ZECHARIAH 11: 1-10- (17)
THE TRUE SHEPHERD REJECTED or TRUE AND FALSE SHEPHERDS
Zechariah means whom the Lord remembers and as his name indicates he is strikingly a prophet of hope and glory. His visions have spanned the centuries to bring us the encouraging hope of future deliverance by the coming of the Deliverer and King. By giving people insight into the future purposes of God, they were enabled to rise above the discouragements and baffling circumstances of their own day.
So now this prophet of hope and glory, since he is also a prophet of truth and reality, glimpses the fearful episode of Israel and the nations apostasy demonstrated in their rejection of the Good Shepherd (Zech. 11:1-4) and their acceptance of the Worthless Shepherd (11:15-17).
For there is great sorrow and woe because of the world’s refusing to accept the True Shepherd-Messiah at His first coming and will be again its taking up with the False Shepherd during the time of great woe before the second advent of the Messiah.
Tonight, let us hear and heed the Word of God and learn to distinguish between true and false shepherds and apply the Word to ourselves personally to see how we are measuring up to the church’s task of shepherding.
I. THE PASTURE DEVASTATED, 11: 1-3
II. THE SELFISH SHEPHERD, 11:4 -10
III. THE GOOD SHEPHERD REJECTED, 11:11-14
IV. THE EVIL SHEPHERD ACCEPTED, 11:15-17
Chapters 9 and 10 reveal that Israel will be in trouble in the last days until the Messiah comes to rescue them and establish His earthly kingdom. How did they get into such trouble? They invited such trouble upon themselves by following their false shepherds and rejecting their Messiah, the true Shepherd, when He first came to lead them.
The tragedy of this dark chapter is struck in the opening verses which form a prelude to the sinister events foretold. The stirring language is crouched in words of rhetoric and poetic imagery.
I. THE PASTURE DEVASTATED, 1-3
In verses 1 & 2 Zechariah announces that trouble is coming. "Open your doors, O Lebanon, that a fire may feed on your cedars. Wail, O fir, for the cedar has fallen. Because the glorious (trees) have been destroyed; Wail, O oak of Bashan, for the impenetrable forest has come down."
In vivid and striking terms the prophet begins by addressing Mt. Lebanon. This impressive mountain is over 14,000 feet and its highest ridge is perpetually snow capped. The mountain is not only addressed as a person or animate being but figuratively as a fortress or fortified city as is Bashan. Bashan was in the northern part of the territory across the Jordan river bordering Lebanon on the north (Ps. 68:15, 1 Chron. 5:23) today it is known as the Golan Heights. [It was allotted to the half tribe of Manasseh (Num. 21:33-35; 32:33; Jos. 13:29-30; 17:5).]
Because of Lebanon’s height and inaccessible position it is likened to a mountain citadel which is so defiantly doomed to destruction by fire that it may as well forget all thoughts of defense and resistance and open its doors and let the fire enter and consume its beautiful cedars. The humbler fir or cypress is commanded to wail over the fall of the great and mighty cedar. In Scripture, when the higher have fallen, the lower are often bidden to take up a lament because if the mightier are not spared the downfall of the more defenseless is assured.
Bashan was renowned for its splendid forest of oaks (Isa. 2:13, Ezek. 27:6). The forest of Lebanon, because of its rocky height, steep slope and thickness of growth, is called inaccessible (or impenetrable-walled). The prophet addresses Bashan’s famous oaks and dramatically commands them to wail (lament, howl, cry out) as he did the firs of Lebanon. If you have ever been in a forest and heard the wind rushing through the trees it can sound like wailing. The fire of God would fall on the forests of Lebanon which furnished timbers for the temples (1 Kings 5:6).
The leaders, represented by shepherds and lions are addressed in verse 3. "There is the sound of the shepherds’ wail, for their glory is ruined; there is the sound of the young lions roar, for the pride of the Jordan is ruined."
The "shepherds" are heard howling like an animal, yelling out in distress over their great lost. For not only the forests but the lush green pasture land where they were accustomed to tending their flocks (Deut. 32:14, Ezek. 39:18) and make their livelihood are destroyed. The crackling fire has spread its devouring and consumed the glory or splendor of the land.
The jungle like growth that adorns the narrow Jordan valley because of its moisture grew willows, tamarisk, cane and luxuriant grasses and was a favorite haunt of lions until 1200 A.D. In this river valley the lions roar is heard. Young lions have an almost insatiable appetite (Judg. 14:5, Ps. 17:12, 104:21) and when their habitat and lairs are destroyed so are their food and home. Nothing in the world is so disastrous as the sin of pride.
Pride is the raising up, the exalting of one’s self. When people look to the land as their provider instead of God it is only right that God devastate their idol and humbled their pride (Jer. 25:34-38). (Isa.10:34, Ezek. 17:8, Jer. 22:6).
In pride the rulers and the people turned on the Messiah and asked the Romans to crucify Him. Forty years, in 70 A.D. after the Jews rejected the Messiah, the Romans marched down through Lebanon through the Jordan Valley and into Jerusalem itself. They destroyed Jerusalem, the temple, and then later the fortress at Masada, with horrifying loss of life. The Romans then scattered the Jews to the nations of the world. Because Israel rejected their Messiah they have experienced great judgment and lostness, still to this day.
