Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of bewilderment unto all the peoples round about, and also against Judah shall it be in the siege against Jerusalem.
Zechariah 12 opens a new "burden" — a weighty message from God. It goes straight to the last great siege of Jerusalem, when the nations around close in on the city. God does not promise to remove the armies. He promises to make the city itself something they cannot swallow.
The image comes from drinking. The ESV calls Jerusalem a "cup of staggering"; older translations say "trembling" or "bewilderment".
This word bewilderment has in it the thought of causing people to reel or stagger like a drunken person. When anyone meddles with Jerusalem, enemy or friend, God will make them act as if they had drunk a drug that leaves them unable to think or act straight.
A second picture joins the cup.
When they besiege it, they will find it a cup of 'trembling', or 'bewilderment', because nothing will go the way they imagine it will. It will also be a 'burdensome' stone, far beyond their power to lift or to carry.
Two things stand out in the wording: who the message is addressed to, and who the "surrounding peoples" are.
The burden of the word of the LORD here is for Israel. Notice that the whole people are before Him now. It is not just Judah… "Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples" — it is the nations again, of course not the Jews.
The phrase may stretch wider than Israel's immediate neighbours.
The term "round about" Jerusalem may include the armies that have come from far away, either to oppose or support the antichrist. It may also have in mind the nearby nations that are the long-standing enemies of Israel.
The verse adds that the siege falls on Judah as well as on the city. The attacking force is wide, and it has an aim in view.
All nations will find in Jerusalem a cup that makes them lose their mind — not just Assyria and the nations around Palestine, but also the mighty armies of the west… The "beast" and the false prophet will think that by occupying Jerusalem they have found the way to stop the true King from setting up His government there.
Commentators differ on who leads the attack.
The main point of this chapter, we judge, is the deliverance of Jerusalem and Judah, not the exact naming of the enemy who is destroyed. Even so, it is clear that at that time there will be an alliance of the Gentile nations against Judah and Jerusalem. The head of this alliance is not named.
The picture is not new. God had already given this same cup to His own people as discipline, and now it changes hands.
The closing verses of Isaiah 51 tell the effect of these disciplinary dealings. They then declare how God will reverse the process and punish those who inflicted judgment on Israel… When the Arm of the Lord wakes up for them, the hour of their deliverance will strike. The "cup of trembling" will pass out of their hands and into the hands of those who oppressed them.
The siege is not only a military event. It shows what God intends toward a people who had rejected their own King.
All the nations should be gathered round Jerusalem, but only to find it a burdensome stone that should crush them. God would judge the power of man, but would raise up His people in sovereign grace… This is sovereign grace to the chief of sinners: the weak but beloved Judah. To all her rebellion against God she had added the scorn and rejection of her King and Saviour.
What follows the rescue is repentance, not celebration alone. Only a portion of the nation comes through.
God will defend the city and its people in a miraculous way, and He will destroy the nations (v. 9). He will pour out the spirit of grace and supplication on the remnant of Israel — "all the families that remain"; and "they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced, and mourn."
- Cup — Jerusalem becomes a drink that makes her attackers stagger. Meddle with this city and you lose the power to think straight.
- Reversal — Jerusalem drank this cup herself under God's discipline. Now it passes to the ones who afflicted her.
- Reach — the ones who stagger are the nations, not the Jews. The phrase may cover old neighbours and armies from far away.
- Restraint — the chapter's focus is the rescue of Judah and Jerusalem. The prophet never names the head of the alliance.
- Result — the siege ends in sovereign grace to a guilty people. God gives them a spirit of grace and supplication, and they mourn over the One they pierced.
And it shall come to pass in that day [that] I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone unto all peoples all that burden themselves with it shall certainly be wounded, and all the nations of the earth shall be assembled together against it.
Zechariah has just described a people who refused the good Shepherd. Now every nation on earth closes in on Jerusalem, and two questions follow: why do they gather, and what makes one city too heavy to lift?
The siege does not come out of nowhere. The previous chapter described a people who refused the good Shepherd and welcomed an evil one instead.
