Which Shepherd Are You Choosing? (Pt. 2) Series

Intro

We concluded last week with God instructing Zechariah to take on the role of a shepherd. Follow with me as we read Zechariah 11:4. “This is what the Lord my God says: ‘Shepherd the flock marked for slaughter.”i That is the assignment God gives Zechariah. He is to represent the Lord as a good shepherd.

Verse 5 elaborates on the condition of the “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.” That is God’s indictment against the leaders in Israel who are leading the people toward destruction. In Matthew 15:14 Jesus called the scribes and Pharisees “blind guides.” Then he said, “If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” That’s why this flock is “marked for slaughter.” Their leaders are steering them toward a pit of judgment and destruction. That was happening in the latter part of Zechariah’s life. It was the situation in Jeremiah’s day prior to the Babylonian exile. And it was the situation that existed during the First Advent of Christ.ii

When God offers a good shepherd, the people as a whole reject him. At the First Advent, the crowd cried out for him to be crucified. The consequence of Israel’s rejection of Messiah is described in verse 6: “‘For I will no longer have pity on the people of the land,’ declares the Lord. I will give everyone into the hands of their neighbors and their king. They will devastate the land, and I will not rescue anyone from their hands.’”

The devastation of the land is depicted in the opening poem in Zechariah 11:1-3:

“Open your doors, Lebanon, so that fire may devour your cedars! 2 Wail, you juniper, for the cedar has fallen; the stately trees are ruined! Wail, oaks of Bashan; the dense forest has been cut down! 3 Listen to the wail of the shepherds; their rich pastures are destroyed! Listen to the roar of the lions; the lush thicket of the Jordan is ruined!” We will not go back into those verses since we explained them in detail last week. Our previous message was part one of this two-part message. It furnished a lot of contextual information for today’s text. So, it is preferable to hear that teaching before this one.

This chapter naturally divides into three sections:

I. Consequences of Rejecting the Good Shepherd (vs 1-3)

II. Israel’s Rejection of the Good Shepherd (vs 4-14)

III. Israel’s Reception of the Wicked Shepherd (vs 15-17)

We dealt with the first section last week. In Section II we examined God’s commissioning of Zechariah to prophetically act out the role of a good shepherd (vs 4-6).

I. ISRAEL’S REJECTION OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD (vs 7-14)

Today we begin with Zechariah’s assumption of the role of a good shepherd. Zechariah 11:7-8a says, “So I shepherded 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 shepherded the flock. 8 In one month I got rid of the three shepherds.” Let’s examine the details given here.

Zechariah tells us he did what God told him to do in the previous three verses. We are not told exactly how this prophetic action took place, but in some way, Zechariah represented the Lord as a good shepherd before the people of his day. He probably accepted some position that was recognized by the people as the job of a shepherd.iii

Then he adds: “particularly the oppressed of the flock.”iv The emphasis of his investment is on the godly remnant who respond in faith to the good shepherd. In contrast to the corrupt leaders and the majority of the people, some received Christ at his First Advent. “The common people heard Him gladly” (Mark 12:37 NKJV). John 1:11 records the rejection of Christ by the nation. “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” But in the next verse we read, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” Particular attention was given by Zechariah and by Christ to the poor people who responding in faith.v

In verse 7 of our text, Zechariah introduces the two staffs which symbolized his work as a shepherd: “Then I took two staffs and called one Favor and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock.” “The Eastern shepherd carried a rod (shebet) or club for repelling wild beasts and a crooked staff (mish’eneth) for helping the sheep and himself in difficult places.”vi With these two instruments the shepherd guided, protected, and cared for the sheep. Therefore, David could say in Psalm 23:4, “your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”