The Lord Enters Jerusalem

Introduction: Isaac Newton vs. the Sun

Good morning, greetings this Palm Sunday as we enter what historically the church has called the Holy Week. And while this day is typically called Palm Sunday on the church calendar because of the Palm branches waved upon His entrance into Jerusalem, it is also called Passion Sunday because Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem was a part of His passion meaning that He was entering the city as the Suffering Servant, lowly on a donkey for the purpose of dying. He was fulfilling His role as The Messiah, the Anointed One of Israel who came to deliver fallen mankind from their sin and misery.

I want to look at two passages this morning. One from the Old Testament and one from the New. Both passages are a look at the Lord entering Jerusalem…one symbolically and one physically.

So please join me in 2 Samuel Chapter 6 where we will be looking at verses 1-15 and then turn to the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 21 where we will be looking at the Triumphal entry. I’ll be reading these passages together with just a brief pause between them so if you are reading along, I suggest you place a marker of some sort to assist navigating between the passages.

2 Samuel chapter 6, beginning in verse 1 [READ]

The Gospel of Matthew Chapter 21, beginning in verse 1 [READ}

Thus ends the reading...

Isaac Newton is arguably one of the most brilliant men in history.

He is recognized as one of the most influential scientists of all times and his accolades are as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, theologian, philosopher, as well as author.

It was Newton who formulated the laws of motion, as well as his theory of universal gravitation which allowed him to prove Kepler’s laws of planetary motion.

It was Newton who built the first practical reflecting telescope and the theory of color.

It was Newton who formulated an empirical law of cooling and calculated the speed of sound.

It was Newton who introduced the notion of what we call Newtonian Fluids.

Not to mention his many contributions to mathematics such as binomial theorem, a method of approximating the roots of a function and classifying of the cubic plane curves.

And yet as gifted as Isaac Newton was, even I know better than to stare at the sun.

I’m not sure what experiment he was conducting at the time, but Newton stared at the sun reflected in a mirror.

Not only did he do this, which I don’t need to explain would be problematic and injurious but, to make matters worse, he first waited in a dark room so that his pupils dilated before using the mirror. According to one article, his goal was to see if this would create any weird or interesting visual phenomena.

I could have told him that without the experiment.

And what he essentially accomplished was a sunburn upon his retina that led to his temporary blindness, a medical condition known as Solar Retinopathy where too much ultraviolet light floods into the retina.

He couldn’t make the vision of the sun go away. All of you who have had a flashlight beam into your eyes knows this sensation. And it didn’t matter if Newton were in the dark or with his eyes closed, burned into his retina was the picture of the sun…this bright spot in his vision. He hid himself in the dark for 3 days to no avail. If he had stared at the sun any longer, he would have experienced permanent blindness.

Newton said, “I used all means to divert my imagination from the sun, but if I thought upon him I presently saw his picture though I was in the dark.

Did Newton discover anything that day?

Well nothing more than a six-year old couldn’t have told him…that staring at the sun will hurt your eyes.

And all that Newton walked away with was a bad case of photophobia or the fear of the sun! https://curiosity.com/topics/why-shouldnt-you-stare-at-the-sun-curiosity/

Tim Mackie and Jon Collins, the co-founders of The Bible Project, use the sun as a metaphor for God’s holiness.

Like the meaning of the word holiness, the sun is unique in our solar system. It is powerful, it is the source of light and life and beauty.

And yet while the sun, by God’s command, provides all of these good things…if you get too close, it will annihilate you.

And just like that, the presence of God is dangerous to those who are impure because God is pure…his holiness is not only His uniqueness as the only God and Creator but also His goodness.

