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Reason 25: Zechariah 12:9-10, First and Second Coming 520 B.C.
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Reason 25: Zechariah 12:9-10, First Coming and Second Coming 520 B.C.
The two portraits of the Messiah and God’s plan for the nations are clearly presented here in Zechariah 12. It’s important to note, that God is speaking “First Person” through Zechariah as the details of the “Last days” are revealed.
Jerusalem is the focus of the world, the nations are gathered together against the Jews, Jerusalem and Israel. The whole world is on edge as Jerusalem becomes the focus of the nations. These words are being fulfilled today.
Background of Jerusalem
Why is Jerusalem such an important city? Is it just a coincidence that it is the focus of the world? Points about Jerusalem:
Two-thousand six-hundred years ago, Jerusalem was destroyed by the armies of Babylon, its walls and Temple were torn down, it lay in ruins. Like many cities in the world it could have it could have just been left and forgotten. The Bible on the other hand says God chose the city of Jerusalem as His base of operations in the world. There was only one place in the world the Jews could build a temple to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that was Jerusalem. David was instructed to buy the Temple Mount from Araunah the Jebusite (2 Sam. 24:16-18) and Solomon would build the Temple in in 960 B.C. (I Kings 8). The Babylonians destroyed it in 586 B.C., the Persians allowed the Jews to rebuild it in 536 B.C. This was known as the 2nd Temple.
Why Jerusalem is the focus of the World
Zechariah was a prophet who lived when the 2nd Temple was completed in 516 B.C., Zechariah would declare that the city of Jerusalem will be the focus of the World in the last days.
But why is it so important to the world? First from a religious-political position, it is the focus of over ½ world’s religious populations, 3.5 Billion people. The Jews are about 20 million people on the earth, but Christianity is numbered at 2 Billion and Islam is numbered at 1.5 Billion, which is 50% of the earth population. Secondly, from the Biblical perspective, Jerusalem is the city of God’s choosing, The Bible declares Jerusalem is the city of God (Isaiah 62:1-6). 
So if the Bible is true then Jerusalem matters, if the Bible is false then 
Jerusalem can be forgotten about.
The Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah, but the Gentiles (Nations) accepted Him. Later, a man named Mohammad (610 AD) living in Mecca would found Islam and claim to the final prophet for the world, he also acknowledged Jesus as Messiah. Mohammad and Islam also claimed Jerusalem was a city of Islam. The Jews reject both the claims of Christianity and Islam, but according to Zechariah, this will not always be the case, they will one day look at the “One whom they pierced”. Jesus the one pierced on the Cross will one day come to the rescue of the Jewish people in the last days as the nations of world come against the city.
Zechariah declares all this before the First Coming while he is describing the Second Coming.
Video starts at 9:50 Time marker
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Zechariah 12:1-14 (1) The oracle of the word of the LORD concerning Israel: Thus declares the LORD, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him: (2) "Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem will also be against Judah. (3) On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it. (4) On that day, declares the LORD, I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness. But for the sake of the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, when I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. (5) Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, 'The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the LORD of hosts, their God.' (6) "On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. And they shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while Jerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem. (7) "And the LORD will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah. (8) On that day the LORD will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the LORD, going before them.
(9) And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. (10) "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.
(11) On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. (12) The land shall mourn, each 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; (13) 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; (14) and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.
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(1) Israel and the Messiah God identifies Himself as the creator of the Universe and the very soul of man.
(2-3)Jerusalem the focus of World Attention The world will be in opposition to Israel and Jerusalem. Jerusalem becomes the focal point of the world.
Notice who is doing the talking in the verses:
The LORD is God Almighty, Jesus is Almighty God of the Old Testament, He is the visible image of God.
Colossians 1:15-19 (15) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. (16) For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him. (17) And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (18) And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. (19) For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
(9-10) The one they pierced is finally recognized
Throughout this Chapter God is speaking First Person on what “I” will do. Notice in verse 9, all the nations are gathered against Jerusalem.
God gathers the nations against Jerusalem, then he pours out the Spirit of Grace and supplication…
“they will then look on ME” the “I”, the LORD who is speaking. He is the one Israel will look at, the one THEY PIERCED
(11-14) Israel finally understands Jesus the Messiah Matthew 23:36-39 (36) Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. (37) "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! (38) See, your house is left to you desolate. (39) For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"
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