The Spirit of Grace and Supplication
Zechariah xii., xiii.
There is unusual solemnity in these opening words, as though to assure us that there can be no doubt as to the sufficiency of the speaker to carry into effect all that He is about to unfold. “Thus saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.”
The vision itself refers to a time yet future, though perhaps not far away, when the Jewish people shall have returned to their own land, but still in unbelief. Indeed, it is supposed by some that they will be in actual league with some awful impersonation of Antichrist, in accordance with Daniel ix. 27. For some reason, for the present veiled in mystery, the anti-Semitic hate with which some of the nations of Europe are already smitten will then become universal, “and all the nations of the earth shall be gathered together against Jerusalem.” But their confederacy will be overwhelmed with infinite disaster. Such is the burden of this threefold affirmation:
“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling unto all the peoples round about” (ver. 2).
“I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all the peoples” (ver. 3).
“Tn that day will I make the chieftains of Judah like a torch of fire in a sheaf” (ver. 6).
Immediately upon this, an assurance is given that in that awful day, more fully described in the succeeding chapter, the Lord shall save, and the Lord shall defend (vs. 7, 8). In clouds the long-rejected Messiah, accompanied by his Bride — the Church — will appear to the succor of his brethren, as Joseph interposed on the behalf of his; and, as they behold Him seated at the right hand of power, and coming, as He told Caiaphas He would, in the clouds of heaven, they will appropriate the old refrain, prepared by Isaiah for this very occasion; when He shall swallow up death in victory, and take away the reproach of his people from off all the earth: “To, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation” (Isa. xxv. 9). “Behold, He cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they which pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over Him. Even so, Amen.” Then the Lord Jesus will slay the lawless one with the breath of his mouth, and bring Him to naught by the brightness of his coming. And then the solemn and awful threatenings of this passage will take effect: “It shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.”
Let us now turn from this side of the picture to consider the threefold effect that this pa ag will have on the Jews themselves:
“In that day shall there be a great mourning” (ver.cniye
“In that day there shall be a fountain opened” (xaos
“It shall come to pass in that day, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land” (ver. 2).
I. A GREAT Mourninc. — Notice the certainty of this announcement. “There sHALL be a great mourning in Jerusalem.’ There is no hesitation in the prophet’s speech. He is as sure as the apostle Paul, when he says: “So all Israel shall be saved.” This is a solemn reflection for the traveler, as he perambulates the streets of Jerusalem, or visits the piece of ancient wall by which the Jews wail weekly. There shall be a great mourning, not because the Turk has desecrated the sacred places, nor because the ruins of bygone days affront with their yawning gaps, nor yet because of the bitter sufferings of the much-hated race; but each for a personal rejection of the Messiah, who was driven through those streets and crucified without the gate.
The Comparison. “As the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddon.” At this spot the good King Josiah, whose reign had been the only gleam of brightness in the period between the reign of Hezekiah and the downfall of the State, was done to death by the Egyptian arrows. Jeremiah, the prince of lamenters, lamented for Josiah, and all the singing men and singing women spake of him in their lamentations. There never had been such universal and heart-rending sorrow since Israel became a nation, as that which arose when the royal chariot drove through Jerusalem bearing his dead body for burial; but such grief is the only symbol adequate to express that coming national agony, when Israel shall look on her rejected Lord and mourn.
Yet another metaphor is pressed into service. The anguish with which a parent mourns for his only son, the bitterness of sorrow for a first born, is heart-rending in any land, and among all peoples; but it is peculiarly so in an Eastern — a Hebrew — home. Yet the bitter mourning which is one day to fill Jerusalem will be like that — as it was in the land of Egypt, when every family mourned over the death of its. first born.
It will be universal. From the highest to the lowest of the court — for Nathan here stands for the youngest of David’s sons; from the highest to the lowest of the priestly order — for Shimei stands for the least conspicuous of the priestly clans; all the people that remain shall be bowed in one common act of contrition. It is much to see one prodigal stricken with remorse — what will it be when a whole nation beats on its breast, and bewails its sins! Every wind laden with dirges, all the open spaces black with prostrate forms, all eyes wet with tears, the somber shadow of the funeral pyre flung over all.
