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Will you take your Bibles and turn to Zechariah's prophecy chapter 12. We're going to be looking at verses 10 through 14. As we come to the end of this chapter, and very soon to the end of our study of this amazing prophecy, some of you have asked, "Where will we go next?" And I believe the Lord would have us go to the Gospel of Luke. So probably in a few weeks, we will begin there, but today we will look at Zechariah 12 verses, 10 through 14 under the heading of "Israel's National Conversion." And I must say from the outset, that witnessing God's covenantal faithfulness toward Israel, especially as it is revealed in Bible prophecy, not only fortifies my faith, but it animates my heart to praise, which is, of course, the purpose of this prophetic book, as we would see with all passages of Scripture. In fact, you will remember that Zechariah's name means "Yahweh remembers," and he is remembering his faithfulness here. And the angel that originally gave this to Zechariah, as we read in chapter one and verse three, did so because these were to be quote, "gracious and comforting words." And certainly, that is true for me, and it would have been true for those dear people and the saints down through the ages. So let me read the passage to you, Zechariah, 12, beginning in verse 10,

"'I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 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 first born.

"'In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo.

"'The land will 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;

"'the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves;

"'all the families that remain, every family by itself and their wives by themselves.'"

As I reflected upon this passage of Scripture this last week, I found myself once again, being so frustrated with God being mocked in our culture, in our society. I am so weary of my Savior and my Lord being cursed, being ignored. And I grow so weary of this satanic world system systematically destroying all that is sacred, all that is beautiful. And I know you share my frustration. I mean, it's just part of living in a fallen world, right? And certainly, loosens our grip on this world, and I long to see the glory of God put on display when Christ returns; to see Christ exalted as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. I long to see every knee bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. I long to see God's kingdom come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I long for what is written in Revelation 11 and verse 15, when, "the kingdom of the world has been become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ." And this is precisely what will happen when the Lord returns at his second coming, when he pours out his wrath on the nations that have mocked him, including his chosen nation of Israel, judging them because they're of their rejection of the true Messiah and their acceptance of the false messiah in that day when, by his grace and his faithfulness to his covenant promises, the covenant keeping loving kindness - the hesed of God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - will be put on full display to rational creatures. I might add, both human and angelic, when he physically delivers a remnant of his stiff-necked people at the battle of Armageddon; and when he spiritually transforms their hearts and restores national, ethnic Israel to a place of prominence in the regeneration of his earthly kingdom. Not because of anything special about them, but solely because of his grace upon them. As we read in Deuteronomy seven, verses seven through nine. this will be the time when, as Habakkuk two and verse 14 tells us, "…the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea." This will be the God glorifying denouement - the finale, the grand finale of human history. This will be the consummating bridge between human history and the eternal state. And as prophesied, the interregnum, or the interval of the church age in which we now live, will eventually descend into the horrors of the Tribulation; a purging judgment necessary for the kingdom rule of Messiah on this earth, and central to this rule will be the role of a regenerated and a restored Israel, consistent with his covenant faithfulness is faithfulness to them, as Jesus promised in Matthew eight and verse 11 and 19, verse 28 that we read just a moment ago.

Now, you will recall in Zechariah 12, the first nine verses, God reveals Israel's future and final day of physical deliverance. And we spoke about this the last time we were together with the Battle of Armageddon. In verse nine, it says, "'And in that day I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem." And we will see in Zechariah 12:10, all the way through the first verse of chapter 13, how 1/3 of the nation of Israel will survive the Tribulation. They will come to faith in Christ, both individually and nationally. And of course, this is the main purpose of Daniel's 70th week of the Tribulation judgment, to bring them to national conversion in preparation for their central role and the millennial kingdom.

This is pictured in God's command to Hosea, for example. Remember, the prophet was to marry a wife of whoredom, Hosea one and verse two, and then, after she had been driven to despair, he was to purchase her redemption from the slave market of her immorality and to restore her to H=himself through his loving care. And this is all consistent as well with God's irrevocable covenants with Israel. Isaiah 54 for example, beginning in verse seven, God says,

"'For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion, I will gather you.

"'in an outburst of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting loving kindness, I will have compassion on you,' says the Lord your Redeemer.

"'For this is like the days of Noah to Me, when I swore that the waters of Noah would not flood the earth again; so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, nor will I rebuke you.

"'For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, but My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, and My covenant of peace will not be shaken,' says the LORD who has compassion on you."

