Zechariah 9:9-10 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your King comes to you: he is just… The prophet speaks not of one event merely, but of the whole of our Lord's gracious conduct to His people. The children of Zion are called to be joyful in their King; for He is ever coming to them "just and having salvation," and by virtue of the blood of the ever-lasting covenant bringing the prisoners out of the pit, and leading them all to a city of rest. I. THE CHARACTER UNDER WHICH OUR KING IS PRESENTED TO US. 1. He is just. It is not punitive justice that is here intended, but righteousness. (1) This character is illustrated by His Divinity. He is just, perfectly and unchangeably — perfectly because He is God; unchangeably, because essentially. It is His nature to be just, and therefore He cannot be otherwise. There is a holiness in the creature; but there is a peculiar holiness in God. (2) This character is illustrated by His incarnation. All that moral perfection which is in God shone forth from Him. His nature was spotless; and even His enemies gave witness to the immaculate purity of His life on which keen-eyed envy itself could fix no charge. The human nature of Christ was spotless, because the Divine nature into which it was impersonated was perfectly holy. No heresy can be more pestilent than the assertion that the holiness of Christ consists in acts and habits, and not in nature. That only which was perfectly uncontaminated could be united in one person with that which is ineffably holy. (3) By His death. As a sacrifice for sin. In this we see the most illustrious proof of His essential holiness, and His love of justice. (4) By His work in the heart of men. His kingdom is in the heart. Whatever rule He has over the outward conduct originates there. His work is to restore man, and exhibit him again as created anew in Christ Jesus. (5) By His conduct towards His Church. "A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom." By this sceptre He tries and governs His visible Church. He is Judge in His Church even now, though the judgment which He administers is not without mercy. 2. He has salvation. (1) He has it meritoriously. To save is an act to which the benevolence of His Godhead disposes Him; and "judgment is His strange work." But guilty man is not merely an object of benevolence. He is a subject of moral government. What reason of joy there is in this consideration! The salvation which we need, and which all need, is in His hands. He has purchased the right to bestow it. The work is virtually accomplished, and nothing remains for us but to apply to Him, and avail ourselves of that which He has done on our behalf. (2) Salvation is the subject, of His official administration. Does He give the Word? It is the promise and the rule of salvation. Does He collect a Church, and denominate it His body? His Spirit fills it, to discover the want of salvation, and reveal the means of obtaining it: to inspire desire, to assist our efforts, to realise within us all that the external Word exhibits to faith and hope. Does He perpetuate the ministry of the Gospel? He is with His servants unto the end of the world, to make them the means of conveying this salvation. Does He appoint His Sabbaths for ordinances? In these the Church is made the deposit and source of salvation to the world. The very sacraments are signs and seals of salvation. II. THE SPIRITUAL NATURE OF HIS KINGDOM. This is strongly indicated by the circumstances connected with His public and royal entry into Jerusalem. This event was intended to call off His disciples and us from the vain notion of a civil monarchy. They thought He was then assuming it; but even then we see Him rejecting it. There is a tendency in man to look even now, as formerly, for something more than a spiritual kingdom; a kingdom of visible power, and glory, and splendour. He entered this to show that He was a King; but He disappointed their expectation in the very circumstances of this event, in order to show that His kingdom was not of this world. He rode upon an ass, to denote that He was a peaceful sovereign. He returned by night to the Mount of Olives, which He certainly would not have done, had He been about to establish a civil reign. Children celebrated His praises, not the men. The true glory of Christ's kingdom is, that it erects its dominion in the human mind and heart; spreads its light and power over all the faculties, and principles of our nature; ordaining the praise of God out of the mouth; so that everyone who is brought under its influence becomes the instrument of instructing others, and subduing them to the service of the same Saviour. III. THE EXTENT OF THIS SPIRITUAL DOMINION OF CHRIST. 1. His dominion is to extend "from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth." 2. The state of mankind, it is true, is deeply affecting. It is a state of wretchedness and danger. They are "prisoners," east into a "pit wherein is no water." Allusion is to the ancient punishment of criminals, who were sometimes thrown into a pit, and left to die of thirst; and sometimes, after enduring the torments of thirst, were brought forth to execution. 3. Then there follows an address to the prisoners. "Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope." Only a few had returned from Babylon. Zechariah addresses those who were left behind. In how much higher sense than the Jews are we prisoners of hope. Let such prisoners think of the blood of the covenant of deliverance which has been shed. (R. Watson.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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