Reasoning Through the Bible
Taking a cue from Paul, Reasoning Through the Bible is an expository style walk through the Scriptures that tells you what the Bible says. Reviewing both Old and New Testament books, as well as topical subjects, the hosts methodically show how Scripture is one cohesive story. Critical Thinking with a little bit of theology and apologetics and you have what this podcast is about. Just like Paul on Mars Hill, Christianity today must address woke, deconstruction, and progressive Christianity, all topics that are addressed if we go purposefully through the Bible. Join Glenn and Steve weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as they reason with you through the Bible.
Reasoning Through the Bible
S17 || Foretold in Zechariah - Fulfilled by Jesus || Zechariah 9:9-10 || Session 17 || Verse by Verse Bible Study
Explore the significance of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem through the lens of prophetic fulfillment and divine symbolism. We dive into the world of biblical prophecy with a focus on interpretative approaches that shape understanding of Scripture. Discover how theologians like Matthew Henry have spiritualized passages, interpreting promises to Israel as metaphors for the Christian life. Engage with the thought-provoking discussion on literal versus spiritual interpretations, and how these influence perceptions of a future kingdom. Understanding cultural and historical contexts is crucial, and our conversation challenges you to rethink how theological frameworks affect the way we read prophecy. Tune in for an episode rich with insights and questions.
Today on Reasoning Through the Bible. We're at one of the most interesting verses from the Old Testament. We're going to see Jesus in the triumphal entry, but all the way back here in Zechariah, chapter 9. Hi, my name's Glenn. I'm here with Steve. We are reasoning through the Bible. We do verse-by-verse Bible study through the Word of God. So if you have your Bibles, open to Zechariah, chapter 9, and we'll go ahead and dive in reading verse 9. Rejoice greatly, o daughter of Zion. Shout in triumph, o daughter of Jerusalem, behold, your King is coming to you. He is just and endowed with salvation, humble and mounted on a donkey even a colt. The foal of a donkey, steve. Really obviously. Where was this fulfilled in the New Testament?
Speaker 2:This was fulfilled on the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. We know that this is fulfilled because in Luke and John it's referenced there that after his resurrection they looked back and saw that this was a reference to Zechariah as far as when he came in to fulfill that particular prophecy.
Speaker 1:Note here in verse 9 that it was literally fulfilled. We had Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, on the cloaks with the palm branches, the whole ceremony I'm sure you remember. But verse 9, at the beginning of it, speaks of daughter of Zion and the daughter of Jerusalem. Verse 9 was fulfilled in Jesus' day, literally in Zion and literally in Jerusalem, when he started at the Mount of Olives and rode in through the East Gate into the temple in what we call triumphal entry. Vernon McGee called it a triumphal exit because he was really just about to be crucified and leave the earth, because when he did ride in then the Jewish leaders rejected him.
Speaker 1:But the same phrase here of daughters of Zion and daughters of Jerusalem are used not just here but in other places that are obviously talking about the Jewish people. Isaiah 1.8 is used there in preparation for judgment prior to the Babylonian captivity. Here, after the Babylonian captivity, we have the same phrase daughter of Zion slash daughter of Jerusalem used. He is speaking to the Jewish people in this passage. Jesus was gentle and rode on a donkey that had never been ridden. Now, steve, I don't know about you, but I'm not sure I'd want to ride on a donkey that had never been ridden.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're always at risk of they're going to want to buck you off. You know the cult or donkey glen. Wasn't that what the princes or the kings wrote on? I think that's back in Isaiah and some of the other passages, or even back in Deuteronomy. That's what kings and princes wrote on. And of course, here's Jesus and he's the king entering into the city. That's the significant part there as well.
Speaker 1:The only animals to ride on in those days were either horses or donkeys. Horses were animals of war. That's why, in Mosaic law, god commanded Israel do not breed horses, don't build up a military, because you're going to depend on me as your defender. Horses were military animals. If we think of, a conquering general would ride in on a horse with the flags waving and things like that, horses were war animals. Donkeys were animals of peace. When a king would ride on a donkey, he would be showing I've come in peace.
