“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.” (vs 9)
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.” (vs 9)
As I have
already received so much encouragement from Revelation’s emphasis on the second
coming of Jesus Christ, I found this prophecy about Jesus’ first coming to hold
a wonderful call to joy.
One of the
things to keep in mind about the full picture of prophecy in the Scriptures is
that the church has the best reason to believe all the New Testament prophecies
of Christ’s second coming. The Old Testament saints were called to look forward
to the coming of the Messiah, the Christ. They had many examples of God’s
faithfulness to his covenant throughout their history, but they had no previous
example of the Word becoming flesh to dwell among us.
Simply because
God was faithful and true, God’s people were expected to “rejoice greatly” because their king was coming to them. They were
given a description of his arrival that was so specific, that when Jesus did
come riding on a donkey’s colt, the crowds rejoiced greatly, just as the prophecy
had declared.
What New
Covenant saints have now is the fulfillment of that prophecy, and all the other
prophecies speaking of Jesus’ first coming. We have both the prophecies, and
the many eye-witness testimonies of their fulfillment. Our brother Matthew
loves to tell us that a specific experience in the life of Jesus on earth “was
to fulfill” a specific prophecy spoken about him hundreds of years earlier.
What ministers
to me about this is that we are living in a one-time-only experience for God’s
people. This time between the two comings of Jesus Christ has given us the
myriad of prophecies declaring the certainty of Jesus’ first coming, the
wonderful proofs of these prophecies being fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth, and
now a whole other collection of wonderful prophecies about the second coming of
Jesus Christ. We are not merely living in anticipation of the Messiah’s first
coming, hoping that the God who gave us Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Moses,
and David, would give us this one who was greater than them all. We are living
in anticipation of the second coming of our Great God and Savior after knowing
the amazing, and wonderful, and awesome way that God sent him into our world
the first time.
So, while
Zechariah 9 reminds us of the Son of God’s first coming, riding into Jerusalem
on a donkey’s colt, praised by the people who knew it was him; it also gives us
this beautiful connection to Jesus’ second coming.
“Then the Lord will appear
over them, and his arrow will go forth like lightning;
the Lord God will sound the trumpet
the Lord God will sound the trumpet
and will march forth in the whirlwinds of the south.” (vs 14)
Whatever else
this may have included, I found this ancient description of God coming to rescue
his people very affirming. It reminds me of the promises of Jesus’ sudden
appearing, that it will be as obvious as a bright bolt of lightning; it will be
accompanied by the trumpet blast of God; and it will include gathering the
elect from the four winds.
In the midst
of this chapter I was drawn to this amazing verse: “Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I
will restore to you double” (vs 12). While we may sometimes feel like we
are prisoners of sin, or prisoners of bad experiences from the past, or
prisoners of negative messages that have been spoken and confirmed throughout
our lives, this particular imprisonment stands out from them all.
The ring in my
heart was, “Make me a prisoner of hope!” I want to be chained to hope,
imprisoned by it, unable to resist its grasp, captured by its promises and
declarations. I want to be overcome by hope, captivated by the testimonies and
descriptions of what is in store for those who know and love the Lord Jesus
Christ. I want to feel this hope poured into my heart, filling me to the full,
overflowing to the joy of others.
It took me all
day to share these thoughts. It was particularly uplifting because, by the evening,
I was tired, and my mind seemed to be hindered by a weary brain. I thought I
would give one last try to bring these morning thoughts to an evening
conclusion. What happened surprised me. God took me back to the joyful thoughts
and feelings he had given me at the beginning of the day, led me into further
meditation on these things, and returned me to joy just in time for a good
night’s rest.
I testify, not
only to this one thought, but to the faithfulness of God to bless anyone who
earnestly seeks him. As David said a long time ago, “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How
vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.”[1]
From my heart,
Monte
© 2013 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Psalm 139:17-18
No comments:
Post a Comment