Reflections on Zechariah 11

Zechariah 11 (Contemporary English Version)


1. Lebanon, open your gates! Let the fire come in to destroy your cedar trees.
   
2. Cry, you cyprus trees! The glorious cedars have fallen and are rotting. Cry, you oak trees of Bashan! The dense forest has been chopped down.
   
3. Listen! Shepherds are crying. Their glorious pastures have been ruined. Listen! Lions are roaring. The forests of the Jordan Valley are no more to be found.
   
4. The LORD my God said to me: Tend those sheep doomed for slaughter!
   
5. The people who buy and butcher them go unpunished, while everyone who sells them says, "Praise the LORD! I'm rich." Not even their shepherds have pity on them.
   
6. Tend those sheep because I, the LORD, will no longer have pity on the people of this earth. I'll turn neighbor against neighbor and make them slaves of a king. They will bring disaster on the earth, and I'll do nothing to rescue any of them.
   
7. So I became a shepherd of those sheep doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep dealers. And I gave names to the two sticks I used for tending the sheep: One of them was named "Mercy" and the other "Unity."
   
8. In less than a month, I became impatient with three shepherds who didn't like me, and I got rid of them.
   
9. Then I said, "I refuse to be your shepherd. Let the sheep that are going to die, go on and die, and those that are going to be destroyed, go on and be destroyed. Then let the others eat one another alive."
   
10. On that same day, I broke the stick named "Mercy" to show that the LORD had canceled his agreement with all people.
    
11. The sheep dealers who saw me knew right away that this was a message from the LORD.
    
12. I told them, "Pay me my wages, if you think you should; otherwise, forget it." So they handed me my wages, a measly thirty pieces of silver. Then the LORD said, "Throw the money into the treasury." So I threw the money into the treasury at the LORD's temple.
    
13. (SEE 11:12)
    
14. Then I broke the stick named "Unity" and canceled the ties between Judah and Israel.
    
15. Next, the LORD said to me, "Act like a shepherd again--this time a worthless shepherd.
    
16. Once more I am going to let a worthless nobody rule the land--one who won't care for the strays or search for the young or heal the sick or feed the healthy. He will just dine on the fattest sheep, leaving nothing but a few bones."
    
17. You worthless shepherd, deserting the sheep! I hope a sword will cripple your arm and blind your right eye.
    

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This amazing chapter tells of the coming years of void in Israel's covenantal relationship with God. Zechariah has been giving the returned exiles a ray of hope which lay in the coming Messiah and His eventual earthly reign in the Millennium at His Second Advent. But the Babylonian exile will not be the last great sorrow for the Jewish people. Up until Zechariah's day, though Israel went through times of punishment, God never withdrew His protective hand from them, thus limiting the destruction on the people and their land. But that will change, as we see in this chapter, with their rejection of the coming Messiah. At that point God will annul His covenant with them and withdraw His protective hand from them. Verses 2 & 3 describe the outcry at the destruction that will take place. This is thought to have taken place at the hands of the Romans in 70 AD.

In the first 11 verses we are told of the utter destruction of Israel's land and people. Zechariah was told by God to "Shepherd the flock intended for slaughter." This difficult passage is thought by some to be a directive by God for Zechariah to portray Israel's true Shepherd-Messiah. So Zechariah "shepherded the flock intended for slaughter, the afflicted of the flock. I took two staffs, calling one Favor and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock." (verse 7) The staff "Favor" depicted God's benefits toward His people, and the staff "Union" the union of Israel and Judah as one nation. But in his role as the True Shepherd, Zechariah grew impatient with Israel, particularly because they detested him, and he cut the staff "Favor" in two, thus signifying God's annulment of His covenant with Israel.

Beginning with verse 12, Christ's betrayal by Judas was foretold. Israel's appraisal of the True Shepherd's worth is depicted in Zechariah's wage of 30 pieces of silver. Thus, Israel paid this insulting price for the life of the One who was and is to be their salvation. With her rejection of the True Shepherd, the Messiah, Israel will accept in His place a worthless shepherd, which some believe to be the end-time Antichrist. This shepherd will be the opposite of Christ, the True Shepherd. He will have no concern for the flock, and instead of defending and caring for the flock, this worthless shepherd will destroy the flock.