They Will Look On Me Whom They Pierced

Zechariah 12 and the Burden Against Israel

Please turn in your Bibles to Zechariah and chapter 12. Zechariah chapter 12. This is God's holy and infallible word the burden of the word of the Lord against Israel. Thus says the Lord who stretches out the heavens lays the foundation of the earth and forms the spirit of a man within him.

Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. It shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples.

All who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces. Though all nations of the earth are gathered against it. And that day says the Lord I will strike every horse with confusion and its riders with madness.

I will open my eyes on the house of Judah and I will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart the inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength and the Lord of hosts their God.

In that day, I'll make the governors of Judah like a fire pan in the woodpile. And like a fiery torch in the sheaves. They shall devour all the surrounding peoples on the right hand and on the left, but Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place Jerusalem.

The Lord will save the tents of Judah first. Set the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall not become greater than that of Judah. In that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

The one who is feeble among them in that day shall be like David and the house of David shall be like God. Like the angel of the Lord before them. It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

Now our passage for today. And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication. Then they will look on me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son and grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn in.

That day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem. Like the morning at Hadad Ramon in the plain of Megiddo. And the land shall mourn every family by itself the family of the house of David by itself.

And their wives by themselves. The family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves. The family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves. The family of Shimei by itself and their wives by themselves all the families that remain, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves.

May the Lord be pleased with our consideration of his most holy word. Please pray with me. Oh Lord Jesus, we thank you that you have not hidden yourself from your people. Throughout every page of scripture, your glory bursts forth.

We pray now that this your church would be built up and encouraged in the faith, that they too would experience the joy of the spirit of grace and supplication. They will look upon you Lord Jesus whom they have pierced.

That they would mourn over their sins with a godly sorrow that would lead them to repentance. That they would long for that day when even the least among the nation of Israel would be saved. The gospel would triumph and go forth to the Gentiles.

Oh Lord, we look forward to experiencing and enjoying your victory and your righteousness conquering the earth. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. The title of the message today is that phrase that jumps out off the page, they will look upon me whom they have pierced.

For those of you who are taking notes, I have three areas of consideration for you to organize your thoughts. The first is the promise. The promise is that God will pour out his spirit. Second is the piercing.

The piercing is Jesus Christ on the cross. And third, the mourning. The mourning that leads to repentance, renewal, salvation. Promise, piercing, and mourning. The restoration from exile leads us to consider the future renewal of God's people in Christ.

So these things that happen to Israel are not mere happenstance, but they illustrate and illuminate our understanding of the work of Christ in building his church and calling people from every tongue, tribe, and nation, but also not forgetting his promises to Israel.

Israel will be saved. The people of God, though obstinate in their rebellion, a remnant of them has been saved. And as we know from the Apostle Paul in Romans 9, there's going to be a great harvest of the Jewish people.

It's happened in history and it will continue to happen even up to the last day. Now, one of the difficulties of preaching through a book and then missing a week as we forget what happened before. So I'm borrowing from a very short synopsis largely from John Gill to remind you of what this chapter is about.

Then we'll jump back into the exposition. This chapter contains a prophecy of the defense, protection, and salvation of the church of God and the effusion of the spirit and of the conversion of the Jews in the latter day.

It begins with a title and a preface describing the power of God from the creation of the heavens and earth and the soul of man. Then follows the subject matter of the prophecy, to the way of judgment upon the enemies of the people of God.

And you may remember from a couple of weeks ago, we are absolutely secure because God has defeated and he protects and preserves us from all of his and our enemies. So we walk around with great confidence and hope.

We sleep easy at night with a great trust in the Lord. The people are gonna find Jerusalem to be a cup of trembling, a burdensome stone, a hearth, a torch of fire to them. And the effects of that are going to be astonishment, madness, blindness, and utter destruction.

