Zechariah 12:1-14

     Zechariah 12:1-9 refers to the time of the Tribulation; specifically, the battle of Armageddon, when the nations of the world gather against Jerusalem. Zechariah 12:10-14 refers to the national conversion of Israel just prior to the return of Christ. In the opening verse, God identifies Himself as the One who created everything, including mankind; and He is the One who will bring the future events to pass (Zec 12:1). He will make Jerusalem like a cup of strong alcohol to the nations, who will stumble and reel when they try to consume it (Zec 12:2). And, He would make Jerusalem like a heavy stone that will injure those who try to move it (Zec 12:3a). This will be a time when “all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it” (Zec 12:3b), and will be injured by their efforts to harm the city. The phrase in that day occurs 17 times in Zechariah chapters 12-14 and refers to the eschatological events surrounding the Second Coming of Jesus. The Lord Himself will defend Judah, saying, “I will strike every horse with bewilderment and his rider with madness. But I will watch over the house of Judah, while I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness” (Zec 12:4). The leaders of Judah will know that God is for them (Zec 12:5), and will work through them to defeat their enemies (Zec 12:6). The Lord’s deliverance will start with “the tents of Judah” so that those outside the city of Jerusalem will know He cares about them as much as He does “the house of David” and “the inhabitants of Jerusalem” (Zec 12:7). And the Lord will defend and strengthen those within Jerusalem, declaring, “In that day the LORD will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who is feeble among them in that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD before them” (Zec 12:8). God declares, He “will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem” (Zec 12:9). At that time, Israel will experience national conversion as the Lord pours out on them “the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn” (Zec 12:10). That is, they will mourn that their Messiah, Jesus, was rejected by them at His first coming, and will turn to Him in faith, accepting Him at His second coming. This time of mourning—as Zechariah talks to his generation—will be like the mourning that occurred when Josiah, one of Israel’s greatest kings, was killed by Pharaoh Neco “in the plain of Megiddo” (Zec 12:11; cf. 2 Chr 35:20-27). Every family will mourn, those representing the political (David and Nathan), the priestly (Levi and Shimei), and “all the families that remain” (Zec 12:12-14).