I wanted to post regarding Zechariah 11, which is a beautiful and profound chapter. In light of some recent discussions on the subject, I am almost reluctant to address the issue, but feel strongly that we should have a careful look at it. Context is everything, as I have suggested before. This chapter deals with shepherds of various sorts, and how they have affected the flock of Israel, in the past, present and future. Open your doors, O Lebanon, This is a very poetic introduction, give in symbolic language. The depiction might sound cryptic, unless we realize that the Second Temple was adorned with wood made from the cedars, firs and the oak trees from Lebanon and Bashan (located in current Syria). Bashan was known for its lush forests along the Jordan River. We are informed they are going to burn and the shepherds will wail. When did something like this happen? It took place when the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70. The Temple was burned and pulled down. https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/jamieson-fausset-brown/zechariah/zechariah-11.html 1. Open thy doors, O Lebanon--that is, the temple so called, as being constructed of cedars of Lebanon, or as being lofty and conspicuous like that mountain (compare Ezekiel 17:3 , Habakkuk 2:17 ). Forty years before the destruction of the temple, the tract called "Massecheth Joma" states, its doors of their own accord opened, and Rabbi Johanan in alarm said, I know that thy desolation is impending according to Zechariah's prophecy. https://www.christianity.com/bible/commentary.php?com=mhc&b=38&c=11 In figurative expressions, that destruction of Jerusalem, and of the Jewish church and nation, is foretold, which our Lord Jesus, when the time was at hand, prophesied plainly and expressly. How can the fir trees stand, if the cedars fall? The falls of the wise and good into sin, and the falls of the rich and great into trouble, are loud alarms to those every way their inferiors. It is sad with a people, when those who should be as shepherds to them, are as young lions. The pride of Jordan was the thickets on the banks; and when the river overflowed the banks, the lions came up from them roaring. Thus the doom of Jerusalem may alarm other churches. 2 Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, Zechariah 11:2 Whether churches are implied or not, the general idea is that this event is reason for everyone to be concerned; if it happened to Israel, it could happen to others. 4 Thus says the LORD my God, “Feed the flock for slaughter, 5 whose owners slaughter them and feel no guilt; those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the LORD, for I am rich’; and their shepherds do not pity them. 6 For I will no longer pity the inhabitants of the land,” says the LORD. “But indeed I will give everyone into his neighbor’s hand and into the hand of his king. They shall attack the land, and I will not deliver them from their hand.” Zechariah 11:4-6 There is a slaughter coming, God says to Zechariah. That is the reason the owners raise the sheep, and the shepherds accept that reality. All the owners want is profit. So God says He will also take that attitude toward His flock of Israel and turn them over for the slaughter. 7 So I fed the flock for slaughter, [c]in particular the poor of the flock. I took for myself two staffs: the one I called [d]Beauty, and the other I called [e]Bonds; and I fed the flock. Zechariah 11:7 The verse is in the first person singular, so perhaps Zechariah is the one prophetically enacting what God is accomplishing. The flock of Israel gets fed, but the ultimate end for them is still the killing of the sheep. God speaks of the poor of the flock, for He loves them, and yet they also will be turned over to destruction as the nation is judged. There are two staffs employed, one is called “Beauty,” and the other is called, “Bonds.” We need to investigate those designations. https://biblehub.com/commentaries/zechariah/11-7.htm Benson Commentary I find this a very satisfying explanation. Beauty represents how beautiful it would have been if Israel had accepted their Messiah, and Bands represents the unity that should have existed between Israel and Judah. 8 I [f]dismissed the three shepherds in one month. My soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me. There is no mention of a war here, nor is one implied. We do have Zechariah apparently dismissing three shepherds, which are haters of God, evidently. We are not supplied with details. Is this prophetic? That is a possibility, although keeping it in proper sequence, it should be related to the rejection of the coming Messiah and seen in that time frame, certainly not as embodied by three nations, as has been suggested. 9 Then I said, “I will not feed you. Let what is dying die, and what is perishing perish. Let those that are left eat each other’s flesh.” 10 And I took my staff, [g]Beauty, and cut it in two, that I might break the covenant which I had made with all the peoples. 11 So it was broken on that day. Thus the[h] poor of the flock, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the LORD. Zechariah 11:8-11 God turns the nation over to judgment. He will no longer feed them, indicating He will abandon those who hate Him. The staff, “Beauty,” is no longer required, as there will be no flock to watch over. But what covenant are we looking at here? It is certainly not related to the New Covenant under Christ, as that has not yet come into view, and is eternal, not something to be broken. Then what is it? We are told it is made with “all the peoples, which is a term normally associated with the nations outside of Israel, so this may (note the lack of absolute certainty) have to deal with God’s hand of protection over Israel being lifted. Likewise, the second staff, no longer needed, concerns Israel’s unity with others in the nation. Which covenant then is it? It has to be related to how God treats Israel. God promised that if Israel did not heed His covenant, He would drive them out of the land. 64 And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone. This is certainly what happened following the rejection of Christ as Messiah, leading me to conclude that while God did not give up on the nation of Israel, He allowed the nations to execute judgment upon them, that they might one day repent. 