HE NEEDS YOU

Is this not an amazing and humbling truth?  Here is the Lord of Glory, who was able to walk on water, yet needed a donkey to ride into Jerusalem. There were several reasons why He rode on a donkey. 

He needed to do so because of the prophecy this fulfilled. The Word of God had said, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.”  (Zechariah‬ ‭9‬:‭9‬‬).  Not one Scripture will fail to be fulfilled. Again and again, we read of Jesus doing something in fulfillment of Scripture. As a preacher of God’s Word, I can speak with confidence in the accuracy of that Blessed Book!

He needed to do so because of the position this revealed. Among the Jews we see their rulers riding on donkeys. “The king also said to them, ‘Take with you the servants of your Lord, and have Solomon my son ride on my own mule, and take him down to Gihon.’” (‭‭I Kings‬ ‭1‬:‭33‬‬). You also see rulers riding these beasts of burden in Judges 5:10; 10:4; 12:14). Jesus is the King of kings.  When I am faithful to my calling, I am submitting to my King and promoting Him, not myself.  The people did not cry, “Oh look at that donkey!”  They exulted in the Son of David.

He needed to do so because of the purpose this unveiled. A king would at other times mount a mighty horse, should His purpose be to go to war. The riding on a donkey represented that the king was coming in peace. Jesus will come the second time on a white horse to conquer those who war against God, but in His first advent, He was coming to be crucified—to bring us peace with God.  God sends sinners who have surrendered to Him to share with other sinners how they can be forgiven.  He could have used an angel to trumpet His truth, but we have a story that holy angels do no have—the testimony of amazing grace that saved wretches like we were.

He needed to do so because of the prosperity this promised. These beasts were used to plow the land and transport the produce. 

“Likewise the oxen and the young donkeys that work the ground Will eat cured fodder, Which has been winnowed with the shovel and fan.”  (Isaiah‬ ‭30‬:‭24‬‬). Canaan was the Promised Land—a place of abundant milk and honey. Yet, because of Israel’s sin, they never enjoyed the fruitfulness God desired for them. Jesus was coming to reverse the curse, and give abundant life, (cf. John 10:10). You be faithful and trust God to make you fruitful. He can cause the hardest ground to yield the sweetest fruit!

Almighty God needs nothing. He is self-existent. We can neither add to nor take from Him in His self-sufficiency. Jesus, fully Divine, needed nothing. But, He told the disciples, “I need that donkey.”  God in His sovereign grace created man in His own image and set him to cultivate the ground and care for the creation. He calls us to share the Gospel and disciple the nations. In this sense, God needs a donkey like me!  Apart from God, we cannot, but apart from us, He will not.  Don’t get the idea that God lacks anything and is fretting over whether you are going to come through or not. His will is going to be done—with or without me. If I am silent, He can make stones cry out, (Luke 19:40). To accomplish His inexorable will, however, He has decided to use a vessel of clay like me and you. 

Paul put it this way, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.”  (I Corinthians‬ ‭1‬:‭17‬-‭29‬‬).

God used a jackass to speak to Balaam (cf. Num. 22:21-35). If God could communicate through that donkey, then He can speak through me. How astonishing!  Omnipotent God needs weak men to communicate the power of salvation through the foolishness of the cross!  Stop bemoaning your weakness and making excuses. Humble yourself before God, open His Word, stand up and speak up, trusting God to show up!

Old E. M. Bounds put it this way in his classic little book, “Power through Prayer,”

God’s plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than of anything else. Men are God’s method. The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men. …What the Church needs to-day is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use—men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men—men of prayer.

Will you be that man?