Grief and Gratitude

Zech 12:10 "And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn."

This is it. This is the future of Israel. The house of David, the family of David, those who are of David's lineage who are his descendants and those who live in Jerusalem are going to someday be the recipients of God's grace of God's favor. They will receive the Spirit of supplication…the supplication that brings them favor with God and the result will be that they will see Jesus. "They will look on Me whom they pierced." "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him and by His stripes we are healed." (Another OT prophecy in Is. 53) "They shall look on Him whom they pierced." John 19:37 Jesus had to be pierced. He had to take the nails and the spear. Someday the Jews will see Him and their response will be mourning…grieving…unbelievable sadness because they will finally realize who Jesus is…the Messiah, their Messiah who they pierced, who they crucified, who they killed.

But it wasn't only the Jews…it was us…it was me. He is my Messiah. He is the One who took my sin, my punishment, my guilt, my hell upon Himself. He voluntarily took death on the cross so that I could have life. It is weird, but when God created man, He told them not to eat from two trees, the tree of knowledge and the tree of life. Like dummies they ate from the tree of knowledge and all of a sudden they knew that they were naked sinners. They were removed from the garden so they could not get to the tree of life. God knew this was going to happen and He had a plan. His plan was to come to earth in the flesh and eventually hang on another tree. That tree, the cross, is the tree of life for all who believe in Him. The Jews will one day see it. The Jews will one day realize it and the Jews will one day mourn. This will happen. How do I know? I believe God. But He has also given us plenty of proof of His veracity in Zechariah. Jesus was the One who came to Jerusalem on a donkey just as was predicted in 9:9. Jesus was the One who was betrayed for thirty piece of silver which bought the potter's field as was predicted in 11:12,13. Jesus was the One who was pierced…and this will happen as well. And Israel will mourn.

What about me? Do I mourn? Do I truly understand what Christ did? Do I really grasp the depth of my sin? Do I really get what Jesus did for me on the cross? An understanding of my sin and an understanding of what Jesus did for me should result in two things: Deep grief and amazing gratitude. Lord, work that into my life.