Zechariah 9.9 says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh unto thee. He is just, and having salvation, lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. It was around 487 BC when Zechariah spoke this prophecy. In less than a century from the giving of this prophecy, the Spirit of God would fall silent upon Israel. There would be no true prophets, no divinely inspired prophecy for another 400 years after that point. It's important to have some idea when these prophecies were given in order to appreciate the authenticity and to just have some sense of the amazing context of each of these predictions. So nearly a century after Zechariah 9-9 predicted the coming King Messiah of Israel to Jerusalem for the purpose of bringing salvation to men, there was silence from heaven until the next time God would speak to man when he sent Gabriel again, the angel, to deliver a message. This time Gabriel appeared to another man named Zechariah. Only this Zechariah was a priest of the tribe of Levi, and Gabriel came to tell him that he's going to have a son in his old age, and this son would be a prophet, making straight the pathway for the Lord. You may recall the story in Luke chapter 1. Zechariah just couldn't believe what he was seeing and hearing, so to prove his point, Gabriel struck Zechariah dumb, leaving him unable to speak until the baby was born. Six months after that, Gabriel shows up in Nazareth to announce to a young virgin named Mary that she would conceive a child without sexual relations, and this miraculous conception would result in the virgin birth of the Savior of Israel, whose name was to be called Jesus. So with that background, this amazing prophecy of Zechariah comes into view. And less than a century before Zechariah 9-9 was given, the angel Gabriel had also delivered the 70 weeks prophecy found in Daniel 9 24-27, which predicted that after 69 weeks of years, Messiah would be cut off. We discussed this amazing prophecy in our previous Evidence for God devotional. But what we found is that on Nisan 1, 445 BC, the command to rebuild Jerusalem was given by Artaxerxes Longimanus, and we are told to count 69 weeks of years for the Messiah to be cut off. Well, 69 weeks of years is 69 times 7, and that comes to 483. A year is 360 days in the biblical calendar, so you simply multiply the 483 years by the 360 days of each year, and you get a total of 173,880 days. And when you count down from Nisan 1, 445 B.C., that total of 173,880 days, it lands on Nisan 1, 32 A.D. What happened on Nisan 1, 32 A.D.? The fulfillment of Zechariah 9, 9, which said of the Messiah, He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. And the fulfillment of this prophecy is reported to us in Matthew 21. Beginning in verse one says, And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the Mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her. Loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them. and straightway he will send them. All this was done, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy king cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt, the foal of an ass. Zechariah 9, 9, being fulfilled. And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, and brought the ass and the coat, and put on them their clothes. And they sat him thereon. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way. Others cut down branches from the trees and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before and that followed cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. Gabriel's prophecy given to Daniel gave the exact date of Messiah's arrival. Zechariah's prophecy gave an exact description of Messiah's arrival, and Jesus fulfilled the exact date and description of those prophecies. Only the God of the Bible provides such blatant evidence for His existence and for His power and authority over His creation.