It will happen in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
Parallel Translations
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It will happen in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
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And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
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And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
Cross-references (4)
Passages linked to Zechariah 12:9 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 54:17 No weapon that is formed against you will prevail; and you will condemn every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of Yahweh’s servants, and their righteousness is of me,” says Yahweh.
- Zechariah 14:2-3 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city will be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city will go out into captivity, and the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. Then Yahweh will go out and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
- Haggai 2:22 I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations. I will overthrow the chariots, and those who ride in them. The horses and their riders will come down, everyone by the sword of his brother.
- Zechariah 12:2 “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling to all the surrounding peoples, and it will also be on Judah in the siege against Jerusalem.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain The Prophet repeats again, that though ungodly and wicked…
The Prophet repeats again, that though ungodly and wicked men assailed the Church in great number on every side, God would yet be its defender. By saying, I will seek to destroy, etc., he means that God would he fully bent (intentum) to destroy, as men are wont to be anxious when they earnestly pursue an object. Lest then the faithful should think that they should perish through the disdain, or the neglect, or the forgetfulness of God, he says, that he would be their anxious defender. I will seek then, that is, I will be most earnestly solicitous, to destroy all the nations
This promise no doubt extends far wider than to the Jews; for he prophesies here concerning the kingdom of Christ: for if we consider the state of the people during the whole of the intervening period, from their return to the coming of Christ, the Prophet will certainly appear to have given here a hope of something far greater than what had taken place. But he had a regard especially to Christ. Here then is promised a perpetual defense to the Church; and hence also proceeds confidence as to salvation, for God carefully watches over us, that he may effectually oppose all our enemies.
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I only briefly touch on these things, which require long and minute consideration: but it is enough for me to show briefly the meaning of the Prophet, provided this be done clearly, so that each may then apply what is said to his own improvement. We may in the meantime learn also from the words of the Prophet, that the Church is ever to be disquieted in this world, for not only one enemy will cause trouble to it, but even many nations shall rise up against it. It follows —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Zec 12:9 And it shall come to pass in…
Zec 12:9 And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
Ver. 9. I will seek to destroy] I will make inquisition and diligent scrutiny; I will draw them out of their lurking places to execution; as Saul went to seek David upon the rocks of the wild goats, 1Sa 24:2; those high, steep, and craggy rocks, which could not but be very tedious both to himself and to his soldiers to march in; but he was set upon it, and would leave no place unsearched. See his charge to the Ziphites to take knowledge of all the lurking holes where be hid himself, and to bring him word that he might seek him through all the thousands of Judah, 1Sa 23:23. The Lord need not do so to find out his enemies; for in him they live, move, and subsist, Col 1:17, they are ever under his view, and within his reach. He sitteth upon the circle of the earth, Isa 40:22, and can easily shake them out of it, as by a canvas. Yea, he sits in the height of heaven, and wherein they deal proudly, he is above them, Exo 18:11, disclosing their cabinet counsels, as he did Benhadad’s, and blasting their designs.
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To destroy all nations] God stands not upon multitudes; he takes not the tenth man, but destroys all nations, be they never so many of them that come against Jerusalem, that oppose or affront his people, either with their virulent tongues or violent hands. When a rabble of rebels shall set themselves against the Lord, and against his Christ, his mystical Christ, the Church, he will utterly destroy them; the word signifieth he will destroy them, ut nihil reliquum maneat, that there shall be no remainder of them. Woe, therefore, to the Church’s enemies; for their destruction ever goes with the saints’ salvation, Php 1:28-29 Isa 8:9 Pro 11:8. God’s jealousy, Zec 1:14, and justice, 2Th 1:6, will effect it surely, severely, suddenly.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain And it shall come to pass; this also shall…
And it shall come to pass; this also shall certainly come to pass.
That I; God, the Defender and Saviour of Israel.
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Will seek: this speaks not any difficulty to God in the work, as with men, who sometimes do seek to do what they cannot do; but this implieth God would thoroughly do it, his right hand should find out these his enemies, he will hunt them ont.