Now, let me give you for a moment a big picture overview. I like to do this from time to time, so you kind of synthesize all that is going on in the complexities of Bible prophecy. A literal reading of the prophecies of Scripture provides a very clear picture of the essential events that will take place in the final drama, in the end time. First we will see, for example, a seven-year tribulation that is foretold by Daniel the prophet in Daniel nine verses 24 through 27; Daniel 's 70th week that will culminate in the physical return of the Messiah King. As we read in Daniel nine and verse 24, we also see that a diabolically and satanically empowered ruler will emerge. He is called the "little horn" in Daniel 7:8; "the prince who is to come," in Daniel 9:26; "the man of the lawlessness" in Second Thessalonians 2:3; "the lawless one" in Second Thessalonians 2:8; the "Antichrist" in First John 4:3 and Second John seven; and "a beast rising out of the sea" in Revelation 13 and verse one. And he will seek to destroy the people of God, especially ethnic Israel, to thwart the kingdom purposes of God to Israel, pertaining to all that he has for them, and ultimately for all of us that will be a part of that glorious season of redemptive history. But in the hour of Israel's greatest peril, when all seems lost, the Messiah King - the Lord Jesus Christ - will appear with the heavenly army and defeat all of the nations that have raised themselves against Israel. And over the course of the Tribulation, perhaps in the midpoint even, when the two witnesses are proclaiming the gospel, which will probably be Moses and Elijah, when they bear witness of Christ in Jerusalem, Israel will begin to understand who their Messiah really was and is. They will begin to look to the crucified one and be saved. There will be three angels flying in mid heaven at that time proclaiming the gospel. There will be the 144,000 male, Jewish men from each tribe - evangelists that are protected, that are proclaiming the gospel - and a great multitude of Gentiles and Jewish people will come to Christ. They will all become recipients of God's grace.

And the result is clear in Romans 11:26 for Israel; at that point, all Israel will be saved. Saved to carry out their original purpose; their calling to be for Yahweh, according to Exodus 19:6, "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." A covenant keeping nation that will play a central role in serving the nations and the Messiah during the Millennial Kingdom. Again, all of this is consistent with the Old Testament covenants. And Paul reiterated this in Romans 11, verse 28, “...from the standpoint of God's choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable."

Now for a brief digression, because I promised I would do this, I would answer the question, “At the battle of Armageddon and all, what's going to happen to the Antichrist?” Well, I'm so glad you asked. Let me give you a little bit of what Scripture says about that as we move on. In Revelation 19, verse 19, we read, "And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies..." that is the Antichrist and the 10 kings who will be his allies, and they are a symbol, "...to make war against Him who sat upon the horse and against His army." Now, amassing such a magnificent, vast force will take weeks, so the Antichrist will have had time to, and he will need to, deliberately assemble his troops, and he will probably be awaiting for the warrior king's arrival, knowing that the three and a half years of his promised coming is about to elapse. In fact, Daniel tells us this in Daniel 11:45 that, "He will pitch the tents of his royal pavilion between the seas and the beautiful Holy Mountain; yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him." And we are not told anything about the specifics of the Messiah's attack, but we know the outcome. It will be instant. It will be devastating, and the next scene in Revelation will give us cause for great rejoicing. Verse 20 of Revelation 19, "And the beast was seized..." the idea of being captured alive, "...and with him, the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image." This would be the one that promoted the false worship, and he's going to be treated the same way as the beast himself. And it says that, "these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire, which burns with brimstone." Brimstone is a sulfuric chemical that can become explosively hot. You can see actual balls - sulfur balls - in the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah to this very day; you can light a match to them, and they will just ignite in an incredible flame. In fact, you can go online, and you can see videos of this. In Matthew 13:42, and verse 50, Jesus described hell as a, quote, "furnace of fire." He says that it will be a, "place where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth." But this is the first time in all of the Bible that described hell as the "lake of fire." And the point is, this will be the final abode, ultimately, of Satan and his demonic forces and all unbelievers. And whenever I think of this, it motivates me all the more to evangelism; to share the gospel with people that I know and that I love. And in his description of the final judgment of the lost, Jesus said this in Matthew 25 verse 41, "'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.'" In Revelation 14 verse 11, he describes the suffering of hell as a place where, quote, "'the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night.'" Again, these words should haunt every man who rejects the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and who refuses to serve him as Lord. And this should motivate all of us that are saved by his grace, to evangelize the lost. And parents, please hear me, this is your responsibility to your children. You need to constantly be preaching the gospel to your children, and to do everything you can to communicate the saving truths of Christ, lest they perish in their sins.

