❖ Video
❖ Audio (Message)
Awaiting the King of Peace
(Zechariah ９：9-１０、Matthew 21:1-9)
Andy Nagahara
Although we have not entered Advent, today, as Advent Week 0, I would like to introduce one of the prophecies about Jesus recorded in the Old Testament. We will resume our Proverbs series again next year.
This prophecy also deepens our understanding of the true peace that only Jesus can give, which we learned about last week. Today we will look at the words of the prophet Zechariah.Zechariah’s prophecy is placed second to last among the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament.Zechariah was active about 500 years before the birth of Jesus, and he was a contemporary of the prophet Haggai, whose book of Haggai comes just before the book of Zechariah. To understand what kind of era it was, let’s take a quick review at the history of ancient Israel.
After King David’s death, his son Solomon, who is traditionally thought to be the author of the Proverbs we are reading in this series, became king. His reign was glorious. However, after Solomon’s death, 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel—excluding the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, from which Solomon himself came— refused to acknowledge Solomon’s son as king. They appointed another king, and the nation was split in two. This happened about 1000 years before Jesus was born.
The tribes of Judah and Benjamin lived in the south, centered around Jerusalem, and established the Kingdom of Judah, while the other 10 tribes established the Kingdom of Israel in the north, where they lived. The division and conflict between North and South weakened the nation’s power and made it easier for surrounding powers to invade. In fact, the northern kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrians, who rose to power around 700s BC. Assyria was later destroyed by the Babylonian Empire.
The Southern Kingdom was then occupied by Babylon and destroyed around 600 BC, about 100 years before the prophecy of Zechariah that we will talk about today. At that time, the Babylonians destroyed the temple in Jerusalem and took many of the leading figures of the Kingdom of Judah to their capital, Babylon, leaving Jerusalem in a terrible state of desolation. Babylonian rule lasted for about 50 years, but when Persia, which rose to power in the time of Zechariah, destroyed Babylonia, the Persian king recognized Israel’s autonomy and returned the people who had been held captive in Babylonia.
Zechariah and Haggai encouraged the rebuilding of the destroyed temple, and after 20 years the temple was rebuilt. His prophecies were made both before and after the rebuilding of the temple, but the part we will be looking at today was made after the temple was rebuilt.
Now, let’s read his prophecy from Zechariah 9:9,10.
9 Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses 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.
1. First of all, God does not desire for people to rule over other people. (Zechariah 9:9-10)
For the Jews, the dark ages under Babylonian rule had finally come to an end, the long-awaited rebuilding of the temple had been realized, and it was a time of hope for the future. However, after its division and destruction, the kingdom was never rebuilt. Dynasties that unified the nation no longer arose, and even if there were those called kings, as in Jesus’ time, they were merely puppets of the powerful countries that actually ruled.
Persia, which replaced Babylonia in ruling Israel, was eventually destroyed by the Greeks and the Macedonian Empire under Alexander the Great, and Israel became a territory of Macedonia. And by the time of Jesus, it was under the control of the Roman Empire, which had destroyed Macedonia. And less than 100 years after Jesus’ crucifixion, the Jews would lose all their territory. During this time, there were people called kings, but with very rare exceptions, they were merely puppets of the respective powerful countries.
Yet Zechariah prophesies that a king will be appointed. But the king of this prophecy is a strange character. He is not acting like a king at all. He is a king who will come riding on a colt and bring peace to the nations without chariots, horses, or weapons. The prophecies of a king far removed from the king the people had been waiting for were ignored and forgotten.
The Jews had to wait until the 20th century for their country to be rebuilt. Modern Israel is a democratic state, not a kingdom. After World War II, many countries, including Israel, began to be governed by democracies in which national leaders are re-elected through regular elections.
But over the past decade, democracy has been in crisis. Of the three largest and most powerful countries in the world, two are not functioning democracies and are ruled by kingly figures, and the remaining one is led by someone who would like to be king if possible.
