Zachariah

Zechariah Chapter 11

• Zechariah 11:1 Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars.

Solomon's temple was built with the cedars from Lebanon. Yet as great as those cedars were, they are nothing when the judgment of God strikes.

After the Jews returned from Babylon into their own land again, it didn't take long for the same old sins to return. The shepherds didn't care for the sheep and didn't keep the word of God among them but taught doctrines and commandments of men that brings no change of heart. Their sins had returned.

When religion gets ritualistic and a mere form, it is worthless.

• Zechariah 11:2 Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled: howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down.
• 3 There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds; for their glory is spoiled: a voice of the roaring of young lions; for the pride of Jordan is spoiled.
• 4 Thus saith the LORD my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter;
• 5 Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the LORD; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not.

Moses warned of this happening if they were not faithful and served other gods or idols.

• Deuteronomy 29:16 (For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by;
• 17 And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:)
• 18 Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;
• 19 And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:
• 20 The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.
• 21 And the LORD shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law:

The flock of slaughter in verse in Zechariah 11:4 is said to be the prophecy of the coming Roman armies to control the land of Israel and later in 70 AD to destroy it.

• Zechariah 11:6 For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbor's hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.

Those that lived in that time period was given over to destruction and God said that He would not deliver them.

• Zechariah 11:7 And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.

This is interpreted different by different ones. Beauty was graciousness and bands was union. The Mercy of Israel was cut off after their rejection of the Messiah until the second coming of the Messiah which we know now is Jesus Christ. Judah and Israel would have been united if they would have receiveed the Messiah. That will happen in the future but at Christ's first coming it did not happen. 

• Zechariah 11:8 Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me.
• 9 Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another.
• 10 And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people.

The Old Testament covenant was broken and God cut them off from mercy. The book of Hebrews tells us that a New Covenant is made through Jesus Christ. Speaking of Jesus it says:

• Hebrews 8:6 But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
• 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
• 8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
• 9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
• 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
• 11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
• 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
• 13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

No longer would they have to have priests and prophets to intercede for them and make sacrifices on an altar but the law would be written in their hearts and their minds. They would then worship Him in spirit and in truth.

This is what those that have received Jesus Christ know as the new birth. Israel as a nation has not yet received this New covenant but it is glorious. It is more than a religion, it is a new way of life entirely. Instead of an outward form of religion, we have something that comes into our inner spirit and changes us from death unto life. We are made new.

The spirit of God comes in union with our spirit and we are one in Christ. We are new creatures and old sins and the old nature is passed away. We can overcome sin and live by the spirit of God.

Until that time when Israel receives this new covenant, terrible things are prophesied to come upon them. All that ever happened to them is because of their sin and rejection of the Messiah. I say that with caution. This is no cause for Gentile believers to boast against them and persecute them. If we do that, we do not know Jesus Christ or God. The heathen will persecute but the church of God has no business doing anything but preaching the gospel both to Jews and to heathen nations.

• Zechariah 11:11 And it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the LORD.

There is always a remnant who believes and trusts in the Lord even when the nation as a whole forsakes Him. Here is what Zephaniah says about the poor:

• Zephaniah 3:12 I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the LORD.

The majority are usually the ones in the wrong. The phrase, "Everybody does it." never justifies what is right or wrong.

• Zechariah 11:12 And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.

We see here a foretelling of the first coming of the Messiah who was sold for 30 pieces of silver and rejected by the religious rulers of Israel. The false shepherds of that day were the ones that turned Jesus over to the Romans and delivered Him to die.

They didn't realize that they crucified their own Messiah but that had to happen to fulfill the sacrificial law of sacrifices for sins. With the death of the perfect sinless Son of God, all who believe in Him confessing their sins will be forgiven their sins and are granted eternal life. Jesus rose from the dead to complete His work on earth to make the way of salvation available to all mankind, not just the Jews. He returned to heaven to await the time when He returns again.

• Zechariah 11:13 And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.

After Judas betrayed Jesus, he tried to repent and threw the money down. The Pharisees then took the money and bought a potter's field to bury the poor.

• Matthew 27:3 Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,
• 4 Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.
• 5 And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
• 6 And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood.
• 7 And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in.
• 8 Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day.

Judah and Israel became separate countries which was part of God's judgment long before the sin of rejecting Jesus Christ. All this can be read in the books of Kings, Chronicles and the prophets.

• Zechariah 11:14 Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

After the rejection of their Messiah who was Jesus, Israel was scattered over all the world until the 1948.

• Zechariah 11:15 And the LORD said unto me, Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd.
• 16 For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that standeth still: but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces.
• 17 Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.

Ezekiel warns against false shepherds:

• Ezekiel 34:2 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?

Jeremiah also warns against the false shepherd even though they come as a result of rejecting the true shepherd:

• Jeremiah 23:1 Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD.

Because of the rejection of Jesus Christ by the Jews, they will be sent a false shepherd who will deceive them and try to lead them astray.

Zechariah doesn't see a large time period between the betrayal of Christ and the coming of the antichrist but we can see that clearly. A time is coming when a false shepherd will come. He is a foolish shepherd that does not care for the flock.

The final fulfillment of the foolish shepherd will be the antichrist. He makes a covenant with Israel at first but he will later turn on them revealing his wrath. Israel will then wake up and realize that the true Messiah had already came over 2000 years ago, and is coming a second time.

It could be though that the Jews never accept this "man of sin" we call the antichrist but make a land treaty with them. That may be about to happen shortly and the world pressures Israel into many land for peace deals. 

If they would have recognized Jesus the first time around, the antichrist would not have come. He is sort of a final judgment on Israel because of their rejection of Jesus Christ.

The re-gathering of Israel in 1948 was the beginning of the time when the final tribulation and second coming of Christ is about to take place. The time of the Gentiles will draw to a close. The gospel will return to the Jews who first gave it to us (those who didn't reject it).

When the antichrist leads all nations against Israel in the latter days, Jesus Christ will return with His faithful followers and save Israel one final time.

After the death of Christ, they were scattered and Israel ceased as a nation in 70 AD. In 1948, they return but with much sorrow. Their continual rejection of Jesus will bring in the arrival of the antichrist. At the same time even now, many Jews are coming to Christ all over the world. The gospel is returning to them.

There are some that believe and some that do not believe even as I write. The future tribulation or time of Jacob's trouble will be the grand finale before the coming of Christ. Under the second covenant, the broken branches of Israel will be grafted back into their own vine.

• Romans 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
• 26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
• 27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

The second covenant will take away sins. For those of us who have already believed in Jesus Christ, we have been partakers in that hope. We have already been forgiven of sins and many have received the Holy Spirit into their lives. This promise is returning to Israel. I can only rejoice in this. DC

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