But to the people of God, they have confidence in him, salvation from him, and strength and protection by him. And at the same time that God will destroy all the enemies of his people, he will, and this comes very close to us now, he will pour out his spirit upon his chosen ones, even in Israel.

The consequence of this will be their faith in Christ, signified by looking to him whom they have pierced, and their repentance towards God expressed by mourning. And this illustration is found in that first born imagery, which we'll consider today.

The restoration from exile, the theme of Zechariah, leads us to Christ and leads us to the future renewal of his people. Let's consider first the promise. Look again at verse 10 of chapter 12. I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication.

This prophecy we considered a few weeks ago on Pentecost Sunday. This was realized in Acts chapter 2. The Holy Spirit, according to the prophecy of Joel, is going to be poured out on the people. And we learned that this experience was not necessarily normative.

It's not gonna happen every way in this manner on every Sunday. But it is the beginning of the work of the Holy Spirit being poured out on the people of God. That they might be a repenting people, that they might be a people who worship, that they might be a people who turn from their sin and turn back to God.

This is a tremendous blessing and promise that is given to the people, particularly when they have just heard that their city is going to be ravaged. That the temple is going to be overthrown. That God has not given up on the descendants of Abraham, but they have to come now like everyone else does.

They have to come in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. The question has to be asked, how will he pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication? Let's turn back to Acts 2 really quick.

There's one part I'd like you to read with your own eyes in Acts chapter 2. I'm gonna begin reading in verse 23. This is referring to Jesus. It says, him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, and your descendants have crucified and put to death.

This is going to be very important to our understanding of the morning in our section. The Jewish people are active participants and complicit in sentencing Jesus to death. This, ironically, turns out to be the means of salvation.

Their ways are wicked, but it is God's way that is righteous. And God uses the betrayal of Judas Iscariot for the salvation of men. He uses the betrayal of the Sanhedrin for the salvation of the nations.

You have taken, it's very directed. Peter is saying to the audience gathered at Pentecost, you have taken him by lawless hands. You have crucified him, and you have put to death, but God has raised him up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it.

Now, skip down to verse 29. These are incredible words from Peter, the whole section. Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne. He, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.

This Jesus, God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this, which you now see and hear.

For David did not ascend to the heavens, but he says himself, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.

And when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. Their hearts were pierced. They understood that their wickedness was the cause of Jesus going to the cross. Their wickedness was during his lifetime, they failed to see him as the Messiah.

And now recognizing this, they're pierced. They're cut to the heart. And Peter was asked, men and brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The outpouring, the spirit of grace and supplication, is the prompting and the moving of wicked men to turn in their hearts in faith to Christ. This is not self-generated. God is acting upon the hearts of the men gathered, and women, and children, everyone in that area who have gathered at Pentecost.

And a mighty working of his spirit, he opens their hearts. The grace of supplication and grace is pouring in, and salvation, and life, and hope, and a future now comes upon this remnant of the people of God.

Let's go back to our text in Zechariah 12. Zechariah is about the gospel of Jesus. How pour on the house of David, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplication. But another question has to be asked, that its fulfillment is realized at least partially with Pentecost, and the active working of the spirit in the life of the church, but how does this come to pass?

What is the basis of the spirit's outpouring upon the house of David? That last phrase, we'll spend a little time here in verse 10, the title of our message, then they will look on me, whom they pierced.

Isaiah 53 .5, do you remember these familiar words? But he was pierced. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.

You see, the piercing of the holy one, the righteous one, is the means of our salvation. And I don't know if you caught this, but God is speaking in the first person in verse 10. Can God be pierced? God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable.

And his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. God is a spirit. How can God, a spirit, be pierced? Well, in the beginning was the Word. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

The incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ is in Zechariah 12. God taking on the flesh of humanity. It's not fully developed here, but it's right there in verse 10. They're going to look upon me, it's capitalized in my English Bible appropriately, God in the first person saying, you're gonna look upon me whom you have pierced.

