Zechariah 9:9
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.John 12:12-15
The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Blessed is the king of Israel!”
Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:
“Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
see, your king is coming,
seated on a donkey’s colt.”John 18:36-37
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
As God provided for his people in the Old Testament by sending them prophets to teach them his word, by giving them priests to offer sacrifices to God on their behalf, so, too, he provided them kings to rule and defend them. Even though the Israelites’ initial desire for a king was wrongly intended, expressly because they wanted to be just like all the other nations, God did intend that his people would have a king. He promised Abraham that kings would come from him (Gen. 17:6), and Jacob prophesied that kings would come from the line of Judah (Gen. 49:10). In fact, through Moses, God instructed the kings what they were and were not to do (see Deut. 17:14-20), thus indicating that his people would someday have kings.
As if that were not enough, God promised David that his kingship would endure, that he would always have a son sitting on the throne (II Sam. 7:11-16). We’ll look further at that promise in a couple of days. But notice that even after the northern kingdom of Israel was taken into captivity and never returned, and after the southern kingdom of Judah went into captivity but returned in part to the promised land, God did not forget or go back on his promise.
As we saw with Moses and Aaron, all the kings were sinners and all the kings died. So how could God keep his promise to David? Through the prophet Zechariah God promised that their king would come. John (and the other gospel writers) tells us that Jesus fulfilled that promise as he came riding into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. And even Pilate recognized that Jesus was a king, although he had NO idea how powerful a king he was and is.
How powerful is Jesus our King? He restrains and conquers all our enemies, including sin (Rom. 6:6), Satan (Heb. 2:14), and death (II Tim. 1:10). All authority on heaven and earth has been given to him (Matt. 28:18), and one day every knee will bow to him (Phil. 2:9-11). He is the eternal king.
Have you bowed your knee before this righteous and victorious king? Is he your ruler and defender? Sing to him in gratitude and submission:
My Savior and my Lord, My Conqueror and my King,
Thy scepter and Thy sword, Thy reigning grace I sing:
Thine is the power; behold I sit In willing bonds beneath Thy feet.
(Isaac Watts)