To destroy; not to restrain, but to overthrow and destroy.
All nations; without partiality, every nation that sets itself to oppress and destroy Jerusalem; God, viii pay them in their own coin: they said, Blot out her name; but God will blot out theirs. Let us, say they, cut them off from being a nation; but this God will turn upon their own heads.
That come against; combine, and attempt to destroy her; and this was evidently seen upon those that sought to destroy Jerusalem and the second temple before Christ’s incarnation; for by the Romans God destroyed the Antiochian power which had often mischiefed the Jews, and destroyed the other kingdoms which had been enemies to the Jews, who were never in danger of being cut off from being a nation, till their horrid murdering of the Lord of life.
Jerusalem; literally and historically the city which the captives returned from Babylon did build; but mystically the catholic church, which God will never suffer to be destroyed, he will rather destroy all nations than suffer them to destroy his church.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain The day here spoken of is the day of…
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, which, if it do refer to the successes which the Jews had against their enemies in the time of the Maccabees, yet certainly looks further, to the gospel-day, to Christ's victories over the powers of darkness and the great salvation he has wrought for his chosen. Now we have here an account of two remarkable works designed in that day.
I. A glorious work of God to be wrought for his people: "I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem, Zac 12:9. Nations come against Jerusalem, many and mighty nations; but they shall all be destroyed, their power shall be broken, and their attempts baffled; the mischief they intend shall return upon their own head." God will seek to destroy them, not as if he were at a loss for ways and means to bring it about (Infinite Wisdom was never nonplussed), but his seeking to do it intimates that he is very earnest and intent upon it (he is jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and has the day of vengeance in his heart) and that he overrules means and instruments, and all the motions and operations of second causes, in order to it. He is framing evil against them; when he seems to be setting them up he is seeking to destroy them. In Christ's first coming, he sought to destroy him that had the power of death, and did destroy him, bruised the serpent's head, and broke all the powers of darkness that fought against God's kingdom among men and against the faithful friends and subjects of that kingdom; he spoiled them, and made a show of them openly. 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 last enemy shall be destroyed of all that fought against Jerusalem.
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II. A gracious work of God to be wrought in his people, in order to the work that is to be wrought for them. When he seeks to destroy their enemies he will pour upon them the Spirit of grace and supplication. Note, When God intends great mercy for his people the first thing he does is to set them a praying; thus he seeks to destroy their enemies by stirring them up to seek to him that he would do it for them; because, though he has proposed it and promised it, and it is for his own glory to do it, yet he will for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, Eze 36:37. Ask, and it shall be given. This honour will he have to himself, and this honour will he put upon prayer and upon praying people. And it is a happy presage to the distressed church of deliverance approaching, and is, as it were, the dawning of its day, when his people are stirred up to cry mightily to him for it. But this promise has reference to, and is performed in, the graces of the Spirit given to all believers, as that Isa 44:3, I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, which was fulfilled when Jesus was glorified, Joh 7:39. It is a promise of the Spirit, and with him of all spiritual blessings in heavenly things by Christ. Now observe here,
1. On whom these blessings are poured out. (1.) On the house of David, on the great men; for they are no more, and no better, than the grace of God makes them. It was promised (Zac 12:8) that the house of David should be as the angel of the Lord. Now, in order to that, the Spirit of grace is poured upon them; for the more the saints have of the Spirit of grace the more like they are to the holy angels. When God was about to appear for the land, he poured his Spirit of grace upon the house of David, the leading men of the land. It bodes well to a people when princes and great men go before the rest in that which is good, as Ch2 20:5. The house of David is all summed up in Jesus Christ, the Son of David; and upon him, as the head, the Spirit of grace is poured out, from him to be diffused to all his members; from his fulness we receive, and grace for grace. (2.) On the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the common people; for the operations of the Spirit are the same upon the mean and weak Christians that they are upon the strong and more grown. The inhabitants of Jerusalem cannot influence public affairs by their powers and policies, as the great men of the house of David may, yet they may do good service by their prayers, and therefore upon them the Spirit shall be poured out. The church is Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem; all true believers, that have their conversation in the heaven, are inhabitants of this Jerusalem, and to them this promise belongs. God will pour his Spirit upon them. This is the earnest which all that believe in Christ shall receive; thus they are sanctified; thus they are sealed.
