Two Staffs and Thirty Pieces of Silver - Zechariah 11

0:51And then I pray that you would help us understand how that message applies to us and what it teaches about you. And I pray, Lord, that people, the church body gathered tonight, would be amazed at you tonight because of your word. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, Daniel 9, verse 24. Remember, Zechariah is one of the last prophets, and today he's not quote. Some prophets, but he is speaking with, I think, an understanding of some of the prophets that came before him. Maybe Daniel here, or we're going to look over at a small passage in Jeremiah as well. But first, Daniel 9, verse 24. Do you remember this prophecy? The prophecy of the 70 weeks. Daniel 9, verse 24. 70 weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. So there's a lot of things that's going to happen in these seven weeks, right? At some point, Israel's sin, it's going to be over. They're going to finish their transgressions. In these 70 weeks, they're going to put an end to sin. They're going to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet. So the scriptures are going to be over at the end of the seven weeks and to anoint a most holy place. Okay, verse 25. Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then, for 62 weeks, it shall be built again with squares and a moat, but in troubled times. Verse 25. 26, yes. And after the 62 weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. And he shall come, he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering, and on the wing of abomination shall come one who makes desolate until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator. I don't know if you remember that prophecy, but it's a really spectacular. I hope you get a chance to study it sometime. Maybe we will in a future week. But the angel gives to Daniel these 70 weeks, a message from the Lord about this timeline. And these weeks, when you study it, you'd see that they are weeks of years. And it's this timeline of events that are going to happen in the future. And so there's first there's seven, and then there's 62, and then there's one more. So add that up in your head. Does that really equal 70? It does, right? Seven plus 62, 69, and then one more. Okay? Well, at the end of the 62, so really 69 of the weeks have gone by, an anointed one is cut off. Anyone who studied this? Passage, do you remember who that's speaking about? Jesus, right? So at the end of these 69 weeks of years, from the time that the decree goes forth, Jesus is alive and gets cut off. The anointed one gets cut off. But then there's this pause. And all the time in between when Jesus gets cut off up through now and until the end times, there's this pause, this mystery of the church, this age that we're in right now. But there's coming that final week for the people of Israel. And that final week is seven years, just like the other weeks of years. And it's cut into two halves. So how big would each half be?

5:14Three and a half, right? And of course, that's what we read in Revelation. We have the seven-year period of this tribulation in the Great Tribulation. And it's cut in two halves also. It gives it in days in the book of Revelation, but it adds up to three and a half years. So it all just fits together really well. But I just wanted us to see that there is this timeline where the anointed one is cut off, and then there's this pause, and then there's this final year, this final week of years that's waiting to be fulfilled. Okay? I just want that to be in the back of our mind. Okay, turn over to Jeremiah chapter 3.

5:59Another passage. That I want to be in the back of our mind. Starting in verse 6, Jeremiah 3, verse 6: The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah, Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel? How she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore. And I thought, after she had done all this, she will return to me, but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear. But she too went and played the whore because she took her whoredom lightly. She polluted the land, committed adultery with stone and tree. Yet for all this, her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord. The young adults just studied a big passage in Ezekiel where he's using the same illustration, but that the northern kingdom was taken, she's playing the whore, and then the southern kingdom, instead of seeing that and being appalled and being faithful to the Lord, they copy and with stone and tree. What's that referring to? What do you think? Idols, right? Okay, so verse 11, and the Lord said to me, Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. So in the end, Judah's sin, the one that had been the faithful kingdom for the most amount of time, was actually ended up being more wicked than the northern kingdom. By the. By the time it was all said and done. Verse 12, go and proclaim these words toward the north and say, Return, faithless Israel, declares the Lord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the Lord. I will not be angry forever, only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the Lord your God, and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the Lord. Return, O faithless children, declares the Lord, for I am your master. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.