As God tells Moses to remove his sandals because when God appeared and spoke to him out of the burning bush, God told Moses that he was upon holy ground. The only reason the ground was holy was because God’s presence was manifest in a powerful way that became visible and knowable to Moses.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

22 And the Philistines came up yet again and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim. 23 And when David inquired of the LORD, he said, “You shall not go up; go around to their rear, and come against them opposite the balsam trees. 24 And when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then rouse yourself, for then the LORD has gone out before you to strike down the army of the Philistines.” 25 And David did as the LORD commanded him, and struck down the Philistines from Geba to Gezer.

And God’s instruction to Moses is to not come any closer.

And believe me Moses didn’t want to.

Just like we wouldn’t want to get any closer to the sun.

https://thebibleproject.com/team/

In our passage in 2 Samuel, we have an incident regarding the Ark of the Covenant.

Now just so you have some of the background to what is going on here.

Back in the book of 1 Samuel, the Israelites go to war against the Philistines and instead of seeking the Lord and His wisdom, they decide to carry the Ark of the Covenant with them into battle and their idea was that the Ark would deliver them from the Philistines.

But the Ark wasn’t to be treated like a rabbit’s foot or some good luck charm and God gives them over to a great defeat and the Ark is captured by the Philistines.

Israel lost 30,000 foot soldiers in that battle as well as the Ark itself and it was during that battle, if you will remember that the two wicked sons of Eli are killed and Eli dies after hearing that the Ark was captured.

Well, what happens to the Ark?

The Philistines take the Ark and they bring it to Ashdod and they put it in the temple to their god Dagon and God defeats their worthless idol by toppling his image over and after they set Dagon up again, God not only topples his image but cuts off his hands upon the threshold of the temple.

And then God hits the Ashdodites with a plague of tumors and mice and so the Philistines decide to move the Ark to Gath…another Philistine city.

So God struck that city with tumors, so the Philistines moved it to Ekron, which was like a border town between Israel and the land of the Philistines. But the Ekronites were terrified and didn’t want it there and they too were struck with this plague of tumors and mice.

And this went on for 7 months.

And the decision was made to send the Ark back to Israel

So God defeats the Philistines and their god without an army at all. So they hitch up a cart to milk cows and send them down the road and the cows took the cart to Beth-shemesh in the land of Israel.

The people are happy, but they look into the Ark and God wipes them out. He kills over 50,000 men.

And this is what the men of Beth-shemesh say, ““Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? And to whom shall He go up from us?”

And the answer is that no one is able to stand against the holy God of the universe, the creator of all things.

According to , the ark was placed upon a new cart.

The cart was the way that the Philistines carried the ark. But God had instructed that poles be placed

And so they tell the folks at Kiriath-Jearim to come get the Ark. Which they do and it goes to the house of Abinadab and they consecrate a man by the name of Eleazar to care for it.

And the Ark of the Covenant stays there for 20 years.

Now in that 20 years. Israel goes from a nation of tribes and becomes a kingdom. First with Saul and then with David.

Fast forward to 2nd Samuel.

Saul is dead. David is in his hey day. He unifies the kingdom. He captures Jerusalem and renames it Zion and makes it the political capital of the nation.

and then he decides that Zion should also be the religious capital as well and in order for that to happen…David needs to bring the Ark to the city.

Which brings us to .

And so David the King decides to bring the Ark, the very symbol of God’s presence into Jerusalem.

According to , the ark was placed upon a new cart.

The cart was the way that the Philistines carried the ark. But God had instructed that poles be placed through 4 rings and the ark to be carried by Levites.

Look at verse 3 [read]

Verse 4 [read]

So David follows the example of the Philistines in the construction of a new cart to transport the Ark of God. Now this likely was because David didn’t know any better. It had been 20 years since the Ark of the Covenant had been moved.

Only a Levite was to move the Ark and the house of Abinadab was not a house of Levites. Furthermore the Levites needed to be consecrated, ceremonially clean and to be wearing the proper attire and make sacrifices and so forth…and none of that was done.

And even if all of that was done. The Levites would insert the gold covered staffs that had been consecrated for the purpose of carrying the ark through the rings of the ark and they, themselves were not to touch it.

