Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 230 · August 18
Whom They Have Pierced
“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 firstborn.”
Who is speaking in this verse, and who is the one who was pierced?
Read it slowly, because the pronouns change inside a single sentence: "they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him." First it is "me," and then it is "him," with nothing in between to explain the change. John stood near the cross and saw a soldier's spear go into Jesus' side, and he quoted the line with "him" all the way through: "They shall look on him whom they pierced." Both forms are printed in the Bible in your hand, and Zechariah does not settle the question for us. Instead he describes the mourning, "as one mourneth for his only son," as a whole country grieves, one household at a time, "every family apart, and their wives apart."
He compares it to "the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon," a grief his first hearers could name and we can only guess at. It is probably King Josiah, who was killed in battle at Megiddo. Jeremiah lamented for him, and the singing men and singing women went on mourning him in their songs for years afterwards.
Be careful with the next chapter, where people often quote a line as if it were about the cross: "What are these wounds in thine hands?" In its place, though, it belongs to a man who is busy denying he was ever a prophet: "I am no prophet, I am an husbandman." The verse Jesus did take for Himself comes straight after it: "smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." He quoted it the night He was betrayed.
So the question stays open. Yet notice what comes first in our verse: God pours out "the spirit of grace and of supplications" before anybody looks at anything, so even the looking and the mourning are His gift. Here is a plain question to carry: are you waiting to see clearly before you come, or will you ask God for the grace that makes the seeing bearable? He has promised to pour it out, and the next chapter opens with the promise of "a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness."
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 230 is In the Midst (Matthew 18:20).