Chizuk Emunah Under the Microscope: Chapter 35

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

   Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your king is coming to you;

   righteous and having salvation is he,

humble and mounted on a donkey,

    on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9)

 Most of Troki's interpretation here is mere speculation. There is nothing in Zechariah that will say that when the king comes on a donkey, war will have already ceased. This is made obvious in verse 14, where God will later devour his enemies. If the time of Zechariah 9:9 is after war has ceased and everyone has beaten their swords into plowshares, verses 14 and onward would make no sense.

Troki takes verses 1-8 to mean that the territory of national Israel would be enlarged, the Philistines would be subdued, Jerusalem and the Temple would be enlarged, and all nations would be at peace. Troki does not deny that Jesus did ride on a donkey into Jerusalem. So if Jesus was the true king, then he would fit the prophecy. Traditional Jews expect Messiah to be something like Napoleon, running his armies into foreign nations and forcing them into submission.

Skeptics will object that Matthew misunderstood the prophecy when he wrote about the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. 

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. (Matthew 21:6-7)

 The charge is that Matthew is portraying Jesus as straddling both the colt and the donkey. The Greek words for "colt" and "donkey" are masculine. The word for "coat" is neuter The Greek word for "them" is αὑτῶν, which is a plural noun, and can be masculine, feminine, or neuter. So the grammar is ambiguous. It seems more likely that Matthew intended that Jesus rode the coats. In ancient times, it was much more common for people to ride animals than it is today. The audience would have laughed at the idea of Jesus riding the colt and the donkey, as they knew from experience how absurd that would have looked. A story like that would never have made it into the final print edition of the book of Matthew.



Troki might also be too inflexible when he thinks of peace. The political sense of the term peace either exists voluntarily or it is imposed. If the latter, then the peace of which Troki speaks is really a type of oppression. This would mean that Messiah is supposed to oppress the other nations under his powerful military heel. This is not a divine government. It is fascism.

The other kind of peace, the one that is voluntary, requires a transformation of the people's desires. This is what Jesus brought through regeneration. By taking the punishment meant for sinful humans, Jesus appeased the wrath of the Father. By giving humans regeneration, he can transform us into a new creation, and one that has different innate desires. The process of developing that new self is called sanctification, and can take a lifetime. The beginning step is to repent before God and to ask for forgiveness, and then to put your faith and trust in Jesus as your savior.

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)