2. What these blessings are: I will pour upon them the Spirit. That includes all good things, as it qualifies us for the favour of God, and all his other gifts. He will pour out the Spirit, (1.) As a Spirit of grace, to sanctify us and to make us gracious. (2.) As a Spirit of supplications, inclining us to, instructing and assisting us in, the duty of prayer. Note, Wherever the Spirit is given as a Spirit of grace, he is given as a Spirit of sanctification. Wherever he is a Spirit of adoption, he teaches to cry, Abba, Father. As soon as ever Paul was converted, Behold, he prays, Act 9:11. You may as soon find a living man without breath as a living saint without prayer. There is a more plentiful effusion of the Spirit of prayer now under the gospel than was under the law; and the further the work of sanctification is carried in us the better is the work of supplication carried on by us.
3. What the effect of them will be: I will pour upon them the Spirit of grace. One would think that it should follow, "And they shall look on him whom they have believed, and shall rejoice" (and it is true that that is one of the fruits of the pouring out of the Spirit, whence we read of the joy of the Holy ghost), but it follows, They shall mourn; for there is a holy mourning, that is the effect of the pouring out of the Spirit, a mourning for sin, which is of use to quicken faith in Christ and qualify for joy in God. It is here made the matter of a promise that they shall mourn, for there is a mourning that will end in rejoicing and has a blessing entailed upon it. This mourning is a fruit of the Spirit of grace, an evidence of a work of grace in the soul, and a companion of the Spirit of supplication, as it expresses lively affections working in prayer; hence prayers and tears are often put together, Kg2 20:5. Jacob, that wrestler with God, wept and made supplication. But here it is a mourning for sin that is the effect of the pouring out of the Spirit.
(1.) It is a mourning grounded upon a sight of Christ: They shall look on me whom they have pierced, and shall mourn for him. Here, [1.] It is foretold that Christ should be pierced, and this scripture is quoted as that which was fulfilled when Christ's side was pierced upon the cross; see Joh 19:37. [2.] He is spoken of as one whom we have pierced; it is spoken primarily of the Jews, who persecuted him to death (and we find that those who pierced him are distinguished from the other kindreds of the earth that shall wail because of him, Rev 1:7); yet it is true of us all as sinners, we have pierced Christ, inasmuch as our sins were the cause of his death, for he was wounded for our transgressions, and they are the grief of his soul; he is broken with the whorish heart of sinners, who therefore are said to crucify him afresh and put him to open shame. [3.] Those that truly repent of sin look upon Christ as one whom they have pierced, who was pierced for their sins and is pierced by them; and this engages them to look unto him, as those that are deeply concerned for him. [4.] This is the effect of their looking to Christ; it makes them mourn. This was particularly fulfilled in those to whom Peter preached Christ crucified; when they heard it those who had had a hand in piercing him were pricked to the heart, and cried out, What shall we do? It is fulfilled in all those who sorrow for sin after a godly sort; they look to Christ, and mourn for him, not so much for his sufferings as for their own sins that procured them. Note, The genuine sorrows of a penitent soul flow from the believing sight of a pierced Saviour. Looking by faith upon the cross of Christ will set us a mourning for sin after a godly sort.