Anyone who reads the Scriptures with a clear eye can see it: first Christ was despised, and at the last comes Antichrist. They refused the good Shepherd, and they accept the evil shepherd. God then repays His guilty people with judgment. In the next chapter (Zechariah 12) we see the nations gathering against Jerusalem. Receiving the Antichrist, after rejecting the Christ, is the ground of God's terrible judgments… If they gather themselves together, and God uses them to deal with Jerusalem, He will turn His hand and use Jerusalem to deal with the nations.
Older translations call this stone "burdensome." It is a weight no army can lift. The phrase "in that day," repeated through the chapter, fixes when this happens.
When they besiege the city, they will find it a cup of "trembling," or "bewilderment," because nothing will go the way they imagine. It will also be a "burdensome" stone, far beyond their power to lift or carry. At last God will be acting for His people and with them, and that will change everything. Verse 3 begins, "And in that day…" Another "day" is going to dawn, and the phrase "in that day" comes again in verses 4, 6, 8, 9 and 11. It is the "day of the Lord," which other prophets have spoken about.
Jerusalem is no ordinary city under siege. God weighs her guilt too, and He judges anyone who meddles with her — attacker or self-appointed protector.
The prophecy then goes on to show how the eyes of God take account of both the guilt of Jerusalem and the guilt of those nations who burden themselves with it. Jerusalem is God's centre on earth. He will not put up with the proud meddling of men, whether they attack the city or protect it in a patronising way. It is God who will deal with her and purge her.
This is not just a local war. The strongest armies in the world join in, and their aim goes beyond taking land.
All nations will find in Jerusalem a cup that drives them out of their minds — not only the Assyrian and the nations around Palestine, but also the mighty armies of the west: "All who lift it will surely hurt themselves" (v. 3)… The "beast" and the false prophet will think that by occupying Jerusalem they have found the way to stop the true King from setting up His government there.
Some link this stone with the stone of Matthew 21:44, where Christ Himself is the stone. Kelly keeps the two apart:
I see no reason to identify the stone in Zechariah 12:3 with the stone in Matthew 21:44. The first clearly means Jerusalem itself. The second means the Lord Himself, in two positions that match His two comings. First, in His humiliation, He is like a stone lying in the ground, and "whoever falls on this stone will be broken to pieces"… Next, He is exalted to heaven, and when He comes again in power and great glory He will carry out destroying judgment — "when it falls on anyone, it will crush him." "A burdensome stone" is a different idea, and it will be true of Jerusalem in the last days.
Judgment on the nations is only half of that day. God also raises up His own people, and they have done nothing to deserve it.
All the nations will gather round Jerusalem, only to find it a burdensome stone that crushes them. God would judge the power of man, but would raise up His people in sovereign grace… This is sovereign grace shown to the worst of sinners — weak but beloved Judah. On top of all her rebellion against God, she had despised and rejected her King and Saviour.
- Cause. The people refused the good Shepherd and accepted the evil one. That is the ground of God's judgment, and the nations gather next.
- Weight. The stone is too heavy to lift. Every siege ends in bewilderment, because nothing goes the way the armies imagine.
- Centre. Jerusalem is God's centre on earth. He allows no proud meddling, neither attack nor patronising protection. He deals with her Himself.
- Reach. The siege draws in far more than nearby nations; the armies of the west come too. Their aim is to keep the true King from reigning there.
- Result. The same day crushes the nations and raises up the people who rejected their King. Judgment on man's power; sovereign grace to the guilty.
In that day, saith Jehovah, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness; but I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the peoples with blindness.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And the leaders of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength through Jehovah of hosts their God.
Zechariah 12 describes a day when the nations gather against Jerusalem and God acts to save His people. Verse 5 is not a battle report but a thought forming in the minds of Judah's leaders.
The chapter belongs to the final crisis. One writer notes the order: God rescues before Judah has done anything to deserve it.
All the nations would gather around Jerusalem, only to find it a heavy stone that would crush them. God would judge the power of man, but would raise up His people in sovereign grace. He would destroy the nations that had come up against Jerusalem. The rescue of the people by the power of the LORD comes first. This is sovereign grace to the chief of sinners — weak but beloved Judah, who had added to all her rebellion against God the despising and rejection of her King and Saviour.
The verse does not report a speech out loud. It reports a thought inside the leaders, whom older translations call the governors of Judah. One writer sees that hidden thought as the first trace of God's rescue at work.
