What’s in a name? What can we learn about the character of Jesus from His names? How can knowing the character of Jesus change the way you live day-to-day? How will it change the way you approach this Christmas season?
His Name IS Advent Devotion: DAY 3
Names held great significance for the Hebrew people.
“In Judaism, a name is not merely a conglomeration of letters put together as a convenient way to refer to someone. Ideally, it is a definition of the individual – a description of his personality and an interpretation of his traits.” —Rabbi Paysach Krohn, torah.org.
The names of Christ that we find through Scripture help us to better understand who Jesus is because they reveal aspects of His character, nature and ways. It’s hard to trust and really believe Jesus impacts my daily living when I don’t really know Him. The more I understand who Christ is, the more I begin to understand who I am in Him. So let’s get into the Word!
Today we continue our study of Zechariah 9:9 and focus on Jesus as our King. I didn’t plan on spending three days in this one verse, but it’s just so good! We just need to hang here a little longer…and this just might help us with our rushing, urgent NOW! attitudes to slow down and soak in this verse a bit longer.
Read over Zechariah 9:9 once again, focusing on the latter half of the verse:
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
What words or phrases stand out to you? What do you see foretold about the birth, life or death of Jesus? What do you learn about the character and nature of Jesus?
The question that came to mind for me as I read the latter portion of the verse was this: What is the deal with the donkey?
Donkey? We see this word repeated three times in one verse, so it has significance. Let’s allow some cross-referencing to help us answer this question. I’m so excited about what these verses hold for you that it’s hard not to just blurt it all out, right now! I’m telling you there is good, good stuff in these verses (I mean like homemade, chocolate chip cookies right-out-of-the-oven kind of good!) These verses are rich!
Take some time and read through each of these passages. What do you learn? What do you learn about who Jesus is—His character and nature? How do these encourage you today? And…what do you learn about that donkey!
I’ll be back tomorrow and we’ll talk it through. But remember, all the rushing and impatience of NOW! causes us to miss the joy of the moment. Let’s commit to being intentional this Christmas season, to not allow the hurried and harried NOW! attitude rob us of the joy and peace Jesus has for us in the moment. Slow down and soak in the presence of Jesus as He renews, refreshes and enables us to rejoice in the ALL the moments of this often harried and hurried season.
Share with us what you’ve learned by leaving a comment at the end of this post.
This post was originally published on Get Real in December 2014.
©2014, Susan Cady, Get Real!
