"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass."
"And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth."
"As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water." Zechariah 9:9-11
The Minor Prophets are anything but minor. I like what one commentator called them. In an effort not to use the misleading title of "minor," he called the collection of shorter prophetic writings "The Twelve."
Zechariah foretold the first coming of Jesus the Messiah which came to pass near 30 AD when Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem just before the crucifixion. The first time, Jesus appeared as the suffering Savior, but the next time that He returns, it will be as the conquering King.
Verse ten above has the second coming of Christ in view. When Jesus returns, He will subjugate the armies of earth that will have gathered themselves together against Jerusalem and against Himself.
The Bible tells us that He will do this by the Word of His power. "...He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked." (Isaiah 11:4) War will cease; weapons of war will become rare commodities and relics of the past. Violence, deception, cruelty, bloodshed, rebellion and sins of all kinds will no longer be the norm. Instead, truth will conquer; and, as Zechariah tells us here in these passages, the battle bow, chariot, and war horse will be cut off.
From the wadi of Egypt, to the great Euphrates River and beyond, the Kingdom of the Messiah will stretch forth and touch every corner of the globe. The righteousness of God will prevail; evil men will be put down; rejection of the truth will be quickly punished, and all flesh will come to worship Christ in the Millennial Temple at the renewed Jerusalem.
How is this possible? The last verse gives the clue. Through the blood of the covenant, God will set Israel, and all who come to Christ, free. When Israel turns to Jesus at the end of the Great Tribulation, her citizens shall be set free from the pit of damnation. As of now, most of the Jewish population is in spiritual darkness because they deny their Messiah, but this will change when God humbles the nation by means of the end-time events.
Anyone who is willing to come to Christ and receive Him as his or her Savior can become a citizen of heaven. The blood of the covenant is not just for Israel. The blood of Christ will cleanse any sinner, Jew or Gentile, who bows the knee in faith to the superiority of God's Son.
Memorial Day is a time to remember those who died in war to defend freedom, and Zechariah reminds of a future day in which there will be no war. That day won't come because of better education, charismatic leadership, better economical conditions, or any other flawed means. That day will come only when Christ comes back.
"He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Revelation 22:20
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