It will be Jonely! “Every family apart, and their wives apart.” Excessive grief seeks seclusion. It brooks no distraction; its attention is too absorbed with the object of its agony to have thought for anything beside. It did not seem surprising to her friends when Martha arose from a house full of mourners and hastened away. They whispered, “It’s natural enough: she wants to be alone. She goeth to the grave to weep there.” So this mourning will isolate people. Each will feel personally concerned; each will feel as though chiefly responsible; each will take to his own heart the crucifixion of the Messiah, and will turn the Misere into a wail of personal confession. “J have sinned; J pierced his hands and feet; J am of all men most miserable, and of all sinners the chief.”
It will be due to a vision of the mediatorial sufferings of Jesus. “They shall look on Him whom they pierced, and they shall mourn.” There is no doubt as to the application of these words, for as the beloved apostle stood beside the cross, on which only the precious casket of the Jewel — the body of our Lord — remained, and saw the soldier pierce his side, as the blood and water issued forth, he was reminded by the Holy Ghost that this Scripture was being fulfilled (John xix. 34-36).
This is the fact which the Spirit of God delights to use for the breaking of our hard hearts. They are broken on the broken heart of Jesus. They are pierced by the sight of His piercing. They mourn when they look on Him whom they pierced.
There are two kinds of sorrow — the one to death, ( the other to life. The first considers the penalty of our wrong-doing; the second the Person against whom the wrong has been done. The one is largely selfish, dreading only the scorpion whip and the sting of flame — it would cease in a moment if these were withdrawn; the other is altogether regardless of consequences that may accrue to itself, and bitterly laments that shame and sorrow have been brought to the heart of Jesus, so true, so tender, so altogether lovely.
Sinners seeking forgiveness often appear to think that they must bring some need of sorrow as a condition of acceptance with the Saviour. If only they can feel an adequate sorrow for sin, they may surely bring their tears as a price for his mercy, as a reason for his salvation. But we can never feel an adequate sorrow for sin. To wait for this will be to wait forever. To postpone coming until the tear-bottles are full, will be to postpone forever. Besides, the spiritual philosophy of the matter is that we shall never get the right sorrow for sin till we see Jesus, and are admitted into the intimacy of his love. The tears that we do not need to weep over come, not before, but after conversion. It was after the poor sinful outcast had been forgiven that she washed the Saviour’s feet with tears. It was when Jesus turned and looked upon Peter that he went forth to weep bitterly. We must come to Christ as we are, not trying to realize what sin is, not seeking to be smitten with adequate grief, but just accepting his finished work and trusting Himself: after this will come the forth-pouring of our grief. The eyes that first look to Him for salvation may be tearless, but they will not long remain so. The first act may be largely one of will; but the last will be of the emotions. When we have looked on Him whom our sins pierced, we shall mourn as one mourneth for his only son, and be in bitterness as one in bitterness for the first born. Let us distinguish, then, between Repentance a Penitence. The one is the child of the will; the other of the heart. We repent when we turn from sin to Christ; we are penitent when we meet his eyes as Peter did, and go out to weep bitterly. To repent is the definite act of the moment; but penitence will accompany us to the very gates of heaven, only to flee away before the light of eternal blessedness. The Agent in producing this mourning 1s the Holy Spirit. “I will pour * * * the Spirit of grace and supplication.” Conviction of sin is the special work of the Holy Spirit. He uses the truth as his sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, of the joints and marrow. He particularly takes the truth of the sufferings and death of the Lord Jesus, and presents that to the conscience, pressing home the evil of rejecting such a Saviour, such pity, such holy, yearning love, until the soul understands what sin has cost the Lord, and melts, as icebergs do, when they float down into Southern seas.