(2.) It is a great mourning. [1.] it is like the mourning of a parent for the death of a beloved child. They shall mourn for sin as one mourns for an only son, in whose grave the hopes of his family are buried, and shall be inwardly in bitterness as one that is in bitterness for his first-born, as the Egyptians were when there was a cry throughout all their land for the death of their first-born. The sorrow of children for the death of their parents is sometimes counterfeited, is often small, and soon wears off and is forgotten; but the sorrow of parents for a child, for a son, for an only son, for a first-born, is natural, sincere, unforced, and unaffected, it is secret and lasting; such are the sorrows of a true penitent, flowing purely from love to Christ above any other. [2.] It is like the mourning of a people for the death of a wise and good prince. It shall be like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon, where good king Josiah was slain, for whom there was a general lamentation (Zac 12:11), and perhaps the greater because they were told that it was their sin that provoked God to deprive them of so great a blessing; therefore they cried out, The crown has fallen from our head. Woe unto us, for we have sinned! Lam 5:16. Christ is our King; our sins were his death, and, for that reason, ought to be our grief.
(3.) It is a general universal mourning (Zac 12:12): The land shall mourn. The land itself put on mourning at the death of Christ, for there was then darkness over all the land, and the earth trembled; but this is a promise that, in consideration of the death of Christ, multitudes shall be effectually brought to sorrow for sin and turn to God; it shall be such a universal gracious mourning as was when all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord, Sa1 7:2. Some think this is yet to have its complete accomplishment in the general conversion of the Jewish nation.
(4.) It is also a private particular mourning. There shall be not only a mourning of the land, by its representatives in a general assembly (as Jdg 2:5, when the place was called Bochim - A place of weepers), but it shall spread itself into all corners of the land: Every family apart shall mourn (Zac 12:12), all the families that remain, Zac 12:14. All have contributed to the guilt, and therefore all shall share in the grief. Note, The exercises of devotion should be performed by private families among themselves, besides their joining in public assemblies for religious worship. National fasts must be observed, not only in our synagogues, but in our houses. In the mourning here foretold the wives mourn apart by themselves, in their own apartment, as Esther and her maids. And some think it intimates their denying themselves the use even of lawful delights in a time of general humiliation Co1 7:5. Four several families are here specified as examples to others in this mourning: - [1.] Two of them are royal families: the house of David, in Solomon, and the house of Nathan, another son of David, brother to Solomon, from whom Zerubbabel descended, as appears by Christ's genealogy, Luk 3:27-31. The house of David, particularly that of Nathan, which is now the chief branch of that house, shall go before in this good work. The greatest princes must not think themselves exempted from the law of repentance, but rather obliged most solemnly to express it, for the exciting of others, as Hezekiah humbled himself (Ch2 32:26), the princes and the king (Ch2 12:6), and the king of Nineveh, Jon 3:6. [2.] Two of them are sacred families (Zac 12:13), the family of the house of Levi, which was God's tribe, and in it particularly the family of Shimei, which was a branch of the tribe of Levi (Ch1 6:17), and probably some of the descendants of that family were now of note for preachers to the people or ministers to the altar. As the princes must mourn for the sins of the magistracy, so must the priests for the iniquity of the holy things. In times of general tribulation and humiliation the Lord's ministers are concerned to weep between the porch and the altar (Joe 2:17), and not only there, but in their houses apart; for in what families should godliness, both in the form and in the power of it, be found, if not in ministers' families?
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And it shall come to pass in that day,....…
And it shall come to pass in that day,.... So often mentioned in this chapter; by which is meant the latter part of the Gospel dispensation, the spiritual reign of Christ:
that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem; and shall destroy them. The whole of this paragraph seems to refer to the same as in Eze 38:1.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain I will seek - I will purposely and effectually…
I will seek - I will purposely and effectually do it.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 9. I will seek to destroy all the…
Verse 9. I will seek to destroy all the nations] When this time shall arrive, all nations that "will not receive the faith of our Lord Jesus" shall be destroyed, when the longsuffering of God shall no longer wait upon them. This seems to belong to a period yet very remote.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain In that day, I will seek to destroy -…
In that day, I will seek to destroy - Woe indeed to those, whom Almighty God shall “‘seek’ to destroy!” Man may seek earnestly to do, what at last he cannot do. Still it is an earnest seeking. And whether it is used of human seeking which fails, or which succeeds 1Sa 14:4; 1Sa 23:10; Ecc 12:10, inchoate or permitted 1Ki 11:22; Zec 6:7, it is always used of seeking to do, what it is a person’s set purpose to do if he can. Here it is spoken of Almighty God . Ribera: “He saith not, ‘I will destroy’ but ‘I will seek to destroy,’ that is, it shall ever be My care to destroy all the enemies of the Church, that they may in no way prevail against it: this I will do alway to the end of the world.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain I will seek to destroy--I will set Myself with…
I will seek to destroy--I will set Myself with determined earnestness to destroy (Hag 2:22).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 9. While Jehovah thus equips the inhabitants of Jerusalem…
9. While Jehovah thus equips the inhabitants of Jerusalem for the conflict, his wrath is turned against the nations that plan to attack the city.