Speaker 1:That was Jesus's message and that's here it says gentle, humble, riding on a donkey. He came in as gentle Jesus. What's interesting here, steve, is this chapter to our listeners, if you've been with us prior to this, the chapter talked a lot about death and destruction and peoples being conquered and ways of life, pagan idol worship being destroyed. There's a lot of negativity and pain in God pours out his wrath. Right in the midst of this, we have this shining moment of gentle Jesus, meek and mild, riding in triumphantly into Jerusalem with the palm branches waving. With the palm branches waving, we have this wonderful picture of Jesus coming in as the victorious king in a time of peace and offering palm branches which to this day are a symbol of peace.
Speaker 2:And this is juxtaposed. Glenn, in our last session you mentioned how Jesus in the synagogue read from Isaiah and stopped in the middle of the sentence. The first part of the sentence he said this has been fulfilled within your hearing. But the second part of the sentence, talking about coming in vengeance, that hasn't been fulfilled yet. This is a picture of him coming just as you said, humble and in peace, even though it is saying that here comes your king. I just think it's amazing once again how we see Scripture just really come together and the things that happen and the things that the disciples did, the things that the prophets did, the prophecies given by God to them, the prophets, jesus, that little thing of stopping in the middle of the sentence To me it's just a wonderful, wonderful story how Scripture and the Holy Spirit has been able to give us a good, complete picture for confidence of what's going to happen in the future.
Speaker 1:Now here's a question, Steve. This chapter has two things. It has God's judgment and wrath, and it's got this passage here with humbleness and gentleness and peace. Can our God both be a God of both of those? Can he both at the same time be a God of wrath and anger against sin and then also be a loving God that comes in peace? Is that?
Speaker 2:possible? It is possible. We have the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, where he destroyed those cities and the cities on the plain because of their immorality. We have him in the story of Noah and the flood, where mankind in general had become very, very wicked. So God started over with a righteous person, noah. We see that even in Zechariah, early on of the book itself, he talked about the nations that he used to judge Israel, but yet they went too far. So therefore, he's going to judge those nations.
Speaker 2:And even in our last couple of sessions there has been depictions of God. And even in our last couple of sessions there has been depictions of God judging the various city-states, tyre and all of the city-states down along the Gaza area, where the Philistines had always had a stronghold. So, yeah, we get this picture of God being just. Sometimes we want to use the word judgmental, but he's actually being just. And that's answering a question of what people often have and even what people in scripture have talked about Lord, how long are you going to allow these things to go on? Well, that's a question from us mankind asking when are you going to be just and take care of these things?
Speaker 2:We see that God does do that. He's done it in the past. He's told us through his prophecy he's going to do it in the future. But he is also compassionate this point in time. Whenever Jesus came, he came so that we might have eternal life through his death, burial and resurrection. That's the good news. We ask our listeners if you haven't asked Jesus Christ into your life today, we plead for you to do that and give your life to him and become a Christian and see how your life will be changed and how he can change your life. That's God being merciful to us, but don't be fooled, because he's also a just God.
Speaker 1:When Jesus rode into Jerusalem in the triumphal entry. It's mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of John gives an interpretation of it. Here's a question, steve. You remember the passage he rides in? The people lay their garments in the roadway and they're waving palm branches. Do you remember what they were saying during that time?
Speaker 2:They were saying Hosanna, which is another way to praise the son of David.
Speaker 1:They recognized this was not just a son of David, but the son of David. The son of David is a reference to the king, the heir of David. 2 Samuel 7, was going to be over the throne forever. So that's what the people were recognizing. The king is here. The king rides on a donkey. The military general rides on the horse here the king is coming in. He's the king Hosanna to the son of David. He's going to usher in the new kingdom here in Zechariah 9.9,. It says in our translation the New American Standard just and endowed with salvation. The Hebrew scholars and some of the other translations use the word victorious or in victory there, and apparently the Hebrew would give either sense. But many of the translators more properly tell us what he's doing is riding in victory and bringing victory. The word salvation here could be more properly translated in victory. The idea is that this king is going to be victorious. Jesus rode into Jerusalem in the first century as king. Now what happened when he got to?
