ZECHARIAH ~ CHAPTER ELEVEN

Vv 1-3. Zech 11:1 Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars.
Zech 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.
Zech 11:3 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.
A. These first three verses of this chapter are written in poetic form and seem to be a threnody for the land. It sets the tone for the remainder of the chapter which reverts to prose.
B. By the time of this writing the magnificent cedars of Lebanon to the north and the mighty oaks of Bashan, across Jordan to the east had been decimated.
This ravaging of their forests is used as a metaphor of the people.
1. The smaller fir (cypress) mourns the loss of the cedar. (the common man must suffer because his leaders are destroyed).
2. The strong men (oaks) mourn because the old growth (elder statesmen) is gone.
3. The shepherds mourn. The glory of the shepherd is the safe care of his sheep. The leaders of Israel (shepherds) have lost their flocks to the predators of Babylon.
4. The mighty river of Jordan had become a muddy stream. [That which had supplied spiritual sustenance to the people is polluted.}

Vv 4-14. These verses are a prophecy of the ministry of Christ, the Good Shepherd.
v 4.Zech 11:4 Thus saith the LORD my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter;
Though Israel was in disfavor with God, and under the thumb of the Romans, He sent them His Son as a Shepherd.
Mat 10:6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
John 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
v 5 Zech 11:5 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.
The Romans taxed them mercilessly and the collectors of the tribute were from their own number. Even their own leaders gave preference to Caesar.
John 19:15 But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.
v 6. Zech 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 neighbour'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.
A. Jesus warned them it was coming.
Luke 19:42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
Luke 19:43 For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,
Luke 19:44 And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
v 7. Zech 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.
A. Jesus gathered about him a flock made up of the poor and despised. Mat 21:31 Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.
Mat 21:32 For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.
B. The stave (shepherds rod) called BEAUTY. The word means 'Merciful Kindness' (GRACE)
C. The rod called BANDS. (unity- though politically divided, Judah and Israel were one people.
By grace and the power of a common Law, they were held together.
v 8. Zech 11:8 Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me.
The civil authorities, priests and the prophets all despised God and went into captivity together.
v-9. Zech 11:9 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.
There came a time when Jesus exercised this 'tough love' with Israel.
Mat 23:36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
Mat 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
Mat 23:38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
Mat 23:39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
A. eat the flesh of each other!. God had warned them through Moses.
Lev 26:27 And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;
Lev 26:28 Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.
Lev 26:29 And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.
Deu 28:53 And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:
Deu 28:54 So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave:
Deu 28:55 So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.
Deu 28:56 The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,
Deu 28:57 And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.
All these things were described as happening during the siege of Jerusalem in A.D.70 by Titus Caesar. Josephus was an eye witness to the events.

vv 10,11 . Zech 11:10 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.
Zech 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.
Israel had broken their part of the covenant repeatedly and God had graciously restored them each time. He finally withdrew His Grace toward the nation and cast them off. (Rom.11.)

Vv 12,13. Zech 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.
Zech 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.
The prophecy of the final act of rejection which caused God to annul the covenant with Israel
Through Judas Iscariot and the priests, it was fulfilled in every detail. Mat 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,
Mat 27:4 Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.
Mat 27:5 And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
Mat 27:6 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.
Mat 27:7 And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in.
Mat 27:8 Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day.
Mat 27:9 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value;
Mat 27:10 And gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me.

V 14. Zech 11:14 Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
Israel was taken away into captivity first and the twelve tribes have never dwelt together in the same land since.

Vv 15-17. Zech 11:15 And the LORD said unto me, Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd.
Zech 11:16 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.
Zech 11:17 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.
Perhaps a reference to Zedekiah, the last king of Judah before the final destruction of the city.
2 Ki 25:6 So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him.
2 Ki 25:7 And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.