Back to God's plan for Israel. Indeed, God will one day save and restore Israel when the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, returns to judge the nations and establish his kingdom, when he publicly puts his glory on display for the world to see. Jeremiah 30 verse 24, "The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back until He is performed and until He has accomplished the intent of His heart; in the latter days you will understand this." And in chapter 32 beginning in verse 37 he says,

"'Behold, I will gather them out of all the lands to which I have driven them in My anger, in My wrath and in great indignation; and I will bring them back to this place and make them dwell in safety.

"'They shall be My people, and I will be their God.'"

And what we have before us in Zechariah, chapter 12, verses 10 through 14, is a picture of what will happen in this magnificent period of spiritual conversion. And I have divided this section under two headings. We're going to, first of all, see the effusion of the Spirit of grace and supplication, and then secondly, the efficacy of the Spirit of grace and supplication. Not only do these passages reveal the future, but they also give very practical instruction to our lives that I will endeavor to share with you.

So, during the Tribulation judgment, so you get the context here, God will be doing a great serving, saving work. And I've put this under that first heading, the effusion of the Spirit of grace and supplication. Notice verse 10 he says, "'I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication.'" "I" he says, this is solely a movement of God, wherein he is the one taking initiative, as he does always in saving grace. "'I will pour out"; the verb carries the idea of expending profusely; to pour out something lavishly, like dousing parched ground with water. So this is the effusion, as I call it. This is the unrestrained outpouring of the Spirit of grace and of supplication. And he's going to do this on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem. This is speaking of the royal line, and the common people as well, all classes of people of this preserved remnant. And the "Spirit of grace" certainly speaks of the divine favor consistent with his covenantal faithfulness. Not only the "Spirit of grace," he says, but "of supplication." And so he will move them to supplicating, pleading, prayer - prayer of repentance - prayer of mercy. And it's fascinating that the Hebrew root for both grace and supplication are the same, and the point being here that by God's grace, the people will receive grace as they plead for grace.

My what a glorious work of God. Folks, this is the stuff, by the way, of genuine saving faith. Every saint that has ever come to faith in Christ has experienced this at some level, whereby the Spirit of God has has moved upon the heart, and upon the mind and given them spiritual sight to see the horror of their sin, the glory of the cross. There is a spiritual resurrection, if you will, that takes place in the miracle of regeneration. I like to call it "a supernatural, instantaneous impartation of spiritual life to the spiritually dead." This is what it means to be born again. It is a work of the Spirit of God, and as a result of that, we are given the glorious gift of faith, where we are justified in all of those wonderful works of salvation. And at that point no longer will Israel depend upon, and not just Israel, so many other people depend upon their works to merit salvation. We see this promise by the way, all the way back in Deuteronomy 30, beginning in verse five,

"'The LORD your God, will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.

"'Moreover, the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.'"

The pre-exilic prophet, Joel, foretold this divine visitation upon the Jewish survivors of the Tribulation; all necessary to equip them for millennial ministry. In Joel two, for example, beginning in verse 28 we read,

"'It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, and your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.

"'Even on the male and female servants I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

"'I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire and columns of smoke.

"'The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.

"'And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD will be delivered; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as the LORD has said, even among the survivors whom the LORD calls.'"

Ezekiel even foretold of this spiritual outpouring in the context of a redeemed, restored and converted Israel. Ezekiel, 39 verse 29, "'I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,' declares the Lord GOD." The Jews have long awaited their Messiah; obviously, they missed him. They rejected him. They murdered him when he first came. And Paul speaks of this in Second Corinthians three into verse 14,

"...until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ.

"But to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart;

"but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away."

And beloved, this will happen, as we see here in Zechariah 12:10, God himself, "will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 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 first born."

