Luke 19:40, commentary and pictures

Jesus spoke these words during His triumphal entry into Jerusalem as the promised King riding the colt amid the rejoicing hosannas of the multitude. When the Pharisees demanded that He silence His disciples, He answered that the praise could not be stopped, for if the people held their peace God would give voice to lifeless stones to proclaim Him. The acclamation had to go forward because it was appointed by divine providence and foretold by the prophets, even though the disciples expected a temporal kingdom and did not understand He was going to death. As at that time children in the temple took up the cry when the crowd was silenced, so in the proclamation of the second advent God raises other voices when appointed messengers are hindered. God must receive glory from a people on earth, so His work and the warning message for this time cannot be silenced by human opposition but will go forward in greater power, even by stones if every human agent should hold his peace.

Triumphal Entry Setting

The saying was spoken during the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when Jesus rode the colt and donkey as the promised King and heir to David's throne and was welcomed by a rejoicing crowd with the hope of a new kingdom rising. It belongs to the account of Christ riding into the city for the Passover, and the events of that scene point to similar scenes in the last great day.

He entered on the first day of the week after sending two disciples to bring a colt upon which no man had sat, and seated upon it with their garments spread over it He accepted homage He had never before permitted. The multitude gave Him the worship of happy hearts without outward pomp, hailing Him as Messiah and King, spreading their outer garments as a carpet in His path and strewing olive and palm branches in the way. They waved palm boughs as nature's emblem of victory and rent the air with loud shouts of triumph and hosannas repeated again and again and echoed from hills and valleys. The crowd continually grew with Passover travelers and with thousands from Jerusalem who came with palm branches and sacred song to meet Him and conduct Him to the city, while spectators asked who He was and what the commotion signified, astonished because He had declared His kingdom was not of this world, and while the temple trumpet for evening service went largely unanswered.

The acclamations were a fitting response to His merciful works and to the evidence of divine power among the people that they had witnessed and remembered. They praised His healings, His raisings of the dead, and all His good works, and especially after the raising of Lazarus a large enthusiastic crowd had gathered. The same entry is solemn because it includes His weeping on the crest of Olivet over the doomed city, for His mercy and love were rejected. That mercy and love are seen in His dying for sinful man so that man might not perish in his sins, and His weeping looked beyond the destruction of Jerusalem to an impenitent world doomed to destruction.

Divinely Appointed Acclamation

The outburst of praise at the entry into Jerusalem was set in place by God's special providence as part of the divine plan, revealed beforehand to the prophets of old, and appointed to go forward as the public acclaim of Jesus as King. No human threat, command, or earthly power could prevent what God had ordained or keep that welcome from being given. The prophetic vision of the King coming to Jerusalem had to be fulfilled, and no one could turn it aside.

If the disciples and the multitude had held their peace and been made quiet, God would have given voice to inanimate and lifeless stones to take up the shout in their place. Those stones would have hailed His Son with acclamations of praise and proclaimed Him, and the proclamation to be made was Behold your God. The shouting that praised His healings, His raisings of the dead, and all His good works that the people remembered could not be silenced.

Priests, elders, and Pharisees with blunted understanding pressed through the crowd and demanded that He rebuke and silence the disciples for their loud and excited praise. They could not see the fulfillment of prophecy, and they acted from envy and fear that the multitude would lift Him to be king, offering haughty reproof and wanting the joyful praise condemned as fanatical, wild, extravagant, and mesmerism. His answer defended the loud praise and silenced and defeated their effort to repress the enthusiasm of the people.

Men were powerless to turn aside God's purposes for His Son. God's work goes forward despite human efforts to hinder or destroy it.

Prophecy Fulfilled Despite Misunderstanding

The entry fulfilled the prophetic vision of the King coming to Jerusalem, with Israel's King coming lowly and riding on a donkey as heir to David's throne. The people crying Hosanna to the Son of David as Christ rode in fulfilled that prophecy. Jesus accepted the multitude's homage as He entered Jerusalem as the promised King and Messiah.

Prophecy had to be fulfilled and God's purpose accomplished, so the acclaim could not be silenced. Jesus refused to stop the praise because if the people had been silent the stones would immediately have cried out in their place. That shouting praised His healings, His raisings of the dead, and all His good works that they remembered, and the proclamation to be made was Behold your God.

The disciples acted on the mistaken belief that He was entering as a victorious temporal prince to be crowned earthly king. They expected Him to take David's throne and free Israel. They did not understand that He was going to judgment and death.

Within a few days those who expected His reign saw their beloved Master stretched on the cruel cross before mocking Pharisees. Their high hopes were bitterly disappointed by His death, with the darkness of death closing about them. Yet He remained true to His promises with sweet consolation and rich reward for the true and faithful. Only after His death and resurrection did they understand that prophecy had foretold His suffering and rising.

