20250421

worthless shepherd

Zechariah 11:1-17

Zechariah 11:1 Open your gates, Lebanon, and fire will consume your cedars.
Zechariah 11:2 Yell, cypress, for the cedar has fallen; the glorious trees are destroyed! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the stately forest, has fallen!
Zechariah 11:3 Listen to the shepherds’ wail, for their glory is destroyed. Listen to the roar of young lions, for the thickets of the Jordan are destroyed.
Zechariah 11:4 Yahveh my God says this: “Shepherd the flock intended for slaughter.
Zechariah 11:5 Those who buy them slaughter them but do not bear the guilt. Those who sell them say: Blessed be Yahveh because I have become rich! Even their own shepherds have no compassion for them.
Zechariah 11:6 Indeed, I will no longer have compassion on those who live in the land” — this is Yahveh’s declaration. “Notice, I will turn everyone over to his neighbor and his king. They will devastate the land, and I will not rescue it from their hand.”
Zechariah 11:7 So I shepherded the flock intended for slaughter, the oppressed of the flock. I took two staffs, called one Favor and the other Union, and shepherded the flock.
Zechariah 11:8 In one month, I made three shepherds disappear. My throat had become impatient with them, and their throat also detested me.
Zechariah 11:9 Then I said, “I will no longer shepherd you. Let what is dying die and what is disappearing disappear; let the rest devour each other’s meat.”
Zechariah 11:10: Next, I cut my staff called Favor in two, annulling the covenant I had made with all the peoples.
Zechariah 11:11 It was annulled on that day, and so the oppressed of the flock watching me knew that it was the word of Yahveh.
Zechariah 11:12 Then I said to them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” So, they weighed my wages, thirty pieces of silver.
Zechariah 11:13 “Throw it to the potter,” Yahveh said to me—this magnificent price I was valued by them. So, I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of Yahveh to the potter.
Zechariah 11:14 Then I cut in two my second staff, Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
Zechariah 11:15 Yahveh also said, “Take the equipment of a foolish shepherd.
Zechariah 11:16 Notice! I am about to raise a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are disappearing, seeking the lost, or healing the broken. He will not sustain the healthy, but he will devour the meat of the fat sheep and tear off their hooves.
Zechariah 11:17 Woe to the worthless shepherd who deserts the flock! May a sword strike his arm and his right eye! May his arm wither away and his right eye go completely blind!”

worthless shepherd

A previous vision had predicted what things were going to be like under the Grecian empire. Now, Zechariah looks even further into the future and sees the land under the control of Rome, particularly during the time of Christ. The original three shepherds (prophet, priest and king) have been replaced by a foolish, worthless shepherd (Herod, puppet to Caesar). He has broken the covenant, and with it the two staffs (God’s favor, and Israel’s union). Eventually, the foolish shepherd abandons his job, and his severance pay is 30 pieces of silver (the exact amount paid to Judas for his betrayal). He threw the money to the potter – an image that speaks of God’s sovereign plan – which he is going to fulfill.

LORD, we are grateful that our true shepherd will never abandon us, and he will never be replaced.