What does Tribe teach about zechariah 12?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on Zechariah 12 starts with context. Brian introduced Zechariah as a minor prophet writing around 520 BC to Jewish exiles who had just returned from roughly seventy years of captivity in Babylon. The people needed encouragement about their immediate circumstances, and yet God chose to speak through Zechariah about events far in the future, specifically events tied to the second coming of Jesus. That gap between what the people wanted to hear and what God decided to address became a framing idea for the whole conversation.
Before working through the text, Pastor Brian laid out how biblical prophecy works: it tends to carry multiple layers of fulfillment at once, not just a single moment you check off and move on from. He pointed to Peter on the day of Pentecost quoting Joel as the model, someone who had read enough scripture that when events unfolded around him, he could recognize them. The phrase 'on that day,' which appears repeatedly in Zechariah 12, is a marker pointing toward the second coming of Jesus, meaning the sharpest fulfillment of this chapter still belongs to a future generation. Verses two and three held the center of the teaching. Jerusalem is described as an intoxicating drink that makes surrounding nations stagger and as an immovable rock that injures anyone who tries to move it. Brian placed those images alongside current events, and out of that conversation came the point that Brian put plainly: "Everyone must drink from the cup of Israel. It is a stone in all of our paths."
Verse 10, where God says he will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer and the people will look on the one they have pierced, is addressed to the generation alive when that day actually arrives. The mourning described at the end of the chapter, with husbands and wives grieving separately, reflects Jewish tradition around formal communal grief. Brian was careful throughout to hold the weight of what is happening, acknowledging that people are dying and the situation is genuinely heavy. For anyone feeling that weight personally, the word from this text was direct: "No matter what you're going through, if it feels like you are under attack on multiple different fronts, hold your ground."
Taught from Zechariah 12 · Joel 2 · Acts 2 · Matthew 24 · Daniel 7
“Everyone must drink from the cup of Israel. It is a stone in all of our paths.”
From The Cup of Israel
The passage taught · Acts 2
1 Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all with one accord in one place.
2 Suddenly there came from the sky a sound like the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
3 Tongues like fire appeared and were distributed to them, and one sat on each of them.
4 They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- October 7, 2024 The Cup of Israel Brian Hunter walks Tribe through Zechariah 12, connecting its prophecy about Jerusalem to current events in Israel and asking what the cup of Israel reveals in each of us.
- October 6, 2024 The Cup of Israel Brian Hunter walks through Zechariah 12, connecting its prophecies about Jerusalem to current events in Israel and asking what the cup of Israel reveals about our own hearts.