Project 119: Zechariah 12
| Project 119 | Amy Hirsch
I love foods that are both sweet and savory. Currently, I’ve been making these smoky sweet potatoes. They’re cubed and roasted in the oven with bacon and all kinds of spices, and the savory spices and bacon bring out the sweetness in the potatoes in a way that’s surprising and delicious!
At first, it seems like these two passages are disconnected, doesn’t it? We have a passage of salvation and hope (Zechariah 12:1-9), followed by a passage of mourning and repentance (Zechariah 12:10-14). But really, if you think about it, the two complement each other well (kind of like those smoky sweet potatoes!), because it’s only through mourning and repentance that we find salvation and hope.
Physical salvation is promised for God’s people in Zechariah 12:1-9. God declares that He will establish Jerusalem, giving her inhabitants strength through Him. They will be like blazing pots, like immovable rocks, like flaming torches. Bullying and exile will no longer be a part of their story, for the Lord ”will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David” (Zechariah 12:8, ESV). The strength depicted in Zechariah 12 doesn’t come from a surge in population or an increase in economic prosperity; rather, it’s clearly a gift from the Lord Himself, the same God who “stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him” (Zechariah 12:1, ESV). Zechariah depicts God as one who is strong and mighty, who created the earth and continues to sustain it, and who is sovereign over all.
But there’s something that will come before this day of physical salvation; it’s a day of spiritual salvation, a day when God’s people see their sin clearly, seek Him, and repent. Zechariah tells us that, on this day, God will give His people “a spirit of grace and please for mercy” (Zechariah 12:10, ESV). And the next verse is startling and beautiful and sad all at the same time. They’ll receive this spirit when they look on the one whom they pierced. The text is emphatic. The people aren’t just looking upon the earthly leaders they have rejected (although that’s certainly part of their call to repentance). They are gazing upon God Himself. Zechariah makes a theological point about sin in this passage, reminding us that our God is one who is mighty, but also a God who suffers and mourns over our sin. Our rebellion breaks His heart and causes Him grief.
The apostle John, who knew the Old Testament so well, tells us this verse is fulfilled in Christ, who bore the sins of humanity and the weight of our grief and shame through His death on the cross. John declares that Christ’s side was pierced to fulfill this very prophecy (John 19:34-37), and that one day, when He comes again, all people will look upon Him, the one whom they pierced (Revelation 1:7). Some will look upon Him in repentance now, but others will look upon Him in regret upon His return because they refused to repent.
Zechariah 12 (ESV):
The LORD Will Give Salvation
1 The oracle of the word of the LORD concerning Israel: Thus declares the LORD, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him:2 “Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem will also be against Judah. 3 On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it. 4 On that day, declares the LORD, I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness. But for the sake of the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, when I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. 5 Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the LORD of hosts, their God.’
6 “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. And they shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while Jerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem.
7 “And the LORD will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah. 8 On that day the LORD will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the LORD, going before them. 9 And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
Him Whom They Have Pierced
10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. 11 On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land shall mourn, each family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; 13 the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves; 14 and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.