Scripture Daily

Context No. 578 of 4322 · Zechariah

Context · Reflection

Zechariah 12:6-14: in context

6In that day I will make the chieftains of Judah like a pan of fire among wood, and like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will devour all the surrounding peoples on the right hand and on the left; and Jerusalem will yet again dwell in their own place, even in Jerusalem. 7The LORD also will save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of David’s house and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem not be magnified above Judah. 8In that day the LORD will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He who is feeble among them at that day will be like David, and David’s house will be like God, like the LORD’s angel before them. 9It will happen in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 10I will pour on David’s house and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication. They will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for his firstborn. 11In that day there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo. 12The land will mourn, every family apart; the family of David’s house apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; 13the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of the Shimeites apart, and their wives apart; 14all the families who remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.

In this vision of the future, God promises to defend and rescue Jerusalem, and then he describes something happening in the people's hearts that is deeper than any military victory. I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, he says, a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and grieve bitterly as one grieves for a firstborn. The New Testament sees this fulfilled at the cross, in the pierced Christ. But notice the order of what God describes, because it matters. First God pours out a spirit of grace; then the people look on the pierced one and mourn. The mourning does not come first and earn the grace; the grace comes first and produces the mourning.

That order says something important about repentance. Real grief over sin, genuine mourning for what my sin has done, for the one my sin pierced, is not something I generate by trying hard enough to feel bad. It is a gift, a spirit of grace and supplication that God pours out, softening a heart that could not soften itself. And when it comes, it is not shallow or perfunctory. God describes it as the deepest grief a person knows, the mourning for an only son, a firstborn, and he pictures it happening family by family, each one apart, intensely personal. This is not a token apology; it is the real, God-given breaking of a heart over its own sin.

That both humbles and comforts me about my own repentance. It humbles me, because I cannot manufacture true sorrow for my sin by willpower; the tears that matter are ones God has to give. And it comforts me, because it means I can ask him for exactly that, a spirit of grace that would let me truly look on the pierced Christ and grieve what I have done, rather than settling for the shallow, managed regret I can produce on my own. Has my repentance been the deep, God-given grief this describes, looking on the pierced one and truly mourning, or something shallower, and will I ask God to pour out the spirit that alone can break my heart rightly?

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