SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/5/2016 8:12 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
Presentation of the King
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Zechariah 9:9
Message of the verses: “9 Rejoice 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.”
As I said
in our last SD, this verse is one of the most famous verses in the entire book
of Zechariah, for this verse speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ coming into the
city of Jerusalem in what Christians call Palm Sunday. When we studied that book of Daniel, and in
particular the ninth chapter of Daniel we learned that the prophecy that was
given in that chapter was partly fulfilled on this day when Christ came into
Jerusalem offering Himself to be King, but was rejected. The prophecy consisted of a period of 490
years of which it was broken up into the first 49 years and then the first 483
years leaving only seven years left on the prophecy, seven years that have not
been fulfilled yet, but will be fulfilled during what the Bible calls the
tribulation period, which consists of seven years, so this prophecy in
Zechariah is very important to both Jews and Christians alike. The fulfillment of this prophecy is recorded
in all four gospels. Dr. Wiersbe writes that “This is the only public
demonstration Jesus allowed during His ministry, and He did it to fulfill
Scripture.”
He goes on
to write “When Zechariah put this prophecy about Jesus right after his prophecy
concerning Alexander the Great, he was obviously inviting his readers to
contrast the two conquerors. Alexander’s
arrival brought fear to people, but the Jews were commanded to rejoice and
shout because their King had come. Jesus
was righteous in all that He did, and His purpose in coming was to bring
salvation to those who would trust Him.
How different from Alexander!”
When
Alexander came into Jerusalem he was riding on a mighty steed and he proudly
led a great army from one of many victories he had accomplished, but Jesus wrote
in on a donkey, in fact a fold of a donkey, one that had never been ridden on. Now let us look at some OT verses which show
us that the donkey was the animal used by royalty: 2 Samuel 16:2 “The king said to Ziba,
"Why do you have these?" And Ziba said, "The donkeys are for the
king’s household to ride, and the bread and summer fruit for the young men to
eat, and the wine, for whoever is faint in the wilderness to drink.’” Next 2 Samuel 18:9 “9 Now Absalom happened to
meet the servants of David. For Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule
went under the thick branches of a great oak. And his head caught fast in the
oak, so he was left hanging between heaven and earth, while the mule that was
under him kept going.” 1 Kings 1:33 “The
king said to them, "Take with you the servants of your lord, and have my
son Solomon ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon.” We have read that it was because of a dream
that Alexander had along with the High Priest of Israel and that is why
Alexander did not destroy Jerusalem.
Jesus had every right to destroy Jerusalem, but instead He came to offer
salvation, as according to John 3:17 He brought grace and forgiveness. Dr. Wiersbe writes “Instead of making a grand
oration, Jesus beheld the city and wept over it; instead of slaying His
enemies, He went to the cross and died for them!”
Next SD we
will look to the future and we will examine the conquests of our Lord.
8/5/2016 8:34 PM
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