HIS OFFER REJECTED

                                                              11:1-12

The scene on the prophetic stage begins to change in this chapter. In chapters 9-10, the picture is of a Great Shepherd promising His people restoration and deliverance. The remnant of Zechariah’s day hoped for ultimate deliverance from their enemies. Completing the Temple building meant that Messiah might soon return to set up his kingdom! But chapter 11 paints an ugly picture of the rejection of the true messianic Shepherd at His first coming and introduces a false shepherd who deceives and destroys the flock. A somber picture first forms the prelude to this chapter. The first 3 verses, picture fire sweeping down on Israel with devastating force. “Lebanon,” “Bashan,” and “Jordan” represent Israel from the north, inland, and down the Jordan valley to its southern most borders. The destructive scene causes the shepherds to lament the loss of: “the dense forest cut down”(v.2). They cry out like “roaring lions” because their “the lush thicket of the Jordan is ruined”(v.3). As the chapter unfolds, it becomes clear that the prophet is projecting the final destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD under general Titus who destroyed the whole Jewish State.

The Lord then asks Zechariah to play a leading role during the rest of this chapter. The scene pictures pastureland, trees and shepherds. These shepherds represent Israel's leaders. Zechariah then plays the part of a true shepherd, a metaphor of Christ, and the rejection He encountered. The instructions given in verses 4-6 are acted out in verses 7-14.

Verses 4-6: This is what the Lord my God says, “Pasture the flock marked for slaughter. Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Praise the Lord, I am rich!’ Their own shepherds do not spare them. For I will no longer have pity on the people of the land,” declares the Lord.

Zechariah may have worn a shepherd’s cloak flailing his staff as he cried out to the crowds entering the Temple, warning them of the rebellious path their officials were leading them. They were “pasturing them for slaughter,” and then “praising the Lord” for their riches. McComiskey states: “The picture is that of a sheep market, with buyers and sellers haggling over the sheep. Those who buy them do not put them out to pasture, but slaughter them wholesale, threatening the flock with extermination – and no one holds them accountable for this waste. The merchants count their profits, blessing God for their new found wealth, while the shepherds who tended this flock spared none of them”(The Minor Prophets,p.1191).

The drama that follows focuses on Zechariah’s role-play of the Christ, the true Shepherd, being rejected and sold for the price of a gored slave (Ex.21:32)

Verses 7-9: So I pastured the flock marked for slaughter particularly the oppressed of the flock. Then I took two staffs and called one Favor and the other Union, and I pastured the flock. In one month, I got rid of the three shepherds. The flock detested me, and I grew weary of them, and said, “I will not be your shepherd. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish. Let those who are left eat one another's flesh.”

As he continues his symbolic activity, the prophet takes two staffs and calls one “Favor” and the other “Union.” Eastern shepherds often carried two staffs, a club to ward off wild animals and the crook to guide or retrieve wayward sheep (Ps.23:4). Jesus likens Himself to the Good Shepherd who gives His life for His sheep (John 10:11). Regrettably, “He came unto His

own but His own received Him not” (John 1:11). Verse 9 presents the crucial point in the story where the shepherd resolves no longer to tend the sheep: “I will not be your shepherd. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish. Let those who are left eat one another's flesh”(v.9). One can read that climactic moment of final rejection in the life of Christ when He pronounced His “woes” against the scribes, Pharisees and elders in Matthew 23:13-36 perhaps referring to the prophet’s statement “in one month I got rid of the three shepherds.”

