“In that day the LORD will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who is feeble among them in that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD before them…. 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 firstborn” (Zech 12:8, 10).

The sudden switch in pronouns from “me” (“they will look on me”) to “him” (“they will weep bitterly over him”) in Zechariah 12:10 is, at first glance, quite confusing… that is until we look a bit more closely at the immediate context. In verse 8, Zechariah tells us that “the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD before them.” In every passage where the angel of the Lord appears, there is also an odd shift in pronouns, since the angel of the Lord is mysteriously identified separately from God and also as God himself (Gen 22:15-16; Exod 3:2, 4, 6, 7, 11; Judg 6:11-16). This analogy between the angel of the Lord and the house of David helps us understand the incredibly unique relationship between the “me” (the God of Israel) and the “him” (the Messiah from the house of David) in Zechariah 12:10. And looking to the PIERCED God (i.e., an embodied God) ought be no more surprising to us than Zechariah’s description of the LORD who will stand one day on the Mount of Olives with his own FEET (Zech 14:3-4)!

“‘Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.’ Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!'” (John 20:27-28).