when the saints go riding in

The Word for today:
Matthew 20:29-21:22

mark this: Matthew 21:1-3 --
As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away."
This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
"Say to the Daughter of Zion,
'See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.' "

Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy (1). A donkey is a docile animal--not the sort of steed on whose back a warrior would make his charge. If Jesus had come to earth with the goal of overthrowing the Roman government, he would have entered the city in battle regalia upon a spirited stallion.

The lowly donkey, a beast of burden, is symbolic of Jesus' first appearance as the burden-bearer:
Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. (2)

Jesus carried his cross--the weight of our sin--throughout a lifetime before he carried a literal cross on his last day:
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (3)

The next time Jesus appears, it won't be on a donkey. He'll come back astride a white horse, followed by thousands upon thousands of his saints--on white horses of their own:
Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. (4)

I want to be in that number--when the saints go riding in.

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(1) Zecharaiah 9:9; Matthew 21:1-3; (2) Isaiah 53:4; (3) Isaiah 53:3; (4) from Revelation 19:11-16; see Jude 1:14/KJV