This is utterly profound. How does John, for example, think of this language? Let's turn to the gospel according to John in verse 19. Excuse me, chapter 19, John chapter 19. I could have quoted these to you, but I think it's sometimes good to read them.

Read the messages, read the words themselves. John 19, beginning at verse 33, it says, but when they came to Jesus, this is at the crucifixion after his death. When they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.

And here, this is not an incidental thing that happens. You see, there's so much depth and so much layers to things that are happening in places like Zechariah 12. But who can begin to palm the fathoms of the depth of the death of Christ on the cross?

This is not just a little side theater that one of the soldiers pierces his side with a spear, there's something important here. And this is gonna be the fulfillment of Zechariah 12. And it should be noted that the picture of blood and water is obviously also a picture of our sacraments, about atonement and about washing and regeneration.

The death of Christ is the salvation of sinners. The piercing of his side is the fulfillment of this incarnate Christ coming to redeem and rescue and save a wayward people. And this pictures the glories of his salvation.

Blood and water came out from his side. You know, scholars, the really smart guys, they have creative, local interpretations about what Zechariah 12 might have been about. The rabbinic scholars, they don't consider Christ.

They have another explanation. Let's keep reading. It says in verse 35, and he who has seen and testified and his testimony is true and he knows that he is telling the truth so that you may believe for these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled.

Not one of his bones shall be broken. Important prophecy found in Psalm 34, I believe. And again, here's ours. Another scripture says, they shall look upon him whom they have pierced. You see, there's something big here.

God says that his piercing, this autobiographical description of something that's going to happen. This piercing is not only going to be the cause of mourning and judgment, but it's also going to be the means of salvation.

They shall look on him whom they pierced. I was going to do this later, but since we're here, I won't do more page turning later. Turn over to the book of Revelation in chapter one. This is Johannine, big idea.

It's big for John. There's something very important about this notion of piercing. And to look upon the one who has been pierced. Revelation chapter one, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants, things which must shortly take place.

And he sent and signified it by his angel to his servant John. Who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy.

And keep those things which are written in it for the time is near. I will point out, because I have to, it's very obvious that John is writing about something that's going to happen very quickly and shortly.

8070, for example, things like that. This isn't necessarily all fulfilled in 8070, but there's a lot that happens in that first century. Now listen carefully. Verse four, John to the seven churches which are in Asia.

These are real churches that existed at the time of John's revelation. Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. Think about that description.

Who is and who was and who is to come. And from the seven spirits who are before his throne and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness. The firstborn from the dead, that firstborn language we'll pick up again a little bit later.

And the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. And made us kings and priests to his God and father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever.

Amen.

Behold, he is coming with clouds and every eye will see him. Even they who pierced him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him. This is also Zechariah chapter 12. It's all about Jesus.

It's all about looking upon the one who has been pierced. Even so, amen. And these glorious words from Jesus, I'll just finish here. And I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end says the Lord who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

Zechariah 12 telescopically looks to the future. The revelation, the atonement, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's go back and stay here now. Zechariah 12, the Lord Jesus Christ has been pierced. He's been wounded for our transgressions and he is a public spectacle.

Now here's where it gets interesting. I want you to think closely about this. The wickedness that men intended in their rebellion against God, God intends for good. Does that sound familiar? Joseph was thrown by his brothers into a pit and sold into slavery.

Joseph goes down to Egypt. And Joseph becomes the means of salvation because of the famine. And it turns out that this wicked act of the brothers, the guys who make up the very nation of Israel, the sons of Jacob.

They send their brother into this curse and he is their salvation. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ, Joseph is the firstborn son of Rachel, the favored wife of Jacob. The Lord Jesus is the firstborn over all creation.

Men intended great evil, but God intends it for good. The whole fabric of the Jewish people is bound in this imagery. This is all very readily accessible to them. What about this language? They will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son and grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn.

