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| NEW KING, NEW KINGDOM |
| The paradox of leadership that triumphs through suffering. |
| Your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey. 9:9 |
| The book of Zechariah takes a radical turn at chapter 9. A series of messages from God, expressed in fragmented images, tell the future of the world - and the role of God's people in it. These chapters are difficult to understand, even in our day. The ultimate future is clearly good, however: instead of remaining a small, subject nation, God's people will shake the world. The nations will worship at Jerusalem. "The Lord will be king over the whole earth" (14:9). How could it be? Even for the Israelies this dream sounded farfetched. In Zechariah's day they needed clearance from the far-off Persian government just to rebuild their temple. Persia was the center of their world. Jerusalem hardly mattered. How could Israel become a great nation? A Rejected Leader These chapters of Zechariah show Israel's greatness emerging through struggle and suffering. No one who reads these words could have a glib idea that God makes things easy. Evil and misery virtually triumph before God's final intervention. The key to Israel's future is a coming leader - a very unusual leader. People naturally expected the Messiah to be a triumphant warrior, especially since many Old Testament prophesies spoke of him that way. But this king would come on a donkey instead of a warhorse (9:9). Zechariah speaks of a shepherd - a term for "leader" - who would be rejected by the nation (11:4-7). It describes a nation in mourning for "the one they have pierced" (12:10). |