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Zechariah
Chapter Twelve
Zechariah 12
Chapter Contents
Punishment of the enemies of Judah. (1-8) Repentance and
sorrow of the Jews. (9-14)
Commentary on Zechariah 12:1-8
(Read Zechariah 12:1-8)
Here is a Divine prediction, which will be a heavy burden
to all the enemies of the church. But it is for Israel; for their comfort and
benefit. It is promised that God will make foolish the counsels, and weaken the
courage of the enemies of the church. The exact meaning is not clear; but God
often begins by calling the poor and despised; and in that day even the
feeblest will resemble David, and be as eminent in courage and every thing
good. Desirable indeed is it that the examples and labours of Christians should
render them as fire among wood, as a torch in a sheaf, to kindle the flame of
Divine love, to spread religion on the right hand and on the left.
Commentary on Zechariah 12:9-14
(Read Zechariah 12:9-14)
The day here spoken of, is the day of Jerusalem's defence
and deliverance, that glorious day when God will appear for the salvation of
his people. In Christ's first coming he bruised the serpent's head, and broke
all the powers of darkness that fought against God's kingdom among men. In his
second coming he will complete their destruction, when he shall put down all
opposing rule, principality, and power; and death itself shall be swallowed up
in that victory. The Holy Spirit is gracious and merciful, and is the Author of
all grace or holiness. He, also, is the Spirit of supplications, and shows men
their ignorance, want, guilt, misery, and danger. At the time here foretold,
the Jews will know who the crucified Jesus was; then they shall look by faith
to him, and mourn with the deepest sorrow, not only in public, but in private,
even each one separately. There is a holy mourning, the effect of the pouring
out of the Spirit; a mourning for sin, which quickens faith in Christ, and
qualifies for joy in God. This mourning is a fruit of the Spirit of grace, a
proof of a work of grace in the soul, and of the Spirit of supplications. It is
fulfilled in all who sorrow for sin after a godly sort; they look to Christ
crucified, and mourn for him. Looking by faith upon the cross of Christ will
cause us to mourn for sin after a godly sort.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Zechariah》
Zechariah 12
Verse 2
[2]
Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round
about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against
Jerusalem.
Jerusalem —
That weak, unwalled city, and much more the church which is the antitype of
Jerusalem.
In the siege —
Now when all this is in readiness, and no visible means of escape, then will
God make them drink the wine of astonishment.
Verse 3
[3] And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people:
all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the
people of the earth be gathered together against it.
In that day —
The day of the full accomplishment of this prophecy is a day known to the Lord.
A burdensome stone —
Too heavy for them, though many join together to remove it.
Verse 4
[4] In
that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his
rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will
smite every horse of the people with blindness.
I will open mine eyes — I will watch over my people for good. This eye of God open upon his
people, is his wise, powerful, gracious providence for them.
With blindness —
All their warriors in their consults shall have as little of foresight, as a
blind man hath of sight.
Verse 5
[5] And
the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem
shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.
The inhabitants of Jerusalem — Though but few, and poor, yet they shall be my strength. Not in their
own power, but in the power of the Almighty Lord of all.
Verse 6
[6] In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire
among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all
the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall
be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.
Like a hearth — A
hearth on which fire is thoroughly kindled.
In her own place —
Not built as Nineveh, Babylon, or Rome, in some place near old cities, but in
the very same place where old Jerusalem stood.
Verse 7
[7] The
LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of
David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves
against Judah.
The tents —
The unfenced places, the open country, the cottages, or tents.
First —
First the weaker are saved, next the stronger.
The glory —
That the illustrious house of David, and the glorious citizens of Jerusalem may
not boast of their power, policy and courage.
Verse 8
[8] In
that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is
feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall
be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.
As David — A
mighty man of valour.
The house of David —
Those of the royal line shall be for prudence, and prowess in the conduct of
the armies of Israel, most excellent; exprest here in an hyperbole.
As the angel —
Nay, like the angel of the Lord, like Christ who is captain of our salvation.
Verse 9
[9] And
it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations
that come against Jerusalem.
I will seek — I
will purposely and effectually do it.
Verse 10
[10] 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 upon me whom they
have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son,
and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his
firstborn.
I will pour —
This was fulfilled on Christ's exaltation, when he sent the Comforter to his
disciples, it is daily performed to the children of God, and will be
continually, 'till we are brought to be with Christ for ever.
The house of David —
The whole family of Christ, his house who was the seed of David, and who is
called David, Ezekiel 37:24.
The spirit of grace —
Which is fountain of all graces in us.
Pierced —
Every one of us by our sins pierced him, and many of the Jews literally.
Mourn —
They shall literally lament the crucifying of the Lord Jesus.
In bitterness —
True repentance will bitterly lament the sins which brought sorrows and shame
upon our Lord.
Verse 11
[11] In
that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of
Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
In that day —
When the Jews shall mourn for their sins, and for that great sin, crucifying
the Lord of glory.
A great mourning — A
mourning exprest by the greatest the Jews ever were acquainted with, and which
for its greatness grew into a proverb. The mourning for Josiah slain at
Hadadrimmon, a town in the valley of Megiddo.
Verse 12
[12] And
the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David
apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and
their wives apart;
The house of Nathan —
The royal family in both branches of it, Solomon's and Nathan's.
Verse 13
[13] The
family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei
apart, and their wives apart;
The house of Levi —
The sacerdotal tribe were the most bitter persecutors of Christ, they hired the
traitor, they sought witness; the high priest, (head of that family) condemned
him to die, for all which they shall one day reckon with God, and therefore
above other tribes they are particularly named as chief mourners for their
cruelty to Christ.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Zechariah》
12 Chapter 12
Introduction
Verses 1-7
Verses 1-14
Verse 1
The burden of the Word of the Lord for Israel
The burden and glory of God’s Word to Israel
God presents Himself here as creating and speaking.
It is to Israel that His Word is primarily addressed, for it is Israel that
recognises His Word, and by Israel His Word is carried to the world, which thus
becomes also Israel. Remember the meaning of the name, and its origin. Prince
of God was the name which Jacob got from that long wrestling in the
dark--Israel, prince of God, because he had power with God. The name denotes
the fact and the power of communion. Israel is composed of those who seek God
and cling to Him, who worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus,
and have no confidence in the flesh.
I. The Creator of
the heavens and earth and the spirit of man has an Israel. The idea of Israel
is fellowship with God and power with God, gained in and by that fellowship. Is
such an idea reasonable? We think it a poor conception of God which represents
Him as so mighty and rich that He does not care for fellowship with souls. Do
you think to convince me that God is wanting in sympathies and affections by
showing that He is Almighty? The argument is all in the opposite direction.
Should I have more ground to believe in His heart if He were less than
all-powerful and all-wise! There is in man a longing after relation to the
Infinite. All his history proves this. Something in him cries out after God,
and the heavens and the earth have tended to intensify this cry. Man is haunted
by a something issuing from heaven and earth that will not let him rest. It
would have been sad if man had craved an infinite friend, had yearned after
nearness to a perfect and eternal living One, and felt no hope, countenance, or
stimulus in the world around him. But man stands in no such barren and dead
world. A living world is round him, material, but full of spiritual suggestion,
inviting him to seek God, and waking him up again when he grows dull and hard.
Will it be said that this does not make probable the idea of an Israel--men
that have power with God, it gives support to the idea of communion with God,
but not to that of prayer, an asking that influences the Divine will? The
answer is obvious. Communion with God, in the case of a being like man, an
imperfect, sin-laden being, must take largely the form of prayer. Such a being,
coming near to God, cannot but ask from Him. And this asking, so inevitable,
cannot be a futile thing. If asking be a necessity with the spirit that has
communion with God, there must be room and need for it on the side of God. What
is true on the human side is true on the Divine side. The whole doctrine of
prayer is found in the spirit of man, in the longings and necessities, and
there can be nothing in real contradiction to these. They who seek God have a
peculiar affinity with Him. God as a moral being has moral affinities. It is
not a lowering or limiting of God to believe that He has an Israel.
II. God has a word
for His Israel. Neither the heavens nor the earth nor the spirit of man take
the place of a word. They are each a revelation. But they are fuller of questions
than of answers. The heart of man needs a word. It is only in words that there
is definiteness. One of the distinguishing peculiarities of man is that he
employs words. By these he reaches the fulness of his being. He makes his
thought clear to himself, and gives it an outward existence by words. He makes
all shadowy and vague things firm and abiding by words. And shall not God meet
him on this highest platform? A Word of God is a necessity to the human soul
God has a word to Israel which makes fellowship close and confiding. The word
gives man the necessary clue to the interpretation of the universe and himself.
