The Real Shepherd

On occasion in the Old Testament, the Lord calls His prophets to “act out” the message. Ezekiel was told to lie on his side for 390 days and make a dirt map and dirt walls and put an iron skillet in the middle (Ezekiel 4). Isaiah walked around naked and barefoot for 3 years (Isaiah 20). Hosea was told to marry a prostitute (Hosea 1). And here, in Zechariah 11, our prophet is no different he is instructed to act out the role of a good shepherd and then a few verses latter to take on the role of a bad shepherd. 

Ultimately, we see the picture of Christ in these verses. Jesus tells us in John 10:11 "I AM the good shepherd..." Zechariah 11 would have been and still is an essential text for the early church’s understanding of Christ’s ministry. Christ was God’s intended shepherd, who set out to care for the flock, protecting them from poor shepherds and abusive owners. For thirty pieces of silver, he was removed from his leadership, rejected by the flock (Jews), shepherds (priests), and owners (Romans).  Yet, God used this rejection to bring salvation for his flock… Thank God for that! 

Take some time this weekend and read Zechariah 11:1-17 in preparation for Sunday! 

Open your doors, O Lebanon,

    that the fire may devour your cedars!

Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen,

    for the glorious trees are ruined!

Wail, oaks of Bashan,

    for the thick forest has been felled!

The sound of the wail of the shepherds,

    for their glory is ruined!

The sound of the roar of the lions,

    for the thicket of the Jordan is ruined!

Thus said the Lord my God: “Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. Those who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, I have become rich,’ and their own shepherds have no pity on them. For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, declares the Lord. Behold, I will cause each of them to fall into the hand of his neighbor, and each into the hand of his king, and they shall crush the land, and I will deliver none from their hand.”

So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named Favor, the other I named Union. And I tended the sheep. In one month I destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. So I said, “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 who are left devour the flesh of one another.” And I took my staff Favor, and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep traders, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord. Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the lordly price at which I was priced by them. 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 Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

Then the Lord said to me, “Take once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd. For behold, I am raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for those being destroyed, or seek the young or heal the maimed or nourish the healthy, but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs.

“Woe to my worthless shepherd,

    who deserts the flock!

May the sword strike his arm

    and his right eye!

Let his arm be wholly withered,

    his right eye utterly blinded!”

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.