Zechariah 12:10

"And I will pour out upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born."

Three tremendously important things are foretold here: (1) a spirit of grace and supplication (repentance) shall be poured out upon the "inhabitants of Jerusalem," (2) they shall look unto "me," that is, Jehovah, whom they have pierced, and (3) they shall mourn for "him," as one mourneth his only son. Pentecost marked the amazing fulfillment of (1). On that occasion, a vast company of people in Jerusalem repented, were baptized into Christ, and received the blessed Holy Spirit, "the spirit of grace and of supplication." In (2), they "looked unto Jehovah" in their prayers and supplications, and fulfilled (3) when they mourned, and cried, "What shall we do?" Peter had just pointed out to them that they had "crucified and slain the Prince of Life" (Acts 2).

"Me whom they pierced, and they shall mourn for "him ..." This passage sends the critics into a frenzy. Their first move is the usual one, that of declaring it a gloss; but, as Hailey said, "`They shall look unto me whom they have pierced' is the authentic reading."[24] Baldwin spoke of some who were embarrassed by the "apparent contradiction that God had been put to death."[25] Unregenerated man has difficulty with the proposition that God indeed died in the person of his Son on the Cross.

Having failed utterly to get the message altered or excised, the critics nevertheless continue to deny that there is any reference to Christ:

"Some noble representative of Jehovah had been martyred ... but who this martyr was we have no means of knowing.[26] The one pierced is not the Messiah.[27] There are no historical allusions.[28] Various suggestions of historical personages have been made in an attempt to identify the pierced one: the brother of Jonathan, Onias III, Simon the Maccabee, or a Teacher mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls, etc., etc!"[29]

Of course, it is perfectly clear to all that this passage is a reference to the crucifixion of Christ. As Gill put it: "It would be difficult to imagine a clearer prediction of the detail of Christ's crucifixion."[30] Hailey also summed it up thus:

"There is clearly depicted a tragedy occurring in the family of David, when some leading personage in the family would be smitten (Zechariah 13:7); his hands would be pierced (Zechariah 12:10; 13:6); a fountain for sin will be opened (Zechariah 13:1). It was to happen in the day when the house of David shall be as God (Zechariah 12:8). Only One member of David's family was ever God. That One was Jesus. This identifies the Person here referred to as the "Branch" of Zechariah 3:6, who would remove the sin of the earth in "one day" (Zechariah 3:9); and he would rule from sea to sea and to the uttermost parts of the earth (Zechariah 9:6-10). Here is an amazing forecast in detail of the Death of Jesus, in no wise applicable to any other known person.[31]

"They shall mourn over him ..." Who is the "him"? Jesus of course, for the similes concerning the mourning conspicuously refer to "only son" and "firstborn," two distinctive designations that point unerringly to Him who was both "the only begotten Son of God," and the "Firstborn of all creation!"

This mourning will be extensively elaborated in the next few verses, indicating the worldwide, universal nature of it. The celebration of the Lord's Supper all over the earth throughout the entire dispensation, in which countless millions "show the Lord's death until he comes" must be included in the ultimate fulfillment of such mourning as that which is indicated here. There is also an eschatological fulfillment that will be commented upon under Zechariah 12:11.

We agree with Deane that the fulfillment of this verse came, "When the Jews crucified the Messiah, him who was God and Man."[32] Piercing Christ was the piercing of God himself. Jesus said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father"; and Jesus is called God a full dozen times in the Greek New Testament. The unique application of this passage to Jesus Christ can never be effectively denied. An apostle made that application of it in the gospel, where John quoted this place as proof that the Scriptures were fulfilled in the events occurring in connection with the crucifixion of Christ, saying, "They shall look upon him whom they pierced" (John 19:37). This is an interpretive quotation in which the inspired apostle melded the meaning of the two principal clauses (look unto me, and him whom they pierced), indicating that God and "him whom they pierced" are thought of as one, and that the one thought of is Jesus Christ. Such an instructive use of the passage by John makes it impossible to accept the notion that the apostle, "may not have been intending to do more than give the general sense."[33] John's quotation does far more than that. For us, his words, inspired of God, are the end of the matter. One word from such a source is worth more than the concurring opinions of all human councils.