Notice that this is an inward conviction worked in the hearts of the governors of Judah. No doubt the Lord Himself worked it. Even if they do not know it, it is the sign that His work of deliverance has begun.
Judah's leaders fix their hope on the very people who seem least able to help — a city ringed by armies.
To human eyes at such a moment the people of Jerusalem seem finished. The nations have them under siege in their own city. They look helpless, exposed to the full fury of the enemy. Yet it is to these doomed-looking people that the leaders of Judah look. They are led to feel that their strength lies in them — and if in them or through them, then only from the LORD their God.
Another writer reads the same line as leaders valuing the faith of the city.
At that time the governors or leaders of the surrounding area of Judah will recognise the value of Jerusalem as the centre of their nation. They will appreciate the faith of the people in the city, who came through such storms. Their faith becomes a strength for the leaders of Judah, "through the LORD of hosts, their God."
The closing words of the verse are not decoration. The title answers the very thing Judah was facing.
The very name of God matters here. It is the LORD of hosts, in contrast with the hosts of men who had gathered against His people. This name is tied to the people of Jerusalem, and it is used here to give confidence to the governors of Judah.
One writer finds a fixed order in God's way of working. He points back to David for proof.
First the Lord works in the heart of these leaders. Then He shows their strength… As always, the Lord first prepares His instruments in secret. When the time comes to use them, He shows they are fit for the work. That is how He trained David. While David kept his father's sheep, his fights with the lion and the bear prepared him to defeat Goliath, the enemy of Israel.
Some have read Judah as joining the invading nations. One writer says this verse will not carry that reading.
I also do not think Zechariah 12:5-6 can carry that writer's reading, as if Judah were fighting against Jerusalem at that time.
- Grace first. Rescue comes first, by God's power alone. He raises up a people who had rejected their own King.
- Heart first. God works a conviction inside the leaders — the first sign that His rescue has begun.
- Look first. They look where no strategist would look: to a surrounded city, and through it to the LORD their God.
- Name first. The title "LORD of hosts" answers the hosts of men camped outside the walls.
- Power last. What God prepares in secret He later shows in public. He trained David long before Goliath.
In that day will I make the leaders of Judah like a hearth of fire among wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the peoples round about, on the right hand and on the left; and Jerusalem shall dwell again in her own place, in Jerusalem.
Zechariah 12 shows the nations massed around Jerusalem. In the middle of that siege, God turns Judah's leaders into fire: a blazing pot among logs, a torch dropped into dry grain. So when does this happen? Who are these leaders? And how does a people under attack become the ones doing the devouring?
Nothing in Israel's past matches this picture. One writer sets it beside Zechariah's other promises of a restored city and draws a blunt conclusion:
Again, how unlike anything that has yet happened in Jewish history is a prophecy like this one, and how completely it fails to fit the Church. To apply it either to Israel's past history or to the Church is to turn prophecy into a mockery, and to strip the Word of God of all value.
Some translations call these men the "governors" or "leaders" of Judah, where the ESV has "clans." The verse before this one records what they say to themselves. This verse shows what God then makes of them. The order matters, and so does the mercy behind it:
But here we see that He keeps His eyes open over the house of Judah. How great is His grace! The house of Judah had rejected Him, yet He will take note of that same house first! After that He will begin to work through the leaders of Judah. They say in their hearts, "The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength through Jehovah of hosts their God." The remnant of Jerusalem that has remained faithful to God will be their moral support.
These leaders do not appear from nowhere. God trains His workers out of sight before He displays them, and one verse holds the whole rescue:
As always, the Lord first prepares His instruments in secret. Then, when the time comes to use them, He shows how fit they are for the work. So He trained David while he was tending his father's flocks. Through his fights with the lion and the bear, He made David ready to beat Goliath, the enemy of Israel. In the same way these princes of Judah have been trained. Now, when He launches them against the nations, nothing can stand before them. They are like a raging, devouring fire that consumes all that comes before it… into this one verse the Spirit of God has crowded the whole deliverance of Jerusalem, along with the restoration and blessing that follow.
God does not rescue Israel from the sidelines. He acts through them:
Zechariah 10 shows how God will use Judah and Ephraim in that day. He will fight not only for them, but in them and by them. It is a great mistake to think that Jehovah will do it all single-handed.
