CHAPTER 5
5
An Unlikely Prophetic Scenario
________________________ ________________________ The assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet....They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture [robe] (Psalm 22:16,18). They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink (Psalm 69:21). It was the night of April 9, A.D. 32, a Wednesday. The scene was the "last supper" and Jesus was alone with the twelve who comprised the inner circle of His disciples. Only three days earlier, on Sunday, April 6—a day now celebrated as Palm Sunday—the acclaim awarded Jesus of Nazareth had reached a crescendo. He had ridden into Jerusalem that day, mounted not as one would expect of a hero, but, strangely enough, on a donkey. Nevertheless, throngs of people had spontaneously lined the approach to the Holy City to welcome Him. Waving palm branches and shouting for joy, the multitudes had hailed Him as Israel's long-awaited Messiah. Few, if any, in that joyous crowd realized that they were fulfilling a prophecy made part of Scripture about 500 years earlier: 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. . . a colt the foal of an ass (Zechariah 9:9). Following that astonishing event Jesus had remained day
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