II. THE SELFISH SHEPHERDING, 11: 4-10.
The reason for the decimating calamity so graphically depicted in verses 1-3 is now explained. The crime is hard-hearted unbelief in God’s Good Shepherd and colossal wickedness. The cause of the judgment is the rejection of the Messiah by Israel (4-10). Because they continue to reject God’s Shepherd the people would be ruled by unworthy leaders (15-17).
As a representative of the coming Messiah, Zechariah is told to pasture God’s rebellious flock or people in verse 4. Thus says the LORD my God, "Pasture the flock doomed to slaughter." Whoever else might be included as an under-shepherd, it is the Messiah who is given the task of feeding the flock doomed to be slaughtered (Ps. 44:22). The word pasture or tend is the imperative form of the common word ‘ra’ah and indicates the shepherding tasks in its broadest sense is to be done; the caring, feeding, leading, nursing, etc. of the sheep (Ps. 23; Ezek. 34). This command to pasture is a manifestation of God’s mercy as He attempts to intervene on behalf of the people in their plight. In love and compassion the good shepherd strives to save a flock that is headed for certain destruction because they are following false shepherds.
The flock of slaughter designation is given because they are doomed or destined for butchering instead of shearing. The flock has become so designated because of the refusal to obey God’s covenant and ultimately because of their rejection of the Messiah. Thus this is a momentous prediction of the Messiah’s future rejection by Israel and then by the world.
Verse 5 refers to either foreign or domestic leaders who are enslaving them possibly by exploitation. Those who buy them slay them and go unpunished, and each of those who sell them says, "Blessed be the LORD for I have become rich!" and their own shepherds have no pity on them.
Those that are buying and selling the Jewish people are probably their own kind for pagan Gentiles did not ever say bless YHWH. The participle suggests the buying and selling were unceasing activities which was allowed to go unchecked as an element of divine punishment against society for its unbelief and sin that culminates in the rejection of Messiah.
The exploited innocent have no place to turn for recourse for their leaders are instigating duplicity and thus see nothing wrong with it. And the shepherds who should be speaking out do not and thus are of no help in bringing about repentance.
Their "own shepherds" we understand to be their own civil and religious rulers those who ought to have fed and defended the people - "pity them not." Because of their selfishness they were the main cause of the sheep becoming prey, proving themselves false shepherds.
The clearest fulfillment thus appears to be the Pharisees and Sadducees who were bare faced hypocrites. They thanked God for their ill-gotten wealth (Lk. 18:9-14) and because of their legalistic control of society imagined themselves immune to punishment. How they were wrong!
Exploitation reaches its zenith when those that are to protect society from it are involved in it. That’s then, but now - today - lottery, abortion, homosexuality, political correctness, public education agenda, etc.
Verse 6 shows why this state of affairs would arise. "For I shall no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land, ‘declares the LORD;’ but behold, I shall cause the men to fall, each into another’s power and into the power of his king; and they will strike the land, and I shall not deliver (them) from their power."
The climax of their plight is that the Lord will no longer pity or have mercy on the Jews once they reject the Messiah. God’s mercy is what keeps the natural repercussions for our sins from taking place. The people have courted destruction by showing no pity to others so none will be shown to them.
Notice it says they will fall into another’s power and the power of "his King," a king of the peoples own choice. Jesus Christ came to be their Shepherd-King, but they refused Him and chose another. Read John 19:12-16 . "We have no King but Caesar." Having deliberately made this terrible choice the people were "delivered" into Caesar’s hand and Rome would strike them.
The story is told at length in Josephus’ The Jewish War. For years before this war the country had been in turmoil, various small skirmishes against the existing authorities being commonplace. At last revolutionaries gained control of Jerusalem and massacred the Roman garrison stationed there. The year was A.D. 66. In the next year General Vespasian, dispatched by Nero, arrived in Antioch. From there he moved first against the fortified towns of Galilee, subduing or arranging the surrender of each, and then against Jerusalem.
In A.D. 68 Nero died, and after a considerable delay Vespasian was proclaimed the new emperor. He returned to Rome, leaving his second-in-command, Titus, to carry on the war. By this time Jerusalem was host to three rival factions, which made negotiations with the Romans impossible and greatly intensified the coming tragedy. Jerusalem was surrounded. Food was cut off. People starved; some even resorted to cannibalism. Steadily the Romans broke through wall after wall, defense after defense, and the defenders were driven back to the temple. On July 17, A.D. 70, the daily sacrifices came to an end. The gates of the temple were burned and then the temple itself. Thousands were crucified, and about a million and a half perished in the war with Rome. The victorious Titus set up Roman standards in the temple court and returned to Rome to celebrate his triumph in the year A.D. 71. Through this great war and a later series of rebellions and reprisals, Judaism ceased to exist politically, and the Jewish people were widely scattered throughout the known world.