But God does not use them everywhere. Some enemies fall with no human hand at all:
The destruction of the Western armies described in Revelation 19:19-21, and the overthrow of the hordes of Russia and her allies in Ezekiel 39, will happen without any human help at all. But against other enemies God intends to use a delivered Israel. Zechariah 9:13, Zechariah 12:6 and other Scriptures make this plain.
This is not a pattern for Christians to copy now. One writer explains why:
God could not use the saints of the present age for this work, at least not while they are still on earth. The present age is one of pure, perfect grace. The Church's place is to walk in the steps of Him who suffered and took it patiently, and who cried from the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." But an age of righteousness will just as surely follow this present age of grace.
The verse ends with Jerusalem settled again on her own site. The verses around it keep pointing past the human agents to God:
Verse 6 tells us that the Lord uses the governors of Judah as His devouring flame against the nations that have tried to destroy His people. He promises that Jerusalem will be lived in again as before. So that there should be no strife between the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Lord steps in to save "the tents of Judah" first… Whatever the instruments, it is the Lord Himself who has stepped in, for He says, "I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem" (verse 9).
- Grace first. God opens His eyes on the very house that rejected Him, and only then works through its leaders.
- Training first. He prepares His instruments quietly — as with David and the lion — before He launches them.
- Fire next. A blazing pot among logs, a flaming torch among sheaves: leaders made into a fire nothing can stand before.
- Reach after that. They devour the peoples around them, right and left. Other enemies God destroys with no human hand at all.
- Result last. Jerusalem is lived in again in her own place. The credit goes to the Lord, who says He will destroy every nation that comes against her.
And Jehovah shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem be not magnified over Judah.
Zechariah 12 pictures a day when all the nations have gathered against Jerusalem, and God steps in to save His people. Verse 7 sets the order of that rescue — the open country before the walled city — and gives the reason.
The chapter is not a record of something already done. The writers quoted here call God Jehovah, the name the ESV prints as "the LORD." One writer follows Zechariah chapter by chapter and notes that the siege described here has not happened yet:
In Zechariah, the whole of chapter 10 describes the restoration of Israel in the last days. It speaks of each division of the people, Judah and Ephraim. Then chapter 11 tells of Christ's rejection. In chapter 12 judgment falls on all the nations gathered against Jerusalem, and she becomes a heavy stone for them. So it has no application to past events. Chapter 12 also gives a detailed account of how Jehovah will save the people.
The rescue is not a reward. Judah had rejected her own King. The same writer puts her deliverance on the ground of God's free favour:
God would judge the power of man, but would raise up His people in sovereign grace. He would destroy the nations that had come up against Jerusalem. The deliverance of the people by the power of Jehovah comes first. This is sovereign grace to the chief of sinners — feeble but beloved Judah. To all her rebellion against God she had added the contempt and rejection of her King and Saviour.
The verse says "tents," not "cities." One writer reads this as a picture of people with no walls to hide behind:
The expression "the tents of Judah" emphasises their weak position. They are outside the city walls, exposed to the fury of the enemy. Blood will have flooded the whole length of the land, figuratively "as high as a horse's bridle" (Rev. 14:20), and two thirds of the people will "be cut off and perish" during the tribulation (Zech. 13:8). The Lord shows His tender mercy to the weak first. He rescues Judah from the enemy, who will then concentrate on besieging Jerusalem. The Lord waits before delivering Jerusalem, however, for He must first do a complete work in those in the city, so they will be humbled rather than magnify themselves over Judah.
Jerusalem and David's family had real grounds for pride. God dwells in the city, and the Messiah comes from that line. The verse names that danger:
The deliverance of Jerusalem, Jehovah's dwelling within her, and the truth that the Messiah is the true Son of David — all of this could not fail to reflect glory on both the city and the house of the King. And knowing what man is, this might lead both the city and the family of David to exalt themselves over Judah. But Jehovah will prevent this by showing His love to Judah in appearing first on her behalf.
Saving the country first does not mean God abandons the city. The order of the rescue keeps peace between the two:
So that there should be no strife between the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Lord steps in to save "the tents of Judah" first (verse 7). But He also comes to defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He gives them surpassing strength as instruments of their deliverance (verse 8). Whatever the instruments, the Lord Himself is the one who has stepped in, for He says, "I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem" (verse 9).
