Zechariah 11:7-14 - The Rejected Shepherd Rejects the Shepherds (Rev. Erik Veerman)

Last week we looked at the beginning and end of Zechariah chapter 11, which sort of bookended this chapter. It was about God’s judgment on the worthless shepherds. And why he was so harsh.

The middle section is obviously connected. And it’s a drama. A play of sorts. God tells Zechariah to act out a scenario for the people to see. Zechariah was to become the shepherd. Not just any shepherd. Zechariah is to play the role of God as shepherd. So, as I read these verses, have that in mind.

Let’s now come to God’s Word.

Please stand for the reading of our sermon text. Zechariah 11:7-14.

Hear now God’s holy inspired word.

Reading of Zechariah 11:7-14

Prayer

Jesus was the master of parables. Of stories. They really penetrated to the heart of an issue. And often times Jesus’ parables were about his audience. Part of the punch of the parables was that Jesus’ audience wouldn’t realize, at first, that he was talking about them. But then, Jesus would flip the parable on its head. He would reveal that they were the antagonists. They were the ones in the story who committed the offence or who needed a complete reorientation to God and salvation.

Well, shortly after Jesus arrived in Jerusalem (the week before his death), Jesus told a series of parables. And his audience? The pharisees – the hypocritical religious leaders of Jesus day.

In one of these parables Jesus spoke of a landowner. This man owned a home and land. And he decided to build a vineyard on his property. So he planted grapes and he put a fence around it and built a press to process the grapes after the harvest. Before the first harvest, the man needed to travel out of the country, so he leased the property to some tenants. They were to care for the buildings and the land while he was away.

Well, the vineyard started to produce grapes, so, of course, the landowner sent three of his servants to help with the harvest. But what happened was that his tenants attacked his servants. One servant was beat up, another was stoned, and worse, the third one was killed.

Because of that, the property owner decided to send more servants to address the situation.

What happened? Same story – they were attacked, beat up, and some killed.

Imagine being there when Jesus was telling this parable. Even though it just a story, imagine the anger you would feel at the tenants. I mean, it was the owner’s property. He was being kind to lease his land. Yet, in total disregard, the tenants assaulted and murdered some of his servants.

Well, finally the owner thought, “I know, I’ll send my son. This time, surely they will respect him.” Yet when the son arrived, the tenants conspired against him, ambushed him, threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

At that point in telling the story, Jesus turned the question to the Pharisees. He asked, “What should the owner do to these tenets?” Well, they were disgusted at the tenants. They replied, “The owner should have those wretches put to death! He should find new tenants who will provide his fruit!” Little did the pharisees know they were condemning themselves.

Jesus responded, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone...’ Therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.”

Of course, at that point, the pharisees realized Jesus was condemning them. Jesus never minced his words with the Pharisees. No, he was clear and direct with them. Jesus was saying to the pharisees, “you rejected God, therefore God will reject you.”

That’s also the summary of these middle verses of Zechariah 11. God’s rejection of those who reject him.

And let me say, this is a striking kind of prophecy. That’s because it’s not just words that Zechariah is to speak. No, like I mentioned earlier, he’s acting out the prophecy. God told him to do something so that the people would hear AND SEE. It’s like a visual parable. Do you remember what that kind of prophecy is called? It’s called a sign prophecy. We saw an example of that back in chapter 6. The seven night visions had just ended, and God told Zechariah to make a crown woven with gold and silver. Does that sound familiar? Zechariah was to crown a priestly king who was to be called “the branch.” That was a prophecy about Jesus.

Well, the sign prophecy here in Zechariah 11 is very different. It’s not an encouraging prophecy of the future king who would come. Rather it’s a prophecy of judgment and a future betrayal of him.

Try to picture the scene in your mind. It’s likely Zechariah acted this out in front of the temple… in the court. A large gathering area was there. The priests and the people were often at the temple for pray and offerings. And part of the drama involved the temple.

And this drama was not a one act play. No, in fact, it was probably dramatized over several scenes in consecutive days, or perhaps once a week for a few weeks.

