Read: Zechariah 9:9-13
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. 13 For I have bent Judah as my bow; I have made Ephraim its arrow. I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and wield you like a warrior’s sword.
In The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien, the third book/movie is called The Return of the King. It tells of how Middle Earth had gone for thousands of years without a king and suffered under the poor leadership of lesser rulers and under the deadly evil of Sauron and his armies. One character, Aragorn, has the rightful claim to the throne over the people of Middle Earth, to be the ruler of the people. But he was reluctant to become king because he feared that he would repeat the mistakes of his predecessors. In the end, he accepted the calling to become king, led an army to defeat Sauron and begin a new age of peace. In a ceremony at the end of the movie, the wizard Gandalf, crowned Aragorn and said, “Now come the days of the king. May they be blessed.”
The book of Zechariah was written during the Babylonian exile. Judah had been in captivity for about seventy years when God spoke to Zechariah this message of hope for his people. Judah had not had a king over them for decades. And in the foreseeable future, they would not have one. From that time until today, there has been no king from David’s line ruling in Jerusalem.
In Zechariah, God promises the day will come when the King will return and all will be set right. That day will truly be blessed. He tells the people (in verse 9) to rejoice. He tells them the King who comes will be righteous and bring salvation. He is humble and will ultimately bring peace.
In Jesus’ day, the people longed for deliverance. They longed for salvation from the oppressive yoke of the Romans – even as the people in Zechariah’s day long for deliverance from Babylon. But no one connected these verses to the coming of Jesus. They were looking for a conquering king. They were looking for political relief. They wanted an earthly kingdom. God sent Jesus…not what they wanted or expected, but what the world needs!
The people of Israel in Zechariah’s day and in Jesus’ day thought their greatest need was for a king to rule in Israel. Was that their greatest need? What did God think their greatest need was?
Today, people want God to do a lot of things in their lives. What is the greatest need of people today? How does King Jesus satisfy that need too?
As those who are now citizens in God’s kingdom by faith, how should we live?
As you think about friends and family, is there someone who needs the hope of the King in their life? How could you share with them the salvation he brings?