The Rejection of the Good Shepherd (Zechariah 11:1-14)

Preamble:

Text: Zechariah 11:1-14

Zechariah 11:1–14 LSB

Open your doors, O Lebanon, That a fire may consume your cedars. Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, Because the mighty trees have been destroyed; Wail, O oaks of Bashan, For the impenetrable forest has come down. There is a sound of the shepherds’ wail, For their might is destroyed; There is a sound of the young lions’ roar, For the pride of the Jordan is destroyed. Thus says Yahweh my God, “Shepherd the flock doomed to slaughter. “Those who buy them slaughter them and are not held guilty, and each of those who sell them says, ‘Blessed be Yahweh. Indeed, I have become rich!’ And their own shepherds do not spare them. “For I will no longer spare the inhabitants of the land,” declares Yahweh; “but behold, I will cause the men to fall, each into another’s hand and into the hand of his king; and they will crush the land, and I will not deliver them from their hand.” So I shepherded the flock doomed to slaughter—hence the afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two staffs: the one I called Favor, and the other I called Union; so I shepherded the flock. Then I annihilated the three shepherds in one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also was weary of me. Then I said, “I will not shepherd you. What is to die, let it die, and what is to be annihilated, let it be annihilated; and let those who remain consume one another’s flesh.” And I took my staff Favor and cut it in pieces, to break my covenant which I had cut with all the peoples. So it was broken on that day, and thus the afflicted of the flock who were watching me knew that it was the word of Yahweh. And I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind!” So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages. Then Yahweh said to me, “Throw it to the potter, that valuable price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of Yahweh. Then I cut in pieces my second staff Union, to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

Thesis: To reject Christ is to accept the consequences of our sin.

Intro:

Deceitful Shepherds

(Read all verses 1-2) “Open your doors, O Lebanon, That a fire may consume your cedars. Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, Because the mighty trees have been destroyed; Wail, O oaks of Bashan, for the impenetrable forest has come down.”

Now, this, to those of us in 2024 living in the United States of America, must make total and complete sense, right?

Well, probably not.

But to begin to understand it we have to understand this idea of the opening of the doors - in Hebrew, the word for doors used here is “del-eht” and if we were to really understand the meaning, it would be more like Zechariah is saying “Take the lid off.”

While the doors, the gates of the city, would be used to let people in or out, what Zechariah is saying here is that the doors are going to be opened wide, so that a great rush of wrath will come in to Lebanon.

In fact, that’s what he means by saying “That fire may consume your cedars”.

Their cedar trees is what Lebanon had been known for - if you recall the Temple in Jerusalem and Solomon’s own house had been built from cedars from Lebanon. We see this in 1 Kings 6-7.

Their cedars were a symbol of strength, age, prosperity. They’re burned with fire.

Fire is rarely a good thing in Scripture, it’s almost always a sign of judgment upon a person or a nation.

It’s a flaming sword outside of Eden, so no one may return. Genesis 3:24

It’s burning bush that speaks to Moses declaring judgment on Egypt. Exodus 3.

It’s what consumes Nadab and Abihu as they present their own, strange fire before God in Leviticus 10.

It’s even evident on the day of Pentecost - as the tongues of fire rest over the church as God is separating His church from the rest of Israel in judgment upon those who rejected His Son. Acts 2.

John the Baptist said Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire - and that fire is of course His judgment. Matthew 3:11

So we can understand this fire is a fire of wrath from God that is poured out on Lebanon and its cedars - but not just the cedars, also the cypress.

The Cypress was also used in the construction of Israel’s Temple - which we can see in 1 Kings 6:15, the floors were overlaid with boards of cypress.

This destruction would no doubt call to mind the invasion of Assyria during the time of King Hezekiah, prior to their exile.

But God doesn’t stop with the cypress and the cedar, He says the mighty trees have been destroyed, wail O oaks of Bashan.

In fact, He calls the oaks “the impenetrable forest” and says it has come down.

Oaks were used, in this time, to make anything from household idols to the oars of a ship, and Hosea tells us the oaks of Bashan were some of the most lush trees, providing good shade (4:13).