Zechariah was to play the part of THE shepherd. There are other actors in the play who act as the bad shepherds and sheep. Zechariah is in charge over all of them.

Look down at verse 4. We didn’t read that this morning, but it says, “Thus said the Lord my God: ‘Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter.’” Last week we saw how evil the shepherds were. They were figuratively killing their sheep – using their power to abuse them. That’s what verses 5 and 6 and later in the chapter show us. The reason it says sheep were “doomed to slaughter” is the shepherds. Instead of caring for the flock, they were leading them to the slaughter house.

Verse 7 is where the theatrical prophecy begins. Zechariah writes, “so I became shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders.”

And Zechariah’s audience soon realized just who he represented in the drama. God himself! We know that because Zechariah held in his hands two shepherd staffs – one named “Favor” (God’s favor, his grace) and the second one named “Union” (the union that God gives his people). Picture in your mind two shepherd staffs. They were curved on the end. That was so the shepherd could hook a sheep to direct them if needed. They were also used to protect the sheep. It was a weapon or sorts Maybe these staffs, these props, had words inscribed on them. Favor and Union.

And as Zechariah acted out this this first scene, he begins by “tending the sheep.” That’s exactly what it says there, end of verse 7. These were the sheep who had been doomed to slaughter, but God was rescuing them.

But even though the sheep were being cared for, the problem still remained - bad shepherds. So, in this next act, verse 8, they were dealt with. As part of this play other actors role-played the bad shepherds and the sheep.

It says, “in one month, I destroyed the three shepherds.” Now, we’re not told who these bad shepherds represented. Some have speculated that they represented the failed prophets, priests, and kings. Others have suggested they were specific bad leaders of the time. We’re not given any more details. But what we do know is that they represented the bad shepherds. And we know that Zechariah destroyed them. Maybe he acted that out by using one of his staffs to pretend to destroy three of the shepherds.

As we move on in the drama… a plot twist. The sheep turned on the shepherd. You would think they would have been grateful. I mean, finally, someone has come to care for them. Finally, someone has come to deal with the bad shepherds and protect them. But no, the sheep turned on the shepherd. They rejected him. They rejected God. He had destroyed the bad shepherds, but those were their shepherds. It says, “they detested me.”

Now, Zechariah’s audience may or may not yet realize, at this poin, that they are either the sheep or the bad shepherds. The point of this visual parable is to stir their hearts to be angry at the bad shepherds and angry with the sheep for rejecting the good shepherd. Then when they realize that the drama is about themselves, it would be a wakeup call. So that they may turn and return to the Lord.

Next is verse 9, the next act. We now see the response of the shepherd. His words are stark. “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.”

In other words, ”so be it! you rejected me, I will reject you.” The result would be that the sheep would die. They would be destroyed without the care and protection of the shepherd.

And it’s here that Zechariah, who, again, was role playing for God, took his staff “Favor” and he broke it in half. He essentially said, “You have been my people. I have been faithful to you… longsuffering. I have established my covenant, but no longer.” The word used is “annulled.” God annulled his covenant. That means, he withdrew and terminated it.

And then, in verse 11, Zechariah tells us how the bad shepherds reacted. He said, “and the sheep traders, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord.” In other words, the drama at that point revealed that Zechariah was indeed speaking and acting on God’s behalf.

Let me summarize the first half. God was saying to them, “I am your true shepherd. But your leaders failed you. And if you also reject me, God, I will break my covenant promise with you. I will no longer be your shepherd, and you will no longer be my sheep. If that happens, you will all die. Your leaders will destroy you and you will turn on one another.”

That brings us to the next act. Verse 12.

Zechariah, acting as the shepherd, turned to the sheep trader actors in the play. He asked them about getting paid for being a shepherd. Essentially, he said, “pay me if you want, but if you don’t want to pay me, keep your money.” But what they did was worse than not paying him at all. They paid him pittance. Pennies. Thirty pieces of silver was nothing. It was a slap in the face… a betrayal of sorts for his work. Especially since Zechariah was role-playing as the Lord, 30 pieces of silver was certainly not worthy of his work. That’s why it says “the lordy price.” It was a sarcastic response because of the paltry amount.