Do you remember the appeal that Moses would make to Pharaoh? God said, tell them this, Israel is my firstborn. Let my firstborn go that they might worship me. And the punishment for the failure to release the firstborn of Israel is the death of the firstborn of Egypt.

We know how this concludes. The Passover, the blood of the lamb protects the firstborn of Israel, and the judgment of God falls upon Egypt. But there's a superior Israel, there's a greater Jerusalem. We discovered that last time, Jesus is the true Israel.

The gathering place of the people of God is the bride, the church. And Israel, like Jacob's sons and Joseph's brothers, they reject their brother, and in the case of the Lord Jesus, they reject their elder brother, and they mourn.

I often have thought it was some grief in my heart early this morning. About the very committed Jewish people who are the Orthodox Jews in places like New York City. And many of them have devoted their academic lives to try to prove that Jesus is not the Messiah.

And I imagine them, their whole life striving in this desire to be God's people, and to be holy, and to be faithful, to find out on that day of their death, the horror, the terror of standing before the Lord Jesus Christ and saying, I spent my entire life refuting and denying the Savior of Israel.

But there's a more hopeful part of this. How many people who, in Peter's day, in Acts chapter 2, who were not believing that Jesus was the Christ, can you imagine the stricken grief that they must have experienced?

Their sin, their rejection of the Messiah and His conquering love. They cried out to say, we rejected Him, we pierced Him, we sent Him to death. And our Savior says, it's okay, I have come for this very purpose, to come into the world and to save sinners.

Even you, who have pierced me and rejected me. Do you remember Jesus' mourning on the eve of His crucifixion, that He wished He could gather up Israel under His wings? But they were haughty in spirit, they were hard-hearted, they rejected Him as the Messiah.

Can you imagine the wails and the heaving cries of the firstborn's death in Egypt? Pharaoh's hard-heartedness leads to the death of all the firstborn. And as you know, the ancient world, they get the double portion of the inheritance.

They are the hope of future generations. Pharaoh's heir died on that night. His son, his firstborn son, do you remember that?

His son died.

The guy who should be king next, he dies. The hopes of the family rests on the firstborn, and so the nation mourns. Now I think this mourning happens on many occasions. I think it happens in the immediate aftermath of the crucifixion.

Remember the man on the road to Emmaus, wasn't this the one who would be the salvation of Israel? This mourning would also extend to the rejection of the Jews over a period of time. And I think Paul is the example par excellence of what the Jewish people will experience in redemption.

Isn't it amazing to think of the apostle to the Gentiles, his hatred, his persecution of the Christian people, the church, he made it his aim and mission to snuff it out. Can you imagine the glory that God showed to him and revealed to him, the love and grace, what a spirit of grace and supplication was poured out on Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus.

Well, Jesus is the firstborn over all creation. Colossians 1, very important text, preeminent over all things, and so the people mourn. What we're going to see now is this mourning is a mourning that leads to repentance, a mourning that leads to salvation and renewal.

Look at verse 11. It says, in that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad, Raman, and the plain of Megiddo. What does that mean? Well, you guys may remember this.

It's found in both 2 Chronicles and 2 Kings that within a generation, our historian Mark will appreciate this. This was like the period of time, let's say roughly around the First or Second World War to now in American history.

Josiah, the boy king, who walked in righteousness, he had, in scripture, one very bad day of his life, and he died. Necho, the pharaoh in Egypt, was going to fight the remnants of the Assyrian kingdom, and he decided to pass through Israel.

And Josiah, from Necho's own mouth, Necho said, don't come out to fight me. My battle is not with you. The Lord has spoken through me to you. Do not come out and fight me. I have no quarrel with you. And so, Josiah camouflages himself and is struck down by an archer's arrow, and it happens at Hadad Ramon on the plain of Megiddo.

You see, on that day, according to Jeremiah, I believe it's chapter 35, there was great wailing in Israel because the light of Judah was going out. The righteous kingdom, the flickering hope of the people, the nation's hope, pinned on Josiah, were suddenly dashed.

