Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” (Matthew 21:1–5 ESV)
When the New Testament authors quote prophecies from the Hebrew Scriptures, they are not doing so as a proof text. They are not plucking verses out of context and saying, “See Jesus did that.” Rather, the quote is intended to take our minds back to the original prophecy as a whole and understand that the whole prophetic message is being recalled and fulfilled. This action of Jesus is so important that all four gospels record this event. You will notice in your cross-references that this action that Jesus takes comes from Zechariah 9. The goal of the prophet Zechariah is to encourage the people to be faithful to the Lord and do the work because God has great things promised for their future. Zechariah gives another picture of what God is going to do for us and for the world when the Christ comes…
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