The rescue does more than remove the enemy. It works on the hearts of the people it saves:
The grace shown in her deliverance had worked on her heart. The law we know was written in it, but much more. To be loved by a God against whom one has so deeply rebelled melts the heart. Grace then goes further, and presents to the people the Messiah whom they had pierced. The Rejected One is the Jehovah who delivers them.
- Still future — this siege of the nations has no application to past events. It belongs to the last days.
- Grace first — Jehovah's power delivers a people who had rebelled against Him and rejected their own King. This is sovereign grace to the chief of sinners.
- The weak first — "tents" marks people outside the walls with no defence. The Lord's tender mercy reaches them before it reaches the city.
- Pride prevented — the city and David's family might have exalted themselves over Judah. Jehovah stops that by showing His love to Judah and appearing first on her behalf.
- Hearts melted — grace does not stop at rescue. To be loved by the God they rebelled against melts the heart, and the Rejected One turns out to be the Jehovah who delivers them.
In that day will Jehovah defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that stumbleth among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David as God, as the Angel of Jehovah before them.
Zechariah 12 shows Jerusalem in danger, with nothing of its own to fall back on. Verse 8 is God's answer. He defends the city Himself, and He changes the people He defends — from the weakest man in the crowd to the royal family itself.
The verse opens with "on that day." Which day? Writers who read chapters 12 – 14 as one piece answer: one that has not come yet.
In Zechariah 12 – 14 we are surely among the scenes and circumstances of the last days. One or two passages in these chapters may look back to events long since finished. But no one can reasonably doubt that the subject of the prophecy lies in events still to come.
The defence and the strengthening come together. God does not make His people strong first and rescue them later. He rescues them, and the strength comes with the rescue — so it lands on people who have nothing left.
When He appears to defend and rescue the city, He will also give its people, so it seems, superhuman strength. They have been reduced to helplessness, and that is the very place and condition where they can receive strength. For it is always true, in every age, that when God's people are weak then they are strong, because His strength is made perfect in weakness.
The word behind "feeblest" describes someone who stumbles. The promise measures that person against Israel's greatest warrior.
The feeble ones, literally the stumblers, among His people will be like David in that day when the Lord is revealed. What a hero David was! A man of war and strength, always conquering and never conquered. And now the stumbler in Israel, the weakest one, will have strength and courage like David.
Verse 8 announces the result. Verses 10-14 supply the cause. The courage comes after God has dealt in grace with the people who rejected Him.
This last part of Zechariah 12 beautifully shows the grace and power of the Lord Jesus as He deals with His own people, who have rejected Him for centuries… But what we see in verse 8 actually follows what verses 10-14 declare. Verse 8 shows the new strength and courage that will stir the people of Jerusalem. The following verses show the reason for it. The one who is feeble among the people will be as David, having found strength like the strength David showed in defeating Goliath.
The second promise climbs higher than the first. The weakest man rises to David's level; the royal house rises past any human level. Commentators read this in two connected ways. The first looks at the throne.
Then even those who stumble among them will be dressed in royal robes, and "the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the LORD, going before them" (v. 8). This means that the kingship itself will bear a divine character. It surely points to the One whom Ezekiel calls "the Prince," who will represent the King of Glory on earth.
The second looks at the person on it. He is David's descendant and God's Son at once.
In that day "the house of David" will truly be "like God." For the One who came "descended from David according to the flesh," by being born a man, is none other than the Son of God, as Romans 1:3 plainly states. And He will appear in glory.
The verse also says where God will be: in front. Here is a commander leading His army out, as He did in Joshua's day.
The house of David will be like God — like the angel of the LORD, who stands at their head again as the commander of the LORD's army (Joshua 5), leading them out to battle.
The promise looks ahead to Jerusalem. Yet one writer draws from it a warning for anyone who serves God today.
It is also true that He can strengthen the feeble one so much that he becomes as David (Zech. 12:8). But the witness must not think of himself as indispensable, or disaster will follow at once.
- Cause. The strength of verse 8 is not why God saves Jerusalem. It is the fruit of what verses 10-14 describe, when God deals in grace with the people who rejected Him.