So having looked at the effusion of the Spirit of grace and supplication; we move now to the efficacy of the Spirit of grace and supplication. In other words, the outworking of it, what it causes, what it produces. And this is one of the clearest attestations of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. Now notice, this is what happens to every sinner when they experience that spirit of God, that effusion of grace and supplication. They will see Christ. They will understand who he is. They will see Christ and him crucified, and they will, as we see here in these three verbs, they will look, they will mourn, and they will weep over the crucified Messiah. And certainly, in various ways, this will be the testimony of every Christian. There was a time in your life, and a time in my life at various levels, at various depths of emotion, when we looked, when we mourned and when we wept. And it's so sad, Orthodox Jews long for the Messiah's return today and every day; they recite the following creed, quote, "I believe with complete faith in the coming of the Messiah, and even though He tarry, I will wait for Him every coming day." End Quote. Imagine the shock when they learn of their mistake, when they understand the breadth and the depth of God's grace toward them. Many Jews today silently question their rejection of Jesus. Some of them will admit it when you talk with them, especially given the clear reference of Jesus here in Zechariah 12 and Isaiah 53 that I will read later. And many Jews are like the one described by Dr Arnold Olson. He was the long-time president of the Evangelical Free Church of America, a great lover of Israel. And it's reported that he was talking about the coming Messiah to one of the leading figures, religious figures, in Israel. And that man said to him, "When Messiah comes, I will ask, 'Is this your first coming or your second coming?'" Ah, but the day is coming when the Spirit of grace will be poured out upon them, and that question will be answered; answered without the slightest equivocation. And finally, the veil of disbelief and their blind hostility toward the Lord Jesus Christ will be lifted, and they will finally see his glory.

As you think about it, in many ways, this is pictured in the conversion of the apostle Paul - Saul, originally of Tarsus - that zealous Pharisee who so aggressively persecuted Christians. This is really a foreshadow of what will happen to Israel. You will recall, in Acts nine, beginning in verse three, we read,

"And he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him;

"and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, 'Saul. Saul, why are you persecuting Me?'

And he said, 'Who are you Lord?' And He said, 'I am Jesus, whom you were persecuting,

"'but get up and enter the city, and it will be told what you must do.'"

 So shall the Jewish remnant behold the glory of their Messiah in the day when the Spirit of grace and supplication will be poured out upon them. And as a result, it says, "so that they..." referring again to the house of David - all of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, all the classes of the preserved remnant - "they will look on..." It could be translated, "look to" or "unto" "'Me" it says, Yahweh Himself, "'whom they have pierced.'"

It's also important to note that the same verb used here, the verb for "look," is the same one that was used in Numbers 21 and verse 19 in the context of God's judgment upon the rebellious Israelites, when the Lord sent fiery serpents to bite the people, causing many to die. The fiery serpents being a type of sin; and you will recall that their only hope was to look upon a bronze serpent raised up upon a standard. That bronze serpent raised up was a type of Christ. And in Numbers 21, verse nine, we read,

"And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived." And we get commentary on this in John chapter three, beginning in verse 14,

"'As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up;

"'so that whoever believes will in in Him have eternal life.'"

And so a remnant of Israel will, one day do the same. "They will look on," or unto him, "whom they have pierced." "Dāqar" in Hebrew; it is a term that means "to pierce" or "to thrust through" with a sword or a lance or some sharp object. And certainly, this pictures the final tortures of our precious Savior. His sacred brow was pierced with the crown of thorns; his innocent hands and feet were pierced with brutal spikes, and his precious side was pierced with a Roman spear. But the surviving remnant of Israel will one day know that they were the ones responsible, both directly and indirectly for this; and for this reason, as we see here in this text, in anguish of soul and self-loathing, sorrow and shame, but also in confident faith and passionate love for Christ, they will one day look to Jesus whom they have pierced; the one who hung upon that cruel cross, bearing our sins in his body, and by his grace, they will be saved.

And I must ask you, dear listener, have you looked unto Jesus so as to be saved? I trust that you have, I pray that you have. Now bear in mind, as you think about the context in which this was originally given to these Jewish people that had returned from exile, don't you know that this prophecy would have been earth shattering to them. Yahweh's covenant people are going to pierce our Messiah? Incomprehensible. Indeed, this was precisely what happened on the cross of Calvary in the violent death of Jesus. In John 19, for example, we read in verse 34, "But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe." In fact, the apostle even quotes this passage of Scripture in John 19:37, "And again, another Scripture says, 'THEY SHALL LOOK ON HIM WHOM THEY PIERCED.'"