12 Then I said to them, “If it is agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.” So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver. Here we have a picture of Jesus being betrayed by Judas. The prophet asked for his wages and he was given a paltry amount of thirty pieces of silver. God says, “Throw it to the potter.”Jesus was treated as a cheap, hired hand and rejected by Israel, for the most part. 14 Then I cut in two my other staff, [j]Bonds, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. Zechariah 11:14 The Romans came in the year 70 and scattered Israel among the nations for almost 1900 years. 15 And the LORD said to me, “Next, take for yourself the implements of a foolish shepherd. 16 For indeed I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are cut off, nor seek the young, nor heal those that are broken, nor feed those that still stand. But he will eat the flesh of the fat and tear their hooves in pieces. Zechariah 11:15-16 The chapter is about shepherding the flock. A false shepherd over Israel will arise who has no love at all for the flock and only seeks their destruction. “Woe to the worthless shepherd, Zechariah 11:17 3And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. Revelation 13:3 This could possibly be related to the preceding verse, if at some point the false shepherd is attacked by a sword, or a knife. We will have to wait to see if that is borne out or not. Now then, given all we have seen, it would be out of place to harken back to the three shepherds verse and insist they are three nations involved in a war in the last times. That is out of sequence, out of context, and completely unwarranted. If that was the intention of the chapter, we might expect to see some indication of it at the end of the passage, not near the start of it. Prophecy can truly take some unexpected twists and turns. But without any further suggestion of the three shepherds appearing after the Great Shepherd, or the Idol Shepherd, I would conclude their chronological place is before the cross, and not with a contemporary event. Ok ... so then we now down to these wars up ahead :mail: Jeremiah 49 Elam bow broken :feedback is Psalm 83 a future war because there are some watchers who think its just a prayer. Personally, I don't think it's a scheduled war. I see it as citing Israel's enemies and asking for protection. Thanks again David for your deliberation! TR Yeah ... I was wondering why Bill Salus was promoting the Psalm 83 war I read this in the comment section on Amazon ... one of the purchaser’s said “Psalm 83 is a cry of Asaph the prophet, not a prophecy to be fulfilled. This cry came before God when Israel was reborn in 1948 and these same nations who appear with modern names today, attempted to destroy the state of Israel. It's an ongoing battle and not a prophecy. The fact that Bill Salus says that Israel will be without walls, gates and bars when these nations will strike, is not accurate, because you find in the book of Zechariah 2:3-5, stateing clearly that (Jerusalem) would be a city without walls and bars, a future prophecy given to the prophet Zechariah by God's angel, it was to follow the fall of Babylon and the return of the Jews to Jerusalem. It is not a now or future prophecy.” - Fair Use -
That fire may devour your cedars.
2 Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen,
Because the mighty trees are ruined.
Wail, O oaks of Bashan,
For the thick forest has come down.
3 There is the sound of wailing shepherds!
For their glory is in ruins.
There is the sound of roaring lions!
For the [a]pride of the Jordan is in ruins. Zechariah 11:1-3
Zechariah 11:7. And — Or rather, but, I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you — Or, especially you, O poor of the flock — Zechariah here, representing Christ the true shepherd, says, he will enter upon his office, and undertake the care of the flock appointed for the slaughter; even you, O poor of the flock — This clause is explicatory of the former, and by the repetition of it we are shown, that God, in his charge to the prophet, as a type of Christ, and to Christ the antitype, distinguishes clearly between different sorts of people among the Jews; between those that were poor, despised, weak, and humble, and those that were tyrannical, proud, and cruel, and made a prey of their inferiors: these were left out of the pastoral charge; the others were to be taken care of. And I took unto me two staves — These were the proper accoutrements of a shepherd, and these the prophet assumed as a badge of his office, and gave them significant names, which are partly explained, Zechariah 11:10-14. “The shepherds of old time,” says Lowth, “had two rods, or staves, one turned round at the top, that it might not hurt the sheep: this was for counting them, and separating the sound from the diseased, Leviticus 27:32; the other had an iron hook at the end of it, to pull in and hold the straying sheep. The psalmist mentions both these, Psalm 23:4, Thy rod and thy staff comfort me.” The one I called Beauty — Or, pleasantness, or, delight, as the word נועם may be rendered, signifying, says Lowth, his favour, gentleness, or kindness toward his people; which was remarkably verified in Christ, whose gracious words, and beneficial works, were conspicuous through the whole course of his life. The other I called Bands — Which the same author interprets of the bond of the new covenant, whereby he intended to unite both the kingdoms of Israel and Judah under himself, as their head and king, Ezekiel 37:22; and then afterward to unite the Jews and the Gentiles into one church, by breaking down the partition wall that was between them. Newcome considers the former, Beauty, as intended to “denote how beautiful and pleasant the land would have been, if its inhabitants had kept their covenant with God.” The other, Bands, “ as signifying the union which ought to have subsisted between Judah and Israel.” Mr. Scott explains “the former word of the honour, privilege, and ornament which the Jews possessed, according to their national covenant, in the oracles, instituted worship, and temple of God; and especially by the ministry of Christ and his apostles, who preached the gospel to them first.” The other, he thinks, means, “the connection of the nation under one government, and the harmony that had, in some measure, hitherto united them, as the flock of God.” Many other interpretations are given of these two names, but as they all are, and must be, in a great measure, founded on conjecture, the reader is not here troubled with them.
65 And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:
Deuteronomy 28:64-65
13 And the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD for the potter.
Zechariah 11:12-13
Who leaves the flock!
A sword shall be against his arm
And against his right eye;
His arm shall completely wither,
And his right eye shall be totally blinded.”
Psalm 83
Isaiah 17
Ezekiel 38-39