8:04Verse 15, and I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. And when you have multiplied and increased in the land in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed. It shall not be made again. At that time, Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all the nations shall gather to it to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. In those days, the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north and to the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage. Okay, so there's he's prophesying this future time that's so great that nobody is going to be able to go. Going to miss the Ark of the Covenant. Nobody's going to say, where is it? No one's even going to be thinking about it. And why aren't they thinking about the fact that the Ark is lost? It's because the throne of the Lord is in Jerusalem. And you have Israel and Judah, and they're unified. Not only that, you have shepherds.

9:19These are the things that we're going to see in Zechariah today. Is that in the future, in this happy time in the future, Israel and Judah are going to be united together and they're going to have faithful shepherds that teach them. Verse 15, I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. Okay, now turn to Zechariah 10. So that we can run over the chapter from last week. Zechariah chapter 10.

10:05Ask rain from the Lord and the season of the spring rain, from the Lord who makes the storm clouds, and he will give them showers of rain to everyone, the vegetation in the field. For the household gods utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies. He's saying, don't ask them. Ask the Lord. He's the one who gives rain. They tell false dreams and give empty consolation. Therefore, the people wander like sheep. They are afflicted for lack of a shepherd. Okay, so this is the state of the people that they're trusting in these diviners and these other competitors, these fake prophets. And instead, the Lord's saying, turn to me, because right now you're like sheep without a shepherd. The people wander like sheep. They're afflicted for lack of a shepherd. Verse 3: My anger is hot against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders or the male goats. For the Lord of hosts cares for his flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like his majestic steed in battle.

11:11Down in verse 6, I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back because I have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them. For I am the Lord their God, and I will answer them. So, again, you have this time where southern and northern kingdom are united. The Lord is going to bring them back in this happy time. But for now, their big issue is that God really cares about his flock.

11:43But the shepherds over his flock are not good shepherds. My anger is hot against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders. Therefore, the people wander like sheep. They are afflicted for lack of a shepherd. So the people. Issue. Yes, they've been disobedient, but they also are lacking in good shepherds. And the shepherds that they do have are not good. God is angry with them. And so you can already see a little bit of the connection, right, with Jeremiah, that in Jeremiah's prophecy, when he's foretelling this time when Israel and Judah are going to be back and unified, and no one's going to remember the Ark of the Covenant, because why do you need the Ark of the Covenant if the throne of the Lord is actually there? And they're going to have faithful shepherds who are actually teaching them according to the truth.

12:38That's a time I think that they are looking forward to. And we ended last week. You can turn over to chapter 11 now. We ended last week in chapter 10 on a really high note. It's an exciting time that he's foretelling this time where Israel and Judah are going to be united, where they're conquering everybody. They're getting to come back to the land, and things are really happy and exciting for them. So, where is Zechariah in history? Just pause for a second. Like, actually, him himself, Zechariah, where is he? What is he doing? What time is he living in? Anyone remember?

13:17Yeah. 520. So his night visions were in 520. And then now we're after that. The prophecy we'll read today isn't dated, but we're probably after 520. And And so what have the people been through recently? Exile, right? But now where are they? They're back. They're back in the land, right? Zechariah and Haggai, their main function as two prophets were to get the people to do what? Build the temple, finish building the temple, right? So they are back in the land. So the big scary judgment of Babylon is actually in the past. It's very important for us to remember that. Okay? So the big scary judgment is in the past. They've just been able to come back. They're starting to get to take a deep breath in the land now. They're going to start building, or they've already started building the temple again. And in a few, I guess, decades, they'll finish the walls also under Nehemiah that we've studied.

14:25So the big, scary judgment from Babylon is over, and yet, chapter 11 opens like this. Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars. 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. 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. Any other? Is what's going on there?

15:05It at least sounds bad, right? I think we could all be on the same page that this is some terrible judgment, even though, and I think the people that are listening to Zechariah say this, I think they would have thought something like, really? You know, we just got back to the land. You know, are we already going to mess up again? And is there already going to be this big, scary judgment coming? And, of course, on those verses, some people take them figuratively. So, the cedars and the cypress and the oaks, the thick forest, these lions and the shepherds, all of those are all different figures of speech for leaders that they're not doing well, which would actually fit with the rest of the chapter. I think he's talking about another time of judgment, that there's going to be another time of judgment that comes for Israel. They've just finished the one from Babylon, and he's saying there's going to be another one, and it's going to be bad. Wail, wail.

