Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.
The blessing on the one who comes in the Lord's name is a prophecy that Christ should be proclaimed as King, and it was fulfilled when Jesus rode into Jerusalem while the multitude hailed Him as the promised Messiah come to reign and to save. The crowd that day expected a prosperous earthly kingdom and forgot His words of certain sacrifice, so their rejoicing soon turned to disappointment at the cross, for the triumph was only a prelude to His suffering and death. Because the rulers rejected Him instead of welcoming Him, the temple was left desolate and God's presence withdrawn, and Jerusalem would not see Him again until its people welcome His coming. Those who mocked Him and all the wicked dead will yet be compelled to acknowledge Him as King when they behold Him in heavenly glory and at the end of the thousand years, but that utterance will be forced from unwilling lips with no change of heart and too late for salvation. Now those whose minds are enlightened and whose lips are cleansed through forgiveness welcome Him with highest praise, and the children's welcome in the temple courts will be repeated in the closing work when children help give the last warning to a perishing world.
Setting and Triumphal Entry
The verse belongs to triumphant sacred song sung with thanksgiving at the Feast of Tabernacles, after the Day of Atonement had declared the people at peace with Heaven and prepared the way for rejoicing. Its call to give thanks for God's goodness and enduring mercy rose with all kinds of music mingled with shouts of hosanna. The temple was the center of the universal joy, with the choir of Levites leading the song from either side of the white marble steps while the multitude of worshipers waved branches of palm and myrtle, took up the strain and echoed the chorus, till voices near and afar caught up the melody and the encircling hills were vocal with praise.
It is prophecy that Christ should be proclaimed as King, and that word must be fulfilled. It was answered when Jesus rode into Jerusalem as the disciples and the continually growing multitude took it up as a shout of blessing on him who comes in the name of the Lord, joined with hosanna to the Son of David and hosanna in the highest, swelling from hill to hill and valley to valley as each newcomer caught the glad inspiration. In that welcome they hailed him as the Son of David, the promised Messiah and King come in the Lord's name to begin a prosperous reign on David's throne, joining his coming with hope of salvation. The same acclamation was repeated the next day in the temple by children waving palm branches, crying blessing on him that comes, behold thy King comes, and hosanna to the Son of David.
The disciples and crowd took that day as the crowning day of their lives and expected a prosperous earthly reign and temporal kingdom. Their glad triumph forgot his repeated words of his certain sacrifice, and they did not understand that suffering and death lay ahead. The rejoicing was only a prelude to his suffering and death, shouted by thousands in glad acclamation on the same road he soon traveled again with his disciples toward Gethsemane to complete his obedience by dying for the world.
The joyful disciples went some before and others after, cutting palm branches and spreading outer garments in the way with enthusiastic zeal, because they believed he was then to take the kingdom and reign as a temporal prince. The shouting disturbed the Pharisees, who wanted Jesus to rebuke his disciples and stop it, but he answered that if they held their peace the stones would immediately cry out, for the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 had to be fulfilled. Within a few days the rejoicing turned to bitter disappointment when they followed Jesus to Calvary, beheld him bleeding on the cruel cross, witnessed his agonizing death, laid him in the tomb, and felt their expectations fail in every particular and their hopes die with him, until their hopes revived when he rose from the dead and appeared to them. Their disappointment represents the disappointment of those who expected the Lord in 1844.
The praise was joined by people he had delivered and healed, whose joy and gratitude testified to his works of mercy and victory over Satan and death. That followed his healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, making the crippled leap for joy, and clasping the children in his arms. When the priests and rulers of Israel refused to herald his glory and tried to stop the rejoicing as desecration, God moved upon the children to be his witnesses, so their glad, unrestrained voices with palm branches proclaimed Jesus as King and repeated the blessing in the temple courts and in the house of God.
Rejection and Future Acknowledgment
The blessing was the welcome the people owed to Christ as the One sent by God, to receive Him and praise Him as God, and had the Jewish rulers given it instead of rejecting Him their future would have been altogether different. In His final words in the temple Jesus declared that Jerusalem would not see Him again until its people welcomed Him as the One coming in the Lord's name. As a nation Israel divorced herself from God and the natural branches were broken off, the temple was left desolate and was no longer His Father's house, and as He passed out from its walls God's presence was withdrawn from it forever. Its services and ceremonies became meaningless and a mockery, its time of probation ended, and the desolation was to last until the nation blesses Him, a warning that looked ahead to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies.
