September 10, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Rejoice greatly, Daughter [of] Zion!  Shout, Daughter [of] Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zechariah 9.9)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Have you ever made the mistake of saying something about your spouse’s family, even as an observation? What you may have noticed could have been true and obvious to everyone. You may have even heard your spouse make a similar observation and with consternation. Yet, when you said that same thing even if you were just quoting what you had heard, it was as if a libelous crime had been committed. “How dare we!” I have little doubt that you and I haven’t stood on both sides of that argument and thought “Nobody can say that but family.” I wonder if there isn’t some of that kind of thinking happening when God’s justice is poured out on Israel. Going back to the beginning of Zechariah’s recollection, we heard God declare that the foreign nations had gone too far in their efforts to dominate, control and perhaps even eliminate Israel from the face of the earth. It seems to be a common theme throughout history as nations rise up against nations but especially as nations rise up against Israel. The names of those nations are not limited to the Middle East. Ultimately, however, the providence of Israel lies in the hands of God. Because God alone is truly righteous, it is God alone who has the right, dominion and power to mete out the discipline of “His people.” Even those who would consider themselves not of “His people” are confronted with the real possibility that they are? Shall we conduct a “spiritual” DNA test to prove paternity? (A side note: I listened to a woman say it was unfair for only the men to have to submit to a DNA test. She said it was an assumption that just because a woman gave birth to a child it was her child. I suppose IVF might provide the exception, but then wouldn’t the surrogate know this?) The very hope of “secular evolution” might be that we could prove we are not God’s people at all. Maybe we would belong to another “being” or to such an accident. Afterall, Jesus did accuse the Scribes and Pharisees of having Satan as their father, right?

So, only God has the right to speak about His people. “They are His for He has made them; His people, the sheep of His pasture.” (Psalm 100.3) Consider that flock. Their pasture is Israel from the desert of the south to the highlands in the north. Their pasture is a Promised Land from the Mediterranean Sea to the River of the Tigris and the Euphrates. It is a land set aside by God for the dwelling place of those whom He calls by name to share in a community of faith to be as salt and light to a world beset with darkness. As I begin to read and read Zechariah 9.9 and following, I wonder if anyone in that day considered the reality of “Do you see what God is doing to His own people? If He would do that to them, what would He do to us?” And while we can think of it in punitive fashion as God gave them over to the hardness of their own heart, mind and spirit allowing the foreign nations to sweep across the land like locusts ravaging the harvest, it would only be for a time. God’s purpose was to exhibit justice so that the world would begin to understand it place in the midst of God’s promise. Indeed, what was happening to Israel could and would happen to them. “God’s reign,” in the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, “is on all people. He causes the sun to rise on the good and the evil; He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matthew 5.45) God will discipline and vindicate His people. No one else can without God’s allowance. In this we find there is a flip side, too. What God will do with Zion (both Jerusalem and Israel) for their salvation will become the opportunity for other nations as well. The Messiah does not belong to Israel alone. The Messiah enters into spiritual relationship with all those who will call upon the name of the Lord. It is here that we enter into the transition of God’s word to Zechariah which is first for Israel and then for the rest of the world.

It begins with the identification of who should rejoice. It is no simple thing to discern the terms “daughter Zion” and “daughter Jerusalem.” They are not exclusive to a feminine genderizing as we will hear in 9.13 “sons of Zion” in contrast with “sons of Greece.” In translation we would more correctly read “Daughter of Zion” and “Daughter of Jerusalem,” to coincide with “Sons of Zion.” What, rather who, is being addressed as the citizens of Jerusalem and Israel. But they are seen not so much as the product of a geographic location but as a spiritual identity. They are the offspring of a covenant people whom God has called out of all nations. By that covenant they are sanctified, set apart, for the purposes of God. It is with this in mind that we are able to hear “the priesthood of all believers” (1 Peter 2.5) and “members of one body, holy and pleasing to God” (Romans 12.1). What this identity also brings together is the very foundation of the Messianic community which is the legacy of those who enter into a “spiritual marriage” between God and His people which we have mentioned previously. What is present in the days of Zechariah would be the “offspring” of those who have kept the faith, even that which was kept imperfectly, because they are under the promise of God. The context now becomes not what is past but what is yet to come. The new generation rising up out of the season of exile will be likened to the bride promised to the groom who is the Messiah, the Son of God. We notice, of course, the very prophecy fulfilled in the life of Jesus which is mentioned in Zechariah 9.9 as “See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” The image is made clear that this thing which God is doing defies the logic and reasoning of the world that exists beyond what God has intended. Such deliverers, and in this case scholars see the conquering hero of Alexander the Great who liberates Israel from its Persian captors, do not act in accordance with God’s word nor design. Just as the world might be amazed and confounded by God’s “justice” even over His own people, so would His own people be challenged by the appearance of the Messiah in the way which God has prescribed. This, in and of itself, would be cause to rejoice because we have a clear understanding of what to expect when our salvation comes.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit in order that others be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind so we would know we are Your people and You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.