And the people wailed and mourned as they put Josiah in a chariot and rushed him back to Jerusalem, and he is found to be dead. The wails of the nation in recent history, they all knew all the stories.

The death of Josiah is alluded to here. You say, well, what's the significance of that? Well, you see, the death of Jesus, in that moment, the people's hopes are extinguished. The apostles are scattered.

We're going to learn next couple of weeks that you strike the sheep, and the people are scattered. The sheep are scattered. The shepherd, you hit him, and the sheep will be scattered. But this king's death, in battle for his people, is their salvation.

Powerful, rich, multifaceted gemstones of the glory of Christ. Well, what's this last morning that's here in our section? The morning's for an only son. The grieving's the kind that is the guttural wail and scream of a family losing their heir and their hope for the future.

Israel was a firstborn son, but there's a better firstborn, the Lord Jesus Christ. But what about this language? Now, here's something very interesting. If you're reading this in your daily reading plan, this is very awkward language, and you just read through it.

Look what it says in verse 12. It says, and the land shall mourn, every family by itself, the family of the house of David by itself. Now, when you think about this, there is this general sense, and we're very guilty of this as Christians.

We think about our sin. We think about our sins generally. I am a sinner, and I need repentance. It's not a bad thought. But what about the house of David? They had a particular sin. You see, the king is supposed to come from David.

And so they are mourning, because they're confronted with, we're of the house and lineage of David, and we don't see Jesus as our king. That's their particular sin. The separation of the men and the women seems to follow their practice of temple worship, that they were separated.

And I think that's the reason that they're described in this way. So there's a corporate upheaval. There's a corporate confession. There's a corporate mourning. But there's also a individual mourning.

It should be pointed out to us that we sin in particular, so we have to repent particularly. There are times for us to say, oh, Lord, we're sinners. Save us. But we also have to mourn over our sin, our particular sins, and confess them to Him.

What's the second one?

Nathan.

This is a reference to the, you are the man, Nathan. This is to the prophetic class of the people. Jesus is the prophet promised by Moses, who would be a greater prophet than himself. The thus saith the Lord is amplified, and exponentially so, when the person saying it is the Lord Himself, just like in our text.

But the prophetic class, the prophets of Israel didn't see Jesus as the greatest prophet. So they have a particular way that they need to mourn over their sins. And this mourning, in both cases, leads to their salvation, because they have a godly sorrow, and our God receives them.

So we have the kingly office, and the kingly class, the David and his tribes, his family. Then we have Nathan representing the prophet. It's out of order for us, but do you see something we often refer to about the three offices of Christ?

Look at the next one in verse 13. And we have the family of the house of Levi, the priestly class. We have the king, and the prophet, and the priest. And we usually refer to this as the threefold office, the prophet, priest, and king.

The family of the house of Levi has to repent, because they don't see Jesus as the great high priest. The book of Hebrews, chapters 7 through 10, fully expounds upon the perfect priesthood and mediation of Christ.

And lastly, the family of Shimei. I believe this is some controversy about who this is. Some of the translations say Simeon. This family of Shimei, I believe, is the descendant of Levi, the priestly class.

And if we go back to the book of Numbers, we would find that this group of people, this family, were responsible for the veils, and the ropes, and the setting up of the tabernacle. They also were heavily invested, like the sons of Korah, in the singing and the worship of God.

And in fact, Asaph comes from this line. So you have the prophet, the priest, the king, and the worship leaders, and the people who facilitate and make the worship of God possible for the people represented here.

And they didn't look upon Jesus as the one to be worshipped. So they mourned. And in their mourning, God, by the power of his spirit, granted repentance and salvation. And then the catch-all in verse 14, all the families that remain, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves, the whole of Israel, and yea, of the whole of the nations, have their particular mourning they have to do when they approach Christ in faith.

