Luke 19:37-44 tells about the Triumphal Entry (Palm Sunday) when Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey:
37 As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen,
38 shouting: “BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
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!”
41 When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, 44 and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
So, what was so special about this day, and what about it did they not recognize?
Before continuing, we need to understand that a Biblical prophetic year is 360 days. All the following refer to the same period of time, namely 3.5 prophetic years:
1. 1260 days (Revelation 11:13, 12:6)
2. Times, times and half a time (Daniel 7:25, 12:7, Revelation 12:14)
3. Forty-two months (Revelation 13:5)
30-day months is also seen in Genesis 7-8 referring to the time Noah was in the Ark. In fact, when God created the Earth, the solar year might have actually been exactly 360 days, and later it changed.
In Daniel 9:24-25 we read:
24 “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place. 25 So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. 26 Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.
The hebrew word translated “week” means seven of anything, like the English word “dozen” means twelve of anything.
So this is a prophecy of the coming of Christ, and the crucifixion to occur after the completion of the 69 weeks.
Sir Robert Anderson has written a book, The Coming Prince, in which he establishes the following from archeology and other evidence:
1. The exact date of the issuing of the decree,
2. The exact date of the Triumphal Entry,
3. The sevens are periods of seven 360-day years, or periods of 7 x 360 days, or 2520 days, and
4. The Triumphal Entry was exactly 69 x 7 x 360 days, or 173880 days after issuing of the decree.
So, what was so special and important about the day of the Triumphal Entry was that it was the exact fulfillment, to the day, of the 69 weeks of Daniel, and they should have recognized it but did not.
Who but God could have known this in advance and/or arranged history so that it would happen?
And what will be the 70th week? The Tribulation which is yet future.