Zechariah 9:9

"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, even 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 nations: and his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth."

This magnificent prophecy of the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem and the establishment of his universal dominion is one of the greatest in the Old Testament. New Testament references to it are in Matthew 21:1-5; Mark 11:1-10; Luke 19:29-38 and John 12:12-19. Since it is impossible for the critics to date this "after the event," they attempt to explain it as a reference to something other than the entry of Christ.

"The author, apparently, as soon as Alexander appeared on his horizon, saw in the young Greek, not only the conqueror of Asia, but the forerunner of a ruler who would restore the kingdom of David and make it the admiration of the world!"[25]

How preposterous is the notion that Alexander the Great could have suggested Jesus Christ! Christ was humble; Alexander the Great considered himself a god; Christ was just; Alexander the Great filled the world with atrocious deeds; Christ brought salvation; Alexander brought death and destruction. An impassable gulf separates this holy vision of the Saviour from Alexander; and such a comment as that just quoted ranks with that of the critic who affirmed that the prophecy of the birth of Christ in Bethlehem was actually the prophecy of the birth of David, centuries earlier![26] No limits mark the extent of distortions contrived to deny the Word of God.

Reference is made to the extensive comment in our New Testament series in the four gospels with reference to this prophecy of Zechariah.

"I will cut off the chariot ... the horse ... the battle bow ..." This refers to the rejection on the part of Christ's followers, of all instruments of physical warfare in their winning of converts to the Christian faith. It definitely does not refer to any period of bringing together both Ephraim and Judah in any recreated secular state of Israel. "In the Messianic age, weapons of war will be banished";[27] not from the world but from the Church of Jesus Christ.

"Daughter of Zion ... daughter of Jerusalem ..." The use of this language is significant. "'Daughter' connotes severed relationships in the Old Testament, as in Isaiah 1:8; Jeremiah 4:31; and in Lamentations 2:1. This passage is an exception."[28] We cannot accept the proposition that this passage is an exception. Rather, it is used here to indicate that not the old Jerusalem, but the future Israel of God "in Christ" will receive the lowly Saviour riding upon an ass. The old, secular, physical Jerusalem never received him.

"Having salvation ..." Some have attempted to interpret the meaning here as an affirmation that the one entering was "saved"; but Jamieson affirmed that the Hebrew text actually means: "Showing himself a Saviour, having in himself salvation for us."[29]

This passage must not be limited to any geographical limits. The dominion of Messiah is affirmed in this passage as being worldwide, universal, and "to the uttermost parts of the earth."