The Good Shepherd Spurned

Zechariah 11

April 13, 2003

 

Every prophecy must be considered in its historical context.  Obviously, some prophecies take a far leap to deal with events that are many years away - 1000, 1500, 2000 years.  But quite often the historical unfolding demonstrates that the prophecies address events that happen within several generations.  For instance, Daniel takes both a short-term and long-term look at the kingdoms or empires of the world.  He shows the brilliance of Babylon, the nation of his captivity, at its zenith, then falling to the Medo-Persians, who in turn fell to the Greeks and whose divided empire eventually fell to the Romans.  But he shows one kingdom that crushes them all, pictured by the Stone that shatters the world's kingdoms in the coming of Messiah.  Daniel was living in the late 7th and early 6th century and saw the earthly kingdoms' emergence and fall for a period of almost 1000 years.  And his look at Messiah's kingdom goes far beyond, even to our own day. 

 

Zechariah is focused upon the events that lead up to Messiah's coming, though he also glimpses the far ranging, eternal work of Messiah.  In the context of chapter 11, he reflects some upon the historical experiences of Israel with their ungodly rulers who failed in their duties!  But his main focus is to follow up to the precious two chapters.  There he explained in apocalyptic terms the emergence of the Greek empire and its splintering upon Alexander's death.  Out of it arose the powerful Seleucid dynasty over the Middle East, culminating in the wicked ruler, Antiochus IV Epiphanes.  During that reign, the Maccabees emerged as leaders in Israel, revolting against the Seleucid reign, and re-establishing worship in Israel.  This established the Hasmonean dynasty in Israel in which the descendants of the Maccabees ruled Israel. 

 

But the problem that took place was that their fair and righteous beginning had a poor and unrighteous ending.  Some of the Hasmonean rulers used the high priestly position for political control of the nation.  Rather than being a people dependent upon the Lord they lived by intrigue, deception, and manipulation until the Roman Empire swept in to conquer them. 

 

This is where Zechariah comes in.  He prophecies of that time when the nation seemingly had a new beginning.  It was that period that led to the coming of Messiah to shepherd God's people.  But they rejected Messiah, counting Him as no more valuable than the price of a gored slave.  And so upon rejecting Him, the nation was finally crushed and decimated by the Romans in 70 AD, as Vespasian and Titus routed Jerusalem and all of Palestine.  Zechariah's intention was to warm Israel over 500 years before all of this transpired.  And why would he do this?  So that Israel might repent and turn to the Lord in faithfulness, even as they sought to rebuild after the Babylonian and Persian exile. 

 

With this being Palm Sunday, and the reminder of the cheering crowds upon Christ's triumphal entry, it also serves to remind us how fickle men's hearts can be.  The fact that the current group of post-exiles were making a good show of change toward the Lord did not mean that the next generation and the ones following would do the same.  Presumption deals a deathblow to future spirituality.  We must pray, obey, and labor so that our present and future generations will see an example of spiritual fidelity in love for Christ. 

 

I. The Coming Storm - A Forewarning of Judgment  vv. 1-3

 

The opening poem is troubling.  The call for opening the gates is a warming that the raging storm cannot be stopped.  If Israel is unfaithful then it can be certain of judgment.  This seems to be the prophetic picture of Rome sweeping from the north - hence Lebanon and Bashan that stood as sentinels and barriers to northern invaders of Israel.

T. V. Moore - "The reference is to that desolating storm of civil war that caused the calling in of the Romans, whose Legions swept like a whirlwind of steel over the land and finally prostrated every vestige of independent authority, from the cedar of Lebanon to the lowliest cypress, from the peaceful shepherd to the lion - like a spirit that refused to be subdued and humbled the whole land beneath the mighty power of Rome" (252). 


In 165 BC, Judas Maccabeus (the Hammer) purified the defiled temple - which had been turned into a Hellenistic center for paganism by Antiochus Epiphanes.  Temple worship resumed in 164 and finally, in 163, even Antiochus conceded defeat in this area.  Hanukkah, feast of dedication, was established to commemorate the restoration.  Judas' brother, Jonathan, followed him as family leader.  He made peace with the Seleucids (Antiochus' lineage) who named him as high priest and administrator of Judea.  He brother Simon followed him and in 142 negotiated a peace treaty with the Seleucids.  The Jewish people chose him to be high priest and governor.  But his son-in-law soon assassinated him.

