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“Two Messiahs”
The
Returning King: The “Two Messiahs” in Zechariah
Literature throughout the ages is
replete with stories of mysterious and enigmatic kings, cryptic characters
whose rule is often full of uncertain sorrows, yet strangely hopeful.
Aragorn, the ranger-turned-ruler in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy
is one example.
There were those who believed in Aragorn’s right to
the throne from the very beginning and others who refused to submit to his rule
until the very end, when he proved himself in battle.
For much of the series, his true identity is cloaked
in mystery. Is he a gallant king, or an honorable man, or both?
Throughout history human
imagination has been captivated by such figures, and for good reason. Sometimes
imagination hints at the greater reality.
The Bible presents us with a
mysterious king as well.
Some of the most seemingly enigmatic, yet detailed,
descriptions of this king occur in the prophetic book of Zechariah, written
over 2,500 years ago.
Over the centuries various attempts have been made to
explain this kingly figure. Some have concluded that he is the long-awaited
Messiah.
Others say we can’t know anything about him for sure.
Still others say he is the carpenter from Nazareth about whom the whole world
wonders.
Why did this ancient Jewish
prophet obsess over this kingly character?
Is it possible to understand this seemingly
inscrutable figure? What could his kingship mean to us today? Let’s take a
look.
A Bit of Background
Though Zechariah was born during
the exile of Israel to Babylon, his writing occurred once the Jewish people
were back in the Land.
Jewish tradition maintains that the prophet Zechariah
was a man of the Great Synagogue, the group that is believed to have carefully
preserved the Hebrew Scriptures and traditions during the period after the
exile.
Along with remembering the past,
Zechariah, whose name means The Lord Remembers,” speaks much in terms of God’s
promises for Israel’s future.
According to Zechariah, this future for Israel
includes eventual total restoration of the Jewish people to her former glory.
Zechariah is trying to preserve hope. And for Israel
this hope is inextricably linked to a king who was yet to come. Zechariah
chooses to focus much of his writing describing this coming king.
Most of us today have learned to
distrust our leaders. With the United States in the throes of an election year,
cynicism, skepticism and disillusionment are the reigning forces.
And yet, deep down, most of us could admit we wish
there were someone who had our best interests at heart, a leader who truly
desired to improve our lot and could actually make things better. It’s the
“better” that we all long for.
What Zechariah tells us is that
there is such a person. He is the king who is to come, the fulfillment of our
hopes for a leader who will not disappoint us.
Since that person has been promised to us, it’s well
worth considering the details of that promise so that we can recognize this
king when and if he comes.
Zechariah 9:9-10 — A King of Peace
Israel certainly had her share of
disappointing kings. The books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles attest to this
history. But in Zechariah 9:9-10, the prophet points to a coming king who is
unique.
“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 on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
And 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.”
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 on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
And 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.”
This isn’t just any king. The
prophet tells the people of Israel to be joyful, to get excited, because the
promised one, the one sent from God, the long awaited king, is coming.
And so this passage has been interpreted as messianic;
that is, it is often supposed that the king in this passage is none other than
the Messiah, the savior of Israel.
Traditional Judaism teaches that,
“The messiah is a G-d fearing, pious Jew,
who is both a Torah scholar and a great leader. He is to be a direct descendent
of King David, anointed as the new Jewish King. (In fact, the Hebrew word for
messiah ‘Moshiach’ means ‘anointed one.’)”
Many Jewish people do not give
much thought to the coming of a Messiah anymore, and those who do often picture
him as a mighty conqueror, even a superhero-type figure.
But here in Zechariah 9 the picture is very
different the king is not coming to fight a war; He comes in gentleness and
meekness.
He is the king over all the earth and He has all
authority, but He comes in this humble fashion, riding on a baby donkey, as
opposed to a chariot or even a great horse.
This passage of Scripture
provides a picture of a Messiah-king, a deliverer of salvation, gently offering
His kingship to Israel and to the world He is a man of peace for all peoples.
He will proclaim peace to all the nations, not just to
Israel.
In our world today peaceful
people may win prizes, but they don’t necessarily command authority.
We’ve come to expect a certain amount of confidence,
even arrogance, from our leaders. We expect them to do what they have to do to
maintain order.
Especially in Israel and the Middle East, it is
difficult to fathom that someone could come to such power on peaceful terms.
A king who does not fight? Yet in this passage, that
is exactly what is promised.
Zechariah 14:2-4 — A King of War
Later, however, Zechariah gives
another description of the coming king, a picture quite different from that of
chapter 9.
Let’s take a brief look at the context for his
statement:
“For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem
to battle, and the city will be captured. Then the Lord will go forth and fight
against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. In that day His
feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the
east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by
a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north
and the other half toward the south.”
This picture is very much like an
epic battle scene from a movie full of bloodshed and tragedy and triumph.
Then in verses 8-9 we read:
“And in that day living waters will flow out of
Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the
western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter. And the Lord will be
king over all the earth; in that day the Lord will be the only one, and His
name the only one.”
Chapters 9 and 14 are the central
passages in Zechariah telling of this king who will reign over all the earth.
In chapter 9 the king is humble, but in chapter 14 He
is a force to be reckoned with.
In the latter picture, the king is a conqueror; He
comes in wrath, meting out judgment to the enemies of Israel. This is perhaps a
more traditional picture of Messiah, a mighty hero who fights on our behalf.
Mysteriously, this passage seems
to suggest that this Messiah-king is none other than the Lord God himself, God
coming to fight on behalf of his people
In any case, we are presented with a dramatically
different picture of the king here than the one we see in Zechariah 9.
Two Descriptions, Two Kings?
So the question is, does this
king who reigns over all the earth come gently, riding on a donkey in peace?
Or in great wrath, ready to do battle?
Is Zechariah contradicting himself? This is a big
puzzle for Jewish scholars as well. But this is not the only place in the
Scriptures where we find seemingly divergent pictures of Messiah.
For example, Micah 5 tells us he is born in
Bethlehem, the city of David. But in Daniel 7 the prophet tells us he will
arrive, riding on the clouds of heaven.
Is the Messiah going to be cut off (killed) as
predicted in Daniel 9, or will he come in regal splendor and reign forever, as
Isaiah 9 tells us?
Is he the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 or a
royal king portrayed in Psalm 2?
In response to these two
seemingly opposite pictures of Messiah, some rabbis decided that there must be
two messiahs, the Messiah ben Yosef who would come and suffer and Messiah ben
David, who would come as a conquering king.
Another Jewish tradition explains
the two contrasting portraits of Messiah like this: “If the people of Israel will be righteous, the Messiah will come in
the clouds of Heaven. If they will not be righteous, he will come as a poor man
riding upon an ass” (Sanhedrin 98a).
Are such explanations necessary
or is it possible that one individual might “fit the bill” of both pictures;
someone who would be both a king of peace and a king of power, a humble servant
and a conqueror?
If so, what would this extraordinary person look like?
The Once and Future King
There is still another Jewish
view concerning the two pictures of the Messiah-king that accurately fulfills
the portrait we see in Zechariah and elsewhere in the Hebrew Scriptures.
This view actually predates the other two mentioned.
It’s the position presented in the New Testament.
The writers of the New Testament
were Jewish people, living in the first century, who believed that the
prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures described one Messiah, a great king who was
to come twice, first as a servant, then as conqueror.
They believed that Yeshua (Jesus) was the fulfillment
of both expectations.
Yeshua was not a typical king.
His was a life marked by humility. He was a man of gentleness and peace.
But the peace He offered was different from what most
people think about it was a peace that comes from the depth of personal
spiritual solutions that Yeshua offered to people who would follow Him.
“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not
as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let
it be fearful” (John 14:27).
“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that
which is lost” (Luke 19:10).
Near the close of Yeshua’s life
on earth, he called to his disciples to get a donkey with its colt.
Just before Passover, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a
colt of a donkey, fulfilling the prophecy Zechariah gave more than five hundred
years earlier. And the people shouted and rejoiced:
“Hosha-na to the Son of David; BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES
IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Hosha-na in the highest!” (Matthew 21:9).
The people were shouting, “Save us!”
They understood that their king had come and that He
was offering powerful, life-changing salvation to those who would welcome Him.
In fact, the name “Yeshua” means “God saves.”
Though Yeshua did not usher in an
age of “peace on earth” as many hoped then and many wish for today, He did
offer peace with God to everyone willing to trust in Him and the atonement for
sin He offered through His death and resurrection.
Yeshua was a man of peace, but He
was also a man of strength.
He boldly proclaimed himself to be the Messiah, the Son
of God, even though He knew that He would be crucified for these claims.
That’s because Yeshua also knew
that He possessed the power of an indestructible life. Though He was to die, He
knew that He would rise again.
Consider His words to a Jewish audience:
“I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one
has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have
authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again ” (John 10:17b-18d).
It was a hard claim to believe
and yet many witnessed Jesus’ resurrection and were willing to die proclaiming
the truth of His life. Today, millions of people around the world wait for His
return.
What will that return look like?
According to Zechariah it will be a day of judgment, but also a day of
deliverance for those who honor the king:
“Then the survivors from all the nations that have
attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty
” (Zechariah 14:6).
So the king came first to offer His
kingship, to give people the chance to enthrone Him. One day He’ll come again
to take by force what is rightfully His.
Like a parent dealing with children: the father or
mother hopes the children will obey on their own, so they begin dealing with
them gently, but when the children refuse to submit, the parents insist and
enforce their will with resolve.
This is the picture Zechariah paints of the king who
has come, the one who will come again.
Conclusion: Confusion or Clarity?
The book of Zechariah does not
explicitly state that Messiah will come twice, yet we do see two pictures of
the king, coming once as a man of peace and again as a conquering king.
Without a doubt these passages should cause one to
stop and think. Is it necessary to believe in two messiahs?
Or is it possible that he came to live among us two
thousand years ago and that He’ll come again to be enthroned as the victorious,
reigning king?
In the third and final book of The Lord of the Rings,
after a long, wearying battle, Aragorn finally takes up his throne.
And Tolkien writes this scene wherein one of the
hobbits encounters Gandalf, the wizard he thought had been vanquished:
“Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought
I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What’s happened to
the world?”
“A
great Shadow has departed,” said
Gandalf, and then he laughed, “and the
sound was like music, or like water in a parched land It fell upon his ears
like the echo of all the joys he had ever known.”
Tolkien’s words are a good
illustration of the yearning in the human soul for a time when all that is
wrong will be made right.
But it will take an extraordinary individual to
accomplish this, a figure like the one portrayed in the mosaic of messianic
prophecies we are given in the Hebrew Scriptures, and like the one we confront
in the accounts of Yeshua’s life.
Those who believe Yeshua is the
Messiah have seen how He fulfills these expectations. Because of what he did in
his first coming, we can be assured that He will return. Yes, the king will
return.
The final question remains: Are
you prepared to welcome Him as your king? Will you welcome Him now?
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