The Rejection of The Worthy Shepherd
November 10, 2022
Commentary
This chapter is probably the darkest chapter of Israel’s history. It can be divided as follows:
The desolation of the land (vv. 1-3).The details of the Messiah’s rejection (vv. 4-14).The destruction of the anti-Christ (vv. 15-17).In this passage God told Zechariah to act out the roles of two different kinds of shepherds. The first type of shepherd demonstrated how God would reject his people (the sheep) because they rejected Him (vv. 1-14). The second type of shepherd demonstrated how God would give over His people to the evil shepherd (vv. 15-17). This is what the Lord said to me, Zechariah. ‘My people are like sheep. There will be a time when men will buy them. And then they will kill them. But feed them until that time (v. 4). Those men who buy the sheep will kill them (v. 5). Nobody will punish them. They will sell them. And they will say, “Thank you Lord, because I am a rich man.”
The foreign kings will do very bad things to the country, but I will not come to help (v. 6).’ So I was a good shepherd to the sheep that men would soon kill. I thought specially about the weakest sheep. Then I took two sticks. And I called one stick ‘Grace’ and I called the other stick ‘Together’. I fed the sheep (v. 7). In one month, I sent away three shepherds. They did not like me and I was not patient with them (v. 8). I said to the sheep, ‘I will not be your shepherd and you will die. The sheep that do not die will eat each other (v. 9).’I took ‘Grace’, which was my first stick. I broke it into two pieces (v. 10). The Lord’s promise to his people finished. On the day that the Lord’s promise finished, the oppressed sheep watched me. They knew that it was the Lord’s message (v. 11).
Application
In this chapter the leaders of Israel have failed. If I fail as a leader in my home or ministry He will hold me accountable like he did the leaders in that day.
Zechariah 11:1– 11 (NET)
1 Open your gates, Lebanon, so that the fire may consume your cedars.
2 Howl, fir tree, because the cedar has fallen; the majestic trees have been destroyed. Howl, oaks of Bashan, because the impenetrable forest has fallen.
3 Listen to the howling of shepherds, because their magnificence has been destroyed. Listen to the roaring of young lions, because the thickets of the Jordan have been devastated.
4 The Lord my God says this: “Shepherd the flock set aside for slaughter. 5 Those who buy them slaughter them and are not held guilty; those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich.’ Their own shepherds have no compassion for them. 6 Indeed, I will no longer have compassion on the people of the land,” says the Lord, “but instead I will turn every last person over to his neighbor and his king. They will devastate the land, and I will not deliver it from them.”
7 So I began to shepherd the flock destined for slaughter, the most afflicted of all the flock. Then I took two staffs, calling one “Pleasantness” and the other “Union,” and I tended the flock. 8 Next I eradicated the three shepherds in one month, for I ran out of patience with them and, indeed, they detested me as well. 9 I then said, “I will not shepherd you. What is to die, let it die, and what is to be eradicated, let it be eradicated. As for those who survive, let them eat each other’s flesh!”
10 Then I took my staff “Pleasantness” and cut it in two to annul my covenant that I had made with all the people. 11 So it was annulled that very day, and then the most afflicted of the flock who kept faith with me knew that it was the Lord’s message.
Illustration: Lincoln Too Big to Cry And Too Hurt to Laugh
In 1858 the Illinois legislature-using an obscure statute-sent Stephen A. Douglas to the U.S. Senate instead of Abraham Lincoln, although Lincoln had won the popular vote. When a sympathetic friend asked Lincoln how he felt, he said, “Like the boy who stubbed his toe: I am too big to cry and too badly hurt to laugh.” (Source unknown).