Was the Ark magical?

No, it was wood covered in gold.

But God had set it apart as the symbol of His presence and it was to be treated as holy unto the Lord.

Was the burning bush more than a bush?

No, but just as God told Moses don’t come any closer, His instructions over the ark was to not get any closer.

But David makes a foolish command.

Make no mistake. There is good intention here. There is even great rejoicing…look at verse 5 [read]

The heart of the people were rejoicing. Their intentions were good. Their intentions were not to desecrate the Ark or to do anything against God.

Often times, you hear people say, “But God knows your heart”. This is most often said, when a person is in sin or something like that.

A person wants to commit adultery and says, I know that God wants me to be happy and fulfilled. I love God, he or she says and then you hear it… “God knows my heart”.

Yes, God knows your heart. And it is deceitfully wicked above all things. How dare you think for a moment that your heart is good news to you.

How dare David think that his intentions are good news to him?

Look at the result of good intentions when measured up against the Holy God. Verses 6 & 7 [read]

RC Sproul said, “While Uzzah’s motivations were likely “good” (he probably did not want the ark to get dirty), he foolishly presumed his sinful hands were cleaner than the ground”.

How dare Uzzah do what God has forbid. How dare Uzzah presume that his good intentions and heart would be good news to him that day. Instead he instantly found out that God is Holy…He learned in a split second the outcome of the warning… “do not come any closer” Uzzah ventured too close to the sun and was consumed.

David’s response? Verses 8 & 9 [read]

At first anger. Why has God done this? We were all rejoicing. Our intentions were good and honorable.

And then his anger turned to fear. He learned something that day about the Holy God of Israel. And he asked the question, “How can the ark of Lord (this symbol of the Lord’s holy presence) come to me? How will I bring it into Jerusalem?

Verse 10 [read]

There were Philistines who had converted to following Yahweh. Obed-Edom was probably one such Philistine. He is nevertheless described as a Gitite, a person from Gath one of the primary Philistine cities. His name still resounds with his former paganism in its meaning, which is Servant of Edom, a pagan god.

But he now lived over the border on the Israel side and was loyal to David and the God of Israel and so David took the Ark to his home. and gave up his plans to bring he Ark into Jerusalem.

And in verse 11 we read [read]

And the Ark could have stayed there another 20 years except that David learned that as dangerous as God’s presence was represented by the Ark and the danger of getting to close or treating it as anything but sacred and holy…with fear and reverence.

There was also blessing to be found in this dreadful and terrible God. The God who alone can bring dread and strike terror into the hearts of men.

So look at the outcome. verse 12 and following [read to end of chapter]

David now used the appropriate Ark bearers. He now offered sacrifices and consecrated himself and the people.

Again there is rejoicing and music and dance. And the Lord enters Jerusalem.

But there is also anger and bitterness with someone who ought to have been rejoicing as well. Michal - David’s wife.

Now I want you to keep that story…that historical account in your mind.

The very next chapter in 2 Sam is what ties this account with . We are not going to go through it in detail but let me give you the highlights in 2 Sam chapter 7.

The Ark is now in Jerusalem. and David had a kingly home to be in and yet the Ark of God was still in a tent and David had a problem with this and so he decides that he wants to build God a house.

Look at verse 1 and following [read 1-7]

And then God makes a covenant with David. Basically God tells him, “you shall not build me a house…but rather I will build you a house…a dynasty and I will raise up a king from your house…a king such as the world has never known.

Verse 8 and folliwng [read 8-11]

Now look at verse 12

Now part of this is fulfilled in Solomon, David’s son, who does build a temple for God and who does sin and commit iniquities of His own.

But there is another part to this…the bigger part that is fulfilled in the person of Christ alone. While Solomon built an earthly temple, it is Christ who is building the living temple as we learn in Acts that “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands”.