II. A Fountain OpENED. — On the day of Pentecost Peter pointed to those cleansing streams. “And Peter said unto them; Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” With marvelous force and eloquence John Bunyan brought the force of those words, “every one of you.” “But I struck Him on his head with the rod: is there any hope for me?” Every one of you, saith the apostle. “But I spat in his face: is there forgiveness for me?” Yes, is the reply, for every one of you. “But I drove the spikes into his hands and feet, which transfixed Him to the cross: is there cleansing for me?” Yes, cries Peter, for every one of you. “But I pierced his side, though He had never done me wrong; it was.a ruthless, cruel act, and I am sorry for it now: may that sin be washed away?” Every one of you, is the constant answer. Repent, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out. The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth from all sin. If the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctify unto the cleanness of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the Eternal Spirit, offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your consciences!
And as it was at the beginning of this era, so it shall be at its close — with this difference, that whereas then some few thousand souls only stepped into the fountain, at last a whole nation, the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, shall wash there and be cleansed. Then the words of the apostle Peter, spoken centuries ago in Solomon’s porch, will be fulfilled, when Israel repents and turns again; her sins will be blotted out, and there will come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, and the restoration of all things, “whereof God spake by the mouth of his holy prophets which have been since the world began” (Acts iii. 21).
III. Tue Destruction or IpoLtatry. — The names of the idols will be cut off out of the land, and the prophets and unclean spirits will be caused to pass out of it. It is not enough for God to forgive. He must deal with the sources of all the waywardness and backsliding of his people. There will be, therefore, a strong and radical dealing with idols, prophets, and demons.
The thoroughness of these drastic measures is brought out in an imaginary vignette of a household scene in those happy days. It is supposed that the son of Godly parents, who have lately mourned for their sins apart, and been delivered from them, suddenly feels himself called upon to assume the role of a prophet. He encourages people to come to him to detect the culprit in some theft or murder, or to cause the rain to fall on the parched ground, or to perform magical rites over the sick, or call up the dead — to do, in fact, what Balaam wanted Balak to do, when he sent for him across the desert. The tidings come to his parents, who are so devoted in their adherence to God that they would rather lose their child than allow him to pursue his evil, God-dishonoring work in their home. “It shall come to pass that, when any shall yet prophecy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord: and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth.” It would not be possible to discover a stronger way of affirming the absolute transformation that will finally come over the Jewish people when their devotion to God shall overpower their natural love to their children.
The passion against idolatry and false prophets would become so intense that the practicers of arts which had imposed on the credulity of the people would be ashamed and afraid to own their profession. “The prophets shall be ashamed, every one of his vision, when he prophesieth, neither shall they wear a hairy garment’’ — this being the special dress of the sons of the prophets, by which they were at once recognized.
If a township of people should rise against a man suspected of being a prophet, he would vehemently protest that they were mistaken, and that he was no prophet. Trembling for his life, because so certain of the temper of his accusers, he would make any subterfuge to escape suspicion. “I am a tiller of the ground, for I have been made a bondman from my youth.”
If, finally, in the pursuance of their hot inquiry, they discovered marks on his body, which indicated that he had been previously convicted and branded for following the calling of a prophet, he would rather assign them to the hands of his friends than dare to admit that he had ever been suspected of claiming to be a prophet. “One shall say unto him, What are these wounds between thine arms? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.”
This inquiry and reply have often been associated with the marks of the nails in the hands of Christ. But this is not the natural reading of the passage, which can only be attributed in the sense above given; the evident drift of the passage being to show that there will be such a revelation of the evil wrought by the prophets, and so strong an antagonism against them, that those suspected of being such will be prepared to evade the charge at any cost, knowing that if it is established against them they may expect but short shrift. This will be a deliverance, indeed, which shall be radical and final. But if God is prepared to do so great and perfect a work for his ancient people, let us give Him no rest until He has utterly abolished our idols also and purified us unto Himself — people for his possession, zealous of good works.