Day 1016: When patience ends - Zechariah 11 vs 1 - 9

11:1-3 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! 4-5 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. 6 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 neighbour, and each into the hand of his king, and they shall crush the land, and I will deliver none from their hand.

7 So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named Favour, the other I named Union. 8 And I tended the sheep. In one month I destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. 9 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.” Zechariah 11:1-9 English Standard Version

The previous chapter told of God bringing the Jews back to their country from the far countries they'd been scattered in. That was true in the days following the exile in Babylon, but some believe it also refers to a future return, even like we've seen over the last seventy years. In this chapter, however, Zechariah speaks of a future destruction that lay ahead for the nation. Verses 1-3 speak of a coming desolation. Why was that? (vs 4-5)

They were like a flock of sheep headed for the slaughter house because, yet again, they were turning to the ways of greed and selfishness. There was exploitation and cruelty. Worse still, the ones who were getting rich off others said it was because of ‘God's blessing on them’! And because they were becoming a people who showed no pity, how did God say He would respond? (vs 6)

He was going to let them reap what they were sowing. People would hurt one another, and their leaders would harm them as well. Historically this happened. By the time Jesus came into the world a man named Herod was King in Israel. And so frightened was he of another King arising, he had young children cruelly killed in the region where he thought the King was born in.

What follows in vs 7-9 would seem to be a divine visual aid where Zechariah acted out the message God had for the nation. He takes on a flock of sheep, and symbolically calls the two rods shepherds used in those days with names that spoke of what Israel had experienced in the past from God. They were a people who had found favour in His sight, and union with Him. As a result, they were meant to be a people who showed grace to others, and live in unity, rather than exploitation. Jesus would later use parables to teach that those who are forgiven much by God, should be willing to forgive others too.

But Zechariah's visual aid goes on to show that patience doesn't last forever. We're not told how he 'destroyed the three shepherds' (vs 8), but perhaps he exposed some of those who were misleading the people at that time. But it all led to him rejecting the role of shepherd, not so much of sheep, but of the people themselves. And in that sense, it was a warning of how God was going to reject the nation. Would such a message have made Zechariah popular?

When Jesus came, He too told of a coming judgment on Israel and spoke strong words to their 'shepherds'. He said: “I'm sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.” (Matthew 23:34-35) His words likely applied to the prophet whose message we've been studying. If so, it's a reminder of how people can hate those who warn them of the coming wrath of God when the time of His patience is ended.