- Condition. God gives this strength to people who are helpless. Weakness is the very place where His strength is made perfect.
- Gift. "Feeblest" means the stumbler, the one who trips. God promises him the courage of the David who defeated Goliath.
- Reach. The gift climbs the whole ladder. The weakest man rises to David. David's house rises to a rule with a divine character, held by the Son of God, who is also David's descendant.
- Caution. The same God can still make one weak servant strong today. But if that servant thinks he is indispensable, disaster follows.
And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
Zechariah 12 keeps returning to one marker of time, and everything in the chapter hangs on it. The siege of Jerusalem described here belongs to a future crisis, not to any battle already past.
When that hour arrives, God's dealings with Jerusalem will reach their high point, as the opening of Zechariah 14 shows. Here the point is that the nations will come under judgment. When they lay siege to it, they will find it a cup of 'trembling', or 'bewilderment'. Nothing will go the way they imagine. It will also be a 'burdensome' stone, far too heavy for them to lift or carry. At last God will act for His people and with them, and that changes everything. Verse 3 begins, 'And in that day … ' Another 'day' is going to dawn. The phrase 'in that day' comes again in verses 4, 6, 8, 9 and 11. It is the 'day of the Lord' that other prophets have spoken about.
The wording is unusual. God does not say He will destroy. He says He will seek to destroy. One writer reads this as God's settled purpose, not a report of the act itself.
The next verse simply states the fact, which chapter 14 later expands: in that day the Lord will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. Here the point is not so much that He carries out His judgment, but that He declares His purpose to carry it out. He announces that when all nations come against Jerusalem, they come for their own entire and total destruction. In the prophetic picture they are certainly destroyed. But the words "I will seek to destroy" speak of the purpose in God's mind more than of the act itself.
Earlier verses in the chapter give real power to people. Judah's leaders fight, and the people of Jerusalem receive great strength. Verse 9 places the credit elsewhere.
Verse 6 tells us that the Lord uses the leaders of Judah as His burning flame against the nations that have tried to destroy His people. He promises that people will live in Jerusalem again, as they did before. So that there is no rivalry between the people of Judah and the people of Jerusalem, the Lord steps in to save "the tents of Judah" first (verse 7). But He also comes to defend the people of Jerusalem. He gives them extraordinary strength and uses them in their own deliverance (verse 8). Whatever instruments He uses, it is the Lord Himself who has stepped in, for He says, "I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem" (verse 9).
The order of events in the chapter is striking. God saves the people before they show any sorrow.
God will judge the power of man, but He will raise up His people in sovereign grace. He will destroy the nations that had come up against Jerusalem. His own power delivers His people first. This is sovereign grace to the worst of sinners — weak but beloved Judah. To all her rebellion against God she had added the scorn and rejection of her own King and Saviour.
Verse 9 leads straight into verse 10. The destruction of the enemy is what turns the nation's heart. One writer argues that this rules out reading Jerusalem here as a picture of the church.
Here the destruction — God seeking to destroy all nations that come against Jerusalem — is what brings about the conversion of the Jews. They come to recognise the One they had pierced. In short, this is the cutting off of the nations … described in the special circumstances that follow for the Jews. Suppose Jerusalem here means the church. Even then, what falls on the nations is destruction, not conversion. And if Jerusalem must in that case be the true church, why all this mourning as a fresh result of the destruction of their enemies?
The hardest discovery of that day is not who the enemy was, but who the Rescuer is. Their grief is set beside one of the great national sorrows of Israel's past.
The rejected Messiah is the Lord who delivers them. They look on Him whom they have pierced. There is great mourning in the land, as there once was in the valley of Megiddo. This reference to 2 Chronicles 35:22 is deeply moving. There, in the last days of their earlier history, their faithful king Josiah had fallen, and the nation mourned and wept loudly over their slain king. Here they learn to mourn in the dust, when they see that the king their nation crucified is the Lord of hosts Himself.
- The day. The phrase "on that day" runs through the chapter — verses 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11. It marks the day of the Lord, when God acts for His people and with them.
- The purpose. "I will seek to destroy" states God's settled purpose more than the act itself. The nations that come against Jerusalem come for their own total destruction.
- The hand. The Lord uses Judah's leaders and the people of Jerusalem as His instruments, but He claims the deliverance as His own work.