It is God’s Word to Israel as the ideal man Israel is the ideal and complete
man, and it is in proportion as any man approaches the ideal that he fully
comprehends and embraces the message of God’s Word to Israel.
III. God’s Word to
Israel is a burden. This expression is often used by the prophets. No doubt it
expresses, in the first instance, the weight of obligation and responsibility
in the declaring of God’s message, but this rests on the fact that the Word of
God is a weighty matter for all men.
1. God’s Word is a burden by reason of the weight of its ideas.
Thoughts that may be put into words are of all degrees of weight--some light as
a feather, some heavy as a world. Thoughts weigh upon the mind, even though
they are felt to be precious. The ideas in God’s Word are the weightiest of
all--God, soul, sin, salvation, renewal, eternity. Men are never right till
they try to lift these thoughts and weigh them. They are no judges of the
weight of things till they try these.
2. God’s Word is a burden of momentousness and obligation. There are
many weighty thoughts that have little or no practical moment. But the thoughts
in God’s Word are of pressing and supreme importance. They are light, food,
shelter, life. To reject them is ruin. Everything must depend on how we stand
to these words.
3. God’s Word is a burden which is easier to bear in whole than in
part. The half or quarter, or some little fraction of God’s Word is worse to
bear, harder and heavier than the whole. A single truth taken out of the whole
may be quite oppressive and intolerable. It may crush all joy and courage out
of life. The truth about sin needs the truth about grace and redemption in
order to be borne. The truth about duty needs the Divine promises. Relief is to
be found not by throwing off any truth, but by taking up more. The hardest
truths become pleasant in proper company. Every truth has relations to all the
rest, and is not properly itself without them. Let the effort be to take the
whole truth, and to take it as a whole. Then it will no more oppress than the
vast load of atmosphere which every man carries.
4. The Word of God is a burden which removes every other load. Thought,
conviction, and feeling bring their inevitable burden. And if a man rejects
burdens he is but making up a heavier burden. If a man will not have the burden
of God’s Word, then the whole riddle of the universe becomes his burden. But if
I take up God’s Word, and actually carry it as God’s Word, I have no further
care. There is provision for driving away every fear and every care in that
Word. (J. Leckie, D. D.)
Which stretcheth
forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth--
The universe
I. That the
universe includes the existence of matter and of mind. The phrase “heavens” and
“earth” is used here and elsewhere to represent the whole creation.
1. It includes matter. Of the essence of matter we know nothing; but
by the word we mean all that comes within the cognisance of our senses, all
that can be felt, heard, seen, tasted. How extensive is this material domain!
2. It includes mind. Indeed, mind is here specified. “And formeth the
spirit of man within man.” Man has a spirit. Of this he has stronger evidence
than he has of the existence of matter. He is conscious of the phenomena of
mind, but not conscious of the phenomena of matter.
II. That the
universe originated with one personal being. It had an origin. It is not
eternal. The idea of its eternity involves contradictions. It had an origin;
its origin is not fortuitous, it is not the production of chance. Its origin is
not that of a plurality of creators; it has one, and one only, “the Lord.”
III. This one
personal Creator has purposes concerning the human race. The “burden” may mean
the sentence of the Word of the Lord concerning Israel.
1. No events in human history are accidental.
2. The grand purpose of our life should be the fulfilment of God’s
will.
IV. His purpose
towards mankind He is fully able to accomplish. His creative achievements are
here mentioned as a pledge of the purposes hereafter announced. Every purpose
of the Lord shall be performed. Has He purposed that all mankind shall be
converted to His Son? It shall be done. (Homilist.)
Verse 2-3
All that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces
Sin self-punishment
There is in this passage a principle by which the governor
of the world punishes malicious men.
That principle is this, in the reaction of their efforts to injure others to
injury of themselves. Jerusalem would become confusion and destruction to the
men who sought its ruin.
1. Jerusalem would become a “cup of trembling,” or “intoxication.”
2. Jerusalem would become to them a “burdensome stone.”
The idea is, that in their endeavours to injure Jerusalem they
would crush themselves.
I. It is well
attested. It is attested by every man’s consciousness. Every man who attempts
to injure another feels sooner or later that he has injured himself. There is a
recoil and a regret. In truth, the malign passion itself is its own punishment.
In every malign emotion there is misery.
2. It is attested by universal history. The conduct of Joseph’s
brethren, and of Haman, may be cited as illustrations; but the conduct of the
Jews towards the Messiah is an example for all times, most mighty and
impressive.
II. It is
manifestly just. What man thus punished can complain of the righteousness of
his sufferings? He must feel, and feel deeply, that he has deserved all, and
even more than he endures.
III. It is
essentially beneficent. It serves--
1. To guard men from the injuries of others.
2. To restrain the angry passions of men. (Homilist.)
Verses 4-9
In that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with
astonishment
A good time for good people
I.
It
is a time when their enemies shall be vanquished. “In that day, saith the Lord,
I will smite every horse with astonishment,” etc.
II. It is a time
when their power shall be augmented. The power here promised is--
1. The power of unity. “The governors of Judah shall say in their
heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of hosts
their God.”
III. It is a time
when they shall be settled in their home. “And Jerusalem shall be inhabited
again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.” Here they are “strangers and
pilgrims,” and have “no abiding city.”
IV. It is a time
when they shall be blessed with equal privileges.
1. They were to have equal honour. “The Lord also shall save the
tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the
inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah.”
2. They were to have equal protection. “In that day shall the Lord
defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem,” etc. Now, there is a good time coming,
when all good people shall have distinguished honour and complete protection.
They shall settle down in the heavenly Jerusalem, and what a city is that! (Homilist.)
Verses 8-14
Verse 8
In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem
The security of the Church in the midst of dangers
There is not a greater miracle of preservation and security than
that which is exhibited in the salvation of the Church in her present condition
as surrounded by spiritual enemies.
I. The promise.
“In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”
1. The defended. Jerusalem denotes the whole Church of Christ. It
signifies the Christian.
2. The time of their defence. “In that day.” This may relate to the
dispensation of the Gospel of Christ, when the Lord Jesus should accomplish His
work for the defence and salvation of our souls. It may refer to the time of
our conversion.
3. The person defending. “The Lord.” The defence is not put into the
hands of an angel, or archangel; it is in the hands of the Lord.
II. The pledge
given. “He that is feeble among them, at that day, shall be as David,” The word
“feeble” means that he cannot save himself from sin, Satan, or the world. “As
David.” Look at the character of brave, strong, successful, beloved, elevated,
hated, yet saved David.
III. The simile
drawn. “As God.” Like unto God in spotlessness, in spiritual resemblance, in
general disposition, in immoveableness.
IV. The example
given. “As the angel of the Lord.” This can only mean Christ. We are beloved as
Christ by the Father. Perfect as Christ--in Christ--before God. Powerful as
Christ, since it is in the power of Christ we overcome. (T. Bagnall-Baker,
M. A.)
Verses 9-11
And I will pour upon the house of David
The future outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Jerusalem
The text informs us that Jesus of Nazareth, whom the Jews
crucified, and whom for hundreds of years they have blasphemed, will yet upon
these Jews pour His Holy Spirit, lead them to repentance, forgive their sin,
and restore them to His favour.
I. Ascertain the
meaning of this prophecy. The Jews themselves allow that the passage refers to
the Messiah; and in the Gospel by St. John the words “they shall look on me,
whom they have pierced,” are applied to Jesus Christ. The work He promises to
accomplish is beyond the power of any created being. God is the only dispenser
of His Holy Spirit. The prophet Ezekiel tells us that it is the very and eternal
God who shall put His Spirit upon Israel. Joel tells us it is the Lord who will
pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. The effect of the outpouring of the Spirit
of grace and supplications is here described as true repentance, and sorrow for
sin; He, therefore, who can bestow it must be the true and eternal God. Then
how can He be pierced and wounded by the house of David? To be pierced He must
have a body. Thus the prophet clearly announces the mystery of the incarnation.
Consider the persons upon whom He will pour out the spirit of grace and
supplications. They are Jews; and characterised as the authors of the violent
death of Christ. The place mentioned is the literal Jerusalem. Another question
concerns the time of which the prophet speaks. The day of Pentecost
cannot be regarded as fulfilling this prediction. No other time can be referred
to. Therefore the text informs us that there is a time still coming, when the
Lord Jesus Christ will pour out His Spirit on the Jews, and do that for which
He has been exalted a Prince and a Saviour; He will give repentance unto
Israel, and remission of sins.