Speaker 2:the temple. Whenever he got to the temple, that's whenever he saw the money changers that were there and he got upset with them all and he got a whip out, drove them out of the temple and said my father's house is going to be a house of prayer that they had actually turned it into a place of commerce where they were taking advantage of people and not really offering what the quality of animals that they should in their offering. They were just using it and taking whatever the money changers had there and also the other types of doves and other animals that were available for the people, so they weren't doing what they should have been doing in regards to properly worshiping Yahweh God.
Speaker 1:Of course, this was the last week of his life and if we follow the Gospels carefully, he came in more than once. He came in more than once that week. He came in at least three different days. Ultimately, the Jewish leaders rejected him. He came in as king, as the heir to the throne of David, hosanna, to the son of David. He came in as the king, the heir, and the Jewish leaders rejected him. They didn't want a king like that. They rejected Jesus.
Speaker 1:In the triumphal entry, matthew quotes this passage here in Zechariah 9.9. But what's interesting, he leaves out part. He doesn't quote all of it. He leaves out the part about he doesn't quote all of it. He leaves out the part about endowed with victory. And the reason, I believe, is because there's going to be another time when Jesus rides into Jerusalem. We're told that in the book of Revelation. In the book of Revelation 19, verse 11,.
Speaker 1:This time he's going to ride in on a white horse and a white horse. He is going to be the conquering military leader. He's going to be the one who comes in and takes over. He didn't come in to take sides, he came in to take over. He's going to be the victorious conqueror and riding on a horse the next time. The first time he came was gentle and riding on a donkey. The second time he's going to come in riding on a horse, and that's the point where he's going to actually be victorious and take his crown as the king, and the Jews and Gentiles, for that matter, that do not accept him will be dealt with summarily. The ones that want him will be his subjects in the kingdom. The second time he comes, he's going to be victorious in every way.
Speaker 2:Can we pause here for just a second and talk a little bit about how to look at these verses? We've mentioned spiritualization many times at a place that we really can't spiritualize these. Can we talk about what that kind of means? We talked about symbology. We looked at that in the early part of Zechariah here and how symbols always point to something. We've talked about types and shadows. We went through that whenever we went through Exodus and the tabernacle and what all of those instruments and what the tabernacle was a type of Christ. Then we have this term spiritualization, a commentary that you and I have used and looked at many times. Matthew Henry. He has taken these verses here in Zechariah as we were looking at them. He has said this kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. It's not an actual kingdom that Zachariah is talking about and as we look at the commentary that Matthew Henry has done through these verses of Zachariah, there's none of them attributed to an actual physical kingdom. Can we talk about that just a little bit, what this spiritualization means?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think so. Let's do that. Just a reminder to our audience who Matthew Henry was. He was a Bible teacher from several hundred years ago. He wrote an entire commentary. Him and his students wrote a quite extensive, lengthy commentary, multi-volume commentary, on every book of the Bible. Again, this was 200 or 300 years ago so he wrote from that perspective.
Speaker 2:As we look at this, Jesus comes in to the city of Jerusalem in a physical donkey, physical colt. The people are physically hailing him as the king. It's referenced in John 12, verse 16, that this was a fulfillment of Zechariah. If this verse here in chapter 9 is something of a physical, actual event, then how can the rest of it not be taken as something that is actual and physical as well? Can you kind of expand a little bit on what spiritualizing the scriptures mean and how that that can get us off as far as how we look and interpret scripture.
Speaker 1:The only reason we pick up on Matthew Henry is because he's a very widely known Bible commenter and I use Matthew Henry. I've gotten a lot of value out of Matthew Henry's commentaries. He's quite lengthy but he has got some real good meat and potatoes Bible teaching that I found valuable. However, when he gets to passages such as this, he approaches it from this standpoint that, oh well, israel is done away with it. From this standpoint that, oh well, israel is done away with. So we have to come up with another interpretation of what this means and again we're just using Matthew Henry as an example.