 

Simon's youngest son, John Hyrcanus took over and ruled from 134-104 BC extending Judea's borders to Solomon's proportions.  John Hyrcanus slowly sifted Greek ideas into Judaism.  He was followed by his son Aristobulus I, who ruled for a year, and then Hyrcanus' other son, Alexander Janneus ruled from 103-76BC.  He had married his brother's widow, Salome, who ruled from 76-67.  During this period there was plenty of intrigue and internal strife.  When Salome died, her sons Aristobulus II and Hyrcanus II, battled for the throne.  It was in this period that a civil war between the two sons and their supporters arose.  The Roman general Pompey, in 63 BC, settled the affair by sweeping in and conquering them.  The Hasmonean Dynasty of the Jews lasted 100 years, and then Rome took over for several hundred years.  (Ben Witherington III, New Testament History:  A Narrative Account, 40-43, source).  Zechariah warned 350 years that it was going to happen if Israel failed to turn to the Lord.

 

II. The Coming Messiah - Foreshadowing of Messiah's Rejection  vv. 4-14

 

1. A metaphor and a message  vv. 4-6

 

Zechariah became a type of Christ - as a shepherd - in the same way that Jeremiah and Ezekiel role-played for future events.  The "flock doomed to slaughter" is a foreboding of the destruction that would happen in 70 AD.  Josephus records that 1 � million Jews died when Titus conquered them during the two yearlong siege and war.  And yet, before it happened, God sent Messiah to shepherd them.  They had grown far too accustomed to the careless and self-seeking shepherds - both Roman and Jewish leaders metaphorically called shepherds.  But now Messiah had come to set them free.

 

The shepherds are both civic and ecclesiastical rulers.  Though they were despicable in their abuse of the Israelites - Roman and Jewish "shepherds" - they ironically thought their prosperity was a sign of God's blessing.

 

Application:  

Our own day equates God's blessing with tangible material success, yet this is evidence that something different mist be assessed to determine God's blessing - holiness of life and obedient submission to God's will.

 

Verse 5:  The irony of this time is that the Jews longed for Messiah to deliver them from their shepherds.  The "buying," "selling," "no pity" all point to miserable existence.  Indeed, most of that region lived in great poverty and duress.  And yet their longing for Messiah was only on a physical, material level.  They did not see their sin - their own sin (not that of the Romans) - so they failed to receive Messiah when He came.  So God gives them over in verse 6.

 

Application:  

So many are so focused on material and temporal benefits that they neglect the more important.  Could it be that God has given much of the religious world over to their own tyranny because they've rejected His way for man's way?

 

2. Rejection  vv. 7-11

 

Verse 7 pictures the mediatorial work of Christ, feeding the doomed flocks.  The "afflicted of the flock" has various translations and better refers to a merchant class that trafficked in human lives.  In other words, Messiah did not find a group of welcoming and rejoicing followers but rather a desperate mass of wicked humanity. 

 

He shepherded them with "favor" - pleasantness, beauty, or grace, which probably implies the favorable way that the Lord had shown to Israel with other nations.  Neither Alexander Antiochus nor Pompey destroyed the people and their heart.  "Union" or cord, "is the intended outcome of gracious leadership" (Baldwin 180), and here probably symbolized the unity they should find in the Messiah's coming. 

 

Verse 8 has at least forty different interpretations as far as the identity of the three shepherds, but it seems best to see it as the elimination of prophet, priest, and king, uniting them in the Messiah!  Jim Boice calls them three classes of leaders - prophets, priests, kings, as though all before only foreshadowed - some poorly - the one rule of Christ.  The "one month" shows that this took place in a short time or limited timeframe.  I think it best to see this as Christ's work during the Incarnation, and the uniting of the threefold offices in one, righteous person.  None of the earthly men that served did justice in light of the people's needs.  But Christ has fulfilled these offices perfection. 