II. Trace out some
important inferences which the subject suggests.
1. The restoration of the Jews to the land of their forefathers.
2. The national conversion of Israel is not to be by miracle, without
the use of means.
This prophecy of Zechariah, then, assures us that the day is
coming when the lost sheep of the house of Israel shall be gathered to the land
of their fathers, restored to the favour of their God, and be the monuments of
His grace, as they have long been the victims of His wrath and righteous
indignation. (A. McCaul, D. D.)
The promise of the Spirit
In the preceding verses God declares what He will do in the way of
defending His Church. In the text He declares what He will do in the way of
reviving and humbling and purifying His Church.
I. The promise.
The Divine purpose in giving a promise is, that we may be led to ask for its
fulfilment. The promise is, the Holy Spirit personally, and in His offices in
the economy of grace and salvation. The promise of the Spirit is co-extensive
with the earlier promise of Christ. What Christ was for purchasing, the Spirit
is for applying--salvation. All other promises resolve themselves into this
one--the Holy Spirit--as they did in Christ. In this instance the Spirit is not
promised generally, but in certain of His offices or operations. He is
promised--
1. As a Spirit of grace. By grace we understand those combined
excellencies which go to form a perfect moral character. The Spirit of grace is
the Spirit originating, nurturing, and maturing these. To have the Spirit of
grace is to have the Holy Ghost producing these in us--grace itself.
2. As a Spirit of supplications. Supplications and prayers are the
immediate fruit of the Holy Spirit. He leads, or shows, the way to the Divine
throne. Reveals the blessings of grace. Implants the eager desire. Gives
prevailing strength to faith. Causes unwearying importunity. As the author of
prayer, the Spirit is here promised. Prayer is a proof of the Spirit’s presence
the want of prayer is His absence. The promise of the Spirit was originally
made and fulfilled to Christ Himself. Through Him it belongs to all His people.
This promise was fulfilled at Pentecost. It is still on record, and its
fulfiment is also on record. Why is His presence not felt and recognised? He
has moved on congregations of late, and still, occasionally, individuals feel
His quickening power. But the instances are few. Let us plead with God for His
Spirit’s presence.
II. The effects
which flow from the outpouring of the Spirit. It follows necessarily from the
terms of the promise that grace and prayer will follow upon the fulfilment of
this promise. But the text particularly describes certain results of the Spirit’s
presence which call for special attention.
1. Those on whom He descends shall look on Christ. It is the office
of the Spirit to glorify Christ, as it was Christ’s to glorify the Father. The
Spirit makes the heart and eyes to turn to Christ, as the flower to the sun.
The attention is then riveted on Christ.
2. It is on a pierced Saviour that the Spirit-anointed sinner looks.
His body pierced with the scourge, thorns, nails, and spear. His heart pierced
with many sorrows. His soul pierced with the arrows of the Almighty, which
drank up His Spirit. His reputation pierced by calumny. His humanity pierced
with the mortal shaft of death.
3. He on whom the Spirit rests looks on Christ as pierced by himself.
His sins pierced Him in all these senses. He was represented by Christ’s
crucifiers. He has, by his conduct, crucified Him afresh, and put Him to an
open shame. He has pierced Him in His people and cause.
4. When the Spirit has shown to a man Christ pierced by his sins,
that man mourns. The sight of Christ pierced gives him a new view of sin. Each
sin has been an arrow shot at God, and has penetrated the heart of Christ. This
sight involves a new view of Christ’s love--mercy--compassion. He sees what
kind of Redeemer he has been thus treating. The sight of Christ pierced gives
him a sense of pardon. His sins met their punishment in Christ. A pardoned
sinner mourns. Lessons--
1. The sympathy of the Spirit with the Son. He reveals Him pierced,
and produces mourning.
2. Seek the Spirit as here described.
3. Try yourselves by these fruits of His presence. (James Stewart.)
The promise to the Church
I. The promise
here made to the Church, both in her collective form and every individual
member.
1. The person who makes the promise. Jehovah Himself, the everlasting
Father, who created all things by His power. What could induce Him thus to look
upon such a miserable and guilty creature as man? He was under no obligations
to do so; there was no necessity on His part; there was nothing amiable in man
to invite Him. It was His own free, sovereign, unmerited love.
2. The persons to whom the promise was made. By the “house of David”
is here meant the seed royal, and by the “inhabitants of Jerusalem” is meant
the common people. So the phrases include the whole Jewish nation. They were
typical of all the people of God in future ages.
3. Their state prior to the application of the promise. It is a state
of most deplorable ignorance; ignorance of God in His character, His works and
requirements; and of the Lord Jesus Christ and His mediation; and of
themselves, their sin, misery, and need.
4. The promise itself. “I will pour the Spirit of grace and
supplications.” He is called the Spirit of grace, because He is a gracious
Spirit; because He is the author and worker of every grace in the hearts of
believers; because He indites our supplications; and because He assists us in
the offering up of our supplications. The promise is made good in the
experience of every real believer, without respect to names, or parties, or
denominations.
II. Two leading
effects involved. “They shall look on Him,” etc. Who is this? None other than
Christ and Him crucified. “They shall mourn” i.e., they shall possess
evangelical sorrow for and repentance of sin. Three things in real repentance--
1. Hearty sorrow for sin.
2. Genuine confession of sin.
3. Entire forsaking of it as a principle of action. (Griffith
Williams.)
Faith and repentance produced by the Spirit being poured forth
This language refers in the first instance to the Jews. The
time is coming when, in consequence of God pouring out His Spirit on that
people, they shall look on Him whom they have pierced, and mourn. “Whom they
have pierced.” This language was literally fulfilled. The text admits of a
legitimate application to others besides the Jews.
I. The need of the
outpouring of the Spirit order to faith repentance. The sinner is described in
the Word as being dead in trespasses and sins. Not only does the sinner yet in
his sins need to be quickened, the very people of God require again and again
the living power of the same Spirit who st first regenerated their souls. For
even after he has been raised from his natural deadness, he is apt shew to fall
into spiritual slumber. I need not dwell on the necessity of repentance. It all
men have sinned, it needs no argument to prove that all men should repent.
Those who would repent need to be told that in order to repent they need power
from on high. It is when the Spirit is poured out that sinners are brought to
genuine repentance,--that is, repentance unto life. Without this, there will
always be a shying, an avoiding of the humiliation implied,--always an obstacle
in the way--and the heart will turn aside like a deceitful bow. As long as the
heart is untouched by the Spirit of grace, it either remains in a state of
utter insensibility in reference to God and sin on the one hand, or, on the
other band, it is troubled with feelings of reproach and fear, but without
being persuaded or changed. Mere natural reproaches of conscience and alarms of
coming judgments may stun the heart for a time, but they cannot break or melt
it. The very people of God have reason at times to mourn over a narrowness of
heart, over unfitness for the service of God, and an aversion to spiritual
things. But while they are straitened the Spirit of the Lord is not straitened.
II. The effects
produced when the Spirit of God is poured out--
1. By looking unto a pierced Lord, we are to understand faith in one
of its liveliest exercises. The believer looks to Christ and His wounds with the
eye of the mind, just as the serpent-bitten Israelites looked to the serpent of
brass which Moses raised by the command of God. Whenever the Spirit is poured
out from on high, the instant effect is the production of faith. Faith, indeed,
seems to be the first--always along with repentance--saving or spiritual grace
of the Christian character. It must be so, from the very nature of things. Our
attention is called in this passage to two features of saving faith--
2. Another effect is mourning or repentance. When Paul was at
Ephesus, he preached repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is a sense of sin that drives us to the Saviour, and we come to the Saviour
by faith. The sinner looks to Christ by the eye of faith, and as he does so he
mourns and repents. A believing view of God is necessary to full repentance.
How should sorrow be the effect of a saving view of Christ? We are called to
mourn over the sufferings of our Lord because of our connection with them. Note
some of the characteristics of evangelical sorrow. The penitent has a deep view
of the evil of sin. The penitent mourns over his sin as deeply as over his
greatest earthly loss. But this sorrow for sin is not a sorrow apart from
Christ, or independent of Him; neither is it a sorrow without hope. If the
wounds of Jesus cannot but open lap wounds in our breast, they also supply the
balm that heals the wounds. (J. M’Cosh.)
