If you were here last week you may remember that ch 10 of Zechariah talks about God the Shepherd, who promises to care for his flock. The reason he has to do that himself is because the leaders of Israel have failed. Well, Zechariah continues that theme in ch11 as he talks about this failure of leadership and what it’ll result in.
Now before we get into looking at this chapter in detail it’s worth reflecting on the fact that again this is a very contemporary issue. Everywhere you look in our world today you discover leadership crises. In the political arena, in business, in our schools, in our churches. It’s been said that opposition parties don’t win elections in Australia, governments lose them. We know that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. As you look around the world at the leaders of various nations what you discover is that these leaders are either incompetent or self-serving, weaklings or tyrants, or simply corrupt. It’s very rare to find good leaders at the highest level. And it’s no better when we look closer to home. Even in our churches we have a crisis of leadership. One of the findings of the Diocesan Task Group on Church Health was that church health depends on good leadership. Yet we find so many churches that are in decline. Is that because of poor leadership perhaps? On the other hand it’s been said by one of our bishops, that churches tend to get the leaders they deserve. I take that to mean that churches who want good leadership go looking for good leaders, while those who don’t want leadership actually choose vicars who won’t lead. In fact one of the reasons we have poor leadership in the world is the level of indifference among those who choose leaders. Someone has said that the problem with the world is that the worst act with passionate intensity, while the best lack all conviction.
The sad thing about all this is that one of the main tasks God gave us when he put us here on earth was to function as his stewards in caring for the earth. We were given dominion over the creation. In other words we were put here to exercise leadership over the earth. Yet as you read the account of the creation it isn’t long before that leadership falls down. It’s argued by some commentators that at the heart of the fall in Gen 3 was a failure of leadership. It wasn’t just that Adam & Eve wanted to be like God, it wasn’t just the sin of pride, though that was certainly the case. It was also that they failed the test of leadership over the creation.
So what did God do about that? He chose a people for himself who would follow him and do as he said. He would be their leader and they would follow where he led. The picture that’s used is of God being their shepherd. So Psalm 80 begins: "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock! You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth." He would lead them and care for them.
As the nation grew, God appointed leaders to stand in his place, under-shepherds to act on his behalf. Moses and Aaron, Joshua, the judges. The classic example of course was David. As Psalm 70 says: "He chose his servant David, and took him from the sheepfolds; 71from tending the nursing ewes he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel, his inheritance." So David and those who came after him were to shepherd the nation. But what happened with these shepherds, these leaders of the flock? Well, like leaders everywhere, they failed. And as we’ll see in a moment, the people also failed to accept the leadership of their leaders.
In fact what we have here in Zechariah 11 is almost like a potted version of the history of Israel. Here Zechariah is called to act out what has been happening, and what will continue to happen in Israel if they don’t change their ways. He’s to take the part of God as shepherd of his people.
Like so many prophecies of this type, it’s difficult to work out exactly what period of history is being referred to. There are elements that point to the past, and there are elements that point to the future. There’s a sense in which the things that are described here are repeated mistakes that happen over and over in the history of God’s people and in fact continue to happen from place to place and from time to time.
He begins by foreshadowing God’s judgement on the surrounding nations of Lebanon and Bashan and then focuses in on the leaders of Israel. God tells him in v4 to be a shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. Because of the failure of it’s leaders, the nation is doomed. The people are doomed to slaughter because it’s leaders have been more interested in their own welfare and prosperity than in the welfare of the flock. They even make hypocritical pretensions to piety as they thank God for making them rich. But just as their shepherds, their leaders have no pity on the people, so God is going to stop having pity on them.
It’s a terrible thing, isn’t it, that the failure of leaders so often results in suffering on the part of those they lead.
So Zechariah begins to act out this parable of God’s judgement on his people. He dresses up as the shepherd of the flock. He takes up 2 staffs, one named Favour, that is God’s care or concern for his people, and the other Unity, the unity that is, of the 12 tribes of Israel, and he tends the sheep. In one month, we’re told, He removes the three shepherds, three failed leaders of Israel. Now it isn’t particularly clear who these three shepherds are. They may represent all the leaders of Israel, 3 being a number of completeness in this sort of literature. On the other hand it could mean the 3 types of leadership, prophet, priest, and King, who together had let down the nation and ignored God.
In any case the result is that the flock is left without a shepherd, apart from Zechariah, who stands in the place of God. In other words, God is saying, the reason I’ve removed your leaders is so you’ll have to rely solely on me.
But what happens as Zechariah shepherds the flock? He says at the end of v8, "They detested me." Not only have the shepherds let them down, but the flock is at fault as well. Perhaps they’ve got so used to poor leadership that when a godly leader arises they don’t like it. They don’t want to be led in a godly way. Perhaps the poor leaders simply reflect the rest of the nation, who collectively have rejected God’s leadership. This is a comment on what happened in the time of the Judges, it’s a comment on what happened after the death of Solomon, it’s a comment on what happened when Jesus came as the Messiah, and it’s a comment on what continues to happen in many cases where God appoints leaders over his church. But we’ll come back to that.
