ZECHARIAH 11:1-17

-{Zechariah 11}

-The passage that we are looking at tonight shows the consequence of following bad leaders.

-I think of the story of the Apple corporation. In 1985 Steve Jobs recruited PepsiCo executive John Sculley to be the CEO of the company. Scully promptly ousted Jobs and oversaw a decade of strategic drift. He bloated product lines, kept prices too high, and missed the emergence of the Windows operating system. By the mid-90s Apple was bleeding market share and was nearing bankruptcy before Steve Jobs returned in 1997, saving the company and making it the giant that we know today.

Wrong leadership can lead to disaster. Just ask the nation of Israel. In the previous chapter God through Zechariah prophesied that there would be a time of restoration for God’s covenant people. However, this chapter prophecies that there would be a period of intense judgment beforehand because the leadership of the nation would lead the people in the wrong direction.

This chapter has been called by some scholars one of the most difficult passages to understand, but we will dive in and I believe that it prophecies a time that is far in the past, but had immense consequences for the nation of Israel. We will take the chapter bit by bit. We will see the consequence of following leaders that lead you away from God. First, Zechariah gives

1) A lament for the pride of bad leaders

Zechariah 11:1–3 LSB

1 Open your doors, O Lebanon, That a fire may consume your cedars. 2 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. 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.

We notice that God through the prophet speaks about the destruction of these various trees. Lebanon was known for its mighty cedars and cypress, Bashan for its giant oaks. These trees were tall and majestic and strong (many of them used in the construction of the Jewish temple). But God says that the trees will be burnt down or felled. Why? Because they were symbols of the pride of leaders.

V. 3 talks about the shepherds, which will be a constant symbol throughout. The shepherds are the leaders of Israel. They would become prideful. They thought that they were majestic and strong and mighty like the trees that are listed. But God tells them to wail because the destruction of the forests was a picture of the destruction that was coming their way. Those who were proud would be humiliated.

Is there something specific that would bring about such destruction and devastation. It is pictured and symbolized by what follows. We see next that:

2) God offers the nation a good shepherd

Zechariah 11:4–6 LSB

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

God uses and interesting method of prophesying. In essence, God tells Zechariah to do some play-acting. Zechariah would play this part, and it would be a picture of what was to come and WHO was to come. We’ll see later that God had Zechariah play different parts. But here, at first, Zechariah is to play the part of a good shepherd.

God tells Zechariah to care for a people who are stubborn and rebellious. Even though God gives them a leader who would prosper them, they choose to follow the advice and guidance of other leaders who would lead them to their slaughter.

The flock of Israel would be exploited by the very people who were to take care of them. And yet, when they are given the option of following a God-ordained leader for their good and prosperity, the people will instead choose to follow the ones who took advantage of them.

We look at people who go to the churches and crusades of the false teachers who are bilking them out of time, money, and resources, and we wonder how people could fall for that schtick. It’s because the false shepherds are charismatic and good at being the snake-oil salesmen that they are.

But if Zechariah’s play-acting symbolizes a Good Shepherd, who is it that he pictures? He is pointing toward the Messiah, Jesus Christ. While the Jewish religious leaders would take advantage of the people for their own gain, God sent His Son, the Messiah, to draw them back to God and lead them in the everlasting way. But what happened? In the next section we see that

3) The people reject the good shepherd

Zechariah 11:7–14 LSB

7 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. 8 Then I annihilated the three shepherds in one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also was weary of me. 9 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.” 10 And I took my staff Favor and cut it in pieces, to break my covenant which I had cut with all the peoples. 11 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. 12 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. 13 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. 14 Then I cut in pieces my second staff Union, to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

While still playacting as the shepherd, Zechariah takes two shepherds’ staffs as symbolic of God’s directing the people. One staff is called Favor, symbolizing covenant grace and faithfulness that God constantly showed the people. The other staff is called Union, symbolizing that God would bring His people together.

And the Good Shepherd did his job. It says in v. 8 that he annihilated three shepherds. Scholars are unsure to what this exactly refers. Were there leaders in Zechariah’s day that he removed from office? Is it symbolic of the removal of bad leaders? Either way, the Good Shepherd tried to carve the path for the people to be united under God’s favor.

But the people refused to follow the Good Shepherd, just like Israel refused to follow Jesus. And because they refuse the follow the Messiah, God will judge them. Israel followed the leaders that would hurt them instead of the One who would help them and they suffered the consequences for it.

The people would be sheep left to their own devices. If they wanted to follow the bad shepherds, then God let them. It reminds me of what Paul says in Romans 1, that God turns people over to their sin. Israel refused to follow their Messiah and instead followed the corrupt shepherds who led them to their doom, their annihilation. God would give them up.

