Next, we spring over to the Book of Matthew to see how this former tax collector employed the messianic prophecy of Zechariah. We immediately detect the same issues we discovered in our previous investigation of Zechariah 9:9.
Famous statue in the centre of Bremen, Germany, depicting the donkey, dog, cat and cockerel from Grimm’s famous fairy tale The Bremen Town Musicians Darren Baker | Dreamstime.com
Did Jesus ride on one animal or two? Did He mount them separately or both simultaneously?
I like the common-sense approach to these questions that Louis A. Barbieri Jr. offers in the Bible Knowledge Commentary:
“Only Matthew mentioned a donkey along with the colt. A simple explanation of what some call a contradiction is that when Jesus rode the colt, the mother donkey naturally went along.” (Matthew 21:7 ESV) (Louis A. Barbieri Jr., Matthew, The Bible Knowledge Commentary, 1983, paragraph 21163).
Hence, Jesus entered the holy city with two donkeys, but He rode only one.
This explanation, offered by Louis A. Barbieri Jr., is full of practical wisdom. I’m ready to consider this dilemma solved. But life is never that simple.
It is unsurprising that, despite this straightforward explanation, Bible students want to argue other positions. In the rest of this section, we will indulge some of our contrarian friends.
Growing up in New Jersey as a seven-year-old was an East Coast dream. Swimming at the sunlit Jersey shore. Fishing in northern Jersey lakes. Strolling through New York’s Times Square. I was a dyed-in-the-wool Jersey boy.
No New Jersey summer was complete without the family visit to Atlantic City’s Steel Pier. Of course, I spent the day dogging my parents about when we would attend Steel Pier’s diving horses extravaganza.
Who wouldn’t be thrilled to watch a woman on horseback plummet 40 feet into a water tank?
The Roy Rogers Rodeo was another contender for my attention. At this Western round-up in New York’s Madison Square Garden, I fantasized I would become the first Jewish buckaroo.
Unfortunately, my parents were adamant that horseback lessons should take a rear saddle to my Bar Mitzvah preparations.
Every winter, my Mom and Dad would ferry my brother and me through the Lincoln Tunnel to attend the Barnum and Bailey Circus at MSG. I always looked forward to the clown acts, but loved the daredevil horseback stunts most.
My favorite horseback riding trick is known as Roman riding. A performer stands or balances on the backs of two horses driven abreast, taking hurdles or performing other stunts.
I was always convinced these dazzling skills only belonged in the three rings or a riding arena. Yet I was recently briefed that Jesus may have performed a daredevil balancing act when He paraded into Jerusalem on what some believe was two donkeys.
Messiah’s Unusual Entrance into Jerusalem
I recently encountered this dilemma surrounding Yeshua’s Triumphal Entry while teaching a seminar on the messianic prophecies in the Gospel of Matthew. I was expounding on Yeshua’s entrance into Jerusalem in fulfillment of the messianic passage in Zechariah 9:9, which reads:
“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 ESV).
In Matthew 21:5-7, the gospel writer quotes from the Minor Prophet Zechariah to show how Yeshua’s jaunt into the holy city fulfills this prophecy:
“Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ” The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on” (Matthew 21:5-7 NIV11).
In the NIV and the KJV’s translation of Zechariah 9:9, the Messianic King rides into the holy city on two donkeys. In stark contrast, in most English translations of Zechariah 9:9, the Messiah journeys into a rejoicing Jerusalem on one donkey.
Unsurprisingly, a class member raised her hand to inquire about this quizzical discrepancy in the Matthew text. The student wondered, “Why does Matthew record two donkeys, a mother and a young colt? Didn’t Zechariah prophecy that the Messiah would ride on ONE donkey?
The student questioned further, “Matthew also recorded that Jesus sat on THEM. Did Yeshua sit on BOTH the mother donkey and her colt simultaneously?”
The picture this Bible student was portraying turns Yeshua’s entry into Jerusalem into quite a spectacle. Did He ride on the donkeys both at the exact moment or one at a time? I did not have an immediate response.
I knew my understanding of this passage required more research
I also encountered another quandry about the Triumphant Entry. Was Yeshua’s entry into Jerusalem actually “triumphant”?
Pastors often claim Jesus journeyed into Jerusalem to claim Himself as the long-awaited King of Israel. Initially, the Jewish crowds accepted Jesus’ victorious entry four days before Passover. But later in the week, the “same” crowds cried for Yeshua’s crucifixion.
