The "Triumphal Entry"

By William Riley
Olive Tree Ministries
ot.waxahachie@yahoo.com

Q. What is the symbolism in Matt. 21.1-5 and the so-called “triumphal entry?”

A. There is a lot of symbolism going on and some allusions to prophecy yet unfulfilled. The day this occurred was the 10th day of Aviv, or Nisan, when the Passover lamb was selected and separated (Exo 12). Yeshua as our Passover lamb rides into Jerusalem and is selected by the people and for four days he is inspected by the priests, the Gentiles, the Jewish people and he was without spot or blemish. He initiates this aspect of fulfilling the Torah on the 10th of Nisan in our passage.

Prophetically this will happen again, only it will be the false messiah who will declare himself God. He does this at the mid-point of the tribulation period. Matt. 24 clearly says that Yeshua returns on Yom Kippur if you know the idioms for that particular festival. There are many allusions to his return in the Tanach as well and the ancient Rabbis believed that Messiah would come in Tishri and Yom Kippur, so this opinion is based on over 2000 years of interpretation.

IF Yeshua returns on a Yom Kippur, that means the tribulation starts on a Yom Kippur, with the half-way point or 1260 days later coming to Nisan 10 and it is the mid-point that the false messiah declares who he wants people to believe he is. He will be imitating what Yeshua is doing here in Matthew. Notice that he tells the disciples to get a donkey and a colt. I know we have all seen the movies where he rides into Jerusalem on a donkey but how many times have you seen him riding two animals. He says in v3 that he has “need of them (plural)”. Maybe he rode both at one time, or one then the other but the prophecy in Zechariah 9.9 clearly says that two animals will be used. Riding one donkey into Jerusalem was not uncommon, but a donkey and a colt would have been unusual for sure.

So, what is going on? The donkey symbolizes the old nature (Job 11.12) and it needs to be subjected to Yeshua. The colt symbolizes a “new generation”, the “younger” or in other words being “born again.” In the Scriptures it was always the younger (colt) that inherited over the older (donkey) and the examples are obvious. What the Lord was trying to say is that Adam lost the kingdom (the older brother, the flesh, the donkey) and cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Yeshua is the younger brother (colt, younger, second generation, born again, spirit) who regains the kingdom and that is what the people are expressing in our passage and that is why they are hailing him as king, although they probably didn’t see all of it at the time. They saw him as a deliverer from Rome like David and wanted him to act. They had no idea how right they were.

But, before we criticize them there are very few people reading this column who saw this in the Scriptures and you have read it and seen it hundreds of times. Many things were not revealed about Yeshua until after his resurrection and can only be revealed by the Spirit of God. Paul certainly saw these concepts, as did the other apostles, because they write about them but it had to be revealed to them.

Lastly, there is an interesting teaching from the rabbis on the Messiah. In Sanhedrin 98a and the Jewish Encyclopedia in an article called “The Antichrist” it says that Messiah will appear on a horse if the world is entirely righteous, and on a donkey if the world is entirely wicked. Well, that statement is true to a point but a little short. Messiah did appear on a donkey and the issue God had with sin had to be dealt with at the cross 4 days later. Messiah will also appear on a horse at his second coming to deliver his righteous ones (Rev 19, Matt. 24.22). There is much more to this but I hope this gives some insight into this very significant day in Yeshua’s life.