It’s pictured here in the passage. In v. 9 the Good Shepherd says I WILL NOT SHEPHERD YOU. What is to die will die, what will be annihilated will be annihilated, and things will get so bad in the judgment that they will turn to cannibalism, which frequently happened in Jerusalem when it was under seige (like the Babylonian seige.)

God hands them over to judgment. In v. 10 the Good Shepherd breaks the staff called Favor. And God says that He is breaking His covenant with Israel because of their rebellion. I don’t believe it is talking about one specific covenant, but the general covenant of God’s protection and provision. It’s something like a covenant mentioned:

Ezekiel 34:25 LSB

25 “I will cut a covenant of peace with them and cause harmful beasts to cease from the land so that they may live securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.

God is saying that because they rejected the leader that He sent them and chose to follow corrupt leaders, He will no longer protect them from invaders. Because the sheep don’t follow God’s Shepherd (that Zechariah symbolized) God would allow them to be slaughtered and fall.

Returning to Zechariah’s play-acting, Zechariah quits the job of being the shepherd. He goes to the people and asks for the wages for the time he spent leading them. He’s so disgusted at the people that he doesn’t really care if he gets paid or not. So, what was the price he was paid? They weighed out thirty shekels of silver as his wages. This was the wages of an injured slave.

Exodus 21:32 LSB

32 “If the ox gores a male or female slave, the owner shall give his or her master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

In essence, Israel was telling the shepherd that he’s not worth any more than a slave. It shows the disdain that the people had for the shepherd—to them the shepherd is worth no more than a mere slave. So, God tells Zechariah to throw that garbage at the potter. The only value that the people put on God and the leaders He sends is that of a slave. They value their animals more than they value God and His Shepherd.

And all of this probably sounds very familiar to you, because 30 shekels of silver was the price paid for the life of the Good Shepherd. The people of Israel showed that they held their Messiah with little to no value. They rejected His leadership. They followed the corrupt shepherds who led them to scream out at the Messiah CRUCIFY HIM! CRUCIFY HIM! And the blood money paid was given for the potter’s field.

Matthew 26:15 LSB

15 and said, “What are you willing to give me to deliver Him to you?” And they weighed out thirty pieces of silver to him.

Matthew 27:5–7 LSB

5 And he threw the pieces of silver into the sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself. 6 And the chief priests took the pieces of silver and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the temple treasury, since it is the price of blood.” 7 And taking counsel together, they bought with the money the Potter’s Field as a burial place for strangers.

And then the shepherd broke the second staff called Union—God would break the brotherhood of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah, and the people would be scattered.

I believe that what God has Zechariah warn about in this play of His is a picture of Israel/Judah rejecting their Messiah, and the judgment that would befall them when the Romans besieged them for 3 1/2 years culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 and the scattering of the people for nearly 1900 years. And this is warned about in the concluding verses where we see:

4) The consequence of follow foolish leaders

Zechariah 11:15–17 LSB

15 Then Yahweh said to me, “Take again for yourself the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16 “For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who face annihilation, seek the young, heal the broken, or sustain the one standing, but will consume the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs. 17 “Woe to the worthless shepherd Who forsakes the flock! A sword will be on his arm And on his right eye! His arm will be totally dried up, And his right eye will be utterly dimmed.”

God has Zechariah take on a different role in this play-acting. Now Zechariah takes on the role of the foolish shepherd. This would be symbolic of the leadership that the people would follow after their rejection of the Good Shepherd, and the consequences of that choice.

The Jews had the Romans crucify their Messiah. They then followed their religious leaders who zealously persecuted the covenant people of the Christ—the sheep of the Good Shepherd. These leaders had no care for the well-being of the people. If they did, they would have obeyed God—they would have followed Jesus. But all they cared about was themselves, and the people suffered. And the shepherds who led their sheep to the slaughter would themselves be slaughtered.

This is important for us for several reasons. One, in the religious realm, follow the leaders that point you to Jesus and the biblical consequences of such a faith. Don’t allow yourselves to take in the teachings of supposed shepherds who are merely serving themselves. With the internet and podcasts we have access to so many different teachers and teachings, and we need to reject those who reject Jesus and the Bible. Learn to discern the good leaders from the foolish.

A second reason that this is important is because it is a call for us to lead rightly where we have such influence. Men, in your homes, point your family to Jesus and to biblical ethics. If your spouse or children are taking on unbiblical beliefs or worldviews, then point them in the right direction. If you have influence at school, work, neighborhood, lead people biblically and lead them toward Christ.

And we need to pray that the false shepherds leading people astray would either repent or lose their influence...