Verses 10-14: Then I took my staff called Favor and broke it, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations. It was revoked on that day, and so the afflicted of the flock who were watching me knew it was the word of the Lords. I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter” –the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord to the potter. Then I broke my second staff called Union, breaking the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

Suddenly, in a symbolic gesture of anger, the prophet breaks the staff called “Favor” in two. The broken staff symbolized the end of God’s grace toward Israel, allowing hostile nations to again invade the Land. Those dark days of carnage and destruction did not come in the prophet’s lifetime. However, some 200+ years later during the Seleucid period, the brutal forces of Antiochus IV Epiphanies entered Palestine intending to impose Hellenistic customs on the Jews. The ultimate blow to Jewish faith came when Antiochus offered a pig on the Brazen Alter and then set the god Zeus in the Holy Place. Providentially, God allowed a small band of Jewish loyalists under Judas Maccabeus to defeat Antiochus’ forces and restore the Temple removing the symbols of Hellenistic religion. While the broken staff “Favor” attests to the termination of God’s obligation to shut out hostile powers, it does not answer all the elements of the test: “I will not rescue them from their hands” (v. 6) which was not true in view of the Jews stunning victory over Antiochus in 167 BC. So a future fulfillment had to be considered in this prophecy. Most probably it pointed to its final fulfillment under Titus, following the rejection of Messiah.

The invasion of Palestine led by General Titus in 70AD does collaborate with Josephus’ record of the civil wars that raged in Palestine during the time of Christ and the carnage witnessed in Jerusalem where over a million were slaughtered and starvation forced many into cannibalistic behavior. “Then I took my staff Favor and broke it, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations. It was revoked on that day (vs.10-11).

While still acting out the part of the good shepherd, the prophet symbolically pictures Jesus, asking those he came to shepherd what they felt he was worth to them. In mocking response the leaders: “paid me thirty pieces of silver” (v.12b), the exact price Judas received for betraying Jesus (Matt.26: 14-16). Forty short years after Jesus was crucified and raised, the cruel events of 70AD took place and the desolation of Israel was completed: “There is the sound of wailing shepherds! For their glory is in ruins…for the pride of the Jordan is in ruins” (v.3 NKJ).

Verses 15-17: Then the Lord said to me, “Take again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. For I am going to raise up a shepherd over the land who will not care for the lost, but will eat the meat of the choice sheep, tearing off their hoofs. Woe to the worthless shepherd who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his eye! May his arm be completely withered, his right eye totally blinded.”

There is a time lapse that takes place on the prophetic stage in these last four verse as the prophecy jumps from the first century AD to the great tribulation period spoken of by Daniel in (9:27) just before Christ’s second coming to earth. With the removal of the true Shepherd, the drama now focuses on a foolish shepherd foreshadowing the Beast/Antichrist; also called the man of lawlessness (Dan.7:8; 9:27; 2 Thess.2:3-12). The gap between verse 14 and 15 indicates a period of over 2000 years. Again, it is important to point out the prophet’s telescopic view of end time events. They did not see the valley between the two peaks :( His first and second coming),which was fulfilled during the Church age.

The false shepherd’s true identity is revealed. Instead of feeding the sheep, this worthless shepherd deserts and eats the sheep. He cares nothing for those in distress but rather destroys them. He, however, is raised up by the permissive will of God in the same way that the Assyrian and Babylonians were raised to punish Israel for their apostasy. This foolish shepherd will not “care for the lost...heal the injured or feed the healthy...(but will)tear off their hoofs...and deserts the flock” (v.14,15a).

Suddenly, the tables turn on this worthless shepherd as judgment is pronounced against him: “the sword will strike his arm and his eye”(v.17b), symbolically pointing to his strength and intelligence. Antichrist’s demise is graphically foretold by the apostle Paul: “then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming”(2 Thess.2:8) or as Zechariah so graphically concludes his chapter: “may his arm be completely withered, his right eye totally blinded”

TWO SHEPHERDS COMPARED

THE TEMPLE PLANS WERE NOW COMPLETE
SOME TIME HAD LAPSED BUT THEY FORGOT
THAT YAHWEH WAS THEIR SHEPHERD GUIDE
AND ALL THEIR NEEDS HE HAD SUPPLIED.

FALSE SHEPHERDS SOON BEGAN TO LEAD
AND OTHER GOD'S DID INTERCEDE
LIKE WONDERING SHEEP THEY WENT ASTRAY
BECAUSE THEY SOUGHT DIVINER'S WAY.