So Zechariah took the 30 pieces of silver and he threw them into the temple… into the “house of the Lord”, it says, “to the potter.” Now, this could be referencing the treasury of the temple. If that’s the case, it just means that Zechariah was throwing it back. “take your money.” Or it could be referring to the value of a potter’s wages not a shepherd’s wages. Either way, he’s giving it back. It symbolized that they valued him as essentially worthless.

Immediately after that was the final act of this play. Zechariah took his remaining shepherd’s staff, called union, and he broke it. As he put it, he annulled the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. Between the southern kingdom and the northern kingdom.

Let me put this in simple terms. When Zechariah broke the first staff, favor, God warned about breaking the vertical relationship between himself and the people. When Zechariah broke the second staff, union, God warned about breaking the horizontal relationship among the people. In other words, God warned that he would take away what unified them – his covenant promise. Both of these staffs were about God’s covenant. His covenant to be their God and their unity with one another in that covenant.

The rejected shepherd, God himself, would reject those who reject him. There’s a very clear warning in here for each of us and for the church. But before we consider that warning, let’s first fast forward about 500 years.

Zechariah prophesied this second half of his book around the year 480 or 490 before Christ. And as we’ve seen over and over, much of the prophecy in Zechariah is about Jesus. These verses are no exception.

In fact, Jesus’ ministry parallels these verses.

First of all, when Jesus’ public ministry began, he was caring for the sheep that the shepherds rejected. That fulfilled verse 7. Jesus cared for the sinners and suffers… the outcasts and the sick. That’s been the topic of our Friday evening devotionals… all the kinds of people to whom Jesus ministered.

Jesus is the one who fulfilled verse 8. He directly confronted the foolish shepherds. That included three main groups - the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the scribes. I’m not saying that the number three mentioned in verse 8 is a prophecy of these three groups. It’s hard to say. But what is clear, is that Jesus attacked their religious hypocrisy just as the shepherd in the drama attacked the three shepherds.

Add to that, Jesus was the rejected Shepherd in these verses. For sure he was rejected by the religious leaders, but he was also rejected by the people… by the sheep themselves, just like the end of verse 8. In the week leading up to his death on the cross, Jesus went from being praised in the triumphal entry (that’s was the prophecy of Zechariah 9) to being rejected by the people. By the end of the week, the people, themselves, were the ones shouting, “crucify him.”

And then we get to verses 12 and 13. They are directly fulfilled by Judas’ betrayal. Judas was one of Jesus 12 disciples. But he himself turned on Christ. We read from Matthew 26 and 27 this morning. Judas went to chief priests. They paid him 30 pieces of silver to betray Jesus. What a meager sum for the son of God… the one and only Savior! Judas himself knew it. When he saw Jesus taken in and condemned, Judas felt overwhelmed. He took the 30 silver pieces back to the chief priests. But they wouldn’t’ take it back. So, what did Judas do? He threw the 30 pieces into the temple, just as Zechariah had done 500 years earlier.

The priests took the money but instead of keeping it, they bought a piece of land from the potter. That also fulfilled this prophecy.

Now, some of you may have noticed… in Matthew 27, Jeremiah was attributed to this prophecy, not Zechariah. Well, that’s because the Matthew passage is also a fulfillment of Jeremiah 18 and 19 about the potter. Since Jeremiah is the more prominent prophet, he would have been the one referenced.

Overall, the prophecy is fulfilled in Christ. Jesus was the rejected and betrayed shepherd by both the religious leaders and the people. He was the one valued at 30 pieces of silver, which were thrown back into the temple.

But we have to ask, where were the broken staffs in the fulfillment? Favor and Union. Did Jesus in some way remove God’s covenant promise from the people? Did he break the union between his people? The shepherd’s staffs are a pretty essential part of Zechariah 11.

The answer is that these symbols are fulfilled in two ways.

First, the warning of God’s rejection. But second, the offer of his grace.