Speaker 1:Many modern, amillennial and covenant theologians will do this. They'll come to passages such as Zechariah 8, 9, 10, 11, and it repeatedly talks about these blessings that are going to be for Judah and Jerusalem and God's people, and about how God's going to be a protection around them, god's going to defend against the enemies and God's going to have this time of peace and things like this. They take it, matthew Henry and these people in this category. They take it, matthew Henry and these people in this category will take these and spiritualize the entire meaning to be the Christian life in the church age to where, oh well, when it talks about, there's going to be no military action against Jerusalem. What it really means is you, as a Christian, are going to have peace in your heart through Jesus Christ. You live in this world, but you're really going to have a sense of peace even though you live in this normal world, or the church is going to be victorious and God's going to defend his church and they'll say things like well, see, the church has lasted for thousands of years and nobody's destroyed the church completely yet. That's what it really means. They take passages such as this and spiritualize them to the sense that Jerusalem doesn't mean Jerusalem, Judah doesn't mean Judah and military leaders mean some other kind of thing that we would encounter in our day is part of living this normal life every day. They therefore have to transfer meaning here to not be the normal sense of the language.
Speaker 1:I've been guilty of using the word literal, but it's not really the way that you and I, steve, would use it. It's really more the proper use of the language. When it says here, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, well, that's what it really meant riding in on a donkey. The problem, if you take this position, such as somebody like Matthew Henry does what do we do with the rest of the chapter? We haven't here these words that mean something Ashkelon, ashdod, gaza, judah, jerusalem, zion, ephraim. He has all these terms that we would hold to be. These were literally fulfilled. He went into the normal use of the language was.
Speaker 1:These cities that we just mentioned were indeed destroyed in a real historical way. Therefore, the rest of it's going to be real and historical. Now we would have to do some of this. We're guilty like, if this is modern future times, when he uses chariots and bows, then modern weapons probably aren't going to be chariots and bows. But, as you've pointed out, steve, he has to communicate this to people. How are you going to communicate modern weapons to an ancient people? You have to do some figurative language in here. But what is illegitimate is to say, oh yeah, jesus really did ride into Jerusalem on a donkey the first time, but over in Revelation 19,. When he rides in on a horse next time, well, that's really Jesus being the conquering person over the sin in your life. That is a mangling of the text. It is ripping the text of Scripture from its moorings and it just doesn't fit. The only way you can make that type of interpretation work is to ignore the details of the text.
Speaker 2:Let me just add here the actual part that I'm thinking of here, and yes, matthew Henry, I cut my teeth on Matthew Henry. It's a well-known commentary and I still use it. However, it's also like with anything else there's sometimes good things and sometimes other things to be cautious over. Here's the part that I was actually so quoting from Matthew Henry's commentary related to this verse here in 9. It says His kingdom is here set forth in the glory of it.
Speaker 2:This king has and will have a kingdom, not of this world, but a spiritual kingdom, a kingdom of heaven. And then on the next verse that we're going to go into here that talks about chariots being taken away and horses taken away, he says it shall not be set up in advance by external force, by an arm of flesh or carnal weapon of warfare. That's the reference that we're talking about here, where in this commentary and again it's not picking specifically on Matthew Henry there's. Matthew Henry commentary is a very good commentary, I would say. But he's very plainly saying here that the king entering into Jerusalem is a king for a spiritual kingdom, not an actual kingdom, and that's what we're talking about as far as spiritualizing the text.
Speaker 1:Let's read the next verse and I think we can apply some of what we've just been talking about and draw some meaning in an actual application. Remember we just talked about Zechariah 9.9, that Jesus will ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, even a colt, the foal of a donkey. Very next sentence, verse 10, I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem and the bow of war will be cut off. He will speak peace to the nations and his dominion will be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. Now, in that verse he's saying Ephraim, he's saying Jerusalem. He says I'm going to cut off war from them.
Speaker 1:Now, in order for the Matthew-Henry approach to work again, it's many amillennialists and many covenant theologians end up doing this is their systematic theology prevents them from believing that there's going to be a literal kingdom in the future with the ethnic Jews. Therefore, they have to have a different interpretation of this. In that interpretation, ephraim doesn't mean Ephraim. Jerusalem doesn't mean Jerusalem. Zion doesn't mean Zion.