So, back to the text, "'...they will look on Me...'" Yahweh Himself here in the person of the Lord Jesus, "'...whom they have pierced; and they will mourn.'" The term could be translated "wail." It carries the idea, especially in that ancient language, to strike the chest in heart wrenching grief. "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.'" The first born, the one that would carry on the family legacy; the one who would replace the father on a throne in the event of his death; that of a king. Some of you have lost children. You understand this kind of grief, this level of pain. I've never lost a child. I've lost mom, dad, sister, other loved ones, but never a child. But I have been around many that have and that's what will happen when they understand who their Messiah really is, and what they have done.

The text says they will "weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a first born." The deity of Christ as the only begotten of the Father is also suggested here in this passage. David Baron put it this way,

"He is not only the first and only begotten as the Son of God in relation to the Father, but as the Son of Man, and more particularly, in relation to the Jewish nation. He was their child of promise, upon whom the hopes and expectations of the nation had been centered through the centuries. He is the," quote, "only one whom this nationally barren woman who was betrothed unto Jehovah, had brought forth, as it were, miraculously by the power of God, and it was ordained that he should be," quote, 'the first born among many brethren, first and foremost to them who, according to the flesh, are' quote 'His own.' As well as in relation to men generally and him they have with wicked hands, pierced and slain."

Feinberg adds an additional picture that I find helpful here, he put it this way, quote, "When the one who is greater than Joseph makes Himself known to his brethren, they will be heartbroken with grief and contrition" referring to the passage in Genesis 45.

The bitter weeping over a first born was a very well known, well understood proverb in Israel, especially given that plague in Egypt, the Exodus; and again, folks, so that you understand the solemnity of this, the profundity of this, the depth of what will happen, this speaks of the haunting death wail that pierced the darkness of Egypt when the angel of death went through the land and killed the first born of all the people, and all the animals, as you will recall. Exodus 11:6, "'"Moreover, there shall be a great cry in all the land of Egypt, such as there has not been before, and such as shall never be again."'" Of course, we see that many people in Israel today do not understand these things, many people, many Gentiles, do not understand these things. So they've never come to a place of mourning. But perhaps you have experienced that. I have. It's that involuntary explosion of grief that just erupts from the soul when you've lost a loved one. Perhaps you've experienced that. I've also heard it from many others, many times, and I must say that sometimes those unforgettable shrieks and images haunt me in the middle of the night; and as I age, I find the cumulative effect of all of that weighing upon my heart - the sorrow, the secondary, vicarious trauma - that you experience when you witness these things and even experience these things; the compassionate fatigue. But here the morning is one of just gut-wrenching shock, and a soul convicting brokenness over sin and an acknowledgement of who their Messiah is and how they have rejected him, how they have been wrong all this time. I was talking to a Jewish rabbi who confessed this to me, and he sobbed as he shared with me his testimony of what it was like when he finally, by God's grace, saw the light. And to be sure, this kind of national, bitter wailing and consummate grief over the Messiah has never happened in Israel, but it will.

And then the Lord adds this, "'In that day,'" verse 11, "'there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the morning of Hadadrimmon,'" which is a, we believe, the village of Rummaneh, which is about four miles southeast of Megiddo, in the plain of Megiddo. Zechariah's audience would have immediately understood this context. This is a reference to the tragic death of the good and godly, and beloved King Josiah, in Second Chronicles 35, who was killed in battle at that place. And it was a loss that was so profound that it ignited a firestorm of mourning throughout all the land of Judah. In Second Chronicles, 35 beginning the end of verse, 22 we read about it. He that he came,

"...to make war on the plain of Megiddo.

"The archers shot King Josiah, and the king said to his servants,  'Take me away, for I am badly wounded.'

"So his servants took him out of the chariot and carried him in the second chariot which he had, andbrought him to Jerusalem where he died and was buried in the tombs of his fathers."

And then we read this,

"All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

"Then Jeremiah chanted a lament for Josiah. And all the male and female singers speak about Josiah and their lamentations to this day. And they made them an ordinance in Israel; behold, they are also written in the Lamentations."

