Zechariah 12:9 - Meaning and Application

The day spoken of here is the day of Jerusalem’s defense and rescue. It is that glorious time when God will appear for the salvation of his people. If this points to the victories the Jews won over their enemies in the time of the Maccabees, it still looks beyond them to the gospel age, to Christ’s victory over the powers of darkness and the great salvation he has brought for his chosen people.

Two great works are meant for that day. First, God will do a glorious work for his people: “I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem” (Zechariah 12:9). Many nations may come against Jerusalem, and they may seem strong, but they will all be destroyed. Their power will be broken, and their plans will fail. The harm they meant for Jerusalem will fall back on their own heads.

When God says he will “seek” to destroy them, it does not mean he is uncertain how to do it. Infinite wisdom is never at a loss. Rather, this shows how earnest he is, how fixed his purpose is, and how he works through means and causes to bring it about. He is so intent on the matter that when he seems to be raising his enemies up, he is really working toward their ruin.

In Christ’s first coming, God sought to destroy the one who had the power of death, and he did destroy him. He crushed the serpent’s head and broke the power of darkness that fought against God’s kingdom among people and against the faithful friends and servants of that kingdom. He stripped those powers and made a public spectacle of them. In Christ’s second coming, that destruction will be finished. Then every opposing rule, authority, and power will be put down, and death itself will be swallowed up in victory. The last enemy of all who fought against Jerusalem will be destroyed.

Second, God will do a gracious work in his people, preparing them for the deliverance he will give them. When he moves to destroy their enemies, he will pour out on them the Spirit of grace and prayer. When God plans great mercy for his people, the first thing he often does is stir them up to pray. In that way, he destroys their enemies by moving them to ask him to act for them. He has promised it, and it brings glory to him, yet he still chooses to be asked by the house of Israel (Ezekiel 36:37). “Ask, and it will be given” (Matthew 7:7). This is a good sign to a troubled church that deliverance is near. It is like the first light of dawn.

This promise also points to the gifts of the Spirit given to all believers, as in “I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants” (Isaiah 44:3), which was fulfilled when Jesus was glorified (John 7:39). It is a promise of the Spirit, and with him, of every spiritual blessing in Christ.

These blessings are poured out on the house of David, that is, the leading men, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the common people. The great are still only what God’s grace makes them. Earlier it was promised that the house of David would be like the angel of the Lord (Zechariah 12:8). To make them like that, the Spirit of grace is poured out on them, because the more the saints have of God’s Spirit, the more they are like the holy angels.

It is a good sign for a nation when princes and great men go first in what is good, as in (2 Chronicles 20:5). The house of David is summed up in Jesus Christ, the Son of David. On him, as the head, the Spirit of grace is poured out, and from him it flows to all his members. From his fullness we all receive, grace upon grace.

The inhabitants of Jerusalem, the ordinary people, also receive this gift. The Spirit’s work is the same in weak believers as in strong ones. They may not shape public affairs by power or policy as the great men may, but they can still serve well through prayer. For that reason, the Spirit is poured out on them too. The church is Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem, and all true believers whose life is set in heaven belong to it. This promise is theirs. God will pour out his Spirit on them. This is the pledge that all who believe in Christ receive. By this they are made holy, and by this they are sealed.

The Spirit is poured out as the Spirit of grace, to make us holy and gracious, and as the Spirit of supplication, that is, of prayer, to lead, teach, and help us pray. Wherever the Spirit is given as grace, he is also given as sanctifying power. Wherever he is the Spirit of adoption, he teaches us to cry, “Abba, Father.” As soon as Paul was converted, “Behold, he prays” (Acts 9:11). You would find a living person without breath sooner than a living Christian without prayer. Under the gospel there is a fuller outpouring of the Spirit of prayer than there was under the law, and the more holy our lives become, the better our prayers will be.

The effect of this outpouring is that they will mourn. One might expect the verse to say they will rejoice, and that is indeed one fruit of the Spirit, since the Holy Spirit gives joy. But here the promise is of holy sorrow, sorrow for sin. This kind of mourning stirs up faith in Christ and prepares the heart for joy in God. It is a blessed mourning, because it ends in rejoicing. It is also a mark of grace in the soul and a companion of prayer, since real prayer often comes with tears. Jacob, who wrestled with God, “wept and made supplication” (Hosea 12:4).