GOD'S SHEPHERD HEART WAS THEN REVEALED
THE NATURE OF HIS LOVE EXPLAINED
HIS TRUTH WOULD TRIUMPH IN THE END
SO THAT THROUGH HIM THEY COULD DEPEND.

HE IS THE CORNERSTONE OF FAITH
THE PEG THAT STABILIZES TRUTH
THE BATTLE BOW THAT CONQUERS SIN
THE PROMISE OF DECISIVE WIN.

THE WONDERING TRIBES OF ISRAEL STILL
HAVE BLINDED EYES THAT CANNOT SEE
AND YET HE LONGS TO DO HIS PART
IF THEY RETURN WITH CONTRITE HEART.

THE SHEPHERD CALLS HIS WONDERING SHEEP
FROM DISTANT SHORES BEYOND THEIR REACH
SO ALL THEIR CHILDREN COULD RETURN
AND FINALLY REACH THEIR NATIVE HOME.

THOUGH TRIBULATION TRIALS COME
LIKE SURGING WAVES OF WAR AND DEATH
THE ARM OF YAHWEH WILL ARISE
AND GRANT TO THEM THE VICTOR'S PRIZE.

BUT SAD THE STORY QUICKLY SHOWS
HOW SOON THE SUN THAT HARDENS CLAY
CAN TURN THE BLESSINGS HAVEN SENDS
TO GRANITE HEARTS THAT WON'T OBEY.

THE DOORS OF TROUBLE SOON APPEAR
LIKE FIRE DESTROYING HARVEST GRAIN
AS WAILING SHEPHERDS LOOSE THEIR FLOCK
BECAUSE THEIR IS NO LONGER RAIN.

THEN ZECHARIAH WALKED ON STAGE
TO ILLUSTRATE GOD'S ACTIVE PART
HE TOOK A SHEPHERD'S ROD AND STAFF
SO THEY COULD FEEL HIS LOVING HEART.

BUT WICKED SHEPHERDS TOOK THEIR STAND
WITH SCRIBES AND PRIEST'S DECEPTIVE PLAN
THE PRICE OF 30 COINS THEY TOSSED
BY NAILING CHRIST UPON THE CROSS.

SO WHEN THE ROMAN TROOPS ARRIVED
THE BROKEN STAFF GOD SYMBOLIZED
BECAME THE NATION'S BATTLE BLOWS
AS ANTI SEMITE HATRED SHOWS.

YET ONE LAST SHEPHERD FILLS THE STAGE
WHO LOOKS MORE LIKE A BEAST WITH RAGE
BUT WHEN MESSIAH'S KING RETURNS
THIS ARMAGEDDON SHEPHERD BURNS.
--B.PENT

                                                 THOUGHT QUESTIONS

1. The Temple was completed and sacrifices were resumed but instead of seeking the Lord what do verses 1-2 whose counsel were they following and why? What warning does that trigger for us as Christians? Explain

2. In verses 3-8, Yahweh expresses His longing to Shepherd Israel in spite of their apostasy. What are some of the promises He makes to them and what comfort would that have been to those remaining faithful to Him?

   3. Verses 9-12 tells of trouble ahead and their being scattered among the Gentile nations. Can you recall some of those times in the past and what is yet ahead for them during the Great Tribulation?
3. 
   4. Chapter 11:1-3 opens with metaphors that suggest destruction and devastation for Israel. In context it seems to point the Roman invasion under Titus. What picture did Jesus give in Matthew 24 of Jerusalem and its Temple during that time?
   
   
4. 5. The rest of this chapter describes the Good shepherds and the false shepherd. Can you briefly describe each shepherd and according
   to verses 12-13 what they finally do to the Good Shepherd?
   
   6. In verses 15-17, Zechariah takes a leap into the distant Tribulation period. How is the false shepherd described and how does it end?