"All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken" 400 years before "by the prophet" Zechariah, saying, "Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass." At the Feast of Tabernacles, it had long been the custom for the Jewish people to sing Hosannas, and also to carry in their hands branches of palm or other trees, in honour of the Messiah whom they were expecting; and by receiving Jesus as they now did, the multitudes did, in fact, acknowledge Him to be that expected Messiah--at once God and man--the King spoken of by the prophets; promised by the Almighty. No other king ever entered Jerusalem in this manner, which had been foretold by the prophets; and therefore what had now happened, ought to have convinced all the Jews that Jesus Christ was indeed the Messiah: but nothing will convince those who are obstinately determined not to believe, and even now, "some of the Pharisees from among the multitude," who chose to think it was blasphemy to give Jesus, a man, the honour due to the Messiah, "said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples." But instead of doing so, Jesus "answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should, hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out." By this answer, Jesus plainly told the Pharisees, that so far from meriting a rebuke for speaking _blasphemy_, all that the people had said was so pleasing to God, that if they were prevented from saying it, the Almighty would, even by a miracle, raise up others to glorify His name, by proclaiming this wonderful truth. Nothing, however, could overcome the obstinate unbelief of the Pharisees. They "said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after him." They could not but own, that in spite of all they had done, the people did believe Jesus to be the Messiah; but this had no other effect than to make them the more anxious to put Him to death. Mean time Jesus rode on; "And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation." The meaning of what Jesus now said is, that it would have been a happy thing for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, if while He was with them they would have believed on Him, for then He would have given them peace and happiness. And He wept in pity, whilst He foretold the utter destruction that would come upon the city, as a punishment to the Jews for refusing to believe in Him, and receive Him as the Messiah.