Editor’s Note: This material was first published in book form in
1989 by the John Ankerberg Evangelistic Association (now known as
the Ankerberg Theological Research Institute).
The Biblical
Text
And I will pour out on the
house of David, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace
and of prayers. And they shall look on me whom they have pierced,
and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only son, and
they shall be bitter over Him, as one that is in bitterness over the
firstborn. (Zech. 12:10, emphasis
added)
The Context of
the Passage
This text says
God will pour out His Spirit on Israel and bring them to a painful
understanding sometime in the future. What will they understand? This is
one of the most amazing statements given by God in Scripture. He says,
"[They] will look on me, the one they have pierced, and mourn for
him as one mourns for an only child…." The question is, who is this
One that Israel will look on and begin to mourn?
The Explanation
of the Text
Zechariah is
relating the words of Jehovah God, who says, "They will look on me
whom they have pierced." Jehovah Himself claims to be the One Israel
has pierced. When did Israel pierce Jehovah?
In the middle of
the statement, "They will look on me, the one they have pierced,
and they shall mourn for him," the pronouns are significantly
changed. They refer to different persons. What was at first a
reference to Jehovah, now becomes a reference to an
unidentified "him" for whom the entire nation of Israel will mourn.
Delitzsch and Gloag explain:
The great difficulty in this
passage is occasioned by the change in the pronouns; it is said, "They
shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for
him", as if two persons were spoken of—the one, the Lord, whom the
inhabitants of Jerusalem have pierced; and the other, some unknown
person, whose death the inhabitants of Jerusalem lament.106
They further
comment:
Some endeavor to escape the
Messianic application of the prediction by supposing that the word
"pierced" is to be taken in a metaphorical sense,… But it is doubtful if
the word can be taken in this... sense; it denotes "to thrust through,"
"to pierce as with a spear." Besides, the mourning here is expressed as
the mourning for the dead: One "mourning for his only son, and in
bitterness for his first born,…"107
Because of this
passage, certain questions must be answered. They are: (1) If the Hebrew
word for "to pierce," is "to thrust through, to slay by death,"108
when did Israel slay Jehovah? And how could the Creator of the heaven and
the earth be slain by men? And when was this done?
Zechariah says
Israel will someday realize they have killed Him—Jehovah, and will begin
to mourn over Him as a family would mourn over the death of their only
son.
This prophecy
only fits Jesus Christ. Why? Jesus Christ is the only One who ever claimed
to be God, claimed to be the Messiah, and was crucified by the inhabitants
of Jerusalem.
Jews in the New
Testament recognized only Jesus fit the words of this verse. The Apostle
John wrote, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God
and the Word was God…. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and
we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father full of
grace and truth" (Jn. 1:1, 14). Jesus Christ was the very incarnation
of God.
The Apostle Paul
believed Jesus was God and that He volunteered to die for our sins. Paul
taught, "Who [Jesus], being in very nature God,... made Him self
nothing, taking the very nature of a servant,… And being
found in appearance as a man, he humbled Himself and became obedient to
death—even death on a cross!" (Phil. 2:6-8).
The Apostle
Peter must have been thinking of Zechariah’s prophecy when on Pentecost he
said, "Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this
Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ [Messiah]" (Acts
2:36).
Related to this,
some wrongly teach that only the Jewish people are responsible for
crucifying the Messiah. Apparently, they have not read where the
New Testament Scriptures record, "Indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met
together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to
conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed" (Acts
4:27). Both Jew and Gentile, all of us, are equally guilty of crucifying
Christ. Also, Jesus, being God, volunteered to die on the cross to pay the
penalty for our sins. His death was for each one of us. In a real sense,
all of our sins put Him there.
But let us ask,
who else but Jesus Christ could the Prophet Zechariah be speaking about?
Who else could possibly be Jehovah, and also claim to be thrust through
and killed by the inhabitants of Jerusalem? Remember, the word "pierce" is
a word which means "to pierce as with a spear."109
This is exactly what happened to Jesus on the cross. A spear was thrust
through His side (Jn. 19:32-35).
Finally, it says
that the entire nation will mourn and grieve bitterly over the death of
this One who has been pierced, "as one mourns for an only child." Would
the Jewish people mourn for this One as for the death of their only son,
if He weren’t actually one of their Jewish sons—as Jesus Christ was?
What if the
Jewish people someday come to recognize, after all these centuries of
rejecting Him, that Jesus really was their Messiah? What if they come to
understand who He really is? What if they someday look upon Him as God,
"the One whom they have pierced"? Wouldn’t Zechariah’s prophecy be
fulfilled? Wouldn’t there be great weeping in Jerusalem?
Remember, God
pours out His Spirit on His people so people will come to know His true
Messiah, who loved them so much He gave His life (was pierced through) for
them. As Isaiah said, "the Lord has laid on him the iniquities of us
all" (Is. 53:6).
Was Zechariah
12:10 Recognized by the Jews as Messianic?
That this
prophecy refers to the Messiah was admitted by the rabbis.110
For example, this prophecy "is applied to the Messiah the Son of Joseph in
the Talmud (Sukk.52a) and so is verse 12,..."111
Thus, some
Jewish interpreters, trying to avoid the clear implication of the words,
have attempted to apply this passage to the "other" Messiah who would
suffer, Messiah Ben Joseph:
…the later
interpreters explaining it of Messiah Ben Joseph, or the suffering
Messiah, whom they invented to meet the passages of Scripture that speak
so clearly of this characteristic of the promised Redeemer. But as they
believed that this Messiah son of Joseph was a mere man, the difficulty
met them that Jehovah declared "they shall look on ME whom they have
pierced;" so that if it refers to the Messiah he cannot be a mere man, but
must be divine.112
In spite of
this, when Jehovah says, "they will look on me, the one they have
pierced," this prophecy uniquely fits only Jesus Christ.
Clues to
Identify the Messiah
Whoever the
Messiah is, He must fit the following descriptions:
Clue #1—He,
a male child (the Hebrew text specifically uses a 3rd person, singular,
masculine pronoun—"he"), will be born of the seed of the woman.
Clue #2—He
will come from the race of the Jews, and specifically from the seed of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Clue #3—He
will be a great prophet, with the authority to teach like Moses.
Clue #4—He
will be mocked, and people will cast lots for His garments while He
suffers.
Clue
#5—He will be David’s Lord.
Clue #6—He
will be the child born who is God, and will have an everlasting kingdom.
Clue #7—He
will be wounded and bruised, smitten and spit upon, mocked, killed with
thieves, bear the sins of many, be rejected by His own people, pierced for
our transgressions, be buried in a rich man’s tomb, and come back to life
after His death.
Clue #8—He
will be Jehovah our Righteousness.
Clue #9—He
will be the Messiah who comes to Jerusalem 483 years after the decree to
rebuild Jerusalem is given. At that time He will be killed.
Clue #10—He
will be born in Bethlehem but has existed eternally.
Clue #11—He
will be the King, who has salvation and comes riding on a donkey.
Clue #12—He
will be Jehovah, the One pierced by the inhabitants of Jerusalem. |
