And I will pour upon the House of David, and upon the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of
supplications; and they shall look upon me whom they have
pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his
only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in
bitterness for his first born.--Zech. xii. 10.
The Prophet Zechariah here presents to our view one of the richest
jewels in the treasury of God's promises. It sparkles clear and
bright amid the records of divine truth. All earth's richest
treasures cannot offer an adequate remuneration for the withdrawment
of this precious promise. The words deserve our most careful
examination. We will therefore consider the person here promising;
the persons to whom the promise is made; the thing promised; and
search for proofs of its fulfilment.
The person here promising is the God-Man, Christ Jesus, for the
words are, "I will pour, &c. &c., and they shall look upon me, whom
they have pierced, and mourn." We never find God the Father using
such language as this when speaking of his disobedient creatures.
God is justly displeased at man's apostasy. His law is dishonoured,
his works defaced and injured by sin. Yet God, as God, cannot be
the subject of pain and sorrow, he is beyond their reach. But if we
look at the God-Man, Christ Jesus, we behold his sacred head pierced
with a thorny crown, his hands and feet with nails of iron, his side
with the soldier's spear, and his soul with the wrath of God. He who
suffered thus on earth, did, as God, make this gracious promise.
The persons to whom this promise literally applies, are the Jews,
whose restoration as a nation to the divine favour, will form a
prominent feature in the latter-day glories of the Church. The Lord
has promised to gather together the dispersed in Judah, and the
outcasts of Israel. "The deliverer shall arise out of Zion, and
turn away ungodliness from Jacob." This nation, who once refused
and crucified the Messiah, shall, when partakers of this promised
blessing, "look upon him whom they have pierced, and mourn." This
promise is not confined to the Jews, but extends to the fallen race
of Adam, whom our spiritual David will make inhabitants of the new
Jerusalem, which is above, without regard to their being of Jewish
or Gentile extraction.[110] He will not consider the trifling
distinctions of colour, language, or nation, a barrier of such
importance as to preclude their participating in his blessings.
[110] Matt. xxviii. 19. Acts xi. 18., xiii. 46, 47., xv. 3.
The thing promised is an abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Adam, by his apostasy, lost the image of God stamped upon his soul
at his creation. The sentence, "in the day thou eatest thereof
thou shalt surely die," was not suffered to go unexecuted. From
that hapless hour, his soul, the most noble part, was dead to all
spiritual life, and became the abode of corroding passions and
depraved principles. He immediately shrank from holding intercourse
with God, and tried to hide himself from the presence of his
benefactor. As Adam begat a son in his own fallen likeness, all
his race partake of the same corrupt nature. We are ignorant of
God and his ways. We need divine teaching; we cannot naturally
understand the things of God, which are spiritual, the eye of our
understanding being darkened; God is not in all our thoughts; we
are averse to communion with the Father of Spirits. We despise
his offers of free grace--we prefer to be saved by our own rather
than God's method--we see no beauty in Jesus that we should desire
him--we dislike to renounce our own, and trust in his complete
righteousness--we consider his commands grievous, and the language
of our soul is, "we will not have this man to reign over us." But we
are here told of a sovereign antidote for these deep-seated moral
disorders of the soul. Here is a gracious promise of an abundant
outpouring of the Holy Spirit, whose office it is to "convince of
sin, of righteousness, and of judgment." He convinces the soul,
into which he enters, of the exceeding sinfulness of sin--that it
is the evil thing which God hates; and shows the divine law is
spiritual, extending to the thoughts and intents of the heart.[111]
He puts a cry for mercy into the soul, destroys the natural enmity
of the mind against God's plan of salvation, and makes the object of
his divine teaching willing and anxious to partake of the Lord's
bounty, and be a debtor to mercy alone. The Holy Spirit teaches of
righteousness by convincing that a better righteousness than our
own tattered rags is absolutely necessary, ere we can see the face
of God with peace. He makes the soul willing to be clothed with the
wedding garment of Jesus' righteousness, which is the fine linen
of the saints. It is indispensable that we be clothed with this
livery of the court of Heaven, or we shall be denied admission into
the mansions of the King of Glory. Would we behold the fulfilment
of this prophetic promise, then let us direct our minds back to a
survey of the glorious scenes exhibited on the ever memorable day
of Pentecost, when the Spirit was, in so free and copious a manner,
poured out from on high. Attend to the sermon Peter preached on the
day of his ordination; mark its effects on the three thousand of the
House of David, inhabitants of Jerusalem's much-famed city. Listen
to their cry, "Men and brethren, what must we do?" Surely these were
none of the stout hearts who dared even to crucify the Lord of life
and glory? The same! yet how different their tone--how altered their
conduct! To what cause can we attribute this astonishing change in
the minds of three thousand persons in the same instant of time?
Surely it was none other than the almighty work of God the Holy
Ghost. It was his influence on the minds of these men which produced
the Spirit of grace and supplication, and taught them to direct the
anxious cry and supplicating look unto him whom they had pierced.
