“Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the TENTH DAY of this month [NISAN 10] every man SHALL TAKE A LAMB . . . Your lamb shall be without blemish . . . And you shall KEEP IT until the FOURTEENTH DAY of this month [NISAN 14] , when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel SHALL KILL their lambs...”
It was essential that Jesus Christ keep the 'Passover Prophecy of Himself' in Exodus 12 … ‘TO THE LETTER’ … or He would NOT have been the true Messiah. – Jesus Christ HAD to become the true ‘PASSOVER LAMB’ in the Passover Week of 32 A.D. in order to fulfill the ‘Passover Prophecy’ of Exodus 12:3, and that is exactly what happened!…This truth is confirmed by Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 5:7. . .
“For Christ, ‘OUR PASSOVER LAMB, has been sacrificed.”
It is confirmed by John the Baptist in John 1:29….
“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
It is confirmed by Apostle John in Revelation 5:6…
"And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, STOOD A LAMB AS IT HAD BEEN SLAIN.
Christ’s TIMING of His entry into the city of Jerusalem is significant. At the very same time that tens of thousands of Passover lambs were entering into Jerusalem through the Sheep Gate, the Messiah – who would become the ultimate Passover Lamb for that year’s Passover – was also arriving into the city on that same tenth day of Nisan, 32 A.D., which was the day that the Jewish people were to take to themselves a lamb according to Exodus 12:3.
While thousands of Israelites were choosing out their Passover lambs without a blemish to be killed for their Passover Feast that week, the Israelites also chose out the Lamb of God without a blemish of sin to be killed at the very same time the rest of the Passover lambs would be slain that week.
THE EXACT DAY AND DATE THAT JESUS WOULD RIDE INTO JERUSALEM WAS PROPHESIED BY THE PROPHET DANIEL
There is an amazing prophecy in Daniel 9:25-26, it reveals the EXACT DAY and DATE when Jesus would ride into Jerusalem. This is what the angel Gabriel said to Daniel. . .
“Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off [killed].”
This period of time given by the angel Gabriel to Daniel for ‘Messiah the Prince’ to enter into Jerusalem is mapped out in Daniel 9 as beginning when the decree was given to Nehemiah to restore and build Jerusalem. That decree is found in the ‘Book of Nehemiah’ 2:1…
"In the month of Nisan [Nisan 1], in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king".
That’s an exact date. That date happens to be one of the best known dates in ancient history. Even the Encyclopedia Britannica sets the date of Artaxerxes accession as 465 B.C. so his 20th year of reign was 445 B.C. After the math is completed from the time that the decree was given to Nehemiah in Nehemiah 2:1 to restore and build the city of Jerusalem, until the day Jesus rides into Jerusalem presenting himself as Messiah the Prince, is 173,880 days. (Beginning with March 14, 445 B.C., add 173,880 days [each year has 360 days], and it brings you to April 6th [Nisan 10], 32 A.D.) This date has been carefully calculated in Sir Robert Anderson’s book, “The Coming Prince”. – A PDF copy of Sir Robert Anderson’s book, “The Coming Prince” may be found at:
On SUNDAY, NISAN 10, 32 A.D. (a Julian calendar date of April 6th, 32 A.D.), Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem on the EXACT DAY prophesied by the prophet Daniel over 500 years before the birth of Jesus Christ.
JESUS RODE ON A COLT OF A DONKEY
Not only was it prophesied by Daniel the exact day…it gets better! – The prophet Zachariah prophesied that Jesus would ride into Jerusalem on the ‘COLT’ of a donkey, not a donkey, but the COLT of a donkey. In Zechariah 9:9 –ESV)…
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, ‘ON A COLT’, the foal of a donkey.”
As Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday, He had begun to “fulfill the typology of the very first Passover’ in Exodus 12. An event that had occurred over 1400 years before Jesus began to fulfill it to the letter in the Passover week in which He was crucified.
Jesus arrived into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, Nisan 10, 32 A.D., and just like the other tens of thousands of Passover lambs, Jesus would now be inspected by the Jewish people for ‘four more days’ before He too would be killed just like all of the other tens of thousands of Paschal lambs that would be killed on the afternoon of the ‘fourteenth day’ of Nisan, 32 A.D.
THE PROCLAMATION OF THE PEOPLE
As Jesus entered into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday, crowds surrounded him, waving palm branches, and yelling, “Hoshana! Baruch haba b’shem Adonai.”(“God save us now. Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord”). The crowd’s proclamation came directly from Psalm 118:26-27…
“Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. 26 Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD. 27 God is the LORD, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.”
The words written in Psalm 118:25(“Save now” and “Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord”) were written over 700 Years before those very same words were uttered by the people when Jesus Christ entered into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday.
WHY DID JESUS RIDE A DONKEY INTO JERUSALEM?
Jesus was claiming His rightful place as the prophesied Messiah [King of the Jews] when He rode the colt of a donkey into Jerusalem.
Zechariah wrote in Zechariah 9:9 (KJV):
“Behold, your king [the Messiah] comes to you, triumphant and victorious. He is humble and riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass.”
The Jews would have been taught Zechariah’s messianic prophecy. That’s why the crowds hailed Jesusas their king shouting,
“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”(Matthew 21:9).
Jesus said in Luke 19:40 (KJV) ...
"I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out!"
Jesus was proving that He is the true Jewish Messiah and king.
THE DONKEY IS THE ONLY ANIMAL IN THE WORLD WITH A CROSS ON ITS BACK!
THE EVENTS ON NISAN 10, 32 A.D. AFTER JESUS CHRIST ENTERED INTO JERUSALEM
After Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem as King of the Jews on Sunday, Nisan 10, 32 A.D., He then went into the Temple. In Mark 11:11, we read:
"And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve."
After going into the Temple and LOOKING THINGS OVER, Jesus then leaves for Bethany with his twelve apostles. This ended the events of Sunday, Nisan 14, 32 A.D. (the first Palm Sunday) according to Holy Scripture.
