They 'Will Look Unto Me Whom They Pierced'
This Good Friday, I have been meditating on Zechariah 12:10, "They will look unto Me, whom they pierced." In the next phrase, the person changes from me, to "they will grieve for Him." I wanted to find out why the subject change (it's just Hebrew...strange language). But while I was looking, I came across this powerful passage from Merrill F. Unger's Zechariah: Prophet of Messiah’s Glory.
“What a prophecy! They [Israel] shall look unto Me, whom they pierced [...] The verb they shall look unto, is used both of physical and mental vision (Num. 23:21, I Sam. 2:32, Is. 5:12) frequently as here, with the thought of beholding with confidence in the object “gazed upon” (Num. 21:9, Is. 22:11, 51:1). Hence it means not merely to “look upon” (Authorized Version) but to “look to” in confidence and faith. It is significant that the same verb “look unto” is employed of the Israelite, who when bitten by a serpent (type of sin) “looked unto the serpent of bronze” (type of Christ “made sin for us” [John 3:14-15, II Cor. 5:21]) and “lived” (Num. 21:9). In exactly the same way and with the same result, the remnant of Israel shall “look unto Him whom they pierced” at Calvary and live spiritually and nationally.
“However, like Thomas, who was not present when our resurrected Lord appeared to the disciples the first time, Israel in unbelief says: “Except I shall see in his hands the prints of the nails, and put my finger in the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe (John 20:25). But when they shall look unto Him whom they pierced, and behold the scars of His love for them, like Thomas their excruciating and inexpressibly penetrating cry of deepest contrition will be, “My Lord and My God!” (John 20:28). Then the storm that broke upon Israel for the crime of Calvary and has raged with unmitigated fury these long tragic centuries, shall suddenly subside and burst into the glory of the glad millennial day.”
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