Not a few interpreters have committed the serious error and have tried to find a fulfillment of these chapters somewhere, and if no historical events could be made to suit the occasion, a spiritual application had to be made and a spiritual fulfillment in the so-called “Israel of the New Testament,” the church, invented, which of course never satisfies the prayerful student of the word.
In reading the twelfth chapter carefully, it will be seen at once that here we have prophecies which not alone refer to Jerusalem and Judah exclusively, but which cannot yet have seen a fulfillment. The end of the chapter shows Israel’s conversion. The Spirit is poured out. They look upon the pierced One, Jehovah; repentance and cleansing follows throughout the land. This brings before us the hour of Israel’s salvation, the same which the Holy Spirit unfolds through Paul, in Romans xi. It is an event which will take place after the fullness of the Gentiles will have come in (the church removed from the earth). And so all Israel shall be saved; even as it is written, There shall come out of Zion a Deliverer; He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: And this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins (Rom. xi: 25- 37). There is no saved Israel now and there can be no national turning of Israel unto the Lord at this present time, but when the Lord comes and they shall look upon Him, that salvation will be at hand. This coming of the Lord to Israel when they shall see His glory will be preceded by nations rising against Jerusalem. Not one nation, but nations, will make war once more with Jerusalem; nor will Jerusalem in that future siege fall into the hands of the enemies, but the city and the people will be victorious. The period of the Maccabees is not meant, nor is there anything in the past which could even be a partial fulfillment of Zech. xii. It is all future.
Let us look now at the details of the chapter. Thus saith the Lord, who stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him (verse 1). The speaker is Jehovah, the Almighty One who created the heavens and the earth, and who formeth the spirit of man within him. Why such a beginning of this second burden? To show that He who has given all these promises is able to do it. Men may fail and are powerless to give help. Indeed, Israel will be utterly helpless then when the enemy comes in like a flood, but in that hour of extremity Jehovah Himself, the Omnipotent One, the One through Whom and in Whom and for Whom heaven and earth were created, will come, and in His majestic appearing deliver Jerusalem and His people at last. But when He appears for their salvation and they look upon Him, they see Jehovah whom they pierced, Jehovah-Jesus, the One who was once rejected, but who now comes in power and in glory. This first verse shows the speaker in the entire chapter is Jehovah, and is one of the strongest Old Testament passages which show that the Redeemer, the One who came as an obedient servant to suffer and to die, is Jehovah.
Behold, I make Jerusalem a cup of reeling
To all the nations round about;
Upon Judah also shall it be,
In the siege against Jerusalem.
And it shall come in that day, I make Jerusalem
A burdensome stone for all the peoples:
All that are burdened with it shall be wounded;