Why would people tolerate a royal presence when it might undermine their freedom? We can learn this from the history of ancient Israel. I have already talked several times about how the monarchy in Israel began, but it was not because someone arbitrarily called themselves king and seized power; rather, it was the result of the people themselves asking Samuel, the spiritual leader of the nation, for a king. Samuel knew that this was not God’s will, but God answered his prayer as follows:
“Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. （I Samuel 8:7)
In God’s view, to seek to have a king is to reject God as our own king.
If each person follows God, there is no need for a king. Yet God, through Samuel, further warned of the dangers of having a king. “The king will tax you heavily, make you a slave, and you will cry out because of the king you chose for yourself.”
Yet the people refused to listen to Samuel and replied:
“No! We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”（I Samuel 8:19b, 20)
These words clearly show why people seek a king. “We need a strong military leader, just like the countries around us.” Isn’t that a voice that’s been heard all over the world recently? In this country too, leaders who say things like “Japan should become a ‘normal country’ that can wage war” or make belligerent remarks against other countries have become more popular.
The very nature of leaders who shout “country first” is “self first.” They never work for the people who supported and stood up for them. The history of ancient Israel teaches us that the outcome will be just as Samuel warned.
Advocating for putting one’s own country first is nationalism. Nationalists try to gain power by using royalty and religion. Christianity is also being exploited. However, I believe that Christian nationalism bears no resemblance whatsoever to the teachings of Jesus.
The Bible teaches that nationalists’ “country first” stance is an expanded version of self-centeredness, and its very nature is sin—that is, rebellion against God.
God’s desire is for all people, whom he created in his image, to cooperate in governing the world, to properly manage all of creation, and to fairly share the wealth that results from it, thereby manifesting his glory.
2. In what sense is Jesus our King? (Matthew 21:1-9)
The forgotten prophecy of Zechariah was suddenly fulfilled 500 years later. Now I read Matthew 21:1-9.
As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”
This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: “Say to the Daughter of Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.'” The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest!”As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”
This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: “Say to the Daughter of Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.'” The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest!”
Jesus knew that He was the “King” that Zechariah had prophesied. However, this was a completely different concept from that of a king that had existed up to that point. Politicians, religious leaders, and other powerful people had no intention of following Jesus, and instead thought they had no choice but to kill Jesus, who condemned their sinfulness.
The crowd gave Jesus a warm welcome as he entered Jerusalem. However, when they realized that Jesus had no intention of overthrowing the authorities through a military revolution or of driving out Rome and achieving independence, they turned against him and began shouting, “Crucify him!” The people’s expectations of Jesus were just as wrong as those who asked Samuel to give them a king.
All people should have sought to live in obedience to Jesus, rather than to seek to fulfill their own selfish expectations. I would certainly object if you said you were going to trust and follow someone other than Jesus as your king. Because no one can meet your expectations.But Jesus alone is the exception. Peace comes into your life as you welcome Jesus into your throne as your King and Lord, in the center of your heart. And from each person who follows Jesus, that peace reaches others.
Last week we heard that peace is not just the absence of war. The essence of peace is the state of mind of one who is connected to Jesus. The world is far from peaceful, but the peace of Jesus in your hearts will reach those closest to you and eventually spread throughout the world. As we continue walking through life, God expects us to listen to what Jesus, the Prince of Peace, asks of us.
(Prayer) God, thank you for coming into this world and becoming our King, as prophesied by Zechariah.
Yet even now, the world remains a place where people follow those who act like kings as they please, and continue to fight one another.
And many people suffer because of it.
Please have mercy on our foolishness and help us.
Teach us, who live with you as our Lord, what each of us can do.
Please show your presence through us so that as many people as possible can welcome Jesus, the King of Peace, into the throne of their hearts during the upcoming Advent and Christmas season.
In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray.
Summary
Everyone desires to appoint a king to compete with other nations and see their own country prosper, but God does not want only one ethnic group or nation to prosper. Nationalism is the expansion of individual selfishness. Whether a king or a president, in God’s eyes they are all sinners and cannot bring true peace. God’s desire for us is that everyone will find peace and spread it by receiving Jesus as King in their hearts, rather than human rulers.
For Discussion
1. What does the king riding on a colt represent?
2. What kind of society do you think God desires?