They have to repent and turn from their particular sins. But when they do, they find salvation and hope in him. You and I are called to look upon the crucified Christ, the one who has been pierced for our transgressions.

We should mourn. This is a danger for us as Reformed people because we believe in forgiveness and we believe in grace. But sometimes we short-circuit this covenant renewal process. Your sin put Jesus on the cross.

And that should cause some mourning in your heart. Your wretchedness was so offensive and affront to God that Christ has to die for you. But that mourning leads to a godly sorrow, which leads to repentance and leads to salvation and it leads to joy because on that cross where the pierced one is, all of your guilt and all of your sin are taken away.

Incredible irony. So we should mourn. We need to look upon the one who has been pierced. We need to now, as the forgiven in Christ, go back to the sin that we mourn over and renounce it and mortify it, never to return there again.

Your particular sins, which were a trip, a snare to you in the past, you need to go back to those sins and say, I'm never going back there again. I'm never going to be that prideful. I'm never going to be that lustful again.

I'm never gonna be a drunkard again because I've been redeemed by Christ. And that godly sorrow, that real true lament, which we learned a few weeks ago, ultimately leads to us crying out to God for help and mercy and him hearing our cry and filling us with hope for the future.

Zechariah is telling the people that God himself is coming to rescue them. And brethren, our savior has come and he's rescued us. Let us look upon the one whom they have pierced. A brief word of application, we'll close here.

Want to reiterate something we talked about on Pentecost Sunday. You and I need to be filled with the spirit and we need to stop acting as though we are slaves of sin, Romans six. It is good reform doctrine to speak of radical corruption, but it's also an excuse.

You have been washed in the blood of the lamb. Rivers of living water have washed over you. Go and sin no more. Be filled with the spirit. A great meditation as we come to communion. Number two, look upon Christ whom you have pierced.

Third, you need to mourn over sin, but you don't mourn as the world does. Godly sorrow leads to repentance. It really leads to a renewal of covenant. It leads to salvation. Rejoice today in the salvation that's found in Christ.

It was as if you and I were at the cross mocking Christ with the Roman soldiers. Our sin is heaped upon him and we're mocking him in our unbelief and him saving us anyway. That's the glory of this gospel of Jesus Christ.

Israel's rejected him and time and time and time again they've rejected him. They're a stiff necked and obstinate people and God extends his mercy and grace to them. We should expect a full harvest and salvation of the Jewish people because God never forgets his promises.

And fourth, finally, our repentance is corporate and in the evangelical world there's very little corporate repentance. It's embedded in our liturgy. This repentance is also very personal. The house of David, the house of Nathan, the house of Levi and Shammai, they all had particular causes of mourning and you and I have particular things that we need to continue to repent of.

We sin particularly so we have to repent in particular. What a glorious God. What a glorious salvation. And isn't it wonderful that he, in his mercy and kindness, sprinkles gemstones of Christ's glory all over the pages of scripture for us to discover and find.

Let's pray together. Oh Lord, I thank you that you've poured out your spirit upon us and you have anticipated since the fall that there would be a redeemer who would be Christ the Lord and you take us, oh Lord, from the latter part of Genesis and you show us a picture of Joseph and you take us through the Psalms and you take us to Boaz as a kinsman redeemer and you show us Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses and David.

You even showed us today, Lord, some of the riches and the righteousness of Josiah, but all of them bow the knee to you. Josiah had a bad day and he died. Moses was not allowed to go into the promised land, but oh Lord, you fulfill all righteousness and you will reign and be worshiped and adored forever.

Oh Lord Jesus, we confess that you are the firstborn over all creation and you have dominion and first place and first rank and superiority in all things. We cry out to you with thanksgiving that you have loved sinners, that you call men everywhere to repent and believe, that you call us to look upon you whom we have pierced.

Imprint this into our hearts, Holy Spirit, use this for some good in the hearts of your people and we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.