Effects of an outpouring of the Spirit
The immediate effects of this outpouring of the Spirit are
strikingly set forth. They are indicated by a spirit of grace and supplication
excited among the people; by their looking upon Him whom they have pierced, and
mourning for their treatment of Him in deep repentance and bitterness of
spirit. And when they shall thus be humbled for their sins, and shall look with
an eye of faith to Him who is the only Saviour of lost men, God will show
Himself their reconciled Father and Friend, receive them into His favour, and
seal them heirs of His kingdom. In directing attention to the work of the Holy
Spirit I shall assume two facts--
1. That the influence of the Holy Spirit is exerted in every case of
true conversion.
2. That there are times when this influence is granted in greater
copiousness and power than at others.
1. One effect of such a visitation of mercy is to impart to the
people of God a spirit of grace and supplication. Whenever God comes near to a
people, and is about to display His power in the conversion of sinners, He
always awakens a spirit of prayer among His friends; causes them to feel their
dependence and need of His help. At such times there is wont to be felt, in the
hearts of God’s people, a deep and tender concern for the salvation of souls
perishing in sin. They awake from their slumbers. They mourn over their past
unfaithfulness in duty. They cast off the spirit of worldliness and unbelief,
and realise in some measure, as they ought, the powers of the world to come.
2. Another effect is to arrest the attention of the impenitent, and
turn their thoughts directly upon the things of their eternal Peace.
3. Another effect is to produce in the impenitent a painful
conviction of sin and danger. When God pours out His Spirit, an invariable
effect is to convince men of sin, and to give them an abiding sense of its
great evil, as a violation of His holy law.
4. Another effect is to cut off self-confidence, and produce a sense
of entire dependence on God for pardoning mercy and renewing grace.
5. One other effect is to renew the heart and bring the sinner to
repentance and cordial reconciliation to God. So it is plain that the effects
of the outpouring of the Spirit are all of the most desirable and happy
character. (J. Hawes, D. D.)
A revival of religion
1. There shall be a revival of religion in the future history of the Church
that shall gather in the Jews.
2. This revival shall be characterised by the invariable marks of an
outpouring of the Spirit, namely, a spirit of prayer and penitence.
3. Prayer is the barometer of the Church. When the spirit of
supplication is low, there is but little of the Spirit of God, and as soon as
the prayer meeting begins to fill up with earnest suppliants, the Christian may
hope for a blessing.
4. All true repentance arises from a sight of a dying Saviour, one
who has died for us. Terror may produce remorse, only a sense of forgiven sin
will ever produce true repentance. True repentance is after all only love
weeping at the foot of the Cross, the soul sorrowing for sins that have been so
freely forgiven.
5. True religion is a personal thing, and when it takes strong hold
of the heart, will lead the soul apart to solitary wrestling with God, and acts
of personal humbling before Him; confession of sins past, and resolutions of
obedience for time to come. Grace needs solitary meditation in which to grow,
just as much as the plant needs the repose and darkness of night. (T. V.
Moore, D. D.)
The Spirit of grace and supplications
In studying prophecy, with a view to personal edification,
two things should be borne in mind. Spiritual religion is ever and invariably
the same, notwithstanding the different degrees of light which have marked
different and successive dispensations. And, whatever promises of a purely
spiritual nature are made to the Jewish nation may, and ought to be, generally
and individually applied by those who constitute the true household of faith in
all ages. The words of the text refer ultimately to the ingathering of the
Jews, and their conversion to Christianity; but they receive an intermediate
fulfilment in the case of every wandering sinner, Jew or Gentile, who is
effectually brought home to God. They form a promise which applies to the
believer’s experience at all times; a promise to which he may advert, to his
inexpressible consolation, until the language of prayer dies on his lips, and
is superseded by songs of never-ceasing praise. By the “Spirit of grace and
supplications” we are to understand that Divine Agent who helpeth the
infirmities of the saints; whose influences are elsewhere predicted under the
metaphor of an effusion of grace; and whose coming was to give its full
effect to the sacrifice of the Redeemer, and to assign its prominent character
to the Gospel dispensation.
I. Of prayer as an
exercise of the renewed soul. Prayer is the language of the heart addressing itself
to God, either in habitual spirituality of desire, in the way of silent
ejaculation, or by means of words immediately suited to convey a sense of its
wants to the throne of the heavenly mercy. It is founded in a strong conviction
of internal poverty, weakness, and dependence, and is drawn forth by a humble
persuasion that it reaches the ear of the Lord God of Sabaoth. Spiritual prayer
is an eager and determined effort of the soul to possess itself of the
purchased blessings of salvation. Spiritual prayer is the fragrant incense
which burns on the consecrated altar of the believer’s heart. A renovating
process must pass upon the moral system ere the spark of true devotion is
lighted up. The man who is in willing league with sin and Satan cannot pray; nor
can he who is absorbed in the cares of this passing world; nor he who addresses
the Almighty under the impulse of sudden alarm, excessive grief, or occasional
anxiety of mind. The exercise of spiritual prayer is habitual to him that
engages in it. It may not always be the same delightful and refreshing
employment. Too frequently, when the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak. In
every age and period of the Church the people of God have been a praying
people. Then we have here a very close touchstone of self-examination. Are you
in the habit of flying to a throne of grace for the purpose of obtaining relief
of your burdened souls?
II. The collateral
influence of spiritual prayer upon the experience.
1. If the fervency of holy feeling in some measure subsides when the
Christian withdraws from the presence chamber of his Lord, still a hallowed
glow remains in his breast, which tells him that the Spirit of grace and of
supplications has not departed from him. It is the tendency of prayer, by
exciting a continual apprehension of the nearness of God, to produce a feeling
of sacred awe, a habit of solemnity, not indeed opposed to cheerfulness, but at
variance with unhallowed levity.
2. Prayer keeps the mind alive to the important realities of an
eternal state. It loosens that associating tie which enslaves the immortal
spirit, and would confine its everlasting solicitudes to the vanities of time
and sense. The praying Christian bears away his spirituality from the throne of
mercy, and blends it with the pursuits of his temporal vocation.
3. Spiritual prayer tends to purify and sweeten our intercourse with
each other. By deepening the channel of humility, it causes peace, with all its
attendant: virtues, to flow on in a gentle and even course. Prayer is health to
all who move in its genial atmosphere. It stifles the feelings of envy, hatred,
and uncharitableness.
III. The direct
results of prayer as an appointed means of grace. Prayer, like the rod of
Moses, is intended to strike the rock, that the waters may gush out. It is the
sinner’s application for blessings that cannot be denied or withholden. True it
is that the people of God are a waiting as well as a praying people; they are
often kept in suspense, because there is a suitable time for prayer to be
answered, and because spiritual blessings are never sent prematurely. It is
likewise true that the prayer of faith itself is sometimes offered up
ignorantly, or under erroneous impressions, and consequently fails in that
particular point in which infinite wisdom saw it to be faulty. One piece of
advice let me offer--Be not satisfied with the mere act of prayer, even as a
spiritual exercise. Be thankful for enlargement of heart to prayer, and for a
heavenly frame of mind, while you are prostrate before God. But still look
beyond the effort itself. Watch the result of your petitions. Infer--
1. The importance of the Holy Spirit’s office in the economy of
grace.
2. The necessity of attributing salvation wholly and solely to God.
3. The value of a prayerful disposition viewed as an earnest or
pledge of salvation. He who is drawn to the Cross shall eventually be drawn to
the throne. Continue to wait upon God, and you shall not be forsaken. (W.
Knight, M. A.)
The Spirit of grace and of supplications
I. The promise of
the text. By the “house of David” is meant his descendants after the flesh, or
the princes and rulers of the Jews; and by the “inhabitants of Jerusalem,” the
rest of the people. On these the Lord promises to pour out His Spirit for their
conviction, conversion, and salvation.
1. The Holy Spirit is here promised as a “Spirit of grace.” He is the
author and giver of all grace, of all goodness. The Holy Spirit is the author
of all preventing grace. We never really forsake sin, we never truly turn to
God by any strength or goodness of our own. It is God who begins, as well as
perfects, the good work in our hearts. The Holy Spirit is the author of all
renewing and sanctifying grace. Every attempt to renew and sanctify our heart
and conduct must, if we depend solely upon ourselves, be altogether in vain.
The Spirit can renew us in righteousness and true holiness after the image of
Him that created us, and make us new creatures in Christ Jesus unto good works.