You see, the breaking of the staffs symbolized God’s judgment on the Jewish people. They were God’s people. God had made a covenant promise with them that he would be their God, they would be his people. The stipulation was that they remain faithful as a people. To be sure, God was merciful to them. In fact, over and over, he held back his wrath. He endured with much patience their wandering away from him. But when their trust in him was gone, God’s covenant was broken.

This has two implications today. One for the church and a second for each of us individually.

When it comes to the church, God’s call is for her to be faithful to him. Faithful to his word. Faithful to Jesus. When a church as a whole or its leaders reject God, God will judge that church. In the book of revelation, chapter 2 and 3, we read of 7 different churches in 7 different states of faithfulness (or faithlessness). God is merciful, but when a church loses the very center of what it should be focusing on, his Word and the Gospel, God will judge that church. The language used in Revelation is that God will extinguish its lampstand. God will remove his Holy Spirit from that church. It will no longer be a light of the Gospel or a herald of the Word.

God’s Covenant promise to that church is no longer in effect. They are no longer his people. They betrayed God’s son and God will reject that church.

But remember, a local church is made up of individuals. A church has members who either believe by faith in Jesus and his salvation, or who do not truly believe in Jesus. I’m talking about the visible church. The church on earth that we see. Yes, there are people in the church who may say they believe in Jesus, but their actions or beliefs betray Jesus. He is not the son of God to them, or he is not their Savior. Or they are part of the church perhaps for social reasons, or it’s the place that they have control, or they think it will give them a pass into heaven.

The religious leaders in Jesus day were part of the religious establishment, but they certainly were not part of God’s spiritual family. Now, that’s not to say that there were not true people of God as part of the Jewish people. Think of Nicodemus. He was a Pharisee, but he would come to believe in Jesus as the Messiah and Savior. He repented from his unbelief.

In a local church today that is losing its way, there may be true Christians still there who are seeking to be faithful to the Word and the Gospel – hope in Christ. But in such a church, there are likely to be more and more religious hypocrites, who say they believe, but who reject God’s promises, his Word, and his Son.

The warning here is clear. God will reject those who reject him. Even if you are in the church, you may be denying Jesus because you are not following his ways or not believing in his truth or have not turned your life fully to him. Are you a sheep of the sheep traders on your way to the slaughterhouse? If so, then Zechariah’s prophecy is about you. God will remove his favor and union from you. It’s a warning of judgment and rejection.

You cannot be one of God’s sheep if you reject Jesus. And the consequences are serious. Let’s go back parable of the tenants. The tenants rejected the landowner (who represented God) by rejecting his servants. And they ultimately rejected the landowner’s son (who represented Jesus). It’s a parable about not listening to God’s Word nor believing in Jesus. And the pharisees got it right, the landowner should kick the tenants out of the vineyard and as they said, “put those wretches to a miserable death.” God will break the staff of his “favor” (they will no longer be his people) and God will break the staff of his “union” (they will no longer be unified as God’s people). This is a question for you to ask yourself. Are you rejecting God?

But there’s good news. There is a second way in which Jesus fulfills Zechariah 11. He fulfills it in the opposite way. Not by rejecting his sheep for rejecting him, but rather by being the one whom God rejected.

You see, God turned the judgment and rejection that the shepherds and sheep deserved onto Jesus. That’s what happened on the cross. And by doing so, God’s covenant promise was not broken, rather for anyone who believes by faith in Jesus, God restored his covenant promises. For those in Christ, God’s favor was not taken away, no, it was enlarged. The union in God was not broken, rather it was preserved in him.

In closing, think about this – Jesus’ covenant faithfulness will overcome any sin…. even the sin of the sheep traders. If they turn from their slaughtering of the sheep to believe in the good shepherd, God will pardon and save them. God’s grace is sufficient for even the religious hypocrites who turn to God in faith and repentance. Grace that is greater than all our sin.

May we be a church and as individuals seeks God’s favor and union in Jesus; may we love the good shepherd; And may we each believe in his covenant preserving grace. Amen?

Prayer