REjoice in the King of the In-Between

Have you ever been stuck on a plane sitting on the tarmac? The air conditioning is off, a child is screaming in the row behind you, and you know you're going to miss your connecting flight. You just want to get home. That feeling of frustrated waiting—being stuck in a place you don't want to be with no clear timeline for moving forward—perfectly illustrates what the prophet Zechariah was addressing in his message to Israel in Zechariah 9:9.

The People of Israel: Stuck on the Runway

When Zechariah wrote his prophecy, the people of Israel felt precisely like those frustrated passengers. They had returned to their promised land after 70 years of exile and found Jerusalem in ruins—the walls torn down and the temple destroyed. They'd barely begun rebuilding the temple foundation when neighboring peoples opposed them. All work had stopped. Twenty years later, it seemed God had started His salvation project but had forgotten to finish it. The prophet Jeremiah called this "the day of small things"—and the people were tired of waiting. They were experiencing what we might call "hopelessness paralysis."

Our Own In-Between Places

We all know how it feels to be stuck on the tarmac of life:

• "I thought my bedroom remodel would be done by now, but there are still baseboards in my entryway four months later..."

• "I thought parenting would be finished once they left the house..."

• "I hoped this last visit to the doctor would finally give me a diagnosis..."

• "I thought once we had a building of our own, we wouldn't have to set up and tear down anymore..."

Zechariah's prophecy is an invitation to take our eyes off the headrest in front of us and look out the window: our waiting is not wasted. We're not just sitting on the runway. Our King is coming to us!

Rejoice in the King of the In-Between

We can sing in all circumstances because we have an "already" King in this "not yet" life. Here are two reasons we can rejoice in the King of the in-between:

1. He is a Saving King

"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..." (Zechariah 9:9)

The promise that should bring rejoicing to our hearts is the personal arrival of our righteous King. This is not just any king—this is YOUR King coming TO YOU with salvation in His arms. Throughout the Bible, we see God pursuing His people:

• He pursues them in the garden

• He runs after them into Egypt

• He calls to them in the wilderness

• He keeps calling, pursuing, drawing near

  
  

Every other religion teaches people how to climb UP to get to God. Only the Bible presents a righteous God who COMES TO His people—who moves toward the rebellious and dirty, who runs after His wandering children when they forget Him. The delay between God's promise and its fulfillment is not evidence of God's absence but of His patience. He is active in the in-between. He is coming to His people with His arms full of salvation.

2. He is a Humble King

"...humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." (Zechariah 9:9)

A donkey is not a kingly vehicle—it's the kind of car you'd be embarrassed to drop off with the valet! Yet Christ's identity as a humble king is absolutely essential to His mission as a saving King. Five hundred years after Zechariah wrote his prophecy, Jesus deliberately fulfilled it by riding into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey while crowds waved palm branches. They had the right words to worship the coming King but the wrong expectations.

They wanted a powerful king who would crush their enemies. What they didn't realize was that if Jesus had come that way, they would have been the enemies He came to crush! Thank God that Jesus didn't come to crush His enemies but to BE CRUSHED FOR His enemies and die in their place. Thank God He is a humble King who got low, who surrendered His rights and privileges for the sake of His enemies.

Finding Freedom in Weakness

Have you considered that your weakness being exposed is not evidence of your distance from God but evidence of you drawing near to Jesus? We often think maturing as Christians means we become SO STRONG that we don't need to return to the cross so frequently. But is it such a surprise that after all this time following Christ, you haven't grown so strong you no longer need His grace?

What if the freedom you long for is found in admitting how weak you really are? What if it looks like being honest in your small group about how upside-down your heart and life really are? Jesus came as a humble King to the weak, the broken, the lowly, and the least of these—so we can be weak, lowly, broken, and still be loved.

Until That Day

One day, Christ will return in power, riding on a white horse. On that day, He will raise us with Him and seat us next to Him. Until that day, we wait in the in-between and rejoice in our humble, saving King. As the hymn says:

"I labor on in weakness and rejoicing, for in my need, His power is displayed."

So the next time you find yourself frustrated by life's delays, remember: God has not forgotten you in the in-between. Your King is coming to you.