The Holy Spirit is the author of all quickening and reviving grace. Our souls
too often cleave unto the dust; our hearts become cold and dead. Where are we
to find a remedy for this distressing state of things? In the same Fountain of
living waters. The Spirit must send us those refreshing showers which He sends
on God’s inheritance when it is weary. And the Holy Spirit is the author of all
comforting and supporting grace. And do we not often need comfort and support
in such a world as this?
2. The Holy Spirit is here promised as a “Spirit of supplications.”
We know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit helpeth our
infirmities. This He does in Various ways.
II. The effects
attending the fulfilment of this promise. “Shall mourn,” etc. The speaker here
is evidently the Lord Jesus Christ. This application of the passage to Christ
proves at once both His humanity and His Divinity. It proves His humanity, for
He Was pierced. It proves His Divinity; for who can communicate the Spirit but
God alone? It is here pretold by the Lord, that when He would pour out His Holy
Spirit, as the Spirit of grace and supplications, sinners would be led to look
upon Him whom they had pierced, and to mourn bitterly for their sins, and
especially their great sin in rejecting Him. This prophecy was fulfilled in
part on the day of Pentecost. It will also be more fully accomplished whenever
the conversion of the Jews, as a nation, shall take place. But this prophecy is
also accomplished whenever sinners, Jews or Gentiles, are now turned to the
Lord. Notice the nature of the sorrow which they feel on such an occasion.
1. It is a godly sorrow. Produced in their hearts under the
operations of the Spirit of God. What are its effects? It humbles them in the
dust before God; it softens their hard and unfeeling heart. It is also a bitter
sorrow, for it is said, “They shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only
son.” We can scarcely conceive of any sorrow of an earthly nature more bitter
than that of a father when mourning for his only son. The feelings of some are
quicker and more susceptible than those of others. But whatever differences
there may be, all who are really taught by the Spirit are made so to see and
feel the evil and bitterness of sin, as to learn in all sincerity to hate and
forsake it. It is a secret sorrow. “The land shall mourn, every family apart,
and their wives apart.” And is not this always characteristic of deep and real
sorrow? Then let us ask ourselves, What know we of the effects attending the
fulfilment of the promise in the text? How important it is that we should have
the Spirit! And how earnestly and perseveringly should we pray for His gracious
and saving influences! (D. Rees.)
They shall look upon Me
whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him--
Gospel mourning a fruit of saving faith
Here we have a glorious privilege mentioned, namely, a view or
manifestation of a crucified Redeemer; and the gracious exercise that is
consequential to this distinguishing and glorious privilege. “They shall mourn
for Him.” From the words we observe that all whose privilege it is to get a
supernatural discovery of a crucified Redeemer will mourn for Him, as wounded
and pierced for their sins.
I. The glorious
privilege.
1. Though Christ is not now visible to the bodily eyes, yet such a
sight of Him as is necessary in order to the exercise of faith upon Him, and a
real participation of the benefits of His purchase is attainable by persons in
this world.
2. A spiritual and saving sight of Christ as crucified is what all
should be concerned to obtain when they are attending upon the ordinances of
the Gospel, upon the dispensation of the Word and sacraments.
3. Such a sight of Christ as is necessary in order to the exercise of
faith and repentance is an effect of the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit
upon the heart of a sinner.
4. A spiritual manifestation of Christ is in a special manner
necessary on a day of fasting and humiliation.
5. A saving manifestation of Christ is a rare and distinguishing
privilege.
6. A saving manifestation is ever accompanied with godly sorrow for sin.
II. The gracious
exercise.
1. Godly sorrow for sin supposes an inward and thorough change of
heart, and mind, and nature.
2. It is real sorrow.
3. Such a sorrow as flows from a particular conviction of sin.
4. It is great sorrow.
5. It is evangelical sorrow. Application--
True repentance
Repentance is the first duty of a sinner under a dispensation of
mercy; prepares for a right reception of Christ as a Saviour; and is a part of
that new and holy course of life which every true Christian leads. It accompanies
every other exercise f piety, and terminates only when we arrive at heaven. The
text contains o prediction of the repentance and conversion of the Jewish
nation. In part fulfilled at Pentecost, in part to be yet fulfilled.
I. The source from
which true repentance flows. If true repentance imply an entire change of
heart, comprehending a genuine sorrow for sin as committed against God, a
hearty forsaking of it, and an acceptance of God’s mercy as revealed in Jesus
Christ, then it is obvious that it must spring from the influences of Divine
grace. Accordingly the source of it is thus spoken of, “I will pour upon the
house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of
supplications.” The allusion is to the pouring out of water, which is the usual
emblem for the bestowing of the influences of the Holy Ghost. Refreshing as
water to the thirsty, is the grace of the Holy Spirit to the Church of God. The
peculiar effect of the Spirit of God in His operations on the heart, is described
in the titles here given to the Holy Ghost--“the Spirit of grace and
supplications,”--that is, the Spirit by whose influence grace is implanted in
the mind, and supplications are addressed to the throne of mercy. The Holy
Ghost is promised as the Spirit of grace, because all grace and holiness
proceed from Him. As the “Spirit of supplications,” because one of the earliest
effects of Divine influences is prayer. We pray in the Holy Ghost. It is by His
sacred instruction that we discover our ignorance, poverty, defilement, misery,
and danger. It is by His teaching we receive with faith the truths and promises
of the Gospel. The Spirit produces a return to God, and a thorough conversion
of heart and life.
II. The chief means
by which repentance is produced. “They shall look upon Me whom they have
pierced.” Repentance, generally speaking, springs from a view of a crucified
Saviour. The view of the crucified Redeemer which is spoken of in the text,
cannot be understood as a bodily sight by the eye of sense. It is a spiritual
and rational contemplation of Him by the eye of penitence and faith. Surely
there is no object which in itself should so powerfully attract our notice. If
the very circumstances of the spectacle should fix our attention, still more
should we be moved when we reflect on the Divine dignity of the sufferer. But
this is not all. You and I have had a share in this death. God had “laid on Him
the iniquity of us all.” But what if all this woe and suffering should be for
our salvation! Should not this lead us to regard the scene with still more
intense earnestness?
III. The effects of
the Spirit of grace thus leading the sinner to look by faith to Him whom he has
pierced. The returning Jews, when they shall view by faith their crucified
Messiah, will mourn for their national sins in piercing Him, and for all their
personal transgressions. See Zechariah 12:11-14. The spiritual import
of this prediction is accomplished in every true penitent. Mourning for sin
will arise from that view of its malignity and hatefulness which the Cross of
Christ displays. The genuine sorrow of a penitent flows from the believing
sight of a pierced Saviour. The law convinces of sin, but the Cross teaches us
to abhor it.
1. Apply to the sincere Christian--that he may learn the important
place which true penitence occupies in a Christian life: the connection of
repentance with the hopes and privileges of the Gospel: and that the exercise
of evangelical repentance is connected with a holy and circumspect conduct.
2. To the ungodly and impenitent. If any subject can show them their
obligation to repent, and affect their hearts with a desire to do so, it is the
one we have been reviewing. (D. Wilson, M. A.)
Looking to the pierced One
Not only an external grace and favour was promised to the Jews,
but an internal light of faith, the author of which is the Spirit; for He it is
who illuminates our minds to see the goodness of God, and it is He also who
turns our hearts. As Zechariah declares that the Jews would at length “look to”
God, it follows that the spirit of repentance and the light of faith are
promised to them, so that they may know God as the author of their salvation,
and feel so assured that they are already saved, as in future to devote
themselves entirely to Him. “Whom they have pierced.” Here also the prophet
indirectly reproves the Jews for their great obstinacy, for God had restored
them, and they had been as untameable as wild beasts: for this piercing is to
be taken metaphorically for continual provocation, as though he had said that
the Jews in their perverseness were prepared as it were for war, that they
goaded and pierced God by their wickedness as by the weapons of their
rebellion. As then they had been such, he says now that such a change would be
wrought by God that they would become quite different, for they would learn to
“look to Him whom” they had previously pierced. John says that this prophecy
was fulfilled in Christ, when His side was pierced with a spear (John 19:37). And this is most true; for
it was necessary that the visible symbol should be exhibited in the person of
Christ, in order that the Jews might know that He was the God who had spoken by
the prophets. The Jews then had crucified their God when they grieved His
Spirit; but Christ also was, as to His flesh, pierced by them. And this is what
John meant--that God by that visible symbol made it evident that He had not
only been formerly provoked in a disgraceful manner by the Jews, but that at
length, in the person of His only begotten Son, this great sin was added to
their disgraceful impiety, that they pierced even the side of Christ. (John
Calvin.)