The terrible reality of the prophecy came about within the city of Jerusalem with the Roman siege that lead to the 70 AD fall. And so the Romans destroyed the Jewish state. But why did the Jews hand Jesus over to the Romans anyway? Read John 11:48-50. What they feared would happen if they followed Jesus, the lost of the nation, happened because they did not follow Him. God’s poetic justice. Those who refuse to give God’s His rights will forfeit their own rights.
In verse 7 the Shepherd takes up two staffs to carry out His duties. "So I pastured the flock (doomed) to slaughter, hence the afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two staffs. The one I called favor (Grace) and the other I called Union; so I pastured the flock."
[Here it appears we have Zechariah acting out the prophetic message of the Messianic Shepherd-King, or he is seeing himself in the experience.] Christ’s mission was to bring back the lost sheep of the house of Israel so that He might shepherd or pasture them. Mt.15:24, 10:6-7. But the masses would prove obstinate and rebellious and would not hear the voice of the Good Shepherd so they are called the sheep doomed to slaughter. Yet a fold or a remnant of the flock called "affected" because they choose the Messiah’s pasturing instead of the people’s leadership, would hear His voice and follow Him. For the sake of that remnant among the flock, God would watch over them all.
To watch over them God’s shepherd is given two staffs. The shepherd carried a staff to guide the flock to green pastures and defend them from their enemies. The names of the staves indicates God’s good purposes toward them. The staff favor or grace symbolizes the preferential treatment that God’s covenant people receive. The staff union symbolizes the binding or oneness that holds them together as a flock or nation. With these staffs the true shepherd does His loving, kind, gracious, tender, unifying care for the afflicted sheep of His flock (Acts 10:38).
Verse 8 sets for the falling out between the Shepherd and the flock. "Then I annihilated the three shepherds in one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also detested me."
The annihilated three shepherds may mean that the good Shepherd will dispose of unfit leaders. The three shepherds are possibly three orders or class of shepherd-leaders of the Nation. Priestly leaders - Aaronic Priesthood; civil authorites, Sadducees; and third teachers or interpreters of the law, the Pharisees. Or it could mean those who were in agreement with wicked rulers of the Jewish nation, those dissatisfied and disgusted with Christ. Christ lost His patience with them calling them blind guides and white wash tombs. The Sanhedrin looked for ways to trip Him up and killed Him when they could not shut Him up.
"Detested" is-loathed - nauseated. There was mutual disgust because they reject the pasturing of grace and union. Light rejected brings greater darkness.
The prophet, in representation of the future actions of Shepherd–King, says in verse 9 that he will no longer shepherd the flock. Then I said, "I will not pasture you. What is to die, let it die, what is to be annihilated, let it be annihilated; and let those who are left eat one another’s flesh."
The terrible consequences of the rejection of Jesus of Nazareth was that even the long suffering of God was finally exhausted. And so we find the national rejection of Israel by the Good Shepherd dramatically set forth in a decisive announcement, I will not shepherd you, meaning that all-inclusive comprehensive care of the LORD for Israel would cease.
What is dying let die describes the sheep as being sick beyond recovery. So the Shepherd will no longer attempt to bind up the wounds or give medication or bring them in from the cold. He just lets them die. By withholding his shepherding, the people are left to the inevitable consequences of their chosen course — and that is always downwards (Gen. 6:5-6).
They are disowned or cut off by the Good Shepherd and therefore are exposed to destruction by their enemies. The Shepherd gives up the survivors of death and destruction to starvation and cannibalism (Ezek. 6:12). This is the prediction of the cruel famine that occurred when the Romans sieged Jerusalem in 70 AD. Josephus records that those besieged actually ate one another’s flesh.
The prophet in verse 10 relates a symbolic action which vividly portrayed what was to come upon the people. "And I took My staff, favor, and cut it in pieces, to break My covenant which I had made with all the peoples."
The rejection of the sheep because they have rejected the Shepherd has results. Therefore by a symbolic act, He destroys the staff depicting that the favor which God showed Israel will be no more. This indicated the breaking of the first covenant which God made with all the people. God rejected His people, His sheep, because they rejected Him and His pasturing. He rejected them and broke His covenant of grace with them because they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ and would not have Him as their Shepherd. Though Jesus fed them they became sheep doomed for slaughter.
To reject the shepherding of the Good Shepherd is to become shepherded by another shepherd. Though the nation would hold together for another forty years the Jewish Nation would no longer be the special recipient of divine favor.
The reason for God’s friendly relation to Israel had been guaranteed by nothing less than a covenant which God had made with all the peoples. The plural peoples - refers to all the nations (Ex. 19:5, Deut. 28:10, Isa. 8:9, Neh. 9:22,24). When God made a covenant with Israel it extended to any and all who desired to come into fellowship with God by accepting its principles.
CONCLUSION
The afflicted of the flock recognized Jesus as the true Messiah, who understood that His origin was in God. With these He would form a New Covenant. This covenant would be inaugurated in His blood shed for the forgiveness of sin.
All who come to the Good Shepherd to become part of His flock do so by entering into the New Covenant relationship. They hear His voice and follow His Word. He shepherd’s them home to His eternal pasture because of His love for them.
Have you accepted Him as your Shepherd? Are you being pastured by His Word of grace and unified by His Spirit?
