Daily Devotions – The Humble Battle

Daily Devotions – The Humble Battle

 

 

Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:

Zechariah 9:9-13 (NIV)

The Coming of Zion’s King

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.11 As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit. 12 Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.13 I will bend Judah as I bend my bow and fill it with Ephraim. I will rouse your sons, Zion, against your sons, Greece, and make you like a warrior’s sword.

When Jesus comes riding into Jerusalem on a donkey he is fulfilling what the prophet Zechariah said hundreds of years before would happen. But while Jesus enters into Jerusalem like a royal dignitary, riding a donkey is a symbol of humility, not power. Yet, this is how God brings peace and salvation. Even in the fanfare of what is often called the “triumphal entry” of Jesus into Jerusalem, he is still showing that the conquering work of God comes in ways that show humility, love, and grace. As followers of Jesus we are not looking for greater power and the ability to have our way. Instead, as Zechariah says, we are “prisoners of hope” trusting that our humble King will “speak peace to the nations” and to our lives, too!