Speaker 1:Really, the bow of war really doesn't talk about real war.
Speaker 1:It's talking about a spiritual battle that you might have under temptation or some sort of trial that you might go through in the world with your job, or a temptation around a fleshly thing that's going on in your life and you're not going to have any more temptations in these things, or you might have people in your community fighting against the work that's going on in your church.
Speaker 1:So that's the war they're talking about. The language just doesn't allow that. You have to again rip the meaning of the sentences from their moorings. Because when it says here again he will speak peace to the nations and his dominion will be from sea to sea and from the rivers probably the Nile River to the ends of the earth. He's saying there that the God will have peace in Jerusalem, in Ephraim, and his dominion will be across the globe and in all nations. We were just told that what it says there means the most that we would have to add some sort of interpretation to is when he says horse and bow of war and chariot, that that would apply to future military equipment, that it could mean bow, but it also could mean rifles and airplanes and tanks and things like that also.
Speaker 2:The other river could be the Euphrates River, because that's part of the boundary of the land that was given to Abraham and his descendants. So, really, what we're saying is, if verse 9 is something that actually happened and has been confirmed as a fulfillment from New Testament scripture, then it's logical to take that verse 10 is something that's physically or actually going to happen as well and that you can't take in, spiritualize that. So, again, matthew Henry's a good commentary. He would recommend it. We just paused here to say that, as you go, as we do, go through the text, read the text, look at it and take it as its natural language. After you look at the text, go to commentaries, but be aware that the commentaries vary and different commentaries have different outlooks.
Speaker 2:This is a case where, on Matthew Henry, we would agree with that, in that he is taking and saying that this kingdom that Jesus is writing into and offering to the people is a spiritual kingdom, not an actual kingdom. We feel that Scripture, over and over again, talks many, many times through the prophecies and even in Zechariah, as we're going through there's going to be an actual kingdom, set up where Jerusalem is the capital of it. The temple is going to be there. God's going to dwell there. His glory is going to be there. It's everything that we have been talking in the previous chapters of Zechariah. We just wanted to pause here and speak about that just a little bit to bring that to light.
Speaker 1:You were right Euphrates River, not the Nile. But again, just to kind of wrap this up and give an application here, this is clearly saying that Jesus will be on the earth, will be ruling over all the nations of the earth and will therefore bring peace to all the nations. If we try to take this spiritualizing approach that denies the future for Israel and if we try to then apply it to the Christian life, we have to then take these to mean something like there is no more struggles in the Christian life and that there is peace in the church and that the church really does have dominion from sea to sea, that the Christian life has no trials and troubles in it. My amillennialist friend, do you live in this world? If we're honest with ourselves, we are all stuck in Romans 7,. Who will deliver me from this body of death? We have, throughout the New Testament, false teachers inside the church. We have people that have to be removed from the church. We, in our own experience, have individual local churches that are living and dying almost on a daily basis. We live in a day when pastors are being tempted with fleshly temptations and falling like flies all around us. The church is in all these divisions, it's in a mess. We do not have this.
Speaker 1:If we take it to mean, even if we were to try to spiritualize this for the Christian life and the church today, it just doesn't fit. The only way to make it work is to skip over parts. That's why we do this phrase-by-phrase, detailed explanation. We just cannot say that the Christian life now is one of complete peace, because the Apostle Paul, who will deliver me from this body of death? The things I want to do I don't do, and the things I don't want to do, that I do. And we have to remove people from the church.
Speaker 1:I mean, read Galatians. It was written to a Christian church and he was pounding away on anathemas of people inside the church. The only way to make it fit well is to take this to be what it says. Judah means Judah, jerusalem means Jerusalem, ephraim means Ephraim. And there will come a day when there is no military forces around it. It will be filled with ethnic Jews who are worshiping the Lord. People will be coming to the Jews saying tell us about the Lord, because we want to learn more. That's going to be the great day of the future, steve.
Speaker 2:It's going to be a wonderful day and it's a great day to be looking forward to.
Speaker 1:Yes, we'll keep reasoning through the Bible next time.
Speaker 2:Thank, you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.
