December 26 - Rejoice!

December 26 - Rejoice!

Zechariah 9:9-17

The beginning of this passage triggers the aria from Handel's Messiah and it's been barreling through my mind for a few evenings as I processed on this post. It was one of those challenging pieces for me to sing in college because I could never get my voice to do the runs. My voice is just not that flexible. Anyway ...

Have you ever thought about the prophets of the Old Testament and the things that were going on inside their minds as they heard from the Lord? I can hardly imagine. Sometimes they were receiving prophecies of doom and gloom and other times they heard the Lord speaking words of great joy to them. Thoughout all of it, though, they knew that the Lord was telling them to speak to the people of Israel (or Judah) in order to restore the relationship between God and his people.

How difficult it must have been, though, to prophecy the coming of a Messiah and then to know that He wasn't going to arrive during their lifetime. All they knew was that God had promised a Messiah and they had to bring those words of condemnation or hope.

Zechariah saw the king coming to Zion/Jerusalem. He saw a gentle king, riding in on a donkey instead of a grand war steed. This king would remove all hint of war. The chariots and war-horses would be gone, the battle bows (weapons) would be broken. He would bring peace to the ends of the earth. (Zechariah 9:10)

We know that Jesus arrived in Jerusalem on a donkey just prior to His crucifixion. He was fulfilling this prophecy. He proclaimed peace to the nations, but that part of the prophecy has yet to be fulfilled.

This brings us to the next section. One of the common images of Jesus' return is that He will arrive in the clouds ... in the heavens preceded by a loud trumpet blast. (Zechariah 9:14)

People will be drunken and unaware of His coming. Yet, He will come. He will gather His people and bring peace and prosperity to them with His arrival.

Rejoice! Though peace has yet to be attained, the Lord God Almighty will return bringing salvation to His people. Rejoice!