“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 12:12-13.
While there is no way of knowing the number of this great multitude, it was very large since the city of Jerusalem would often be host to from 2 to as many as 3 million people during Passover.
In fact when Titus and the Roman legions besieged and sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the temple in 70 A. D. over one million people were killed, and many thousands more were sold into slavery. This latter destruction was prophesied by Jesus.
“Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘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. For the 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 one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.’” Luke 19:41-44.
There must have been quite a buzz throughout Jerusalem as news of Jesus’ arrival in Bethany came to them, along with His intent to visit the city. It is possible too that His arrival in Jerusalem may have been toward afternoon as the following verse indicates.
“And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.” Mark 11:11.
Palm branches are symbolic of joy and victory. And the word Hosanna means Save now! Within days this euphoric crowd who uttered these words in fulfillment of the prophecy in Messianic Psalm 118:25-26, will desert the Lord. Compare the two passages below.
“Save now, I pray, O Lord; O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.” Psalm 118:25-26.
“Save now – Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! The King of Israel!” John 12:13b.
It is evident that the crowd added the last sentence “The King of Israel” which must have really distressed the Pharisees.
“Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: ‘Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.’” John 12:14-15.
The three other gospels give an account of the finding of the colt; Matthew 21:1-7, Mark 11:1-8, Luke 19:29-36.
The gospel of Matthew even indicates that the colt’s mother accompanied them.
“…you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me.” Matthew 21:2b.
A complete passage is shown below.
“Now when they came near Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He sent out two of His disciples; and He said to them, ‘Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat, loose it and bring it. And if anyone says to you, “Why are you doing this?” say, “The Lord has need of it,” and immediately he will send it here.’ So they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and they loosed it. And some of those who stood there said to them, ‘What are you doing, loosing the colt?’ So they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded. And they let them go. Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments on it, and He sat on it. And many spread their garments on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road.” Mark 11:1-8.
“Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.” John 12:15.
This is also a fulfillment of another prophesy written about 500 years earlier by the prophet Zechariah who was second only to Isaiah in the number of Messianic prophecies given in Scripture.
Zechariah is next to the last book in the Old Testament, Malachi, so it is easy to find, but try not to confuse it with the book of Zephaniah which is close by and the only other book that starts with a “Z” in the Bible. Sorry about the rabbit trail, it just used to confuse me. Anyway, here is the fulfilled prophesy shown below.
“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.
All of this prophecy was fulfilled in Christ’s triumphal entry to Jerusalem.
It is said of Him that He is King, just and lowly; things that most of us are aware of when thinking of Jesus, but notice, “having salvation” the salvation of all mankind through His sacrifice on the cross.
So we have a sort of prophecy within a prophecy. He presents Himself as King and being rejected He becomes Savior as well as King.
It is through this rejection that our minds are brought back to the Lord’s prophecy quoted earlier in Luke 19:41-44 when He wept over Jerusalem. Again another prophecy like it goes as follows.
“Then as He went out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Teacher, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!’ And Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left upon another, that shall not be thrown down.’” Mark 13:1-2.
This was fulfilled on August 10, 70 A. D.
Often, when dealing with prophecy, you will find two prophecies run together and are seemingly concurrent, but it turns out that there is a great gap between them. We have a good example right here in Zechariah 9:9 and 10.
“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.
“I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem; the battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.’” Zechariah 9:10.
As seen above the first prophecy about the King arriving on a donkey has been fulfilled completely.
Seemingly then the second prophecy in verse 10 should have been fulfilled immediately; but He was rejected as King and murdered by evil men, rendering the second one inoperative at that time. We will examine the second prophecy below.
The country of Israel was divided after the death of King Solomon in 930 B.C. with his son Rehoboam retaining the southern kingdom of Judah and Benjamin, which was then referred to as Judah.
The northern kingdom consisting of the ten remaining tribes who rebelled are represented as Ephraim which became known as Israel. So the reference to Ephraim and Jerusalem is meant to mean all of Israel.
Some see the cutting off of the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem as meaning that Christ will reunite the nation again in peace at the end of the tribulation. And so He will judging from other prophesies on Israel’s future.
However it is also possible that the meaning is that Christ will cut off the chariots and the horses used in battle against Israel when Antichrist decides to annihilate all of the Jews.
“For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; the city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished, half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle.” Zechariah 14:2-3.
This day of battle is best known as the battle of Armageddon, Jesus is the Lord and the battle ends the tribulation period and shortly thereafter Christ will reign over the whole earth bringing in everlasting peace.
So in either of these interpretations one thing remains, while Zechariah 9:9 has been fulfilled, Zechariah 9:10 is still a future event.
“His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him. Therefore the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised him from the dead, bore witness. For this reason the people also met Him, because they heard that He had done this sign.” John 12:16-18.
Jesus told the disciples that the Holy Spirit would remind them of all things.
“These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” John 14:25-26.
The Holy Spirit was given after the Lord was glorified, that is to say after His death, resurrection, and ascension, on the Day of Pentecost, the Spirit came upon believers.
“When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues [known languages], as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Acts 2:1-4.
That these were known languages is confirmed in the following verses of this chapter, Acts 2:5-12.
My beliefs on tongues are purely based on what I read in Scripture; however I know devout Christians who speak in tongues it is between them and God. I am not the Holy Spirit.
“The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, ‘You see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him!’” John 12:19.
Indeed, this was a critical juncture, if Jesus had not been crucified at that time; the Gentile world would very likely have come to Him, as witnessed by the Greeks who sought Him out.
“Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast. Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’” John 12:20-21.
While the Pharisees and the religious leaders will soon appear to have been victorious, you cannot thwart the plans of God, they are set in eternal stone.
“Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us.’ He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure: ‘Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion.’” Psalm 2:1-6.
Behold, Your King, John 12:12-19 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 2-3-13, updated on 12-16-17.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.