And it is Christ the descendant of David, the God-Man who will sit forever on the Davidic throne and whose kingdom will be established forever and who alone is King of kings and Lord or lords and the only begotten Son of God.

Now turn with me to Matthew Chapter 21

What I want you to see here are the contrasts!

Because both of these passages shows God entering Jerusalem.

So the first contrast we see is the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of God’s presence in the OT against Christ who is very God of very God, the God-Man, God incarnate, God in the flesh.

The Ark, made of perishable wood covered in gold. It contained the tablets of the law, the decalogue…those ten commandments of the moral law, which was primarily why it was called the Ark of the Covenant or the Ark of the testimony. It also contained Aarons rod, which had budded…this staff of the priest which had produced life from the deadness of a staff. and it contained a Jar holding manna, this bread which brought life to Israel in the wilderness.

But now, entering Jerusalem is the God-Man....God in the flesh. No longer a symbol of God’s presence but God’s presence veiled in flesh.

Inside the ark was the tablets of the Law

Where as the ark took wood which rots and perishes and covered it with gold which cannot rust, which cannot tarnish so we have a picture of humanity and deity coming together but instead of the wood being veiled in gold…with Christ the gold was veiled in wood. Because the gold of his deity is too splendid for men to look upon so deity is clothed or veiled in flesh.

Christ is gold covered in wood.

Those tablets of the law that the ark contained were now contained in the heart of the God-Man whose finger it was that wrote those very laws those many years before.

That staff of Aaron. Well now coming into Jerusalem is He who caused the dead staff to bud. For it is Christ alone who can make those who are dead in sin, alive in righteousness. He truly has come that the dead may sprout to life.

That jar of manna, just a shadow…a picture. It is Christ who said:

English Standard Version Chapter 6

48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Yes, it is the Lord who enters Jerusalem.

In 2 Sam, the crowds rejoiced and played music, they were excited. David danced as the Ark entered the royal city. Why? Why was David so exited?

Because the presence of God was the place of blessing.

David and the people had seen firsthand the blessing of God upon the house of Obed-Edom.

Look at verses 8 & 9 in [read]

Why have these crowds gathered? Why were they so excited?

Because they have seen the blessings that come to those who are near to this man. The Gospel of John tells us that when Jesus arrived in Bethany, He raised Lazarus from the dead four days after Lazarus had died. That just happened. But everywhere this man went, people were healed, demons were cast out, the dead were raised.

The blessings that accompany Jesus were but glimpsed at in the blessings of the Ark of the Covenant at the house of Obed-Edom. Those were just temporal blessings but Christs earthly miracles pointed to the divine reality that He alone has the authority to forgive sin and inaugurate the kingdom of God.

The King had come, the Messiah was here…and His miracles were the victorious vanquishing of His enemies…sin and death…which was but a foretaste of what He would accomplish on the cross.

Were all the people excited here in Matthew Chapter 21?

No, there were those who were not, whose heart was far from the Lord who should have, who ought to have been excited but the presence of God was not a blessing to them. They were distracted from the things of the Lord by the things of this world.

In Luke chapter 19, the parallel passage to , we read of the Pharisees their response to the shouts of the crowd as they cried, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord; peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” In Luke 19:39 we read:

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 19

39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”

40 But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!”

The Pharisees who claimed to worship the God of Israel, who claimed to be the followers of the word of God now witness the Word made Flesh…God incarnate. and what do they do? They attempt to rebuke Him.

In 2 Sam it was David’s wife, Michal, the daughter of Saul who ought to have rejoiced alongside her husband…instead, her heart is far from God. It was the things of the world…her jealous heart which kept her from rejoicing for the God who has set His blessings upon His people.

What about you? Where are you in the story? Where am I?

In 2 Sam we are Uzzah.

We too, like Uzzah have nothing in us to make us able to present ourselves before God in His holiness. Our hands, like the hands of Uzzah are filthy. The ground is holy but we are fithy. The ground…the very dirt has not sinned against God and yet we have all turned aside and set ourselves upon the throne.