Those who mocked and rejected Jesus, including His accusers and enemies, will one day be compelled to acknowledge Him as the King who comes in the Lord's name when they see Him in heavenly glory and kingly power at His glorious return. That recognition will come too late for the salvation of those who rejected Him. All the wicked dead will speak the blessing with one accord at the end of the thousand years, when Jesus descends in fearful majesty with the redeemed host and angelic throng and calls them forth from sleep at the second resurrection. Raised with the same feeble sickly bodies that went into the grave bearing visible marks of the curse, kings and nobles and mean and low and learned and unlearned together will behold the Son of man in stern terrible majesty and resplendent glory as King of kings and Lord of lords. They will know Him as the crucified One who died to save them and whom they despised and rejected and mocked, crowned with thorns and smote with the reed and spit upon and nailed through hands and feet and pierced in the side. Affrighted and overwhelmed and pained by His exceeding glory and piercing gaze, seeking to hide in the rocks to shield themselves from His terrible presence and fleeing with wailing agony and one long protracted wail, they will yet with terrible distinctness in anguish bless His coming in the name of the Lord.
That final utterance is forced from unwilling lips by the force of truth, not inspired by love or by any change of heart. Those who speak it remain hostile to Christ and rebellious, and it gives them no further probation and no another opportunity for salvation.
Present Welcome and Witness
The verse is blessing and admiration, highest praise and joyful welcome to Jesus as the one who comes in the name of the Lord, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Those who learn at his feet, with minds enlightened and hearts quickened by holy admiration, answer him in these words. Lips cleansed through forgiveness take up the same praise in joyful welcome to Christ. It is voiced by people whose repentance and confession have brought them to trust in his sufficient sacrifice and receive forgiveness.
The hosanna welcome sung by children to Christ in the temple courts will be repeated in the closing work of this earth. Children who have received a Christian education will lift the standard of truth where they are. In their simplicity they will speak words that astonish men who talk of higher education, just as Jesus in the temple solved mysteries priests and rulers had not discerned. In the last days children's voices will be raised to give the last message of warning to a perishing world. When men are no longer permitted to present the truth, the Spirit of God will come upon the children and they will do a work in proclaiming the truth that older workers cannot do because their way will be hedged up.
The blessing on the one who comes in the Lord's name is a prophecy that Christ should be proclaimed as King, and it was fulfilled when Jesus rode into Jerusalem while the multitude hailed Him as the promised Messiah come to reign and to save. The crowd that day expected a prosperous earthly kingdom and forgot His words of certain sacrifice, so their rejoicing soon turned to disappointment at the cross, for the triumph was only a prelude to His suffering and death. Because the rulers rejected Him instead of welcoming Him, the temple was left desolate and God's presence withdrawn, and Jerusalem would not see Him again until its people welcome His coming. Those who mocked Him and all the wicked dead will yet be compelled to acknowledge Him as King when they behold Him in heavenly glory and at the end of the thousand years, but that utterance will be forced from unwilling lips with no change of heart and too late for salvation. Now those whose minds are enlightened and whose lips are cleansed through forgiveness welcome Him with highest praise, and the children's welcome in the temple courts will be repeated in the closing work when children help give the last warning to a perishing world.
Setting and Triumphal Entry
The verse belongs to triumphant sacred song sung with thanksgiving at the Feast of Tabernacles, after the Day of Atonement had declared the people at peace with Heaven and prepared the way for rejoicing. Its call to give thanks for God's goodness and enduring mercy rose with all kinds of music mingled with shouts of hosanna. The temple was the center of the universal joy, with the choir of Levites leading the song from either side of the white marble steps while the multitude of worshipers waved branches of palm and myrtle, took up the strain and echoed the chorus, till voices near and afar caught up the melody and the encircling hills were vocal with praise.
It is prophecy that Christ should be proclaimed as King, and that word must be fulfilled. It was answered when Jesus rode into Jerusalem as the disciples and the continually growing multitude took it up as a shout of blessing on him who comes in the name of the Lord, joined with hosanna to the Son of David and hosanna in the highest, swelling from hill to hill and valley to valley as each newcomer caught the glad inspiration. In that welcome they hailed him as the Son of David, the promised Messiah and King come in the Lord's name to begin a prosperous reign on David's throne, joining his coming with hope of salvation. The same acclamation was repeated the next day in the temple by children waving palm branches, crying blessing on him that comes, behold thy King comes, and hosanna to the Son of David.