This mourning for sin comes from seeing Christ. “They shall look on me whom they have pierced, and shall mourn for him.” Here it is foretold that Christ would be pierced, and this scripture is quoted as fulfilled when his side was pierced on the cross (John 19:37).

He is spoken of as one whom we have pierced. This first points to the Jews, who persecuted him to death. In Revelation, those who pierced him are set apart from the other peoples of the earth who will mourn because of him (Revelation 1:7). Yet it is also true of all of us as sinners. Our sins were the cause of Christ’s death, for he was wounded for our transgressions, and our sin is the grief of his soul.

Christ is broken by the stubborn and unfaithful heart of sinners. That is why Scripture says they crucify him again and put him to open shame. Those who truly repent of sin begin to see Christ as the One they have pierced, the One pierced for their sins and pierced by their sins. That sight moves them to look to him with deep concern and love.

This looking to Christ produces mourning. It was especially seen in those to whom Peter preached Christ crucified. When they heard it, the people who had a part in piercing him were cut to the heart and asked, “What shall we do?” The same thing happens whenever people grieve over sin in a godly way. They look to Christ and mourn, not mainly for his suffering, but for the sins that caused it. True sorrow for sin comes from believing sight of the pierced Savior. Looking in faith at the cross will lead us to mourn over sin in a godly way.

This mourning is deep mourning. It is like a parent grieving for the death of a beloved child. They shall mourn for sin as one mourns for an only son, as if the family’s hope were buried in the grave. They shall be inwardly bitter, like someone bitter over a firstborn son. That is the kind of sorrow seen in Egypt when every house cried out over the death of the firstborn. A child’s sorrow for a parent’s death may be small, pretended, or brief. But a parent’s sorrow for a child, especially for an only son or firstborn, is natural, sincere, and lasting. So it is with the sorrow of a true penitent, a person who truly turns from sin, and it rises from love to Christ above everything else.

It is also like the mourning of a people for the death of a wise and good king. It shall be like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo, where good King Josiah was killed, and there was a great public lamentation (Zechariah 12:11). The grief may have been even greater because they knew their own sin had moved God to take away such a blessing. So they cried, “The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!” Christ is our King. Our sins brought about his death, and for that reason they should be our grief.

This mourning will be widespread and general. “The land shall mourn” (Zechariah 12:12). At Christ’s death, the land itself seemed to mourn, because darkness covered the whole land and the earth shook. Here, though, the promise is that many will be brought to sorrow for sin and turn to God because of Christ’s death. It will be a broad and gracious mourning, like the mourning of all Israel when they lamented after the Lord (1 Samuel 7:2). Some think this will finally be fulfilled in the full conversion of the Jewish nation.

It will also be a private and personal mourning. There will not only be a mourning of the land through its representatives in a public gathering, like at Bochim, the place of weepers (Judges 2:5), but mourning will spread into every part of the land. Every family apart shall mourn (Zechariah 12:12), all the families that remain (Zechariah 12:14). Since all shared in the guilt, all will share in the grief. This also teaches that family worship and private devotion matter. National days of humiliation should be observed not only in public worship, but also in our homes. In this mourning, the wives mourn apart by themselves, in their own rooms, as Esther and her maids did. Some think this also suggests denying even lawful pleasures during a time of public sorrow (1 Corinthians 7:5).

Four families are named as examples. Two are royal families, the house of David, through Solomon, and the house of Nathan, another son of David and brother of Solomon, from whom Zerubbabel came, as Christ’s family line shows (Luke 3:27-31). The house of David, especially Nathan’s branch, now the chief branch of that house, will lead the way in this good work. The greatest rulers should not think repentance is beneath them. Rather, they should show it most clearly, to encourage others, as Hezekiah humbled himself (2 Chronicles 32:26), the king and the princes humbled themselves (2 Chronicles 12:6), and the king of Nineveh did likewise (Jonah 3:6).

Two are sacred families, the family of the house of Levi, God’s tribe, and especially the family of Shimei, a branch of Levi (1 Chronicles 6:17). Some of that family were likely important as teachers of the people or ministers at the altar. Just as princes must mourn for the sins of government, so priests must mourn for the sins tied to holy things. In times of public trouble and humiliation, the Lord’s ministers should weep between the porch and the altar (Joel 2:17), and not only there, but also in their houses apart. For in what families should godliness, both in form and in power, be found if not in ministers’ families?