Israel’s Repentance Series

Intro

In Zechariah 12 we have first a description of the physical deliverance God gives Israel during the Battle of Armageddon. In two movements, the Lord gives Israel victory over the much larger army of the Antichrist. First God weakens the enemy by sabotaging their war machine and throwing their soldiers into panic and confusion. Then God strengthens his own people by stirring up their faith and empowering them to fight valiantly. All that is recorded in verses 1-9. We know from other passages that the Battle of Armageddon will conclude with the Christ’s Second Coming and the complete destruction of all his adversaries.

Now in our text today, a greater miracle is described: the repentance and conversion of the whole nation. That spiritual transformation is described in Zechariah 12:10-14. There God says, "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. 11 In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 And the land shall mourn, every family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; 13 the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of Shimei by itself, and their wives by themselves; 14 all the families that remain, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves.”i

We will examine that passage under three headings:

I. The initiation of this transformation through the influence of the Holy Spirit (10a)

II. The revelation of Christ that prompts the national repentance (vs 10b)

III. The nature of Israel’s repentance that leads to salvation (vs 10c-14)

I. INITIATION OF THIS TRANSFORMATION through the influence of the Holy Spirt (vs 10a)

"And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication.” God is the speaker in that passage: “And I will.” It is his act of sovereign grace that initiates all that follows. When someone comes to Christ, their testimony is typically, “I found the Lord.” There is truth in that statement. But he first found you. He first reached out to you in love and conviction. Without the influence of his grace, you would have never found salvation. You would have never opened your hard heart to his mercy. You would have continued on the road to destruction. If you know the Lord today, it is because the Shepherd of your soul sought you out as one of his lost sheep. It because he first loved you.ii Ephesians 1:4 says, “He chose us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world.” You did not initiate your salvation. Out of his love for you (undeserved love, unmerited favor) God poured on you “the Spirit of grace and supplication.” That started the process that leads to salvation.

The “Spirit of grace and supplication” is the Holy Spirit.iii He is the only one that can work true conversion in the heart. Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44). Later in that same conversation, Jesus added, “no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”

And so it is in our text. God begins this national transformation by pouring out “the Spirit of grace and supplication.” By the grace of God, the Holy Spirit begins to soften the heart and prepare it for the revelation of Christ.

The Hebrew word translated supplication (tachanuwn) has the same root as the word translated grace (chen). In this context it indicates seeking the mercy and favor of God. The same word is used to describe Daniel’s prayer of repentance: “Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications [tachanuwn]” (Dan. 9:3). What follows is a confession of sin and plea for mercy. David uses the term in Psalm 28:6 as he asks God for mercy. By the grace of God, the Holy Spirt is sent to incline the heart toward supplications for mercy and favor.

The recipients of “the Spirit of grace and supplication” in our text are “the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” Those terms are used as representative of the whole nation. At the beginning of this chapter in verse 1, we are told that this oracle is for (concerning) Israel. As Keil says, “The fact that only the inhabitants of Jerusalem are named, and not those of Judah also, is explained correctly by the commentators from the custom of regarding the capital as representative of the whole nation.”iv The news media often uses Washington, London, Peking, and other capital cities in the same way today.