All of this to say that the prophecy of Zechariah has greatly shifted from what God had said in the last chapter - where He sanctifies, cleanses, rebuilds.

Here, He is burning things down.

Please understand, His plan is to ultimately build up, but before He does, He must tear down that which hinders us.

And so the trees - did you know that after God and after people, the most talked about thing in Scripture that lives is trees?

Isn’t that interesting?

In fact, all of scripture will go between trees, in a sense. The Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil where the fall of man comes.

The tree, the cross, where redemption for mankind is offered.

And the Tree of Life in the Garden of God mentioned in Revelation 22:14 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the authority to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city.”

Here, in our text, trees play an important part, too.

They are being torn down and burned to tell Israel that there will come a day of a great invasion. Lebanon, Bashan, and Jordan were all heavily forested areas.

But they will be decimated when this time comes to them.

The land itself will suffer.

And it will cause the leaders of Israel to mourn.

(All of verse 3) “There is a sound of the shepherds’ wail, For their might is destroyed; There is a sound of the young lions’ roar, for the pride of the Jordan is destroyed.”

The wailing shepherds of course we have seen that imagery already in Zechariah, will be those leaders of Israel - The prophets, the priests, and the kings.

The sound of the young lions’ roar - that’s a reference to Judah. Their leaders. We see this way back in Genesis as Jacob prophesies about his son, Judah, comparing him to a lion’s welp.

Genesis 49:9 ““Judah is a lion’s whelp; From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches, he lies down as a lion, And as a lioness, who dares rouse him up?”

Israel will mourn, Judah will cry out - for the pride of the Jordan is destroyed.

The thick woods around the Jordan were important to the people - not only was it a place to hide in military battle, it provided wildlife for food, lumber for building.

It’s going to be destroyed.

But t’s not just a reference to the trees here, the pride of Jordan was also the city of Jerusalem and the Temple of the Almighty God that resided within.

We are forced to ask then, Why does this happen? What moves God to act like this against His people? What event is it describing?

Most agree this is the destruction of Jerusalem that happens in 70 AD. Rome will destroy the land, and tear down the cities of Israel.

Historically speaking, Rome knows Israel’s history - they know the story of the Maccabees, they know of the exile and the return, they’re not stupid - so when they march on Jerusalem, they want to make sure that they really hurt these people who are trying to have their own revolution.

But they want to hurt them so badly, so the message gets out throughout the empire, so no one will ever dare to do it again.

This is what Israel wanted, if you recall, as they rejected Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah, as their Christ.

John 19:15 “So they cried out, “Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.””

Well now, this prophesy, when it is fulfilled, is what happens to those who wanted Caesar, got Caesar, but no longer wanted what they got.

So God says (v. 4) Thus says Yahweh my God, “Shepherd the flock doomed to slaughter.”

The area where the Temple resided in Jerusalem was filled with sheep who were intended for slaughter - for sacrifice.

But here, Zechariah is told by God to act as the shepherd for them. Some translations merely say to “feed” but he is clearly to shepherd.

Which is more than feed, it’s to feed and guide. To care for them Which seems pointless if they’re doomed to slaughter!

In a sort of twist, Zechariah is a stand-in for Christ. Christ is the ultimate, good Shepherd.

Zechariah, as a prophet, is going to stand in during this word from the Lord, and he will act as though he is the shepherd of the flock - he will be symbolically the Christ in this moment.

Now, there may be debate as to whether Zechariah literally went into Jerusalem and began to shepherd the sacrificial sheep is debatable.

I think he does.

He will go on to say later in verse 7 that he does do it. Probably, like many of the OT prophets, he did do it in order to act out symbolically what God was going to do.

He is meant in this line of thinking to be a symbol of the true shepherd, and we may miss the point of it if we aren’t careful.

You see, these sheep were meant to be sacrifices for sin offerings, for the purification, the cleansing of God’s people - but instead these sheep had become merchandise.

Reading on in verse 5: “Those who buy them slaughter them and are not held guilty, and each of those who sell them says, ‘Blessed be Yahweh. Indeed, I have become rich!’ And their own shepherds do not spare them.”

Those who buy them and sell them - that would refer to the nations that conquer them -who enslaved them.

