Zechariah 11:1-17--The Flock Doomed to Slaughter

Zechariah 11
English Standard Version

The Flock Doomed to Slaughter
11 Open your doors, O Lebanon,
    that the fire may devour your cedars!
2 Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen,
    for the glorious trees are ruined!
Wail, oaks of Bashan,
    for the thick forest has been felled!
3 The sound of the wail of the shepherds,
    for their glory is ruined!
The sound of the roar of the lions,
    for the thicket of the Jordan is ruined!

4 Thus said the LORD my God: “Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. 5 Those who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the LORD, I have become rich,’ and their own shepherds have no pity on them. 6 For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, declares the LORD. Behold, I will cause each of them to fall into the hand of his neighbor, and each into the hand of his king, and they shall crush the land, and I will deliver none from their hand.”

7 So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named Favor, the other I named Union. And I tended the sheep. 8 In one month I destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. 9 So I said, “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.” 10 And I took my staff Favor, and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. 11 So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep traders, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the LORD. 12 Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. 13 Then the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter. 14 Then I broke my second staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

15 Then the LORD said to me, “Take once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16 For behold, I am raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for those being destroyed, or seek the young or heal the maimed or nourish the healthy, but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs.

17 “Woe to my worthless shepherd,
    who deserts the flock!
May the sword strike his arm
    and his right eye!
Let his arm be wholly withered,
    his right eye utterly blinded!”

---

I must admit this is a confusing passage after everything we read about the LORD one day bringing peace and prosperity to the flock of Israel and promising that they will never again go into Exile and be taken out of the Land.  It appears this is a prophecy that has some immediate fulfillment in the time of Zechariah, we see a more complete fulfillment in the life of Jesus, and we expect this to be the case again before Jesus returns in the end times.

The LORD chooses a particular flock that He tells Zechariah to become shepherd over and the tells Zechariah that this flock is destined to be slaughtered.  Note that this does not mean that God is going to allow all the people of Israel and Judah to be killed--that goes against everything else that we've read so far and the promises that the LORD has made to them, but the LORD is going to allow the mass-murder of the people of Israel and allow the Land to be devoured and the people to be hunted, captured, sold and killed by their enemies that are watching for the LORD's protection to once again cease because the people continue to break the Mosaic Covenant.  The nations are sure that if the people become wicked enough, the LORD will once again have to remove His Favor (the name of the first staff) and that they will become as vulnerable as any other nation (even if He doesn't exile them from the Land).

First, Zechariah must do away with all the good shepherds that would work to save the sheep.  He does that within a month of being given these instructions by the LORD.  Then Zechariah leaves the sheep to fend for themselves and breaks the staff called Favor as a sign to all those watching (that understood this to be the Word of the LORD) that the covenant was broken and the people of Israel and Judah would no longer have the Favor of the blessings of the Mosaic Covenant or the protections of it.

Yet, there is a bigger story here, as Messiah stands in the place of Israel and goes through everything they went through and He was the one destined for slaughter, and the LORD would not save Him.  The LORD removed His favor (which we see He had early on in His life when he grew in favor with both God and men).  His enemies (the religious leaders, Satan, and all the enemies of God that were waiting to try to destroy the Messiah and keep Him from becoming the King that would bring peace and prosperity to His people) were waiting for this moment.  They didn't realize the crucifixion was all part of God's plan.  They thought they would kill the one destined to be king and steal the kingdom, but it was through their actions that His Kingdom was established forever and ever as this allowed Him to defeat sin and death.

We see the price of 30 pieces of silver here that was paid as blood money.  In the New Testament, Matthew is focused on the price of the field being 30 pieces of silver which was prophetically told to the prophet Jeremiah, but that does not deny the fact that this prophecy was also fulfilled in Christ as the price paid for Judah to betray Him to the religious leaders was set at 30 pieces of silver.  Note that just like with Judas, these 30 pieces of silver were thrown into the house of the LORD (The Temple) just like when Judas felt guilty and tried to return the blood money before going to commit suicide.  At this point in the story the second staff called Union was broken (the Shepherd was struck down and the "sheep" (His disciples) scattered and hid)

However, that's not the end of the story.  The LORD tells Zechariah to once again take up the equipment of a foolish shepherd.  I believe this speaks to a day in the future when there will be additional worthless leaders (shepherds) of the LORD's people (maybe in Israel, maybe in the Church, probably both) and I think there's a good chance this points directly to the time of Antichrist when the Jewish people will believe that he is their Messiah but he seeks their destruction, not their salvation.  The LORD will judge this future worthless shepherd and all other worthless shepherds who were given care over His people and did not do the job entrusted to them by the Chief Shepherd.