But as we see here in the prophecy, not only will Jerusalem mourn over their rejected Messiah, but it says in verse 12, "'The land will mourn, every family by itself.'" In other words, individually. It gives kind of an overall list the family of the house of David, speaking of the royal line of the house of David that will undoubtedly have risen at some level to positions of political leadership. They will mourn, "by itself and their wives," or could be translated "women," women by themselves. "'The family of the house of Nathan,'" goes on to say, "'by itself and their wives by themselves.'" You remember Nathan was David's third eldest son, and so there's an expansion here of the mourners to include the extended family of the leaders of Israel. It also includes the family of the house of Levi, referring to the priestly line through Aaron and his sons, representative here of the spiritual leaders in that coming day of mourning. "'The family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves.'" It expands it even further, "...'the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves.'" This is a bit technical, but I think it's important. Zechariah's audience would have known that the Shimeites were of the tribe of Levi, but because they descended through Gershon, according to Exodus, three, verses 17 and 18, instead of the priestly line through Kohath that you read about in Exodus, six, verses eight through 26, and First Chronicles 6:1, through three, the Shimeites were not priests, but they were the assistants to the priests. And so it's expanding basically, to include everybody. In fact, in verse 14, "...all the families that remain, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves."

And so you have four family lines listed here to kind of cover the full gamut of the people, all of the remnant in that day; two from the royal line are the names of David and Nathan, and two from the priestly line, Levi and his grandson, Shimei. And the point of all of this is that all the people of Israel from every station, from every walk of life, will mourn in humble contrition. They will be smitten with remorse. So here we have an amazing prediction concerning future Israel, the effusion and the efficacy - in other words, the cause and the effect of the Spirit of grace and supplication.

The prophet Ezekiel spoke of this in Ezekiel, chapter 36 beginning in verse 25 where the Lord says,

"'Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

"'Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

"'I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

"'You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.

"'Moreover, I will save you from all your uncleanness; and I will call for the grain and multiply it, and I will not bring famine on you.

"'I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field, so that you will not receive again the disgrace of famine among the nations.

"'Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations.'"

Perhaps you are like me, there are times - even though I know that there is no condemnation towards me or you, because we are in Christ - there are still times where I loathe myself. I loathe my iniquities. I loathe my abominations, those things that will even cross my mind. Aren't you thankful for saving grace? 700 years earlier, Isaiah predicted this very scene of self-loathing and confession. I want to read it to you. It really begins in Isaiah 52 beginning in verse 13, and it goes through verse 12 of chapter 53, and here we have the nature of their profound sorrow and contrition. A lament that's familiar to all of us. It says,

"Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.

“Just as many were astonished at you, My people, so His appearance was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men.

"Thus He will sprinkle many nations, Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand.

"Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

"For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him. Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.

"He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hid their face He was despised and we did not esteem Him.

"Surely our grief He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.

"But he was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.

"All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.

"He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.

"By oppression and judgment, He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?

"His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

"But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.

"As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My servant will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.

"Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors."

How sad to see so many people today, especially those in Judaism, believe that they can merit salvation by their good works. I find it interesting; I was reading an article, and it said this, dialing into Fox and Friends, "The 79-year-old president," referring to Donald Trump, "explained that his motivation for brokering an end to the war in Ukraine was not merely political or diplomatic. He said this quote, 'I want to try and get to heaven, if possible,' he said. And he added this, 'I'm hearing I'm not doing well. I'm really at the bottom of the totem pole, but if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.'" End quote. Obviously, his spiritual advisors know nothing of the gospel, nor does he understand the gospel, and we need to pray that God, in his grace, will save him. But aren't you thankful that it's all of grace, that it's all because of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ? It's all a result, if you will, of the effusion and the efficacy; the cause and the effect of the Spirit of grace and supplication. And again, parents, I plead with you, teach these things to your children, because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.

And in closing, knowing that he took my place, knowing that what we just read out of Isaiah 53 is my testimony as well, and the testimony that you would share, I'm sure it is so profoundly humbling, and it just moves me to, in ways that I that I can't express, but the hymn has expressed it fairly well for me, and I close with this statement,

What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this, that caused the Lord of bliss
to bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
to bear the dreadful curse for my soul.

Indeed, our hearts overflow with thanksgiving when we contemplate the infinite perfections of Christ, when we reflect upon his eternal love for us and what he did on our behalf; the one who knew no sin, who became sin on our behalf that we might have the righteousness of Christ in him.

Lord, we thank you for your saving grace, and as we reflect upon these magnificent words that are written in this prophecy of Zechariah, may it indeed ignite our hearts to further praise and animate our faith, knowing that we can be confident in your elective purposes, not only for for Israel and your covenant faithfulness to them, but your covenant faithfulness to all of us. And Lord, because of this, may we enjoy that peace that surpasses all comprehension, all understanding, because our hearts and our minds are in You. We thank you. We give you praise for the glory of Christ, in whose name I pray. Amen.