Year 2, Week 25, Day 5 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 25, Day 5

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Zechariah 8-11.

Today’s reading still takes us away from the Book of Ezra in order to look at some other readings that coincide with the historical material thus far covered in Ezra. Today’s reading continues in the Book of Zechariah. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah were raised up by the LORD to stir up the returnees to resume the work of completing the Temple. However Zechariah primarily reveals visions from the LORD. Zechariah 8 records the LORD’s determination to return to His people providing a host of blessings: “Thus says the LORD: I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts, the holy mountain” (Zechariah 8:3). The LORD has turned away His wrath and turned toward His people with blessings. Zechariah 9-11 is a prophetic declaration that provides greater detail in reference to the LORD returning to His people. Zechariah 9 declares that the LORD would save His people: “On that day the LORD their God will save them, as the flock of his people; for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on his land. For how great is his goodness, and how great his beauty! Grain shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the young women” (Zechariah 9:16-17). Zechariah 10-11 declares that the LORD would bring forth a new kind of leadership: “Therefore the people wander like sheep; they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd…I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back because I have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them, for I am the LORD their God and I will answer them” (Zechariah 10:2,6). At their present moment, Israel lacked leaders who cared: "Those who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the LORD, I have become rich,’ and their own shepherds have no pity on them” (Zechariah 11:5). But the LORD would provide a King who would lead with the empowering presence of the LORD Himself.

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading is that the LORD would return to His people and save them through the provision of a King: “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” (Zechariah 9:9). The LORD’s King would come to His people on a donkey. All four Gospel writers pick up this prophecy and explicitly record that Jesus acquired and rode a donkey into Jerusalem, as a part of His claims as King (see Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:28-38; and John 12:12-19). Perhaps the season of David’s suffering as he fled Jerusalem due to his son’s rebellion plays a role in the imagery used by Zechariah. David fled on a donkey: “And the king said to Ziba, “Why have you brought these?” Ziba answered, “The donkeys are for the king’s household to ride on, the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine for those who faint in the wilderness to drink” (2 Samuel 16:2). Perhaps David’s plight of suffering in his departure from Jerusalem previews that Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem would be marked by suffering. At the very least, the King’s entrance on a donkey reflects that he would be humiliated or afflicted: "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted…He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:4,7a).

And yet other imagery by Zechariah indicates that the King would also be a Mighty Warrior who would inflict judgment: “Then the LORD will appear over them, and his arrow will go forth like lightning; the Lord GOD will sound the trumpet and will march forth in the whirlwinds of the south. The LORD of hosts will protect them, and they shall devour, and tread down the sling stones, and they shall drink and roar as if drunk with wine, and be full like a bowl, drenched like the corners of the altar” (Zechariah 9:14-15). Perhaps Zechariah, in the very same chapter, speaks of the posture of Jesus, not as He came at His first coming, but at His second coming: “Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True…He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:11a,15b-16). The prophets often spoke of separate future events without distinction to their sequence.

The nature of the deliverance through the King that Zechariah speaks of is reminiscent of the deliverance from Egypt that the LORD accomplished through Moses: “As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double” (Zechariah 9:11-12). Looking back, the Covenant that the LORD may with Israel in the context of their rescue was ratified by blood: “And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words” (Exodus 24:8). And looking ahead, the Covenant that the LORD made in His Son would also be ratified by blood: “And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20). Just as the LORD freed His people from being prisoners in Egypt, not the LORD frees His people from their bondage to sin: “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin” (Romans 6:6).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe