Amazing Prophecy

I just Had to share this with you. Pastor Steve Hadley of Harvest Reno Church brought this to my attention. It was originally realized in Christian culture (as far as I know) by Sir Robert Anderson at the London Observatory in the year 1895. Naturally, the study is way more in-depth than what I can put on this blog (Sir Robert Anderson wrote a whole book on it), but I'll give you the basics.

We will start with what Jesus said on Palm Sunday. [If you don't know, Palm Sunday is the day when Jews were choosing their passover lamb--4 days prior to Passover--4 days before Jesus died on the cross]

Luke 19:41-44 And as He drew near, He beheld the city and wept over it, saying, If you had known, even you, even at least in this day of yours, the things for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come on you that your enemies will raise up a rampart to you, and will surround you, and will keep you in on every side. And they will tear you down, and your children within you, and will not leave a stone on a stone because you did not know the time of your visitation.

Okay, clearly Jesus is speaking as if the Jews should know about this day, the time of their visitation by the Messiah. Why/how would they know the day their Messiah would present Himself?

Let's go back and look at the birth of Jesus so we can find clues on how to interpret Messianic prophecies. How in the world did the Magi know about the prophecy of the star and when the prophecy would take place and that it would signify the coming of the King of the Jews? I mean, Magi were not Jews; they were from the east. By the way, Magi were not "wisemen" but rather scholars/magicians that come from a line of scholars/magicians that date back to early Babylon--when much astrology was taught. We know that they studied the stars, but how were they familiar with the Messianic prophecy in Numbers 24:17 about the star or that the appearance of Messiah would occur in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2)? The answer is Daniel.

When Nebuchadnezzar (a ruler of Babylon) besieged Jerusalem, he took Daniel (probably made him a eunuch) to be a teacher. When reading the book of Daniel, it is clear that the Babylonian magi learned about prophecy from Daniel--he taught them the ways of God (Daniel even became a vessel to change Nebuchadnezzar's heart for the Lord--as evident in Daniel 4).

Because the understanding of the timing of messianic "arrival" prophecy being revealed is found in Daniel, naturally, the answer to our first question should also be found in Daniel--Why/How would the Jews know the day their Messiah would present Himself?

Daniel writes an amazing prophecy in Daniel 9 as delivered to him by an angel, Gabriel. In the broad spectrum, it's most widely known as the "70 Weeks of Daniel" with the greater focus on the the last week and its correspondence to the end times. Our focus today will be on the first part of the prophecy:

Daniel 9:25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going out of the command to restore and to build Jerusalem, to Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks. The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in times of affliction.
9:26 And after sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself. And the people of the ruler who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. And the end of it shall be with the flood, and ruins are determined, until the end shall be war.

In other words, there will be a decree to rebuild the temple (the 1st Temple had been destroyed and Daniel was asking when things were going to be set right again). Starting on the day that the decree is given, you can count 69weeks (weeks of years) and then the Messiah will be cut off (but not for Himself--For ME & YOU). Then, of course, the prophecy goes on to describe the destruction of that 2nd Temple--which we know happened in 70AD.

Let's go back to the Decree to rebuild the temple. We know when this happened--according to history books, it was the Decree of Artaxerxes on March 14, 445 BC. If you count 69 weeks of years (according to the original Jewish way of keeping the calendar--360days per year), you get a specific date. 69 weeks of years = 483 years or 173,880 days.

So what date is 173,880 days after March 14, 445BC?

It lands on April 6, 32AD --PALM SUNDAY!!

So, there is Jesus presenting himself as the Passover Lamb (on the day that Jews select their lamb) and they didn't select the one true Perfect lamb (they didnt know it was their day). That is when he was officially "cut off" but Praise the Lord, He went on 4 days later to become the Ultimate Passover Lamb--the pure/perfect sin sacrifice for all of us. I just think it's amazing that it was prophesied To The Day when Jesus would be rejected. Even more so, I think it's nutty that this prophecy truth isn't being taught in every church. We should spread the "WORD"...the Bible is simply AMAZING!

Here's a diagram of the prophecy that Steve Hadley created: