Lenten Devotional April 10, 2022

Scripture

Zechariah 9:9-12

9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 10 He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.

11 As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. 12 Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.

Devotional

Jake Horner ’15

One of the most important aspects of YHWH’s unimpeachable character toward us humans is that YHWH keeps covenant. Always and forever. In today’s passage from the prophet Zechariah, YHWH appeals to the blood of the covenant with Israel as the reason the people can expect rescue and restoration. There are two impossibilities present which preclude God from not rescuing and restoring Israel. First, it is impossible for God to violate the divine character by not fulfilling covenant obligations towards Israel. Second, how can it be possible, even granting the impossible circumstance of covenant failure on YHWH’s part, for the blood of the covenant to fall on the “head” of the eternal, invisible, omnipotent, omniscient God? Short answer: it’s not possible.

Yet God makes the impossible possible in the incarnation. God is the “head” upon which the curses of failed covenant may fall. Humanity had left itself outside of any claim of relationship with YHWH long ago. That is why every time God enters into relationship with a human being, there is a covenant. Our first forbears experienced both steps prescribed in the punishment for covenant failure: exile (from the garden), and falling under the ban (in the flood). Israel did too, eventually falling under the Assyrians and Babylonians.

Christ came among us and did what had to be done, both in his perfect obedience to God and in his submission to the curse of failed covenant. For this we can rejoice greatly!

Prayer

Holy Father, Son, and Spirit, today we give thanks for our King, Jesus Christ, who entered into our brokenness and yet kept covenant, who opened a gate for us to enter into the pasture of your presence. Grant that we may live as covenant-keepers through Christ in your eternal kingdom. Please let this be so!