Praise Continued Through Others

The praise could not be silenced, for prophecy had to be fulfilled, and if the people had stopped proclaiming him the stones would have cried out in their place. As the crowd entered the city the people were intimidated by priests and rulers and under threats ceased their proclamation at the gates of Jerusalem. God then provided other voices, and children in the temple courts took up the cry with palm branches. Their rejoicing fulfilled the prophecy of praise from children.

The priests and rulers had refused the privilege of heralding Christ and advancing His work. For that reason God moved the children to witness to His glory. Their praise as King could not be suppressed, for prophecy that Christ would be proclaimed as King had to be fulfilled. If the rejoicing children had been silenced, even the stones would have cried out, and the very pillars of the temple themselves would have sounded His praise.

As it was at the first advent in Jerusalem, so it is in the proclamation of the second advent. God's word must be fulfilled that the coming of the Saviour be proclaimed to all peoples and tongues and nations. When His servants and adult messengers were silenced He put His Spirit upon children to accomplish the work. In Scandinavia God enabled children to carry forward the message of Jesus' second coming so that it could reach all peoples, tongues, and nations.

Application to Present Mission

God must receive glory from some who dwell on earth and will have a people who praise and glorify Him rather than remain cold and silent, so His true people cannot be cold and dead but must praise Him even with a loud voice. If His chosen people should hold their peace even the stones would immediately cry out and speak in their place, for praise to Christ cannot be silenced. The only company on earth from whom God is to get glory and who can praise and honor Him are those who keep His commandments and have the faith of Jesus. They must rise together in unity, gain victory over the powers of darkness instead of dragging one another down, and sing and shout to His glory to help drive away those powers.

Attempts to silence joyful praise as fanaticism, extravagance, wildness, or mesmerism repeat the Pharisees who wanted the disciples rebuked and silenced for their loud and excited praise. A large portion of those who profess to look for Christ yet are cold and dead want loud praise rebuked in the same way, opposing or ridiculing open praise. Even if Christ's followers hold their peace, God will still receive praise, and even His commandment-keeping people cannot rightly be forbidden to praise Him. The prospect now is far more glorious than the disciples' prospect at the first advent and gives all the more reason to praise aloud. This is because of the redemption Christ has purchased and the hope of His coming in the glory of the Father with all the holy angels to raise the sleeping saints immortal and catch up the changed living to meet Him, a hope full of immortality and glory.

The truths now due must be proclaimed by a people crying its very words and no man can stop that proclamation any more than men could stop the Hosanna cry. This includes the warning message and the third angel's message declaring God's commandments and the faith of Jesus to prepare people for Christ's coming, joined by a mighty angel to lighten the whole earth with glory, which is the future work shown to John on Patmos. It is an eternal law that he who accepts the truth must make it his first work to proclaim it to the world, and if those chosen refuse or hinder it or hold their peace God can give it to the stones of the field to proclaim, so the message will still be given because prophecy has pointed out this work as a work that must be accomplished. If people fail to proclaim God's warning, even the stones will give voice to it, and God's message will be proclaimed despite human neglect.

The work does not depend on keeping any particular men in their positions, so wrongdoing among workers must be corrected without fear that if those men drop the work the cause will fail. God can do without hindering, faultfinding, unconverted men who refuse to cooperate and put stones in the way, though it is for their own interest to reform. Those who claim to believe the truth must show zeal proportionate to it with self-sacrificing effort, prayer, and daily consecration instead of waiting, finding fault, and blocking those pushing the work forward. When God raises up men to give the world a message to prepare people to stand in the great day of God, no human influence can stop the work or close the mouths of the messengers. If every human agent should hold his peace God would put a voice into the stones and they would speak and the message would go forward in greater and still greater power, and no one can silence the messenger God sends or repress the message, for the Lord will be heard through His human agencies; if no human voice gives it the stones themselves will cry out.

In every age many kinds of labor are needed and each person should do the work suited to ability rather than be silenced by those with greater gifts or experience, for even a person with one talent can reach people whom workers with greater talents cannot. No one should condemn or discourage willing workers merely because they do not follow the same methods, since God can work through people of every ability and the message entrusted to Spirit-endued messengers must not be obstructed. Those who have received great light and earthly comfort and blessings must use their voices and abilities to save souls and go forth as God commands as missionaries. If selfish comfort and love of ease keep them silent God will make the stones speak and will hold them accountable with condemnation despite the great light received, a warning applying especially to Battle Creek whose members must use their gifts and go out and share the truth and lead others to the light. The image of stones crying out means God will make opposition heard against an attempt to place all the work under the control of a confederation of Battle Creek institutions to make them the power to bring every other line of work under their control, for that consolidation cannot be done because God Himself will raise a protest when unconverted men mold and fashion the work for display.