I will seek to destroy — In itself the expression does not assure the fulfillment of the divine purpose (compare Exo_4:24), but in this case the context makes it plain that Jehovah is determined to carry out his purpose.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 9. I will seek] i.e. I will make it…
9. I will seek] i.e. I will make it my aim, upon which I am intent, and which I will carry out. It is true, as Mr Wright points out, that in the only other passage in which this phrase is used of Almighty God, the intention, though “manifested clearly and distinctly,” was abandoned (Exo_4:24). But it does not follow that “this passage is not an absolute promise of the utter destruction of the nations,” but only a promise conditional upon the future conduct of the Jews. The passage as a whole is quite against such a supposition. The verse would be a strange anti-climax, if after such promises as are contained in Zec_12:2-8 it only asserted, “My aim shall be to do all this that I have promised in glowing terms; but all may be frustrated and come to nought through the unfaithfulness of man.”
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (9) Seek.—This word is only twice used of God,…
(9) Seek.—This word is only twice used of God, here and in Exo_4:24, where “He sought to slay Moses”: i.e., He expressed His determination to do so, but for certain reasons did not carry it out. So in this case He would have utterly destroyed the nations: that is, have given the Jews complete victory over them, but for Israel’s sin. (Comp. the case of the Canaanites, Jos_23:5; Jos_23:12-13.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain I will seek to destroy. It shall be always…
I will seek to destroy. It shall be always my aim and my care to destroy the enemies of the Church, that they shall never prevail against it. The words cannot apply to the literal Jerusalem, against which no such confederacy of nations was ever formed.
Vers. 9-14. Wonderful sorrow.
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"And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations," etc. There is much that is striking in the apparent connection of this passage with that before. Just when God shall be seen by his people to be "seeking" and bringing about (see ver. 9) the overthrow and destruction of their many enemies, they, on the other hand, will be seen to be overwhelmed with sorrow of heart. Their souls, as it were, will be plunged into darkness at the very breaking of day. The very thing they have hoped for seems close at hand; and, lo! they are as men in despair. Equally remarkable, next, with the time of this sorrow, is its character. So we shall find, whether we consider
(1) its peculiar origin; or
(2) its peculiar magnitude.
I ITS PECULIAR ORIGIN. To what is it due? Not to those causes which bring about the ordinary "sorrow of the world". (2Co_7:10) On the contrary, being sorrow which is "according to God", (kata Yeon , 2Co_7:10) it has the "things of God" as its cause. In other words, it is occasioned:
1. By the action of God on the hearts of his people. He "pours on" them:
(1) "The spirit of grace." He gives them, i.e., in overflowing abundance, those gracious influences of the Spirit of holiness by which men are enabled to believe in him as "the God of all grace" and so are encouraged to pray. (Rom_8:15 Gal_4:6)
(2) "The spirit of supplications." He gives them, i.e., in similar abundance, those other gracious influences of that same Holy Spirit by which he is pleased both to guide men and also to assist men in their prayers. (Rom_8:26 Eph_6:18 Jud_1:20)
2. By the consequent thoughts of Gods people about him.
(1) They think of him as having been "pierced" by their sins. This is an especial feature, we know, in "godly sorrow its horror at having sinned against God. (Psa_51:4 Gen_39:9 2Sa_12:13; perhaps also Isa_43:24, end; Eph_4:30)
(2) They think of him as having been alienated by their folly. They "mourn for him" like those mentioned in 1Sa_7:2. After their privileges are gone from them, they see, with sorrow, how much they have lost. From none of these sources, we repeat, is man"s natural sorrow found to flow forth.