Looking to Christ as pierced, and mourning for Him
May we not reckon the passage in which our text occurs, as one of
those of which the prophets themselves, by whom they were uttered, did not at
first understand the full import? How should we be affected by the
contemplation of the sufferings and death of the Lord Jesus?
1. We should mourn to think of what He had to endure. A tale of woe
may touch our hearts with sadness although we may have no personal concern with
the individual of whom it is told. If we saw an innocent man led forth to
execution, our hearts would be greatly moved. We wonder not then that when
Jesus was delivered up to the will of His enemies, when one so holy, so meek,
so beneficent, was led forth to be crucified, the spectacle could not be seen
unmoved.
2. We should mourn to think of the wickedness of the men by whom He
was so treated. Were the men of that generation which lived when Jesus was
crucified, wicked above all others before them, or after them? No! Though
temptation and opportunity combined to involve them in a crime, probably the
greatest ever perpetrated on earth, they afford but a specimen of that
depravity, it may be less fully developed, which we all have inherited.
3. We should mourn for our own sins, as we see in what was inflicted
on our surety the exceeding sinfulness and deep demerit of sin. How hateful
must sin have been in the sight of a holy God, when for it He hid His face from
His Son, and gave Him up to the pains of an accursed death! Notice some of the
happy effects of penitent grief.
Sinners mourning for their pierced Lord
What is true of a converted Jew, is true also of a converted
Gentile.
I. The character
of godly sorrow. It is like a parent’s sorrow for the death of a child. This is
a real, not a pretended sorrow. If we look into our hearts many of us will see
that our sorrow for sin is all pretence. This is a deep, not a superficial or
slight sorrow. We may really mourn for a friend, and yet mourn for him very
little. Not so when our children die. Our grief then is pungent and bitter. It
is not only in the heart, but do, as very low in it. It is a secret sorrow.
Most of us, when our hearts are full, wish to be alone. Deep emotions of any
kind send us to our chambers.
II. Once of the
causes that excite godly sorrow. “Look on Me whom they have pierced.” Who is
the speaker here? God Himself, but God in Christ. What is meant by “looking” on
Him? Outward bodily actions are made use of to describe inward operations, the
actings of the mind. These penitents look on Him as “pierced.” Some say the
reason why the Jews are not converted is that we do not sufficiently exhibit
the Lord Jesus to them in His exaltation and glory. Others say if we want to
prize the Lord Jesus more, we must think of Him more as enthroned in heaven. We
must not suffer men to mislead us. If we want life for our perishing souls, if
we wish to have our hard hearts broken to pieces, it is on His Cross, not on
His throne, that we must contemplate our Lord. And these contrite sinners look
on Jesus as pierced by them. “The chastisement of our peace was on Him,” so we
wounded Him.
III. How is it that
godly sorrow arises from this source? Why does looking on the crucified Lord
make the believer mourn? How, I would ask, can it be other wise, as we think of
our dying Lord, dying for us? Learn the high place that we ought to give sorrow
for sin among the Christian graces. (C. Bradley, M. A.)
I. The object or
spectacle propounded. Certain it is that Christ is here meant.
1. Specify and particularise the person of Christ, by the kind and
most peculiar circumstances of His death. Not a natural but a violent death.
The Psalmist says, “They pierced my hands and my feet,” which is only proper to
the death of the Cross. The prophet intimates that his heart was pierced, and this
was peculiar to Christ.
2. Sever Christ from the rest of His doings and sufferings, to see
what that is which we specially are to look to--Christ pierced. The perfection
of our knowledge in or touching Christ, is the knowledge of Christ pierced.
Know this, you know all. In the object, two things offer themselves.
II. The persons.
When one is found slain, it is usual to inquire by whom he came by his death.
We incline to lay the sin of Christ’s death on the soldiers, the executioners;
on Pilate the judge; on the people who urged Pilate; or on the elders of the
Jews who animated the people. The prophet here says that they who are willed to
“look upon Him,” are they who “pierced Him.” In every case of condemnation to
death, sin, and sin only is the murderer. It was not Christ’s own sin that He
died for. It must have been for the sin of others that Christ Jesus was
pierced. God laid on Him the “transgressions of us all.” It was the sin of our
polluted hands that pierced His hands; the swiftness of our feet to do evil
that nailed His feet; the wicked devices of our heads that gored His head; and
the wretched desires of our hearts that pierced His heart. If we feel that we
were the cause of this His piercing, we ought to have remorse, to be pierced
with it.
III. The act or duty
enjoined. To look upon Him. A request most natural and reasonable. To this look
Christ invites us. “Upon Me.” Our own profit inviteth us. Our danger may move
us to look. In the act itself are three things.
1. That we do it with attention.
2. That we do it oft, again and again; with iteration.
3. That we cause our nature to do it, as it were, by virtue of an
injunction.
In the original it is a commanding injunction. Look upon Him, and
be pierced. Look upon Him, and pierce that in thee that was the cause of
Christ’s piercing, sin and the lusts thereof. As it was sin that gave Christ
these wounds, so it was love to us that made Him receive them, being otherwise
liable enough to have avoided them all. So that He was pierced with love, no
less than with grid. And it was that wound of love made Him so constantly
endure all the other. Which sight ought to pierce us with love too, no less
than before it did with sorrow. We should join looking with believing. And
believing, what is there that the eye of our hope shall not look for from Him?
What would He not do for us, that for us would suffer all this? Our expectation
may be reduced to these two things,--the deliverance from the evil of our
present misery; and the restoring to the good of our primitive felicity Shall
we always receive grace, even streams of grace, issuing from Him that is
pierced, and shall there not from us issue something back again, that He may
look for and receive from us, that from Him have and do daily receive so many
good things? No doubt there shall; if love which pierced Him, have pierced us
aright. (Bishop Launcelot Andrewes.)
Looking to Christ crucified
The words have reference, in their primary sense, to the house of
David, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; and received their first fulfilment on the
day of Pentecost. But the text invites us also to look on Him who was pierced
for us, and mourn. We are to look long and earnestly on Him whom we have
pierced, that by long looking we may learn to mourn, and mourning much may love
much, and loving much, may have much forgiven. How shall we look on Him whom we
have pierced? Not with our fleshly, eyes, but with the eye of faith. We are to
look to Him, in order to see that the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us
all.” It was our polluted hands that pierced His hands; the swiftness of our
feet to do evil that nailed His feet; the wicked devices of our hearts that
pierced His heart. Yet we must not look wholly to His bodily sufferings, the
wounds we have given Him have gone deeper, even to His soul, yea, pierced Him
through and through with many sorrows. The pangs which He suffered on His
spiritual Cross were infinitely more than those He suffered on the natural.
Great as were His bodily sufferings, from the prospect of them He never shrank.
He ever views and speaks calmly of them. Not so does He announce His spiritual
Cross, it was the internal Cross which caused His bitterest passion. Shall we
not then look on Him, and “remember and be confounded, and never open our
mouths any more, because of our shame,” as we look upward to that Cross to
which our sins have nailed Him? He was lifted up on that Cross that all from
the ends of the world might look unto Him and be saved. It is by looking on Him
whom we have pierced that we alone can learn somewhat of the deadly bitterness
of our sins, which might not be forgiven, but by that awful blood shedding. It
is at the foot of the Cross alone that the mystery of the Cross is learnt, and
a true estimate of our sins gained. (R. A. Suckling, M. A.)
Jesus’ pierced side
Out of the pierced heart of Jesus proceeds a stream of tears, of
grace, and of prayer. For us, also, as we look at the pierced side of the
Saviour, there opens--
I. A flood of
tears. The prophet foretells the time when Israel at the sight of the Man of
Sorrows shall break forth into deep lamentation, when the water which flows
from the pierced side of the Saviour shall be turned into a stream of tears,
flowing from the hearts of the children of Israel. It is the simplest but
certainly also the most painful truth, that your sins and mine have brought
Jesus to the Cross. Therefore a glance at Him must become a crystal glass which
reflects our sins more distinctly, and which represents us in our sins blacker
than the whole law from Sinai, with its thunder and lightning, its curse and
judgment, can do.
II. A stream of
grace. In ancient Athens, mercy was represented with eyes streaming with tears,
holding in her hand a torn and bleeding heart. By God’s grace we have free
access to the Father. We have a Saviour who opens the Father’s heart for us,
and we need no other Mediator.
