Palm Sunday - Nisan 10 -
The Triumphal Entries
When Jesus rode
into Jerusalem on the donkey, he was presenting himself as the Lamb without
blemish to be the fulfillment of Passover. After his Triumphal Entry through the
crowds waving palms, Jesus wept over the city for not knowing the time of its
visitation. Palm Sunday was the day and it was Nisan 10. Nisan 10 was the
original day Israel was to select a lamb to prepare for the sacrifice they were
to do on Nisan 14, which provided the blood to be applied to their doorposts to
protect them from the final plague in Egypt. As only God can do, Nisan 10 was on
a Sunday in AD 32 and the slated day for Jesus’ formal presentation as the Lamb.
This day in AD 32 has been shown to be the fulfillment of the 69
weeks from the Decree to rebuild Jerusalem and its walls by Artaxerxes
Longimanus in 445 BC. These 69 weeks are found in Daniel Chapter 9 and after the
69th week the Messiah was to be cut off (killed), but not for himself. Then
Jerusalem would also be destroyed, as it was in AD 70. The final 70th week still
remains in the future. But the point here is that from 445 BC to AD 32 is 476
years, which when converted to the biblical 360-day years, it equals 483
years or 69 times 7 or 69 weeks. But let us get back to Nisan 10 or also known
as the tenth day of the first month.
Nisan 10
had another significance in the history of Israel. Forty years after the Exodus,
Moses died and leadership was passed onto Joshua. As many know, Joshua and Jesus
are really the same name. However, Joshua was one of two of the twelve spies who
did not fear going into the land “filled with giants”. So after the 40 years of
wandering in the wilderness, Joshua led Israel across the Jordan River on Nisan
10. According to Archbishop Ussher, that was in 1451 BC. The chronology
consistently held here is that it was in 1452 BC, which is only slightly
different.
The thing of interest here is the time
between Joshua’s entry into the Land on Nisan 10, 1452 BC and Jesus’ entry into
Jerusalem on Nisan 10, AD 32 . With no such thing as year 0, that means the time
between both events was 1,483 years. Considering that to the Palm Sunday date of
Jesus Triumphal Entry according to Daniel factored into a separate 483
360-day year countdown, it seems fairly provocative that from Joshua it was
1,000 plus 483 calendar years. Considering 2 Peter 3:8 and
“a day as a thousand years,” it may add another aspect to the term, “the long
day of Joshua”.
Whatever the significance, or further
significance to be determined, clearly God has demonstrated His plan and
orchestration of human events within the confines of time and human freewill.
This here is another aspect to that plan and a countdown to our Savior
Joshua/Jesus, yet we still await the fulfillment of the seven future years to
complete the 490 years–“seventy times seven”.