So what does God do, when he finds the people have rejected him? He gives them up. He says: I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die; what is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed; and let those that are left devour the flesh of one another"! When people reject the good leadership that God provides, they get left to their own devices. And some die, some are destroyed, and the rest devour one another. You can see how that works out in our world today can’t you? People, by their apathy or greed or simply bad judgement, choose bad leaders over good and bad leadership results in people suffering for no good reason, and in the powerful being allowed to exploit the weak.
In the case of the people of Israel, he says, "I took my staff Favor and broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. 11So it was annulled on that day." The nation had rejected God, so he cancelled the covenant that he’d made with them. He withdrew his favour, his concern for them. If they wouldn’t keep their side of the bargain, they could hardly expect him to do the same. Then he says to them "If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them." He says you can pay me off if you wish. So they pay him thirty shekels of silver. That’s the price that would have been paid if your ox had killed someone else’s slave. A fairly insulting sum really! Then the LORD said to me, "Throw it into the treasury" -- this lordly price at which I was valued by them. So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them into the treasury in the house of the LORD.
Then he breaks the second staff, Unity, as a sign that the community bonds between the northern and southern tribes have been broken. You see, the result of rejecting God’s leadership is wide ranging. It even breaks down community. You see this from time to time in churches don’t you? A power group within a church opposes the leader of the Church and a split takes place. I can think of some churches around here that have been torn apart by people refusing to accept the leadership that God has put over them.
What happens when people reject the good leaders that God has given them? Well, they end up with bad leaders. God gives them what they want. He puts bad leaders over them. ’Then the LORD said to me: Take once more the implements of a worthless shepherd. 16For I am now raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for the perishing, or seek the wandering, or heal the maimed, or nourish the healthy, but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs.’ It’s not a pretty picture is it? The alternative to good leadership is leaders who ignore the welfare of the flock, who exploit the flock, to take advantage of them.
Well, I hope you realise that this is a theme that appears in a number of places in the bible. For example, in Ezekiel 34, God says this to the false shepherds of Israel: (Ezek 34:1-5 NRSV) "Prophesy against the shepherds of Israel: prophesy, and say to them -- to the shepherds: Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 3You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. 4You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them. 5So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and scattered, they became food for all the wild animals."
And what does God do, when the leaders of the people have failed to care for the flock? Well, initially he gives them up, but in the end, he comes to shepherd them himself. That passage in Ezekiel goes on: (Ezek 34:11-12 NRSV) "Thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. 12As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness." God will care for the sheep himself. How will he do that? By sending a shepherd who will do everything that the shepherds of Israel should have done but couldn’t. You see the task of leading the people the way God required was a task that humans should have done, but because of their sinfulness were unable to do. In a fallen world that’s a task that only God is able to do. So God had to send his own Son in human form to do what human beings were meant to do, but were unable to do. He came as God incarnate to do what God alone could do, to lead his flock in righteousness and peace. Here’s what Jesus said about this: (John 10:1-8 NRSV) "Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers." Then jumping down to v10: (John 10:11-18 NRSV) "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away -- and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. 14I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd."
Well, how are we to understand and apply these words from Zechariah to our own lives? Well, before I suggest 2 ways let me just say one thing. That is that we mustn’t forget that the Bible is a self interpreting book. That is, if you want to understand Zech 11 you need to also read Ezek 34 and John 10.That’s because this theme of the good shepherd is developed throughout the Bible before it culminates in Jesus the good shepherd. By the same token you can’t really understand John 10 unless you also know Ezek 34 and Zech 10 & 11. And having said that, we need to also realise that in the NT the role of shepherd of the flock is passed on by Jesus to his disciples; first to Peter, (’Feed my flock’) and then to the other leaders of the church. (1 Pet 5:1-4)
Having said that, lets make sure, when the opportunity arises, that we look for leaders who will be good shepherds of the sheep. And when we find them let’s value them. This is an important issue for us as a diocese at the moment as we look for a new Archbishop. We should all be praying hard that the board of nominators will come up with a list of godly men, and that the Synod in February will elect someone who will lead this diocese well.
Secondly, make sure you do what Jesus says a good flock should do. What’s that? He says, "He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice." What does a good flock do? It recognises and follows the voice of its shepherd and it ignores the voices of strangers. There are plenty of voices out there today crying out for our attention, wanting to lead us to who knows where. Whose voice will you listen to? Will it be the voice of the good shepherd, or those of the false shepherds. Will you get your theology from the Bible or from the popular media? And who will you follow in the church? Will you follow the good leaders that God has placed over you, or will you get sick of their leadership and go looking for something new and different?
Zechariah 11 contains a dire warning for the shepherds of God’s flock if they fail to lead well, but it also has a warning for the people of God, to make sure you don’t tire of the good leaders that God gives you and so end up rejecting God’s leadership of you.
Let’s pray that God would give us good leaders, and that we’d gladly follow them when they exercise that leadership.
For more sermons from this source go to www.sttheos.org.au
