Albert Barnes Commentary Zechariah 12:1

"The burden of the word of Jehovah concerning Israel. [Thus] saith Jehovah, who stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him:" — Zechariah 12:1 (ASV)

The burden of the word of the Lord for - Rather, “upon (see Nahum 1:1, p. 129) Israel.” If this prophecy is a continuation of the last, despite its fresh title, then “Israel” must be the Christian Church, formed of the true Israel which believed, and the Gentiles who were grafted into them.

So Cyril wrote: “Having spoken sufficiently of the Good Shepherd Christ, and of the foolish, most cruel shepherd who butchered the sheep, that is, antichrist, he appropriately makes mention of the persecutions which would from time to time arise against Israel; not the Israel according to the flesh, but the spiritual, that Jerusalem which is indeed holy, ‘the Church of the Living God’ (1 Timothy 3:15). For as we say, that ‘he’ is spiritually a Jew, who has the ‘circumcision in the heart’ (Romans 2:29), which is through the Spirit and not in the flesh through the letter; so also ‘Israel’ may be conceived, not as that of the blood of Israel, but rather as that which has a mind beholding God.”

Since the Good Shepherd was rejected by all, except the “poor of the flock,” the “little flock” which believed in Him, and as a result the “band” of “brotherhood” was dissolved between Israel and Judah, “Israel” in those times could not be Israel after the flesh, which at that time too was the deadly antagonist of the true Israel, and thus early also chose antichrist, such as Bar-Cochba, with whom so many hundreds of thousands perished.

There was no war then against Jerusalem, since it had ceased to be (see the notes on Micah 3:12).

But Zechariah does not say that this prophecy, to which he has attached a separate title, chronologically follows the last; rather, since he has so separated it by its title, he has marked it as a distinct prophecy from the preceding.

Perhaps he began again from the time of the Maccabees and took God’s deliverances of the people Israel then as the foreground of the deliverances to the end.

Yet in the times of Antiochus, it was one people only which was against the Jews, and Zechariah himself speaks only of the Greeks (Zechariah 9:13); here he repeatedly emphasizes that they were “all nations” (Zechariah 12:2–3, Zechariah 12:6, Zechariah 12:9).

Instead, it may be that the future, the successive efforts of the world to crush the people of God, its victory amid suffering, and its conversions of the world through the penitent looking to Jesus, are exhibited in one great perspective, according to the manner of prophecy, which usually exhibits the prominent events, not their order or sequence: “The penitential act of contrite sinners, especially of Jews, looking at Him ‘whom they pierced,’ dates from the Day of Pentecost, and continues to the latter days, when it will be greatly intensified and will produce blessed results, and is here concentrated into one focus.

The rising up of God’s enemies against Christ’s Church, which began at the same time, and has been continued in successive persecutions from Jews, Gentiles, and other unbelievers in every age, and which will reach its climax in the great antichristian outbreak of the last times, and be defeated by the Coming of Christ to judgment, is here summed up in one panoramic picture, exhibited at once to the eye.”

Which stretches forth the heavens - God’s creative power is an ever-present working, as our Lord says, “My Father worketh hitherto and I work” (John 5:17). His preservation of the things which He has created is a continual re-creation.

All “forces” are supported by Him, who alone has life in Himself. He still “uphold[s] all things by the word of His power,” because, until the successive generations, with or without their will, with or against His Will for them, shall have completed His Sovereign Will, He upholds them uniformly in being by His Unchanging Will.

People are always forgetting this. And because “since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as from the beginning of the creation” (2 Peter 3:4), they relegate the Creator and His creating as far as they can to some time, as far back as they can imagine, enough to fill their imaginations, and forget Him who made them, in whose hands is their eternity, who will be their Judge.

So the prophets remind them and us of His continual working, which people forget in the sight of His works: “Thus saith the Lord; He that createth the heavens, and stretcheth them out; He that spreadeth forth the earth and its produce, who giveth breath to the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein” (Isaiah 42:5); and, “I am the Lord who maketh all things, who stretcheth out the heavens alone, who spreadeth abroad the earth by Myself” (Isaiah 44:24).

He speaks at once of that which is past in its beginning yet present to us in its continuance, but to Him an ever-present present; and of things actually present to us, such as “that frustrateth the tokens of the liars” (Isaiah 44:25); and of things to those of that day still future, such as “that confirmeth the word of His servant, and performeth the counsel of His messengers” (Isaiah 44:26)—the beginning of which was not to be until the taking of Babylon.

And the Psalmist unites past and present in one: “Donning light as a garment, stretching out the heavens as a curtain; who layeth the beams of His chambers on the waters, who maketh the clouds His chariot; who walketh on the wings of the wind; who maketh His angels spirits, His ministers a flame of fire; He founded the earth upon its base” (Psalms 104:2–5).

And Amos writes, “He that formeth the mountains and createth the winds, and declareth unto man his thoughts” (Amos 4:13); adding whatever lies nearest to each of us.

And forms the spirit of man within him - This occurs both by the unceasing creation of souls (at every moment in some spot on our globe) and by the re-creation for which David prays: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalms 51:10).

He who formed the hearts of people can overrule them as He wills. Cyril says: “But the spirit of man is formed by God in him, not by being called to the beginnings of being, although it was made by Him, but, as it were, transformed from weakness to strength, from unmanliness to endurance, altogether being transelemented from things shameful to better things.”

Cyril also notes: “It is the custom of the holy prophets, when about to foretell things of significant importance, to try to show beforehand the Almightiness of God, so that their word may gain credibility, even if they should declare what was beyond all hope and (to speak of our conceptions) above all reason and credibility.”