… 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 sevens and sixty-two sevens; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. Then after the sixty-two sevens the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.”
Exactly what is meant by “seventy sevens”? If you read these four verses just by themselves you might be a bit confused, but if you read the passage in context (as you should) it’s pretty clear what is meant. The text interprets itself. Daniel’s prayer in verses 3-19 refers to seventy years fulfilled, the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity prophesied by the Prophet Jeremiah. The seventy sevens prophecy came in answer to Daniel's prayer. It foretold a period of seven times seventy years which was still to come.

The seventy “sevens” are seventy seven-year periods - 490 years. The prophecy states that “from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven sevens and sixty-two sevens.” 7 + 62 = 69. So 69 seven year periods (7 sevens and 62 sevens) would pass from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem till the coming of the Messiah. The Messiah would be “cut off” and the city and the temple would subsequently be destroyed again.

This prophecy is according to the ancient 360-day calendar employed by both the Hebrews and the Babylonians (Daniel being written in Babylon during the Babylonian captivity after the fall and decimation of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar). So, 69 x 7 years = 483 years, 483 years x 360 days = 173,880 days.

The Persian Emperor Artaxerxes Longimanus (who ruled Persia from 464-424 BC) issued the edict to rebuild Jerusalem on the 1st of Nissan in the 20th year of his reign (that is, March 5th, 444 BC; see Nehemiah 2:1-8). 173,880 days from March 5th 444 BC is March 30th 33 AD. Here’s the math: March 5th 444 BC to March 5th 33 AD = 476 years (1 B.C. to 1 A.D. is one year, there is no year zero) 476 x 365.24219879 days (which is the length of one year according to our modern calendar) = 173,855 days March 5th to March 30th is another 25 days. So, 173,855 days + 25 days = 173,880 days March 30th, 33 AD was exactly 5 days before the Passover (April 3rd, 33 AD). So what happened exactly 5 days before the Passover in 33 AD?
In John’s Gospel we read, “Then, *six days before the Passover*, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead. … Now a great many of the Jews knew that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. But the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also, because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus. *The next day* a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: ‘Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD! The King of Israel!’" (John 12:1, 9-13)

The day after six days before the Passover equals five days before the Passover. March 30th was the Triumphal Entry, the day upon which Christ presented Himself to the nation of Israel as their Messiah, the first time in His entire ministry that Christ allowed Himself to be publicly proclaimed as the Messiah (Matthew 21:8-16; Luke 19:37-40; cf. Matthew 16:13-20; Mark 8:27-30; 9:9-10; Luke 9:18-21; John 6:14-15). Christ was crucified four days later, the day before Passover. Within one generation Titus razed Jerusalem and destroyed the temple.*

In other words, Jesus came on the exact day prophesied by Daniel hundreds of years earlier, on the 10th of Nissan, the day the passover lamb is selected. The Jews of Jesus day could have figured out when Messiah would come, the information was there for them. As mentioned above Daniel clearly told them the details of when Messiah would arrive. Why did they reject him? Why didn't they know about this day and receive him as their Messiah and King?

Because Jesus came to do something diffeent than they expected, something different than what they wanted. He came the first time as the Messiah to fulfill the role of priest and passover lamb. They were watching for a king to defeat the Romans. They rejected the Messiah and his purpose because it didn't fit with their idea of Messiah.

Do we do the same thing? Do we miss the Messiah in our lives because he doesn't look like what we wanted? Do we miss God's work in our lives because he doesn't do what we want him to do?

*(thanks to gotquestions.org for the detail and math in the notes above. It's a good site for bible questions.)