III. A fount of
prayer. In these prophetic words the Lord declares that He will pour out the
Spirit of prayer and of grace. The stream of grace from the wounds of the
Saviour, which He causes to be poured over us, is to become a fount of prayer,
flowing from our heart to God’s heart. There has scarcely ever been a time in
which the streams of Divine grace were so abundantly poured forth in the
preached Word, as well as in works of mercy, and in zeal for the Lord’s house,
as in our days. But how long will it last, if the Spirit of supplication does
not join the spirit of grace? And that is wanting. Ours is a prayerless time. (A.
Schroter.)
Christ pierced by us
(to children):--There can be no doubt about the reference of these
words. St. John quotes them in his Gospel, and refers them to Christ. “They”
are the Jews, and more particularly the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And the
prophet informs us that a time is coming when the people of Jerusalem shall
look upon Jesus, and bitterly repent of having refused to accept Him as their
Messiah and their King.
1. The Jews were, and still are, God’s people, though now they are
God’s people in disgrace. He chose them out of all the nations of the earth,
and drew them close to Himself, and gave them the Scriptures, and the temple,
and the sacrifices, and thus prepared them for the coming of the Messiah, or
Christ, who was promised in the prophets. But when the Messiah did come they
rejected Him. Their great and terrible crime brought down God’s wrath upon
them. About forty years after the crucifixion of Jesus the Romans came and laid
siege to Jerusalem, killed many Jews, and burnt the beautiful temple. We are
expressly told that this destruction of Jerusalem was a punishment for the
murder of Christ. From that time the Jews have been driven out of their own
land, and scattered abroad amongst the nations of the earth. There are Jews
almost everywhere. But the Bible says that one day they will be gathered
together into their own land again. But will they be Christians when they
return? I think not. They will still reject the Lord Jesus Christ. But I
believe that, when assaulted by enemies, the Lord Jesus Christ will come down
from Heaven, and appear for the rescue of His people, to deliver them. At that
moment they shall look on “Him whom they pierced,” and the effect of their
looking will be that they will mourn over their sin, and repent of it, and
become true followers and disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then they
will become the most successful preachers of the Gospel that the world has ever
seen.
2. Now turn to ourselves. It is possible to look on Jesus, who was
pierced, and to say, “Well, He was pierced, and I am glad of it, for He deserved
His fate. He pretended to be what He was not.” That is what the Jews nowadays
think, and what many of them do not hesitate to say. And many of us are
inclined to say, “I had nothing to do with the piercing of Jesus. I was not
there at the time. It was a fearful deed, and I am sorry for the sufferings of
Jesus, but I really do not think it true in any sense that I pierced Him!” Let
us pause a moment, and think. The Lord Jesus, who was the Son of God and Son of
Man, bore upon the cross the whole dark load of human sin. All the sins of all
mankind were gathered, as it were, into one vast horrible mass, and laid upon
Him, the Sin-bearer; and He could not get rid of it, or “put it away” except by
dying. By dying on the cross He took it away from us, and shook it off Himself.
Now your Sin and mine were in that load, and because our sin formed part of the
burden which was laid upon Christ we had something to do with His death. We
helped to pierce Him. Our sin made it necessary that Christ should die, and
therefore you and I had something to do really with “piercing” Christ, and
nailing Him to His cross. But unless we have the teaching of God’s Holy Spirit,
we shall never think rightly or feel rightly in this matter. It was when “the
Spirit of grace and supplication” was poured out upon the inhabitants of
Jerusalem that they looked on Him whom they pierced, and repented of their sin.
What a deep feeling we have when a thing is brought home to ourselves, and we
are made to feel that we did it. If we feel that we pierced Christ two
things will happen.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life
for his friends.” Jesus, the Son of God, gave up His life for us; He died upon
the cross for us; for there was no other way of saving us from our sins. Surely,
if we have not got hearts of stone, we shall feel thankful, most thankful, for
what He has done, and love Him because He first loved us. (Gordon Calthrop,
M. A.)
Looking to Jesus in penitential sorrow
The legend of Camille, the artist who sold his soul to the devil
in order to gain power to paint to the life whatever subject he chose, is full
of suggestion. After a long life of sin, Camillo painted a picture of the
Christ, the Man of Sorrows. The tender, searching eyes were such a source of
annoyance to him and to his sinful friends that he veiled the picture and went
to a priest with his story. Following the priest’s advice, he unveiled the
picture and let the eyes of the Christ search his soul. Then he went out and
made such reparation as he was able to the lives he had wronged. But he had no
peace. The priest sent him back to the unveiled Christ. Again he went out, and
ordered a dealer to buy up and destroy every inch of canvas he had painted that
would suggest evil thoughts. Still he had no peace. Again and yet again he was
led to realise and to renounce and to undo sin after sin. But the peace he
longed for was withheld. At length, as he knelt in prayer before the Christ,
came the realisation that he had sinned, not only against his fellow men, but against
Christ, and he yielded his life to Him. Then as the eyes of Christ looked into
the sorrow and anguish of his soul, there came also joy and peace.
Looking at Him who was pierced
When the late Dr. Andrew Bonar was sitting in his study one day, a
man and woman entered, to see him about joining the church. When they had told
their errand the doctor said to them, “When any one comes to me and wishes to
join the church, I generally ask them a few questions. Now, first, how did you
come to think of joining the church? Ah! “said the woman,” it was all through
our little son. One night I was telling him about the Jews killing my Lord
Jesus, and how they nailed Him to the cross on Calvary, and, looking up into my
face, he asked, ‘Mother, was it your sins that nailed Him to the cross?’ Ah,
sir, I could not answer him. There was a big lump in my throat; and when he saw
that I did not reply he turned to his father and said, ‘Father, was it your
sins that nailed Jesus to the cross?’ I stole a look at my husband, and I saw a
tear glisten in his eye--he could not answer either. Then the little boy
clasped his hands and said, ‘O Lord Jesus, it must have been my sins which
nailed Thee to the cross.’ From that time, sir, he has been a changed boy, and
it was that which made us think of joining the church.” (W. Thompson.)
Looking at Christ
Passing through a graveyard with her parents, a little girl drew
them after her to look at a beautiful stone figure of the Christ, with a face
full of suffering and yet of tenderest pity, leaning upon a massive marble
cross. As they paused to look she held her head down and said in a low voice,
“I have done so many wrong things, I can hardly lift up my eyes to look at
Him.” It is just those who have done “so many wrong things” that have need to
lift up their eyes and look at Him. (Quiver.)
Penitential sorrow
I. The subjects.
Jews, not Gentiles. The Jewish people had often been reduced to this state of
sorrow. When in Babylonian exile, they wept when they remembered “Zion.”
II. The cause of
this penitential sorrow. “I will pour.” The prophet Joel (Joel 2:28) refers to this outpouring of
Divine influence.
III. The occasion of
this penitential sorrow. A believing sight of Christ produces this penitential
sorrow.
IV. The poignancy
of this penitential sorrow. “And they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for
his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness
for his first-born.” “There are few states of deeper and acuter sorrow than
this--that which is felt by affectionate parents when bereft of those objects
of their fondest affections.” As to the poignancy of this grief, it is further
said, “In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the
mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon,” etc. Perhaps me greatest
sorrow ever known amongst the Jews was the sorrow in the valley of Megiddon,
occasioned by the death of King Josiah (2 Chronicles 35:24). Jeremiah
composed a funeral dirge on the occasion; and other odes and lamentations were
composed, and were sung by males and females. But true penitential sorrow is
far more poignant than that occasioned by the death of an only son or a noble
king. It is tinctured with moral remorse.
V. The
universality of this poignant sorrow. “The land shall mourn,” etc. All the
families of the land shall mourn, and mourn “apart.” Deep sorrow craves
loneliness. (Homilist.)
True mourning for Christ
Though this prophecy is fulfilling there is not complete
fulfilment. There was, among the Jews, no such general grief as Zechariah
pictures. They showed no signs of heart-broken sorrow. We must seek further for
the mourners looking on the pierced One. There is no doubt where they are to be
found. Christians have succeeded to the place, and occupy more than the place,
of the Jews; it is ourselves who are to be “looking upon Him whom we have
pierced.” Some great divines hold that Zechariah’s words describe the special
mourning of Lent and Holy Week and Good Friday. In any case we have a picture
of the effect which a real spiritual view of the cross must produce upon
faithful Christians, and one which supplies us with a test of our Good Friday
reality and sincerity. It is a hard test, but we must not flinch from it. It is
of God’s own proposing; nay, rather, it occurs in the announcement of His most
gracious purpose. Compare our recollections of earthly bereavements with our
memory of Christ’s death. Can we say that we feel for Christ at all as we feel
at the death of husband or wife, father or mother? Yet God expects us to feel
very deeply. We know that Christ’s passion ought to excite in us the deepest
imaginable sorrow. As there was never sorrow like unto His sorrow; as there was
never death like unto His death; as there was never love like unto His love, so
we cannot wonder if we are expected to feel a grief for Him as great as that
which springs from the severest trial of our human affections. Yet it may
safely be said that, generally, it is not so. We fall far short of that which
is to be the state of the citizens of the true city of David, and of the
inhabitants of Christian Jerusalem. (M. H. Ricketts.)
