There is also another passage in Zechariah which plainly declares that the Almighty sent the Almighty; and of what persons can this be understood but of God the Father and God the Son? For it is written, "Thus saith the Lord Almighty, After the glory hath He sent me unto the nations which spoiled you; for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye Behold, I will bring mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that the Lord Almighty hath sent me."(3)Observe, the Lord Almighty saith that the Lord Almighty sent Him.Who can presume to understand these words of any other than Christ, who is speaking to the lost sheep of the house of Israel?
For He says in the Gospel, "I am not sent save to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,"(4) which He here compared to the pupil of God's eye, to signify the profoundest love.And to this class of sheep the apostles themselves belonged.But after the glory, to wit, of His resurrection,--for before it happened the evangelist said that "Jesus was not yet glorified,"(5)--He was sent unto the nations in the persons of His apostles; and thus the saying of the psalm was fulfilled, "Thou wilt deliver me from the contradictions of the people; Thou wilt set me as the head of the nations,"(6) So that those who had spoiled the Israelites, and whom the Israelites had served when they were subdued by them, were not themselves to be spoiled in the same fashion, but were in their own persons to become the spoil of the Israelites.For this had been promised to the apostles when the Lord said, "I will make you fishers of men."(7) And to one of them He says, "From henceforth thou shalt catch men."(8) They were then to become a spoil, but in a good sense, as those who are snatched from that strong one when he is bound by a stronger.(9)In like manner the Lord, speaking by the same prophet, says, "And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and mercy; and they shall look upon me because they have insulted me, and they shall mourn for Him as for one very dear, and shall be in bitterness as for an only-begotten."(10)To whom but to God does it belong to destroy all the nations that are hostile to the holy city Jerusalem, which "come against it,"that is, are opposed to it, or, as some translate, "come upon it," as if putting it down under them; or to pour out upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and mercy? This belongs doubtless to God, and it is to God the prophet ascribes the words; and yet Christ shows that He is the God who does these so great and divine things, when He goes on to say, "And they shall look upon me because they have insulted me, and they shall mourn for Him as if for one very dear (or beloved), and shall be in bitterness for Him as for an only-begotten." For in that day the Jews--those of them, at least, who shall receive the spirit of grace and mercy--when they see Him coming in His majesty, and recognize that it is He whom they, in the person of their parents, insulted when He came before in His humiliation, shall repent of insulting Him in His passion:
and their parents themselves, who were the perpetrators of this huge impiety, shall see Him when they rise; but this will be only for their punishment, and not for their correction.It is not of them we are to understand the words, "And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and mercy, and they shall look upon me because they have insulted me;" but we are to understand the words of their descendants, who shall at that time believe through Elias.But as we say to the Jews, You killed Christ, although it was their parents who did so, so these persons shall grieve that they in some sort did what their progenitors did.Although, therefore, those that receive the spirit of mercy and grace, and believe, shall not be condemned with their impious parents, yet they shall mourn as if they themselves had done what their parents did.Their grief shall arise not so much from guilt as from pious affection.Certainly the words which the Septuagint have translated, "They shall look upon me because they insulted me,"stand in the Hebrew, "They shall look upon me whom they pierced."(1)And by this word the crucifixion of Christ is certainly more plainly indicated.But the Septuagint translators preferred to allude to the insult which was involved in His whole passion.