20250420

a rescuing shepherd

Zechariah 10:1-12

Zechariah 10:1 Ask Yahveh for rain in the season of spring rain. Yahveh makes the rain clouds, and he will give them showers of rain and crops in the field for everyone.
Zechariah 10:2 For the idols speak falsehood, and the diviners see illusions; they relate empty dreams and offer empty comfort. Therefore, the people wander like sheep; they suffer affliction because there is no shepherd.
Zechariah 10:3 My anger burns against the shepherds, so I will punish the leaders. Yahveh of Armies has tended his flock, the house of Judah; he will make them like his majestic steed in battle.
Zechariah 10:4 The cornerstone will come from Judah. The tent peg and the battle bow and every ruler will come from them. Together
Zechariah 10:5 they will be like warriors in battle trampling down the mud of the streets. They will fight because Yahveh is with them, and they will put horsemen to shame.
Zechariah 10:6 I will strengthen Judah’s house and deliver Joseph’s house. I will restore them because I have compassion on them, and they will be as though I had never rejected them. For I am Yahveh their God, and I will answer them.
Zechariah 10:7 Ephraim will be like a warrior, and their hearts will be glad as if with wine. Their children will see it and be glad; their hearts will shriek ecstatically in Yahveh.
Zechariah 10:8 I will whistle and gather them because I have redeemed them; they will be as numerous as they once were.
Zechariah 10:9 Though I plant them among the nations, they will remember me in the distant lands; they and their children will live and return.
Zechariah 10:10 I will bring them back from the land of Egypt and gather them from Assyria. I will bring them to the land of Gilead and to Lebanon, but it will not be enough for them.
Zechariah 10:11 Yahveh will pass through the sea of distress and strike the waves of the sea; all the depths of the Nile will dry up. The pride of Assyria will be brought down, and the scepter of Egypt will end.
Zechariah 10:12 I will strengthen them in Yahveh, and they will march in his name– this is Yahveh’s declaration.

a rescuing shepherd

The LORD is described as a rescuing shepherd, who takes his exiled sheep from Assyria and Egypt and brings them through the raging seas in a second exodus back to the land. Once they return, the sheep are transformed into war horses, and the new shepherds lead them to triumph in battle. Unlike the present shepherds, who are leading them to idolatry, these new shepherds will reject the household gods, who utter nonsense, and rid the land of diviners who had given empty consolation through lies and false dreams.

Oh LORD, lead us out, lead us back, lead us with your truth.