Devotion 7.1.26

Zecharia 9

The Coming King of Zion

"9 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.

10 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.

11 As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,

  I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

12 Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;

  today I declare that I will restore to you double."

The coming king, God's Son, will come in humility to restore Israel and all believers to free us from our sin. His rule will be unlike any other we know or have known. He is a stronghold to prisoners of hope.

Paul Revere’s Ride

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"LISTEN, my children, and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;

Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, “If the British march

By land or sea from the town to-night,

Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch

Of the North Church tower as a signal light, —"

Cindy and I have been to Boston and walked the Freedom Trail. Along the way is the North Church and the steeple, referred to as the tower.* It is a tall structure and would have been, for Boston in 1775, a great central location to alert the townsfolks using a lantern. I've recently listened to a podcast about the American Revolution, and it picks up with the British troops "pulling over" Paul Revere as he's headed to North Church.

Warriors ride stallions, or horses, to do battle and conduct the work needed to alert and prepare the military for battle.

Not so our hero in Zacharia's prophecy. Note he is giving a lantern to the people of Israel. "Here is what your hero will look like. He will ride to town on a colt, the foal of a donkey."

Wait, what? Not my hero. My hero king, whom you say will rule, break the tools of war, and his kingdom will be from "sea-to-sea," should be on a stallion. We will light the watch lights on the watchtowers to signal his entry!

No, not so, God has a plan. He plans on entering the world, after riding in his mother's womb on a donkey, in a manger. Shepherds will greet him. When it is his time, he will enter the city of Jerusalem through the gate on the back of a young donkey, a colt. 

Our warrior king will be "meek," as he describes in his first sermon (Matthew 5). Take notice, our humble servant will come into this world as a meek servant, but he will establish justice by breaking the mold of a warrior king. He will rule unlike anyone ever known.

As prisoners of hope, Zacharia is putting a lantern in the tower of the church for Israel and for us today. God's ways are not our ways. Praise God for his vision to break the mold of what we expect due to our earthly ways as he gives us salvation through his servant Son, Jesus Christ.

Pray with me: Gracious God, we give thanks for prophets like Zacharia, who raise our sight to know that you will deliver on your promise. Help us to see through our sinful expectations to know that how you come to us may be not on the roaring wind, but as a whisper. Amen. 

*Pictures of the North Church will be posted today to the Hope Men's Ministry page on Facebook for you to look at this week of July 4.