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
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?
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?
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?