Was Yeshua’s journey into the city of David a victorious military event? Did the crowd misunderstand Yeshua’s message in His memorable entry before His crucifixion?
I decided to do a deep dive into the messianic prophecy of Zechariah 9:9. Then, I would spring over to Matthew 21 to further investigate this possible biblical juggernaut. The results of my private investigation are found in this article.
My parents both passed away within the last decade. They are buried in a Jewish cemetery in North Lauderdale, Florida. Whenever I am in the Sunshine State, I make every effort to show my respect and visit their gravesites.
I find it a bewildering experience to observe the engravings on the grave stones in this memorial park. Some headstones illustrate that the departed were avid gamblers. On their markers are carved images of dice, playing cards, roulette wheels and cocktail glasses. The only thing missing is whether after thirty years of gambling, they came out ahead or died with a heavy debt.
Why would someone who lived for almost a century desire to be known for their gambling passion? What kind of legacy are they passing on to their loved ones?
In this article we look at Noah, a man who left us a legacy of faithfulness to God in the midst of an impending worldwide disaster. He has many descriptions written about him in Scripture that chronicle how he handled the universal crisis that confronted him. Any one of these statements could have been written on his tombstone: a man who “found favor in the eyes of the LORD (Genesis 6:8); “a righteous man, blameless in his generation . . . walked with God” (Genesis 6:9); “an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith” (Hebrews 11:7) and a “herald of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5).
Noah left us an example of how we can conduct ourselves when life does not meet our expectations. Yes, there are vast differences between ourselves and Noah that impede us from drawing an exact parallel. Yet there are some spiritual attitudes possessed by this patriarch that can help us during the current COVID-19 crisis of crippling economic deprivation, extreme health hazards and separation from loved ones.
Summers in the East Coast were often a treat for me as a young boy. I treasured spending those hot, humid days visiting my grandparents in Coney Island in New York. Besides cooling off in the Atlantic Ocean, the main attraction was Steeplechase Park. The assortment of rides this park offered to a young starry-eyed boy was dizzying. Of course, I was ambitious enough to think I could enjoy them all in one outing.
One go-to amusement was the swing ride. According to an online history of carousels, the “swing ride is a variant of a carousel ride – a fairground ride that has chairs suspended by chains from the top of the carousel . . . This ride is also called a swing carousel, wave swinger, yo-yo, Chair-O-Planes or a swinger”.
This mechanism operates on a principle of a spinning central core powered by a motor that forces the swings to extend outward on wires or metal chains. The faster the central core spins, the farther out the swings stretch.
What does this sentimental childhood memory have to do with Noah’s situation or any spiritual truths? Let me suggest our relationship with God begins with a person’s central core fixed on the Lord. From this connection to our Creator, we discover a powerful, inner centrifugal force that drives our spiritual aspirations. When that inner connection to God is fractured, there are grave spiritual consequences-lack of purpose, extreme self-centeredness, depression, broken relationships, and involvement in destructive sins. This truth brings us to the reason why God brought the Flood upon our planet.
Sadly, this catastrophic event in Noah’s day was due to man’s lack of any desire to enjoy a relationship with God. The human population refused to see their need to have God as that centrifugal force. Instead, they attempted to enthrone themselves at the core of their souls. We too are fooled by the same self-deception. As long as we keep the swings in motion, we are convinced we can be the “captain of our own souls.” Despite our sincere endeavors, we default to arrogant pride, extreme self-centeredness, and a refusal to believe there is Someone in the universe greater than ourselves.
From this breakdown in man’s bridge to God in Noah’s day, humanity spiraled out of control. The downward thrust of mankind was enough for God to respond with a promise of a worldwide Flood. Like the motion of the carousel swing ride from the central core, our trouble is due to a failure to see the need to allow God to become part of our energizing inner core.
Our world is facing an unprecedented crisis with the Coronavirus outbreak. Currently, close to 1,911,407 people have been confirmed to have developed the virus; 118,623 have died and 446,366 are recovered. By the time you read this article, the figures will have changed.
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While the confirmed cases of COVID-19 exhibit tragic numbers along with the subsequent deaths, the responses to the virus by different segments of society are extremely disturbing.
Since ScriptureSolutions is concerned with how evangelicals react to various disasters, the focus of this article zeroes in on how the church is handling the coronavirus. To be clear, the majority of large and small evangelical congregations are heeding the state, city and federal orders to refrain from large group meetings to stave off the spread of the virus. Yet some churches and their leaders have a different take to this pandemic.
