Zechariah 12:10 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Zechariah 12:10

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‘And I will pour upon the house of David.’ When is this? At some final stage, in some national blessing upon ethnic Jews in particular? No, Joel 2:28 which Peter quotes on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:16-17) is a parallel prophecy. This is fulfilled in the gospel age, not in some final period at the end of earth’s history. John 19:37 also quotes this passage and refers it to Calvary. Zechariah speaks for the incarnate Son of God and so says ‘look on me’, but John reports the event as a third party and so says ‘look on him’. John tells us that the piercing that Zechariah speaks of took place because when the soldiers came to break the legs of those hanging on the crosses in order to precipitate death, they found that the Lord Jesus was already dead. Therefore instead of breaking his legs they pierced his side with a spear, and blood and water came forth proving that he was dead. John’s quotation therefore confirms that the whole chapter, which is all of a piece, is a prophecy about New Testament times. In John 4:14 the Lord almost quotes Zechariah here, and in John 7:37 there is a strong allusion to Zechariah 13:1 and 14:8.The pierced one will be the Son of God himself, hanging on Calvary’s cross, dying in love for his people to make an atonement for them. ‘They shall look upon me’ – this is not the looking of the Pharisees and chief priests who remained adamant and scornful at the sufferings of Christ. This is a looking which causes the one who looks to mourn, either in repentance or in regret at having been responsible for such a terrible act. In part this was fulfilled at the initial phase of the gospel age. The Lord Jesus alludes to Zechariah 12:10 and in doing so says, this is about me. The blessing is poured out on the house of David: not on all, but only on those who repent. They cried out, ‘What shall we do to be saved?’ This is a description of all who turn to Christ in the New Testament beginning with Pentecost.

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When is this? First the New Testament applies it to Christ on Calvary, and what happens to many after Calvary who come to see the real meaning of Calvary and mourn that their sins caused the Saviour of the world to have to die on a cross. Secondly, it refers to very last days when Christ comes again. John tells us in Revelation 1:7 that there will be wailing because of him when Christ appears at the second coming. Every eye will see him because those who pierced him and those responsible for his death will be raised from the dead, and they too will see him coming on the clouds of heaven. This will not be sorrow of repentance, but sorrow of regret over lost opportunity. But it does not refer to a pre-millennial return of Christ, as if only Israel only will look on him.

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Zechariah 12:10 Commentary and Bible Study