God didn’t make His laws to protect the Ark from defilement…they were there to protect Uzzah from being consumed. Moses, don’t come any closer was not a command to protect God but to protect Moses.

Tim Challies writes:

Mud is simply water and dirt coming together in obedience to God. There is nothing in mud that can cause it to defile God’s ark. But Uzzah was a sinful human being defiled by sin who arrogantly supposed that his hands were cleaner before God than the dirt and water. And God was forced to strike him down for an act of such spiritual arrogance.

sometimes people think, “But Uzzah was innocent, he didn’t do anything wrong…his heart was in the right place”

RC Sproul responds to such questions in his book The Holiness of God:

“Uzzah was not an innocent man. He was not punished without a warning. He was not punished without violating a law. There was no caprice in this act of divine judgment. There was nothing arbitrary or whimsical about what God did in that moment. But there was something unusual about it. The execution’s suddenness and finality take us by surprise and at once shock and offend us.”

You and I are no different. We like Uzzah have broken the commandments of the Lord. We like Uzzah know right from wrong and yet do wrong. We like Uzzah think that our hearts are pure and our motives are holy. We like Uzzah, deserve death…deserve to be struck down.

In the story recorded for us in 2 samuel, insert your name when you read Uzzah’s and I’ll insert mine. And know that as we do so that God is just for His wrath upon sinful people like us.

But look at .

Where is the parallel?

None of the disciples were struck down.

Even the wicked Pharisees escaped little more than a verbal rebuke on that day.

God enters Jerusalem just fine. The donkey that He rides is not sacrificed as the oxen in 2 Samuel.

Who was struck down for God to enter the royal city in ?

I think you know the answer all ready.

God’s wrath for the sins of His people. for all of their law-breaking. For their wayward hearts. For their blasphemies and wickedness. For their spiritual arrogance.

So like Uzzah we have kindled God’s anger. But the story doesn’t end with you and I being struck down. The Gospel has re-written the inevitable outcome. It’s a suprised ending to us…

2 Sam says, as I insert my name in the place of Uzzah’s:

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 6

And the anger of the LORD burned against Uzzah, and God struck him down there for his irreverence; and he died there by the ark of God

But now because of Christ, my story reads:

“And the anger of the LORD burned against Monty, and God struck down Christ for Monty’s irreverence; and Jesus died there on Calvary, so that Monty could live.

How is it that 30000 foot soldiers of Israel are killed for their sin.

How is it that 50000 men from Beth-Shemesh are killed for looking into the Ark.

How is it that Uzzah is struck dead?

And I am not?

Is it because God is no longer angered by sin?

No, for He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

but it is because He struck Christ for our irreverence and showered upon us the blessings of His presence for the righteousness of Christ. Better than the blessings of Obed-Edom, we have received the substance to which those things could only point. Christ has become to us the Bread and Water of Life. He has kept the whole law and by God’s grace, we have been declared holy even as God is holy and day-by-day, God shapes us as He sanctifies us into what He has already in Christ declared us to be.

What about you?

:

Is your name still alongside Uzzah’s? Are you just waiting for God’s wrath to strike as you continue to live on borrowed time with borrowed breaths, racking up for yourself God’s wrath against your sins?

Or is your name alongside of Christ’s? Has He absorbed what you deserve on Calvary so you may enjoy what He deserves for eternity?

As Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, may it be said of you

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 6

“AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU,

AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU.”

Behold, now is “THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,” behold, now is “THE DAY OF SALVATION”—

New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

I want to show the contrast of "The Lord entering Jerusalem" in and Luke chapter 21?

a. Dancing and praise

b. singing

3. David's wife Michal vs. Pharisees as nay-sayers

4. Uzzah vs. Christ in being struck down

5. Blessings Miracles in Jesus day vs. the blessings of the Obed-Edom

Isaiah in the temple?