II ITS PECULIAR MAGNITUDE. Wide waters are generally shallow; deep waters are seldom broad; but here we have both.
1. Peculiar depth. On the one hand,
(1) there is only one known kind of sorrow equally deep. As the shades of life"s afternoon thicken around us, it is to our children we look to give us comfort and hope, and to keep up the interest of life in our hearts. (Gen_5:28, 29 Joh_16:21) How peculiarly great, therefore, the sorrow of losing a firstborn and only son! (Gen_22:2 Gen_49:3 Pro_4:3, 4 Luk_7:12) The loss bewailed here is like that loss of all! On the other hand,
(2) there had never been but one previous example of sorrow equally deep, viz. the sorrow felt on the death of Josiah, almost the very best, (2Ki_23:25 2Ki_18:5) and certainly the last real, king among the descendants of David a sorrow the memory of which, in the prophet"s own day, had not at all been forgotten, and the sound of which is to be heard still by the world in the Lamentations of Jeremiah. (2Ch_35:25 Lam_4:20)
2. Peculiar diffusion. We find this sorrow described as pervading not the city only, but all the "land." We find it affecting every separate "house" amongst the houses of Israel, whether in Church or state (Levi and David?), whether well known or only little known (David and Nathan), whether with good antecedents or evil ones; (Levi and Shimei; see Deu_33:8 2Sa_16:5-13) also affecting every "family" of every separate "house;" also every adult member of every family, whether male or female. At once, therefore, in this tempest of sorrow, they were all united, yet all "apart." Even so, with their separate roots, are the "trees of the wood," when all moved by one wind. (see Isa_7:2)
We see, in all this, something:
1. To give us comfort and hope. Without attempting to dogmatize on such a subject, we cannot but see, from this analysis of the passage, what it seems to foretell, viz. the future conversion of the whole people of Israel to belief in the gospel of Christ. (comp. 2Co_3:13-16 with Rom_11:25-27; see also Joh_19:37 Rev_1:7; and, in addition to all that has been noted above, see how accurately this application of the passage to a future national recognition of Christ by Israel helps to explain the singular change of person, viz. from "me" to "him" in ver. 10, something the same as in that other passage where the Angel-Jehovah is speaking, viz. Gen_22:12; and note, finally, as to the peculiar time and character of this sorrow, the very remarkable language of Hos_3:5, end; while as to the joyful importance of such an interpretation, if correct, see again Rom_11:12, Rom_11:15)
2. To give us instruction and warning. Equally great, for example, ought to be our sorrow for sin. (Rom_3:9, Rom_3:29) Equally, also, ought it to be founded on our thoughts about Christ. (Joh_16:9 Act_9:4, 5 Mat_25:40, etc.) And equally, finally, can we only hope to receive it as a gift from above. (Act_5:31 2Ti_2:25)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain And I will pour upon the house of David
Zec_12:9-11
And I will pour upon the house of David
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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 Spirits 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 Spirits 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 Spirits 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 Christs 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 Christs 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 Christs 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--
(1) You perceive that it looks to a pierced Lord. Many have enlightened views of the nature and character of Jehovah, who, alas! have none of that faith which appropriates salvation. Nor is it sufficient that we look to God through the medium of the operations of His hands in the work of creation. Faith looks specially to God the Mediator. The faith that saves is a faith in Jesus the appointed Saviour. Nor is it enough that we look to the Son of God as enthroned in heaven. If we would obtain that saving power which flows from Him, we must look to the wounds by which He was pierced, and the blood that flows from them. Never till we look to a pierced, a suffering, a bleeding Saviour, will we find our spiritual diseases healed, and our soul filled with light and comfort.
