In reply to Bruce Warner 14th March, and his thoughts on palm branches, here are my thoughts. Palm branches in heaven, I don’t know why you think that they would not be present in heaven, but that aside, palm branches are waved at the Feast of Tabernacles. Tabernacles is the final feast of the Lord in the calendar which has a future prophetic fulfilment. It represents Jesus as King. The folks in heaven are recognising Tabernacles.

 

I believe that the crowds waving palm branches at His entry into Jerusalem were actually enacting Tabernacles. Although Jesus was signalling his Kingship by riding on a donkey in fulfilment of the prophecy in Zachariah, He had to undergo His Passover as Lamb. If this is what John  is indicating in Chapter 12, this is an error on the crowd’s interpretation of the signs.

 

How could they know since none of the Feasts had at this point been fulfilled, but we know in retrospect that the feasts all have fulfilment in Jesus. Jesus is our Passover (His death) Unleavened Bread (in the grave) and First Fruits (His resurrection).  All has been fulfilled up to Pentecost (His Church), and we await Trumpets, Day of Atonement and finally Tabernacles. I do have a suspicion that there could be future fulfilments (?after Tabernacles) for Hanukkah and Purim right at the end of the Jewish religious calendar, but that is speculation on my part.

 

John Bidwell