The disciples and crowd took that day as the crowning day of their lives and expected a prosperous earthly reign and temporal kingdom. Their glad triumph forgot his repeated words of his certain sacrifice, and they did not understand that suffering and death lay ahead. The rejoicing was only a prelude to his suffering and death, shouted by thousands in glad acclamation on the same road he soon traveled again with his disciples toward Gethsemane to complete his obedience by dying for the world.
The joyful disciples went some before and others after, cutting palm branches and spreading outer garments in the way with enthusiastic zeal, because they believed he was then to take the kingdom and reign as a temporal prince. The shouting disturbed the Pharisees, who wanted Jesus to rebuke his disciples and stop it, but he answered that if they held their peace the stones would immediately cry out, for the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 had to be fulfilled. Within a few days the rejoicing turned to bitter disappointment when they followed Jesus to Calvary, beheld him bleeding on the cruel cross, witnessed his agonizing death, laid him in the tomb, and felt their expectations fail in every particular and their hopes die with him, until their hopes revived when he rose from the dead and appeared to them. Their disappointment represents the disappointment of those who expected the Lord in 1844.
The praise was joined by people he had delivered and healed, whose joy and gratitude testified to his works of mercy and victory over Satan and death. That followed his healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, making the crippled leap for joy, and clasping the children in his arms. When the priests and rulers of Israel refused to herald his glory and tried to stop the rejoicing as desecration, God moved upon the children to be his witnesses, so their glad, unrestrained voices with palm branches proclaimed Jesus as King and repeated the blessing in the temple courts and in the house of God.
Rejection and Future Acknowledgment
The blessing was the welcome the people owed to Christ as the One sent by God, to receive Him and praise Him as God, and had the Jewish rulers given it instead of rejecting Him their future would have been altogether different. In His final words in the temple Jesus declared that Jerusalem would not see Him again until its people welcomed Him as the One coming in the Lord's name. As a nation Israel divorced herself from God and the natural branches were broken off, the temple was left desolate and was no longer His Father's house, and as He passed out from its walls God's presence was withdrawn from it forever. Its services and ceremonies became meaningless and a mockery, its time of probation ended, and the desolation was to last until the nation blesses Him, a warning that looked ahead to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies.
Those who mocked and rejected Jesus, including His accusers and enemies, will one day be compelled to acknowledge Him as the King who comes in the Lord's name when they see Him in heavenly glory and kingly power at His glorious return. That recognition will come too late for the salvation of those who rejected Him. All the wicked dead will speak the blessing with one accord at the end of the thousand years, when Jesus descends in fearful majesty with the redeemed host and angelic throng and calls them forth from sleep at the second resurrection. Raised with the same feeble sickly bodies that went into the grave bearing visible marks of the curse, kings and nobles and mean and low and learned and unlearned together will behold the Son of man in stern terrible majesty and resplendent glory as King of kings and Lord of lords. They will know Him as the crucified One who died to save them and whom they despised and rejected and mocked, crowned with thorns and smote with the reed and spit upon and nailed through hands and feet and pierced in the side. Affrighted and overwhelmed and pained by His exceeding glory and piercing gaze, seeking to hide in the rocks to shield themselves from His terrible presence and fleeing with wailing agony and one long protracted wail, they will yet with terrible distinctness in anguish bless His coming in the name of the Lord.
That final utterance is forced from unwilling lips by the force of truth, not inspired by love or by any change of heart. Those who speak it remain hostile to Christ and rebellious, and it gives them no further probation and no another opportunity for salvation.
Present Welcome and Witness
The verse is blessing and admiration, highest praise and joyful welcome to Jesus as the one who comes in the name of the Lord, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Those who learn at his feet, with minds enlightened and hearts quickened by holy admiration, answer him in these words. Lips cleansed through forgiveness take up the same praise in joyful welcome to Christ. It is voiced by people whose repentance and confession have brought them to trust in his sufficient sacrifice and receive forgiveness.
The hosanna welcome sung by children to Christ in the temple courts will be repeated in the closing work of this earth. Children who have received a Christian education will lift the standard of truth where they are. In their simplicity they will speak words that astonish men who talk of higher education, just as Jesus in the temple solved mysteries priests and rulers had not discerned. In the last days children's voices will be raised to give the last message of warning to a perishing world. When men are no longer permitted to present the truth, the Spirit of God will come upon the children and they will do a work in proclaiming the truth that older workers cannot do because their way will be hedged up.