- The order. Rescue comes before repentance. This is sovereign grace to a people who had rebelled against God and rejected their own King and Saviour.
- The result. The cutting off of the enemy opens the way to a nation's conversion. They learn that the King they crucified is the Lord of hosts who saved them.
And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look on me whom they pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for an only [son], and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for [his] firstborn.
Zechariah describes a day when God pours out grace on Jerusalem, the people look — and what they see breaks them. The verse raises three questions: who is the "me" they pierced, when does this looking happen, and why does it end in mourning instead of joy?
The repentance in this verse does not start with the people. It starts with God — and He begins it in the very city that rejected Him.
It was in Jerusalem that our Lord was rejected and condemned to be crucified. It was in Jerusalem that the gospel was first preached. And it is in Jerusalem that Jehovah will first begin the work of grace when He returns to Zion. Nothing could more magnify His grace and unchanging love. And nothing could more fully reveal the helpless condition of man than the fact recorded here: it is Jehovah who will pour out on His people the spirit of grace and pleas for mercy — the same Jehovah they had rejected in the person of Jesus. All things truly are of God; and so, as the apostle writes, "by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God."
The speaker in this verse is God. Yet He says they pierced Him.
Zechariah wrote this 500 years before the crucifixion. He speaks of a future time of trouble. The Gentiles will gather around Jerusalem, and God will appear on their behalf when all seems lost. They will then recognise in their deliverer God the One whom they pierced. The "I" of the passage is certainly God, Jehovah of Israel. Yet if they had once "pierced" Him, He must have taken a body and come in humiliation. In whom can all this meet but in Jesus of Nazareth, the Lord God of Israel?
John's Gospel records the piercing itself — and one man who later saw the wounds.
Through John, the Spirit records in chapter 19 about Jesus, "one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear... These things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled... They will look on him whom they have pierced." Here we have God's own divinely given answer to our earlier question! And when Thomas (a picture of the favoured remnant of Israel in a future day) saw the wounds — looking on the Pierced One, risen from among the dead — he exclaimed, "My Lord and my God!"
This looking has a setting. God destroys the nations gathered against Jerusalem, and that rescue opens their eyes.
God seeks to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. That destruction is given here as the occasion of the conversion of the Jews — when they come to recognise Him whom they had pierced.
The verse measures this sorrow by the sharpest grief a family knows — and then calls it blessed.
This grief has no equal. To deepen the sense of the sorrow, it is called bitterness for Him, like the bitterness of one grieving for a firstborn. Blessed grief, we may add. It shares in that sorrow according to God, which produces a repentance no one regrets, and its end will prove to be light, blessing, and joy. Such weeping may last for the night, but joy will come in the morning.
What they mourn over is not only their guilt but the love they had refused.
Their fathers' guilt and the nation's sin, which they are tied to, will become plain to them. Looking on Him whom they as part of Israel pierced, they will mourn. What an awakening there will be! Centuries of national unbelief judged in a moment... Their mourning is not the bitterness of despair, as if they had learned there is no hope. It is the sorrow of broken hearts at discovering the love He had shown them, and their rejection of it.
The verse describes a nation. One man has already been through it.
What a day it will be when the Spirit of grace and supplication comes on the remnant of His people, and they see Him appear in the clouds of heaven and know Him by the pierced side! The great vision Saul had on the road to Damascus will then be repeated. The young Pharisee saw Him as one "untimely born." In his own experience he was the pledge that the remnant of the nation Paul belonged to would one day pass through the same experience.
Not everyone who sees Him will mourn like this.
Revelation announces that all the tribes of the earth will wail because of Him — not in repentance, but because it seals their doom, and they realise it.
- Poured — the change begins with God, not with them. He gives the spirit of grace and pleading before they shed a tear.
- Pierced — the "me" who speaks is Jehovah. The wound proves He came in a body: the crucified Jesus and Israel's God are one Person.
- Rescued — their eyes open at the rescue itself, when God destroys the nations besieging Jerusalem and they recognise their Deliverer.
- Mourning — grief as deep as losing an only son. It is born of discovering love, not despair, and it ends in joy.
- Now — Paul on the Damascus road and Thomas at the wounds have already lived it; when the nation looks at last, the world will only wail.