Behold! A KING!!

There was a time when the people if Israel tried to force Jesus into being a king. Jesus would not allow it. There was also a time when Jesus presented Himself as king and when the people did not recognize Jesus as such there were punishments that followed. Our Lord expected the Israelites to know scripture and He also us to know it as well.

John 6:15 “When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.”

Jesus had the power to resist masses of people and not become a king.

Jesus doesn’t yell or threaten He simply departed.

This is a very good way to see the power of our Lord. We see that Jesus did not do anything to control the situation even though there is much He could have done.

When Jesus does present Himself as king we see Him prepare for the event by doing things that were prophesied in the Old Tesatament.

Luke 19:30 “Saying, Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither.”

Jesus tells His disciples to get a donkey that no person has ever ridden. We know it is a donkey because Matthew tells us in 21:2.

The donkey to ride is prophesied in Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: Behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; Lowly, and riding upon an ass, And upon a colt the foal of an ass.”

The Lord rides a donkey to signify that this is for peace.

Revelation 19:11 “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.”

Here is when our Lord rides for war.

Jesus riding a donkey for peace is very significant.

Here Jesus is revealing that He is making peace between God and people.

Luke 19:41 “And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,”

Jesus weeps over the city because they did not receive Him as king.

Due to the fact that the people in Jerusalem did not recognize Him as king there are now three consequences that will follow.

I am not sure if anyone knew the time and just refused to accept Jesus’ authority as king or if they were ignorant of scripture. Either one is not something that we want to do.

The first possibility could have to do with the expectation that the Israelites had of their messiah being a political ruler.

Many Jewish people today reject Jesus for the same reason.

The second possibility is being ignorant of scripture and that is where many people are today.

Not knowing scripture creates disobedience to God, unknown sin, and people who think they are saved from the wrath of God and aren’t Matthew 7:22–23 “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

There were three consequences that followed from rejecting Jesus as king

The first punishment was no peace Luke 19:42 “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.”

I spoke before how Jesus rode a donkey to signify peace with God.

In order for that to matter we must first realize that we all deserve hell for our sinful state and that there is nothing that we can do to save ourselves, it is only Jesus who can save us.

The people took having peace with God away from themselves by not recognizing Jesus when He came.

The leaders of the day knew what Jesus was doing and wanted Him to silence His disciples. Luke 19:39 “And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.”

The second consequence that followed is blindness Luke 19:42 “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.”

The second punishment for not recognizing Jesus as King is blindness

The blindness of the Jewish people will not last forever and because of this blindness some people believe that God has made all of His promises for Israel apply know to the church. This is an error and calls God a liar.

The blindness that is given to the Israelites is temporary

Romans 11:25 “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”

God will deal with Israel when the fullness of the gentiles comes in.

So even in consequence we see the grace of God

The third consequence is as I imagine the most serious to someone of Jewish faith because it creates the question-What does a Jewish person do with their sin? After all there is no temple to do sacrifices in.

Luke 19:43–44 “For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.”

The Jewish temple was destroyed by Rome in AD 70 around 30 years after Jesus gave this prophecy

That consequence is the most easily verified because there is not a temple in Israel to this day.

The visitation of our Lord to present Himself as king is found precise to the day.

The timeline is based off of Daniel 9:24-27 there are two episodes on this channel covering that section of scripture.

Jesus presented Himself as king to the day exactly when He was prophesied to in Daniel and perhaps I will do an episode on the timeline of that event some time

Jesus expected Israel to know scripture and He expects the same from us. Matthew 24:42 “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.” How can we watch if we don’t know what to watch for? Jesus can come at any time but the events in the world make it seem that the time is closer than ever.