England’s rejection of Christ
Let me set in order before you the greater sin that we have
committed in rejecting Jesus than did the Jews. We have rejected Jesus as the
Head of the Church. What is the Church? It is the fulness of Him that filleth
all in all. The Church is the body of Christ, of which He is the head, to pour
into it continually the glory of His own power and the excellency of His own
beauty and the perfectness of His own holiness. It is a Church embodied, that
is the mystery, and not a Church disembodied. A Church disembodied is only a
fraction of the mystery of godliness; the mystery of godliness is God manifest
in the flesh. And the Church was intended to reveal the whole excellency and
power of Jesus seated on the throne of God. What were the Church’s gifts? The
word of wisdom, to search all the deep things of God. The word of knowledge, to
tell all that was passing in all parts of His dominions; the gift of faith,
never to doubt that whatever she desired she would receive. The gift of
healing, to go forth and show the power of Jesus over all flesh, to forgive sin
in the soul, and to heal disease in the body. The power of miracles, to order
in the things of creation, to get all disorder into order, and to command the
various powers of nature. To this the Church was called; deny it who dare!
This is the dignity of the Church, but we reject it. The Jews rejected a man of
flesh,--we have rejected a Man in the power of the Spirit.
II. Jesus has been
rejected as the King of kings and Lord of lords. This is a title which He
maketh great account of. It is written on His raiment, and on His thigh. But it
has been denied; it is denied round the whole world. In the papacy the pope has
taken the supremacy. In the Greek Church it is denied; the Czar is the head of
the Church. In Britain it is denied. Who is King of kings?--Their majesties the
people. “All power is from the people.” That is the baser denial--the basest of
all denial. Power is no longer held as from Jesus, nor is it any longer held to
be responsible to Him.
III. Another great sin
has been the rejection of Jesus as the owner of all: as the merchantman, as the
householder, the head of the house, whose is all the goods and chattels, and
all the furniture, and all the provision, and all the treasure of the house.
There is not one man in a hundred to whom the idea has once occurred,
everything in his house is Christ’s; everything in the banker’s hands is
Christ’s; everything in the funds is Christ’s. There is not aught that hath not
the stamp of His name.
IV. We have
rejected Christ as the poor man’s friend. Who was first the preacher of good
tidings to the poor? Who blessed and honoured the estate of poverty? Who said,
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”? We have
forgotten to preach Him as the Bringer of glad tidings to the poor. We have
rejected Him who was the Redeemer of poverty,--who is its friend; and we have
chosen for Him demagogues who are not worthy to be trusted with the lowest of
the goods of creation. (Edward Irving, A. M.)
Sinners repenting
Consider the language of the prophet as denoting a state of mind
which in its great lineaments is becoming to all men in all ages, and which
must be felt in order to secure the enjoyment of spiritual blessing.
I. The sorrow here
embodied is to be regarded in its cause. Here sorrow is traced to one cause. It
is sorrow on account of sin. The sense of its being, its guilt and consequence,
is pungently pressed upon the consciences. Observe--
1. The particular order of the sin. Although, in their relationship
to the death of the Lord Jesus, the Jews were of course peculiar, there is an
important sense in which all men must be regarded as participating in the guilt
of “piercing Him.” His death was an atoning sacrifice; the sins of men being
the cause of what He endured, in order to expiate wrath and to secure
salvation. “He is the propitiation for our sins,” and thus it is that every
sinner becomes an accomplice in the crucifixion of the Lord of glory. Set forth
as Christ has been to men in the institutes and by the ministry of the Gospel,
each thought and each deed of sin, cherished and loved, has been but striking
at Christ another and another blow--rearing the Cross again, fastening the
nails again.
2. This being the precise nature of the sin, we must notice the
influence by which the guilt of it is recognised and felt. The sinner admits no
guilt; his heart is a heart of stone. The consciousness of guilt is ascribed
directly to Divine influence, the influence of the Holy Spirit.
II. The
characteristics of this sorrow. The conviction of sin, arising from the
influence of the Spirit of grave, leads men to that mourning which constitutes
the theme of these verses. That mourning of sorrow will be found suggested to
us in its three great characteristics of intensity, solitude, and
prayerfulness.
III. The results.
One is pardon: connected with pardon is sanctification. And the third result of
this sorrow for sin is joy: nothing can compare with the joy arising from the
hope of pardon for sin. (James Parsons.)
Verse 12
And the land shall mourn, every family apart
Personal and family fasting
On the pouring out of the Spirit the land is to mourn,
every family apart, and their wives apart.
The duties of fasting consist of--
I. An external and
circumstantial part.
1. A proper time must be set apart for these duties. And this is to
be regulated by Christian prudence, as best suits the circumstance of the
person or family. As to the quantity of time to be spent in personal or family
fasting and humiliation, the duty, I judge, is to regulate it, and not it to
regulate the duty. None need be solicitous as to what quantity of time, more or
less, they spend in these exercises, so that the work of the time be done.
2. A proper place is to be chosen where the person or family may
perform the duty without disturbance from others (see Matthew 6:18).
3. Abstinence is included in the nature of the thing; abstinence from
meat and drink, and all bodily pleasures whatsoever, as well as ceasing from
worldly business. The rule for abstinence from meat and drink Cannot be the
same for all. These, however, are but the outward shell of these duties.
II. The internal
any spiritual part.
1. Serious meditation and consideration of our ways. Such times are
to be set apart from conversing with the world, that we may the more solemnly
Commune with our own hearts as to the state of matters between God and us. In
them we are diligently to review our past life.
2. Deep humiliation of soul before the Lord; the which was signified
by the sackcloth and ashes used, under the law, on such occasions.
3. Free and open confession of sin before God, without reserve.
4. The exercise of repentance in turning from sin unto God, both in
heart and life, the native result of deep humiliation and sincere confession.
The true way to deal with a hard heart is to believe the Gospel. “Without faith
it is impossible to please God,” and therefore impossible to reach true
humiliation, right confession, and sincere repentance, which are very pleasing
to Him.
5. Solemn covenanting with God, entering into or renewing covenant
with Him in express words.
6. Extraordinary prayer, in importunate addresses and petitions unto
oar covenanted God, for that which is the particular occasion of our fast. Now
consider personal fasting and humiliation in particular.
III. The Divine
warrant for it.
1. God requires it in His Word, and that both directly and
indirectly.
2. It is promised that the saints shall perform this duty.
3. It is recommended unto us by the practice of the saints mentioned
in Scripture.
4. The duty of personal fasting and humiliation may be thus evinced.
1. When there is any special evil actually lying upon us, the Church,
or our neighbour, in whom we have a special concern; whether it be a sinful or
a penal evil. And when the tokens of God’s high displeasure are gone out in
afflicting providences, it is time for us to roll ourselves in the dust, and so
to accommodate our spirit and way to the dispensation, humbling ourselves
before Him with fasting.
2. When there is any special stroke threatening or impending.
3. When there is some special mercy or favour to be desired of the
Lord. Take a variety of these particular cases--
Now consider some directions anent personal fasting and
humiliation.
1. Make choice of a fit time and place.
2. Make some preparation for it the night before
3. Rise early in the morning, even sooner than ordinary.
4. Let holy thoughts at once have access to your soul.
5. Let your ordinary duties of prayer and reading of the Word be
first performed; for extraordinary duties are not to jostle out the ordinary.
6. Begin with a solemn review of your sins--the sins of your nature,
of your childhood, of your youth, of your middle age
To recommend the practice of these duties to persons and families,
these five things are offered in favour thereof; namely, that the practice of
them is a proper means--
1. To bring strangers to religion acquainted with it.
2. To recover backsliders.
3. To prevent relapses.
4. To prepare for a time of trial.
5. To get matters clear for eternity. (T. Boston.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》