Was not the anguish of their souls, under a sense of their sins,
equal to the exquisite sorrow of those who bitterly bewail the death
of their first-born? However skilfully Peter might wield the sword
of the Spirit, (the word of God,) it was none other than the God of
all grace, who directed and sent it home with saving power to the
hearts and consciences of these Jerusalem sinners. Are not the other
triumphs of the Spirit worthy of regard, when five thousand are made
willing cordially to embrace Christ crucified? May we not, by the
way, observe, that the reception of the Gospel by such numbers so
immediately after the ascension of Jesus, proved the truth of the
facts recorded by the apostles, of the life, death, resurrection,
and ascension of Christ? Many, no doubt, of these early converts
of Christianity, had been eye-witnesses of several of the events,
and _all_ had an opportunity of discovering the deception, if there
had existed any, in the apostles' narrative. But no sooner are
they persuaded to compare the Old Testament prophecies concerning
the Messiah, with all the circumstances in the history of Jesus
of Nazareth, than they anxiously desire to be enlisted under the
banners of the cross. Unable to resist the force of truth, they join
the persecuted adherents of the crucified Jesus, and cast in their
lot with his despised followers, although "a sect every where spoken
against." When were converts to Christianity most numerous? Was it
not when there existed the best possible opportunity of detecting
the least imposition or falsehood, on the part of the writers
of the New Testament? Let it not be forgotten that those early
converts were neither won by the arm of worldly power, nor bribed
by proffered gold. On the contrary, no sooner did they embrace
the Gospel, but they were met at the very threshold by ignominy
and persecution in every varied and frightful form, sufficiently
terrific to deter all but men really convinced of the truth, and
swayed by its sacred influence.
[111] John xvi. 7-14.
But we must not confine the accomplishment of this promise entirely
to the days of Pentecost, although it then assumed a more splendid
and attractive appearance, than it has done in these latter times.
Yet through each succeeding age, the Lord the Spirit has not been
unmindful of his covenant engagements. Could we draw aside the
veil that separates between us and the holy of holies--could we
obtain a glimpse of the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem which is
above, and inquire of the goodly number that surround the throne
of God and the Lamb, Who was the faithful instructor and guide,
that taught them to walk in the way that led to everlasting life?
they would direct us to the Lord the Spirit, as the almighty
guide who pointed out the road, and taught their wandering feet
to tread the strait, the narrow way, the only path, that leads
to Zion's hill. In the Bible, that chart of life, the road is
shown with clearness, and described with accuracy. It is called
faith in the finished salvation of Christ, and obedience to his
commands. The hand which drew this path to glory, is the very same
that painted the splendid canopy of heaven. By this good old way,
all the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and reformers,
entered the city of the Lord of Hosts. Their guide and comforter,
through this waste howling wilderness, was the third person of the
Triune-Jehovah. What countless myriads has this almighty guide led
to the mount of God, from the antediluvian worthies, down to the
happy spirit just entered into the joy of its Lord! Like them, led
by the same unerring teacher, we shall not fail of arriving safely
at the mansion of everlasting joy, for he is the only faithful
conductor[112]to the heavenly Jerusalem; untaught by him, none
can find the path of life, but will assuredly stumble on the dark
mountains of sin and error, and run the downward road that leads to
hell.
[112] Psalm cxliii. 10.
Eternal life is the gift of God. Christ is "the way, the truth,
and the life: none can come unto God, but by him." The office of
the Holy Spirit is to instruct the ignorant, comfort the mourners
in Zion, and make us meet to be "partakers of the inheritance of
the saints in light." "If ye, being evil, know how to give good
gifts unto your children, how much more will your heavenly Father
give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him." May we be partakers
of that inestimable blessing, for without _his_ influence on our
hearts, vain will be even the electing love of God the Father--vain
the vicarious sacrifice and imputed righteousness of Christ the
Son--vain to us the plan of salvation; and vain, all the promises
of the Gospel. As well for us, if those glad tidings of great joy,
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward
men," had not reached our ears. Unapplied, the most sovereign remedy
is useless, for then not even Gilead's balm, can heal the dire
disease.[113] Christ will prove no Saviour to us, unless applied to
our individual case. It is the office of the Holy Spirit, to take
of the things of Christ and show them unto us. Faith is the hand
by which we grasp Christ crucified. That saving faith, by which we
apprehend the finished salvation of Jesus, and make it our own,
is a grace wrought in the heart by the operation of the Spirit of
God. Far better would it be for the children of men, if the sun
were turned into darkness, the moon into blood, and all the stars
of heaven withdraw their shining; than that this glorious promise
of the outpouring of the Spirit, should be blotted from the book of
God's remembrance!
[113] Jeremiah viii. 22.
May that blessed morning shortly dawn, "when all shall know the
Lord!" Hasten, glorious Immanuel, that bright day, when "the whole
earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters
cover the sea."