Prophetic Prospective Daily Devotional

Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes.

Our key verse has a relationship with the ancient Jewish prophet Daniel and his writings, which I will get to in a moment. Let me set the scene for you as you read the extended portion of our devotional.

The previous thirteen verses, verses 28-40, are a description of the Lord's "Triumphal Entry" into the city of Jerusalem and onto the Temple Mount. The people who had rejected the Lord now welcomed Him into the city as a ruling King.

It is interesting to note the response of the Pharisee, verse 39, and what Jesus had to say to them as they complained to the Lord of all the commotion by His disciples, asking Jesus to rebuke His disciples. Jesus responded with, if He had shut up those who welcomed Him the "stones would have cried out for Him".

Verses 45 and 46 reveal the "priestly" attitude of Jesus against the money-changers in the Temple. He rebuked these money-changers and threw them out of the Temple. In verses 47 and 48 we see Jesus the "prophet", the teacher who taught in the Temple complex the people who were attentive to hearing Him.

But now back to our key, verse 42. Jesus was very moved when He stood atop the Mount of Olives overlooking the Temple Mount in the city of Jerusalem. Luke wrote that "Jesus wept" over what He saw, a needy people who had rejected their Messiah.

Then Jesus said that on this day of His "Triumphal Entry" the people failed to receive the One described in Daniel's prophecy, Daniel 9:25-26. An in-depth study of this prophetic passage in Daniel would show that this day when Jesus entered Jerusalem, He was doing so on the day Daniel predicted it would happen.

Daniel's prophecy indicates that from the decree by Artaxerxes, Nehemiah 2, to allow Nehemiah to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the streets and walls of the city, which took place April of 445BC, until the day, Saturday, in April 30AD when Jesus made His Triumphal Entry, could be figured out to the exact day (see my audio series, "The Daniel Papers").

The day Jesus stood there was that day predicted, not the day before or the day after. Jesus got to Jerusalem on the exact day it was foretold for Him to be there. The people of Jerusalem had not read Daniel's prophecy. They did not recognize He was to be there in Jerusalem at that time.

This is also the case with us today. We can determine where we are in God's "prophetic time" by studying His "prophetic word". We must study the prophetic Word of God to recognize when Jesus is coming back. It could be today!

What is meant by, "it could be today", is not referring to the Second Coming but the Rapture, when Jesus calls us up to meet Him in the "air". Everything is ready for the Rapture to take place, right now. There is not one prophecy that must be fulfilled before the Rapture, all prophecy yet to be fulfilled will be after the Rapture. Indeed, it could be today.

PRAYER THOUGHT: Help me to understand, dear Lord, Your prophetic Word so that I can recognize the days I am living in and help me to live in light of that understanding.