(2) Another characteristic of saving faith is that it leads those who possess it to look to Jesus as pierced by them. But what share had we in the sufferings of Jesus? Every sinner has had, in a sense, a part in inflicting the sufferings to which our Lord was subjected. You must learn to connect your sins with the Saviours sufferings, Our sins are the true enemies and murderers of our Lord. It was the accumulated sins of all and each of His people which weighed Him down to the ground in the garden, and bowed His head on the Cross. This is a distinguishing feature of saving faith. The sinner connects his sin with the sufferings of the Redeemer. When he thinks of Christs sufferings, he thinks how his sins were the cause of their infliction, and he thinks that if Christ had not borne them he himself must have borne them. He thus looks upon Jesus, not so much in the light of a Saviour for others as one suitable to himself. His faith thus becomes a faith in Jesus as his Saviour; it embraces Christ, and appropriates the blessings which He purchased.
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. MCosh.)
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 Gods 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 believers 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 believers 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 sinners 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 Spirits 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 Gods 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.
(1) He shows us our need of supplications, by making us acquainted with our spiritual poverty and wants. Naturally, we are not at all conscious of our spiritual necessities. Though dead in trespasses and sins, we imagine we are living unto God. Though guilty of innumerable transgressions, we feel not our need of pardon. We think we are rich and have need of nothing. But the Spirit convinces us of our mistake. He leads us to feel our need of Divine mercy and grace, as well as our need of prayer and supplication for them.
(2) He shows us the encouragement we have to use supplications. He takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto us. He shows God in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. He thus encourages us to approach the throne of grace, and to use supplications for the blessings we need.
(3) He further inclines us, or makes us willing to do this, by exciting in us an earnest desire to obtain such blessings. He removes that apathy and indifference which we naturally feel, and creates in us that hungering and thirsting after righteousness, that ardent longing after spiritual benefits, which nothing can satisfy short of an actual participation in them. Prayer, fervent and persevering, becomes our constant employment.
(4) And the Spirit assists us in this holy and delightful exercise. He removes that coldness, deadness, and formality we are so apt to feel. He gives us boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Jesus.
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--
(1) Both faith and repentance are fruits of the Spirit.
(2) True repentance is a fruit of saving faith.
(3) True faith is rare.
(4) Formality in religion easily explained. (D. Wilson, M. A.)
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 Gods 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 Zec_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 (Joh_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.
(1) To yield to it may give even present relief to the troubled mind.
(2) This sorrow may have a beneficial influence on all our tempers and affections.
(3) This sorrow may give evidence of our interest in the promises of pardon and of peace with God. Sorrow for sin cannot be accepted as a price for forgiveness; yet we may find in the sense of it some proof that the change is begun which must be wrought by the Spirit of Christ in all to whom He applies the redemption which is through His blood. (James Henderson, D. D.)
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 parents 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.
(1) The passion, or suffering itself. Consider the degree; for transfixerunt is a word of gradation; expressing the piercing, not of whips and scourges, or of nails and thorns, but of the spear point, which went through the very heart itself. May a soul be pierced? It is not a spear head of iron that entereth the soul, but a metal of another temper, the dint whereof no less goreth and woundeth the soul in proportion than those do the body. Soul-piercing includes sorrow and reproach.
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 Christs 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 Christs 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 Christs 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 Gods grace we have free access to the Father. We have a Saviour who opens the Fathers 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 Gods 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 Lords 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, Gods people, though now they are Gods 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 Gods 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 Gods 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.
(1) We shall have a horror of sin.
(2) We shall come to understand the wonderful love of God.
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 priests 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 (Joe_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 (2Ch_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 Zechariahs 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 Gods own proposing; nay, rather, it occurs in the announcement of His most gracious purpose. Compare our recollections of earthly bereavements with our memory of Christs 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 Christs 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.)
Englands 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 Churchs 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 Christs; everything in the bankers hands is Christs; everything in the funds is Christs. There is not aught that hath not the stamp of His name.
IV. We have rejected Christ as the poor mans 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.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.