Zech. 12:10

10 And I will pour [shaphak] upon the house [bayith] of David [David], and upon the inhabitants [yashab] of Jerusalem [Yaruwshalaim], the spirit [ruwach] of grace [chen] and of supplications [tachanuwn]: and they shall look [nabat] upon me whom they have pierced [daqar], and they shall mourn [micepd] for him, as one mourneth [caphad] for his only [yachiyd] son, and shall be in bitterness [marar] for him, as one that is in bitterness [marar] for his firstborn [bakowr]. KJV-Interlinear

10 And 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 first-born. NASB

The spirit of grace is the action of Gods provision. The spirit of supplication is the action of humility in prayer. Prayer being offered to someone greater than the one doing the praying, humbly making a request that the target of that prayer, God, is capable of fulfilling.

Needless to say, the residents of Judah and Jerusalem, will not be arrogant or embarassed in this manner. They know that they are in a corner, and that they have no way out of their fix.

The entire world is at their doorstep and the entire world is out to kill off every single living human being.

To pour out indicates abundance. The defenders are praying feverously. Their need is great, and their predicament is extremely serious. They are on the verge of being annihilated. No one is about to be shy because of their praying.

And though, they all have every opportunity to get angry about their situation, and even begin yelling and screaming and blaming others, because that is the easy thing to do. These folks will demonstrate tremendous poise while under tremendous pressure, and they will look to God for their deliverance. They will forget their excuses, and trust, as they have never trusted before in their entire lives.

This will be their testimony and their demonstration of spiritual maturity.

Their faith will pour heavenward, and grace will pour out with tremendous protections and blessings from God.

These people are not fools hoping for a simple miracle. They are all well aware of the problems that have inundated the planet for the previous six plus years. By this time in the Tribulation, well over half of the world s population will have died from war, famine and starvation, disease, crime, and so forth.

We put together a scenario recently, of this six-year disaster concept, just to put together some frame of reference as to what people in the Tribulation will be dealing with. Assume that the Rapture were to occur today, and assume that the estimated Christians in the world today come to two-billion. That would leave four and a half billion people left to go through the Tribulation.

As half of the world s population dies from the many disasters that will occur in the Tribulation, then on average, over one million people would die in disasters everyday for six years.

Now add to this the possibility that the Rapture might not occur for another hundred years, and the possibility that the population left behind could number in the forty billions of people, perhaps forty-five billion. If that is so, then the math increases by a factor of ten. Or, ten million people will be the death toll each and everyday for six years and counting.

This is of course just a daily average. We know that disasters do not occur everyday, so when disasters actually do occur, the death toll will be horrendous in numbers.

Do you suppose that someone will notice this? And of course, there will be many people turning to Christ, by the millions, during that future terrible time.

But too, remember that all of these people rejected Christ in their lives and that is why they were not removed at the Rapture. It will take a tremendous shock to their systems in order to get them to wake up and see reality.

Some people are like mules. They will not budge in their beliefs or attitude until something very dramatic, and painful, falls all around them. That means lots of misery and suffering.

And again, there will still be lots of people in this world, who will still hold out and reject Christ, despite all of the overwhelming evidence of world problems, that should have caused them to change their minds.

Some folks are simply hard core stubborn, and for that attitude, they will pay dearly. We study these verses to see what future events will be taking place and how people will deal with them, but we should also learn from their circumstances, and avoid those kinds of troubles in our own life.

Stubbornness toward God will be met with grief. Humility toward God will be met with blessing.

Your relationship with God includes your daily study of His Word. You cannot learn of God, His principles of life, His plan, or of His will, unless you commit yourself to the study of His Word. This also presumes that you will let go of all of your hostilities toward life and others, making it much easier for you to learn and grow up spiritually. You must be in fellowship before your spiritual life will function.

All prayer, attitude, and faith are now directed at Jesus Christ. Judaism has been left behind. Jesus Christ is the one who was pierced at the Cross. There has been no other person in all of human history, who has walked the path that Christ walked.

The faith of those defenders of Judah and Jerusalem will be a legitimate faith, in Christ, the one and only true Son of God. They will not be relying on some cult belief, or some alternate religious faith, or something else, which would be false. Their knowledge and belief will be accurate and approved by God.

They will take their faith seriously.

In the ancient days of human history, the perpetuation of the family name and holdings, was a concept that was taken very seriously. Having a son was important, and the continued life of the first-born son was of utmost concern.

The parents would leave the bulk of their estate to the first-born son. In fact, the first-born received a double portion of the estate, when it was divided up between several children.

So here the concept of the first-born is described, not because these people might be losing their first born child in the Tribulational conflict, but because in ancient times, this concept would turn into a family disaster if the first-born son might happen to die. Therefore, the concept was taken very seriously.

This is the attitude of the defenders of Jerusalem, the defenders who are positive toward God, Christ, and doctrine. It is a life and death principle. It is the continuation of life, the continuation of ones family, ones name, and ones estate. To lose this was once deemed as totally disastrous. It would be like living ones life, dying and, then being totally forgotten forever. Such is the nature of all unbelievers.

Loss of eternal blessings is the nature of indifferent believers. But, for those who take God seriously, and for those who approach their spiritual growth with a genuine desire to grow, then this matter is taken very seriously.

Certain privileges belong to the first-born. To lose those privileges was a major loss. To hold onto and to perpetuate those privileges, was a tremendous honor. And that is the nature of spiritual maturity.

Tremendous blessing is what you can expect if you get serious with your daily Bible study. Otherwise, you will be on your own in this world, and living a life in the jungle means certain misery and disaster.

Now is the time to post a prayer.