But don’t miss what is said at the end of verse 5 - “and their own shepherds do not spare them”.

Those who had captured Israel profited off of them. Used them. “Each of those who sell them says, ‘Blessed be Yahweh. Indeed I have become rich!”

Their own leaders see this, and will rise up, and do the same to their own people.

To be clear, this is not Zechariah looking back in time, this is history repeating itself. It is Ezekiel 34 all over again!

Ezekiel was talking about the leaders in his day, Zechariah is talking about the leaders in his day, and when Jesus walks the other, he will see the same thing happening again.

Matthew 9:36 “And seeing the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd.”

And the Pharisees, those who were tasked with shepherding the people of Israel, were worthless shepherds.

So God promises judgment on them.

He says (v. 6) “For I will no longer spare the inhabitants of the land,” declares Yahweh; “but behold, I will cause the men to fall, each into another’s hand and into the hand of his king; and they will crush the land, and I will not deliver them from their hand.”

Similar to what happens in Hosea 1:6, God’s pity is removed from Israel.

He doesn’t feel bad for them. Their leaders keep doing this to them.

Now, for Zechariah, this is a future event, for us this is a past event.

In Israel’s past, these words were said by God before the Babylonian exile - Jeremiah 13:14 ““I will shatter them against each other, both the fathers and the sons together,” declares Yahweh. “I will not spare nor show pity nor have compassion so as not to ruin them.” ’ ””

But Zechariah’s not looking back, he’s looking ahead. To another time Israel will be punished because of their continued rebellion.

And if God will have no pity on them, no one else will, either.

We may read this and say “Well, God that’s not fair! They can’t help it, it’s the leader’s fault not the peoples!” But the fairness from God comes when we understand the wording used here.

“Spare” in the Hebrew is past tense, why our translation says “I will no longer spare”, because God had spared. The word is “hemohl” and it means he has shown compassion, He has treated them with mercy.

The wicked leaders would not spare the people because they were driven by their own pride, by their greed, by their own desire for self-preservation.

But God will not spare Israel this time around for a very different reason - and it will be because they will reject the Good Shepherd, His Son, the Christ.

God says He will cause them to fall, the men to fall, into each other’s hand, but also into the hand of their king.

Again, who was their king? Caesar. “We have no king but Caesar”, remember? (John 19:15)

Israel’s leaders made their choice, as did the crowds who shouted “crucify Him,” and in a divine twist of fate, they found their own destruction at the order of the one they chose.

In short, Israel rejected Christ and accepted the wrong king, and would one day have to live with the consequences of that decision.

Doomed Sheep

Zechariah 11:7–8 LSB

So I shepherded the flock doomed to slaughter—hence the afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two staffs: the one I called Favor, and the other I called Union; so I shepherded the flock. Then I annihilated the three shepherds in one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also was weary of me.

Perhaps explore the consequences of God's forsaking those who reject His Shepherd, as illustrated by the breaking of the staffs Beauty and Bands. Highlight how rejecting Jesus as our Shepherd leads to broken relationships and chaos, emphasizing the importance of obedience and submission to His guidance.

Zechariah 11:9–10 LSB

Then I said, “I will not shepherd you. What is to die, let it die, and what is to be annihilated, let it be annihilated; and let those who remain consume one another’s flesh.” And I took my staff Favor and cut it in pieces, to break my covenant which I had cut with all the peoples.

Detested (Good) Shepherd

Zechariah 11:11–12 LSB

So it was broken on that day, and thus the afflicted of the flock who were watching me knew that it was the word of Yahweh. And I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind!” So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages.

Maybe conclude with the rejection of the Good Shepherd symbolized by the thirty pieces of silver, foretelling Christ's betrayal. Illustrate how this act of rejection fulfills God's plan for salvation despite its tragic nature, and encourage listeners to embrace Christ as the centerpiece of their faith to avoid the pitfalls of rejection.

Zechariah 11:13 LSB

Then Yahweh said to me, “Throw it to the potter, that valuable price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of Yahweh.

Zechariah 11:14 LSB

Then I cut in pieces my second staff Union, to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

Conclusion: