“This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24
There are seventy sevens prophesied for the Jews in Daniel 9:24-27. Those sevens have been translated as weeks, but they are actually sets of seven years. The seventieth seven is yet to be fulfilled. The sixty-nine sevens ended at a special event. In verse 25 it tells us that the sixty-nine sevens would continue until Messiah the Prince. The Hebrew word for Prince is nagiyd. The root of this word is nagad meaning, “to be made known, to announce, to declare, to acknowledge, to be conspicuous.” When did the Jews first publicly announce Jesus to be the Messiah?
The event took place in Jerusalem, a week before Passover. The Jews were gathered in the holy city for their upcoming feast. Jesus instructed his disciples to acquire a donkey to fulfill prophecy in Zechariah 9:9, “…Behold your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey…” As Jesus entered into the city on the colt, Jewish people laid down palm branches, a sign of victory, and shouted out, hosanna, which means “save us now.” They shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David, a term signifying Jesus as the promised king, a descendent of David’s throne. The triumphal entry also fulfilled the prophetic song in Psalm 118 foretelling the words declaration, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” The Jews were not celebrating Jesus for their spiritual salvation; they were declaring Jesus as their promised king that would free them from the oppression of the nations.
The Jewish priests and scribes to become indignant when they saw the attention that Jesus was receiving, not only from the adults, but from the children who were also shouting with their parents, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” fulfilling a prophetic song in Psalm 8:2. The Pharisees called to Jesus from the loud crowd, instructing Him to quiet His followers. Jesus answered, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.” Jesus said this because He knew that to fulfill scripture on that day, the end of the sixty-nine week of Daniel’s prophecy, there had to be the declaration of His kingship by the Jews.
Application: The day of the Messiah’s pronouncement also included the cleansing of the temple, prophetic of the season of the Gentiles preceding the seventieth seven, and supernatural healing for the blind and lame. Declare Jesus as your king today, allowing Him to rule over anything that would keep you from seeing or doing all He has for you.