 

Verse 9:  But, as Messiah was rejected, He gave them to their fate.  T. V. Moore points out threefold calamity - pestilence, famine, war, and internal discord.  Indeed, all of that happened in 70 AD.  (1) It was a Sabbatical year before the siege began, so grain was scarce and famine spread.  (2) Three factions controlled Jerusalem within its walls, each with its own opinion on how to face the Roman invaders.  Tacitus, the ancient historian, says of the three:  "between these three there was constant fighting, treachery, and arson, and a great store of grain was consumed" (Witherington 359).  (3) While Vespasian began the assault on Judah and Jerusalem, he was called back to Rome to become emperor, so his son Titus completed the task.  The siege was vicious as they battered down the first, second, and third walls of the city.  Witherington comments:  "Within the walls, atrocities were committed to prevent desertion; outside the walls, prisoners were crucified near the city walls," which Josephus said was done by the soldiers "out of rage and hatred" to amuse themselves (360).  Titus found that they had cannibalized themselves.  He completed the work by tearing down the city and temple walls, leaving only the western retaining wall - the Wailing Wall - and Herod's three towers. 

 

Verse 10:  Why did it happen?  "Favor" was broken - God remained His gracious restraints, pictured as "my covenant which I had made with all the peoples" or nations.  Several commentators point out that verse 11 refers to Christ's warnings in Matthew 24 and Mark 13 about the Fall of Jerusalem and the need to flee to the mountains.  Titus evidently paused his siege for a few days, and many of the Christians in Jerusalem, remembering Christ's words, fled to Pella, north of Jerusalem (Moore 259-260).

 

3. Devaluation  vv. 12-13

 

What value did the Jews place upon God's Messiah?  Judas Iscariot embodied their rejection in betraying Christ for the price of paying for a slave gored by an ox (Exodus 21:32).  The potter was near the temple, having gotten his clay from the unclean Valley of Hinnom.  The price for the potter's field (Matthew 27:3-10) was 30 pieces of silver.

 

The result, "union" in the Messiah was broken.  There is a terrible price to pay for rejecting God's Christ.  The hope of Israel was not in a political ruler or material gain but in Messiah.  So bent were they upon civil freedom that they lost all freedom, and that which holds far greater value. 

 

Application:  

Do you look for something to satisfy your desires, all the while bypassing God's provision for real life and forgiveness?

 

III. The Storm Runs Its Course - Foreboding Doom of a Wretched Choice  vv. 15-17

 

Illustration: President Bush, Prime Minister Blair - talked about Sadam Hussein sealing his fate by the choices he made.  The last paragraph shows just such a fate.

 

1. Curse of Rejection  vv. 15-16

 

Zechariah was to play a villainous role this time as a foolish or useless shepherd, for that was how God saw their rulers.  Here the Shepherd raised up refers to "the ruling power" rather than one man.  Such power toward Israel would neglect their needs, scatter them, show all manner of cruelty and greed toward them.  So Israel, what is left of its scattered people, would endure ruthless rulers. 

 

2. Awaiting woes  v. 17

 

But even these rulers cannot ultimately stand.  If it refers to Rome primarily, we know that Rome eventually grew weak by its own immorality - its arm of strength withered, and they were invaded by barbarians from the north that sacked them - hence blinded their eye. 

 

Application:  

Judgment is not just on Israel but to all that reject God.  Man's folly meets God's wrath.

 

Conclusion

 

T. V. Moore concludes with some practical inferences to consider. 

 

(1) "No defense shall protect the wicked from punishment, when God's time has come.

(2)  Sin is always folly, and the sinner always a fool, for he secures the great evil of punishment in exchange for the small good of gratification, and therefore always makes a fool's bargain, (v. 4, 5).

(3)  Wicked rulers are a curse of God on a wicked nation...there is an obvious connection between politics and religion. Church and state may and ought to be separated; politics and religion ought not, for thus the state becomes exposed to the curse of God, and political evil follows in the train of moral evil, (v. 6).

(4)  Christ cannot be rejected with impunity.

(5)  God may bear long with the wicked, but there is a point where the piling avalanche will cease to be held back, and descend in fearful ruin (v. 14-17)."  (Moore 266-268).            

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