Jesus Wept for Jerusalem for not recognizing the day of its visitation
Now when Jesus approached and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, "If you had only known on this day, even you, the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and surround you and close in on you from every side. They will demolish you—you and your children within your walls—and they will not leave within you one stone on top of another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God. (Luke 19:41-44 )"
Had they studied in Daniel, who outlined the days until the Messiah would appear, they would have known that Christ's arrival into the city presenting Himself both as their Messiah and the Passover lamb, was the very exact day countable from the Hebrew calendar as Daniel had prophesied. This is irrefutable by math! And why Jesus would Himself literally refer to the 'day of your visitation from God'!
Jesus Wept for Jerusalem under Coming Judgment
Earlier, the Lord had said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it". (Luke 13:34)& nbsp; As our Lord approached Jerusalem and thought of all those lost souls, "He saw the city and wept over it" (Luke 19:41). Here, wept is the same word used to describe the weeping of Mary and the others in John 11:33, so we know that Jesus cried aloud in anguish over the future of the city.
We know this was fulfilled as well and the prophesy Jesus spoke of "one stone not being left on another" was fulfilled in the desctruction of the temple in AD 70!
THE prophet Daniel lived more than 500 years before the birth of Jesus. Nevertheless, Jehovah revealed to Daniel information that would make it possible to pinpoint the time when Jesus would be anointed, or appointed, as the Messiah, or Christ. Daniel was told: “You should know and understand that from the issuing of the word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Leader, there will be 7 weeks, also 62 weeks.”—Daniel 9:25.
To determine the time of the Messiah’s arrival, first we need to learn the starting point of the period leading to the Messiah. According to the prophecy, it is “from the issuing of the word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem.” When did this “issuing of the word” take place? According to the Bible writer Nehemiah, the word to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem was issued “in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes.” (Nehemiah 2:1, 5-8) Historians confirm that the year 474 B.C.E. was Artaxerxes’ first full year as ruler. Therefore, the 20th year of his rule was 455 B.C.E. Now we have the starting point for Daniel’s Messianic prophecy, that is, 455 B.C.E.
Daniel indicates how long the time period leading to the arrival of “Messiah the Leader” would last. The prophecy mentions “7 weeks, also 62 weeks”—a total of 69 weeks. How long is this period of time? Several Bible translations note that these are, not weeks of seven days, but weeks of years. That is, each week represents seven years. This concept of weeks of years, or seven-year units, was familiar to Jews of ancient times. For instance, they observed a Sabbath year every seventh year. (Exodus 23:10, 11) Therefore, the prophetic 69 weeks amount to 69 units of 7 years each, or a total of 483 years.
Now all we must do is count. If we count from 455 B.C.E., a period of 483 years takes us to the year 29 C.E. That was exactly the year when Jesus was baptized and became the Messiah! * (Luke 3:1, 2, 21, 22) Is that not a remarkable fulfillment of Bible prophecy?
