Friday, March 6, 2015

The Unassuming Entrance of a Conquering King

Good morning!

Today's passage is Zechariah 9:9-13.  This prophetic passage refers to the Messiah, Jesus Christ. This prophecy was fulfilled by Jesus on what Christians refer to as Palm Sunday, the first Sunday of Passion Week, Passover Week.  We find this event recorded in Matthew 21:5 and John 12:15.   Compare those verses with Zech. 9:9 ---


9Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
         Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!
         Behold, your king is coming to you;
         He is just and endowed with salvation,
         Humble, and mounted on a donkey,
         Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.


Old Testament scholars over the 400 years between Zechariah's time and Jesus' time must have puzzled over this prophecy.  Why in the world would their Messiah, a King, a Deliverer, triumphantly enter His capitol city riding on the young foal of a donkey.  Only those of the very lowest social strata rode donkeys, to begin with, much less the unruly foal of one.  Not only that, Jesus had no fancy riding habit, nor bridle nor saddle.  He sat on the clothes of His admirers.  What picture was the Godhead trying to paint here, with this prophecy and its precise fulfillment?

Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, the only entrance He made into that city with any "pomp and circumstance" whatsoever, was a sign of triumph - - - not over the Romans who were in power over the Jews at that time, but over Satan, who was in power over the hearts of men.  The triumph here was the arrival of the kingdom of God in the hearts of men.  Jesus was and is the perfect arbiter of justice and bears salvation, IS salvation, to all mankind.  The other character trait mentioned was His humility. Although He arrived with salvation and the liberation from sin' tyranny, He never forces Himself into the heart of any person.

The next four verses have dual fulfillments, both beginning in Jesus' day, with His finished work of salvation and also pointing toward that day when peace will reign permanently in Jerusalem.
Verses 11-13:

11As for you also, because of the blood of My covenant with you,
         I have set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

12Return to the stronghold, O prisoners who have the hope;
         This very day I am declaring that I will restore double to you.

13For I will bend Judah as My bow,
         I will fill the bow with Ephraim.
         And I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece;
         And I will make you like a warrior’s sword.


The "blood of my covenant" refers to the blood of the Passover covenant:  "when I see the blood, I will pass over you" (Exodus 12:13). Jesus was the ultimate Passover Lamb.  His spilled blood sealed the covenant of redemption between God and man, forever, setting believers free from the "waterless pit" of their sin.  This melee, this ... circus(!) ... was the arrival into the governmental capitol (also the spiritual capitol) by the conquering King.

The names Judah and Ephraim refer to the entirety of the 12 tribes of Israel.  God declared hundreds of years before Christ's coming that He would use the Jews to evangelize the entire world with the saving gospel of Jesus Christ.  He made them like a {spiritual} warrior's sword, arming them with the truth that has revolutionized the world in which we live.  "Salvation is of the Jews", Jesus emphasized in John 4:22, when speaking to the Samaritan woman.  God formed the Jews of Jesus' day into a spiritual weapon, to "shoot" the gospel arrow to all corners of the world through The Church.  As time went on, Gentiles were evangelized, converted and enlisted into the battle, becoming fellow warriors with their converted Jewish counterparts, brothers and sisters in the one, true faith.

The reference to Greece is there because, in Jesus' day, the Greek philosophy and worldview were the predominant ones of the day.  Greek and Roman worldviews were very similar, but the Greeks were judged to be the intellectuals of that day.  God is saying through Zechariah that the Messiah's gospel would (and did) war against and triumph over the gospel of the Greeks, as it still does today against the anti-Christ worldviews of our modern day, such as Post-modernism.

Like other verses in Zechariah, in the last days, the Jews will be "stirred up" to war against the nations of the world.  Little Israel will be small, but mighty, because the Lord God Almighty will fight for her.  In a more literal, militaristic way, Christ's second coming to earth will fulfill this prophecy, as I elaborated about in my blog post about the two world wars at the end of time.

I'm headed out of town this morning, to minister at a girls' conference this weekend.  It's my prayer that I will go in the attitude of my Savior, seeking to carry the gospel with rejoicing and triumph, and yet, to serve in humility and meekness.

Lord God, make me more like my Savior who, those He was rich, became poor for my sake (2 Corinthians 8:9), in order that I, through His poverty, might become rich.    In Jesus' name, amen.


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