Zechariah 9:9,10,12: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! / Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! / Behold, your King is coming to you; / He is just and having salvation, / Lowly and riding on a donkey, / A colt, the foal of a donkey . . . / He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be from sea to sea, / And from the River to the ends of the earth . . . / Return to the stronghold, / You prisoners of hope. / Even today I declare / That I will restore double to you.”

December 20th, 2021 by Pastor Ed in devotional

The first and second comings of Jesus Christ are compressed here in these two verses, 9 and 10. Verse 9 clearly refers to Jesus’ first coming and verse 10 to His second coming, which even two thousand years later has yet to take place. The Old Testament prophets couldn’t see the time period between these two comings, as both Ephesians 3:1–6 and Colossians 1:26–27 tells us that the church age, or the age of the Gentiles, was a mystery hidden from them. Verse 9 was fulfilled with startling precision when Jesus triumphantly entered Jerusalem (Matthew 21 and John 12). This is just one of more than 300 prophecies concerning the Messiah that was perfectly fulfilled. The Messiah would be born in the tiny village of Bethlehem, in a stable, his dad would be a carpenter, his mom a pregnant virgin, and on and on. So we have absolute faith that the promise of His second coming will be perfectly fulfilled as well.

There are 4 characteristics listed here that shouted to the reader some of the attributes the Messiah would have: He would be King, just, bringing salvation, and humble. The animal the King would enter the city on would be unlike normal warrior kings, who purposefully rode the largest, most powerful steeds they could find. And Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the King did enter Jerusalem on a donkey, symbolizing that He came in peace. His rule is one of peace, and the weapons we use now for warfare are spiritual for the tearing down of spiritual strongholds (1 Cor. 10:3–6).

Dropping down to verse 12, we find this intriguing phrase: “prisoners of hope.” Zechariah was of course referring to God’s people, and what was true of them is also true of every believer. We have all become prisoners of hope. The word hope is often misused to mean something someone wishes for but has no assurance of getting. However, that is not what hope means here. This hope is a confident expectation, a reliance, trust, belief, and anticipation of coming good that one is sure of receiving. We were once like those prisoners in the pit, without any hope; but because of the free gift of God’s grace, we are now prisoners of faith, hope, and love.

“LORD, we thank You that You have made us joyful prisoners, giving us a sure expectation of coming good.”