Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

Jesus, having found a young donkey, sat on it. As it is written, “Don’t be afraid, daughter of Zion. Behold, your King comes, sitting on a donkey’s colt.*”
^{{*Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you! He is righteous, and having salvation; lowly, and riding on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Zechariah 9:9}}
John 12:14-15 (emphasis added)

The donkey was a common form of transportation in the ancient world, even for royalty. They had value and were often a symbol of wealth. They were also pictures of peace and humility. All of these apply to Jesus as He was abundant in blessing, royalty, peaceful, and humble. This ride on the donkey was prophesied by the prophet Zechariah and another sign of Jesus being the Messiah. Jesus was arriving for the Feast of Passover. One of the major components of the Feast was the sacrifice of lambs. Hundreds of thousands of lambs. They were driven up into the city all day long. As Jesus travelled into the city, He did so surrounded by lambs being led to the slaughter. Jesus, riding a symbol associated with peace, went into the city as a lamb, among lambs.
In direct opposition to this was the crowd. They were waving palm branches at Him. The palm branch had become a national symbol of the Maccabees. They were rebels who seized control of Judea and ruled an independent kingdom from about 110 to 63 BC. The palm branch was one of their symbols, used when they marched around Jerusalem to celebrate their capture of it. It became something of a national symbol and in Jesus’ day was the major symbol of the rebels seeking to oust the Romans and gain independence. Surrounded by sacrificial lambs, THE sacrificial Lamb of God rode into the city among people who were proclaiming Him as their sociopolitical saviour who they were hoping would remove the yoke of the Romans and grant them independence. Talk about opposites.

Daughter of Zion was a title or symbol of Jerusalem, city of David, and by extension the people of Israel. It was prophetically considered a daughter under the sacred relationship of protection of God Almighty. This is the positive likeness to a Daughter Jerusalem had. In scripture it is first linked this way in Isaiah when he was prophesying against Sennacherib (Isaiah 37:22 and 2 Kings 19:21). But the likeness was not always positive. It started as a princess, a faithful city. But she becomes scornful, full of betrayal. She suffers. She is exiled. She has lost all her glory. But in the end, the prophecies are full of consolation and a return. Looking forward to the time when Israel became a nation again. When there would be a temple that they could offer sacrifices again. A return to their first love: Yahweh.

Moving forward from the time of Isaiah and Zechariah, it didn’t work out for the Israelites as well as they hoped. Yes, they got to return to Israel. Yes, they rebuilt the temple. Yes, they began to worship Yahweh by sacrificing to Him in the temple. But they fell away. They began to skimp on their sacrifices. They rejected God and God was unable to keep His face toward them because of where they chose to go and what they chose to do. But God kept looking for faithful people. God didn’t give up. And hundreds of years later, an honest sacrifice came again to that altar. Again and for the last time. A faithful and pure sacrifice. Focused on Yahweh and in worshipful obedience. The perfect sacrifice to eliminate sin instead of covering it temporarily.

When we move out from God’s covering. When we let ourselves get sucked into the world and the world’s interests, we turn away from where we should stand. IN the world, but OF the Kingdom. We put ourselves into the wrong environment. When we are in the wrong environment, the wrong things will grow. Purely in the natural, what is a great strategy to avoid disease? It’s to put your body into an environment where disease doesn’t thrive or spread. Healthy food, healthy lifestyle, and healthy outlook makes for a situation in your body where cancer doesn’t thrive. Where disease has trouble growing — it isn’t foolproof, but it makes it harder to be sick. We can wear masks and isolate ourselves. Keep our kids from school. Avoid large gatherings. This — again in the natural — helps keep the disease from finding new hosts. From spreading through the population. In some areas it worked well during the Spanish Flu in 1918-1920, with some early island quarantines leading to an almost 50% saving of lives there. These are imperfect methods, but they are some of the best ways we have in the flesh to deal with fleshly things.

Spiritually, it works the same way. We need to empower the things that create an environment where sin has trouble thriving. God inhibits sin. His presence inhibits sin. Sin cannot exist in pure Righteousness. If we abide in Jesus and seek to inhabit the arena of the Throne, how can sin thrive in us? When we are plugged into God, we are plugged into an environment where sin doesn’t exist. It can be hard to grasp, but we have a God-given example. Sex. Far from being ‘original sin’ as the world would have you believe, it was created as a type to show us the intimate bonding we should seek with God — and also for procreation. Naturally 2 join to become 1 (Genesis 2:24-25). Spiritually, we are resurrected into Jesus and we become one with Him by Grace. Both are an intimate companionship. Both can be righteous. Sex is not sin – in the right circumstances. A good tester is to think ‘Can I worship God and then do this?’ If you can kneel on the floor, pray to God, and jump in the sack you either have a righteous relationship with your partner OR you have zero conscience and have rejected belief in God. And if you aren’t close to God, prayer would have a tendency to kill the mood.

Our entire lives should be like that. An open, unending prayer of thanksgiving and worship to God. Laundry time, cooking time, cleaning time, driving time, working time, bathing time, all the time. All the time. That will enable an environment where sin won’t thrive. Stay in it, you will find you don’t sin. We only sin when we are out of the presence of God. We don’t sin when we’re focused on the presence of God. Isn’t that a simple concept? Simple, but not easy. We are spiritual beings, but we are housed in flesh. To say that a human will never sin again is fallacy. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). It is inevitable that we will sin because whatever isn’t of faith is sin (Romans 14:23). Think about that. Anything you do that isn’t done in an atmosphere and intent of faith, is sin. Because we are called to do all things in faith (Hebrews 11:6). We are called to do everything in a way that pleases God.

Have trouble with that? Don’t lose hope. Sanctification is a process. We walk it out throughout our lives, getting better every day in every way, and when we enter Heaven we will have our new bodies and the fight with flesh will be over. In the meantime: Behold, your King comes! Jesus does NOT leave us in sin. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Jesus does NOT leave us lost. Jesus comes to us. Every time. All the time. Jesus is constantly talking to us. The Holy Spirit is constantly talking to us. Trying to engage us. Trying to get our eyes back on the Father where we should always have them. That’s why Jesus came. That’s why Jesus died. To get us back in line with heaven. Don’t you ever doubt that. It was all about getting us back to the place where God could walk with us and talk with us. Face to Face. Isn’t that wonderful?

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: Isaiah 54:10

Many things in creation end. The Word promises that eventually all of creation will end. Mountains are broken down by the elements of nature. Earthquakes happen. Tectonic plates shift and alter the shape of the landscape. Massive and catastrophic changes occur. More and more as time goes on. It seems that the saying ‘nothing lasts forever’ is accurate. But the Word disagrees. The Word tells us that God has promised everlasting things. His loving kindness endures forever. His covenant of peace with us lasts forever. He is not a wrathful God seeking to punish us. Fear has punishment. Love doesn’t. Love only has reward. God is love. Perfect love. Unselfish love. For you. For me. For us all. Yahweh is merciful and Yahweh has mercy for you. The Word promises. And in it, there is no lie.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.