Luke 19:32-40 The Stones Would Cry Out
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: November 1, 2018 Luke 19:32-40
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
(Understanding the Text) The triumphal entry was a necessary part of the plan of salvation. I know this because Jesus said that if the people were silent the very stones would cry out. It was necessary for Jesus to enter Jerusalem as King to the acclamation of the people. Why was this? I think it was to make sure the attention of every Jew in Jerusalem and the surrounding areas was focused on Jesus when He was crucified.
In Matthew it says that the disciples took not only the colt but its mother also. “saying to them, ‘Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me'” (Matthew 21:2). I have wondered if Jesus had pre-arranged to get the donkey while some of my friends were adamant that He had not. Mark says something that would speak against my idea of prearrangement, “If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’” (Mark 11:3). By promising to bring it back immediately, it implies that this was a request of the moment rather than pre-arrangement.
Where did the crowd come from? Part of them had already been following Jesus from before Jericho. More would have been added at Jericho and Bethany, but now even more joined Jesus. Edersheim says “Bethphage – we presume the village – formed almost part of Jerusalem, and during Easter-week must have been crowded by pilgrims, who could not find accommodation within the City walls. And the announcement, that disciples of Jesus had just fetched the beast of burden on which Jesus was about to enter Jerusalem, must have quickly spread among the crowds which thronged the Temple and the City.”
The disciples led the two animals back to where they had left Jesus. Edersheim says “As the two disciples, accompanied, or immediately followed by the multitude, brought ‘the colt’ to Christ, ‘two streams of people met’ – the one coming from the City, the other from Bethany. The impression left on our minds is, that what followed was unexpected by those who accompanied Christ, that it took them by surprise. The disciples, who understood not, till the light of the Resurrection glory had been poured on their minds, the significance of ‘these things,’ even after they had occurred, seem not even to have guessed, that it was of set purpose Jesus was about to make His Royal Entry into Jerusalem.”
When the disciples and crowd reached Jesus, the disciples took off their outer robes and arranged them carefully on the colt, and then helped Jesus on to the colt. Then someone began leading the mare forward, and the colt with Jesus on it followed. As they began going up the road to Jerusalem, the anticipation that had been growing in the crowd as they waited burst out into shouts of praise. They were ecstatic that the Messiah was finally taking His throne. As the parade followed Jesus’ colt towards Jerusalem, they shouted praise and blessings on the Messiah and the earth.
Edersheim points out that this was actually an adaptation of a custom that was given to all the pilgrim bands that entered the city during this time. “it must be remembered that, according to Jewish tradition, Psa_118:25-28, was also chanted antiphonally by the people of Jerusalem, as they went to welcome the festive pilgrims on their arrival, the latter always responding in the second clause of each verse, till the last verse of the Psalm was reached, which was sung by both parties in unison, Psa_103:17 being added by way of conclusion. But as ‘the shout rang through the long defile,’ carrying evidence far and wide, that, so far from condemning and forsaking, more than the ordinary pilgrim-welcome had been given to Jesus.” The crowd took this traditional welcome chant and modified it to welcome their king. “‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed be He that cometh in the Name of the Lord… Blessed the Kingdom that cometh, the Kingdom of our father David… Blessed be He that cometh in the Name of the Lord… Hosanna.. Hosanna in the highest.. Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.’” As I read Edersheim’s account, I remembered all the Middle Eastern weddings I had attended. There is always a procession where one leader calls out something and the rest respond back with a traditional answer. Now, I have a different picture of the Hosannas during the triumphal entry. I think it may have been more like a wedding procession chant where one person or group called out the beginning lines and the rest of the crowd called out the responses.
These are the verses that were traditionally called out to pilgrims entering the city. “Save us, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD. The LORD is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar! You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you. Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!” (Psalm 118:25-29).
As they entered Jerusalem, the noisy crowd grew and drew attention from the Jewish leaders. Some of the leading Pharisees pushed their way through the crowd until they were close to Jesus. Then, they yelled at Him to make the crowd be silent. They were afraid that the Roman soldiers would come and begin crowd control, which would include many in the crowd being hurt. Jesus’ answer to them was not satisfactory. He informed them that the praise would continue and even if they were able to stop it, it would not stop. These events had to proceed forward. This was one event that was not dependent upon man’s choice. If men chose not to announce Jesus royal procession into Jerusalem this last time, then the rocks would shout it out.
(Application / Revelation of God) My application for myself is that there are some events that will go forward whether I participate or not simply because they are a necessary part of God’s plans while there are other situations that are dependent upon me and my choices. I would rather be a participant than a mocker or cynic. On the other hand, I have to remember that God’s plan may be very different than it appears at the moment, and I need to be ready for it to go very differently than my worldly expectations say it will. Jesus’ triumphal entry was so that He could be crowned King of the Jews and officially become the representative of men so that He could then die for us. The triumphal entry was meant to set in motion a series of events that would ultimately lead to a victory that looked like defeat. The path to heaven was through surrendering to hell. This was quite a different outcome than the crowd expected.
(Revelation of God) Zechariah predicted this event more than 400 years before. “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double. For I have bent Judah as my bow; I have made Ephraim its arrow. I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and wield you like a warrior’s sword” (Zechariah 9:9-13). How could Jesus predict that the stones would cry out if the people did not? He knew the prophecy and understood it. He had confidence in the scriptures and guidance from the Holy Spirit. He also understood the rest of the prophecy. He was bringing the peace of God, not military might to Jerusalem. He knew His actions would have worldwide results. “Return to your Stronghold, O prisoners of hope” means to return to the God of Abraham instead of serving the God of form and tradition. They were confined by the restrictions imposed by their waiting.
This prophecy from Zechariah 9 amazes me “For I have bent Judah as my bow; I have made Ephraim its arrow. I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and wield you like a warrior’s sword.” God was saying that He was going to take Jews, teach them to be His soldiers, and send them out to fight the sons of Greece. Only this was spiritual battle, and it really happened! Jesus trained the twelve and the seventy and filled them with the Spirit, and they multiplied even more, and then Jesus took them out of Israel and shot them straight into the domain of Greek thinking. There, they began to transform the Greek thinking and culture into God’s people. God is fighting a war, but His methods are nothing like we worldly humans expect. Jesus understood with His pure character, but we keep missing the point.
(Prayer) You are amazing, yet I forget Your ability to overcome the world with Your own methods and focus too often on the success of the world’s methods. I see the destruction and not that You have already planned to work around the destruction. You succeed in ways that I do not have the wits to see in the present time. Give me the faith in You to trust even when I cannot see what You are doing.