16:10Their glory is ruined. The thicket of the Jordan is ruined. So, there's going to be this devastation across the land, kind of from top over to the side across the land, that these places are going to be destroyed in judgment. So the question is, why? And we have the rest of the chapter to hear why. But, Rosemary, did you have a question? You looked at me like you had a question. Sorry. Okay, what was your question?

16:48Well, why is it addressed to Lebanon? Because Lebanon, are we not thinking of Lebanon? Can I not think of Lebanon as separate from Israel? It is separate from Israel, but I think it's like this vast sweep top to bottom across the land, is the idea of this scary judgment is coming and it's everywhere. And so, you know, if someone said, I'm going to, this is a terrible example, I'm going to hit you from head to toe, or something like that. Maybe I don't really mind if they hit me at my head and my toe, but I know that means everything in between as well. I think that's kind of the picture he's given here. He says, Lebanon and the Jordan, and he's just kind of saying destruction everywhere, terrible. Everybody wail. All around Israel, there's this destruction. And we'll find out it's in the middle, too.

17:46Any other questions or thoughts before we move on? So this judgment is coming. And the question is, why? And I think that would have been the people's question: is okay, what's this next big judgment coming? And maybe they're like Rosemary, and they're saying, okay, maybe it's just the nations around us, but he's going to make it clear that it's because of them and their sin. But I want to warn you that the rest of this chapter is called by some as the most difficult passage in all of the Old Testament.

18:28I don't think we'll have that problem today. I think we'll see that it is difficult, but I think that we'll be able to interpret it together. So I'm actually going to read the whole thing, if that's okay with you guys. So try and follow along in your Bibles. Liliana made a good rhyme today in the car, so I'm going to say it. So keep your eyeballs on your Bibles. I thought that was good. Okay, so verse 4 down to verse 17. I'm going to read the whole thing. So remember, he's just announced that this judgment is coming. So the question is, why? Verse 4. See if you can figure out what's going on in this passage.

19:13Thus says the Lord, thus said the Lord my God, become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. Those who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished. And those who sell them say, Blessed be the Lord. I have become rich in their own shepherds. Have no pity on them, 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. Okay, so we'll pause right there and just say that you can tell already he's set up this picture. He's told Zechariah, in some sense, to be a shepherd, and this is going to signify the way God interacts with his people. Then, verse 7: So I became a shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders, and I took two staffs, one I named favor, and the other I named Union. And I tended the sheep. In one month, I destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, probably the sheep, and they also detested me. 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. And I took my staff, favor, and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples or all the nations. Verse 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. Then I said to them, If it seems good to you, give me my wages, but if not, keep them. And they wait out as As my wages, 30 pieces of silver. 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. Then I broke my second staff, union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. Then the Lord said to me, Take once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd, 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 hooves. Hooves? Hoofs. Verse 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.

21:55Okay, so that was a bunch, right? But it's this extended word picture, and it seems to kind of recycle this analogy of a shepherd throughout the passage in different ways. There seems to be a good shepherd, and then there seems to be a foolish shepherd, and he's recycling this vision. So let's see if, or this illustration, let's see if we can step through it and figure out what's going on. Okay? So, first, verse 4: Thus said the Lord my God, become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. What does that sound like to you? The flock. Doomed to slaughter.

22:34Those are like the actual sheep. What's that sound like? Yeah. Well, the actual sheep, I mean, is like the flock that they're going to be eaten, right? So you might have some flocks for the wool that you keep alive and you shave over and over, but then you've got some that are just for the meat, right? Those are the ones that are doomed for the slaughter. So Zechariah, God tells Zechariah, you go become a shepherd in that flock. Go and take care of those sheep specifically, the ones that are doomed for slaughter.

23:14Verse 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. Okay, so these are the sheep, no one has pity on them. They're about to die anyways. They're about to be eaten. If someone happens to sell it, you know, he gets excited, like, woohoo, I made a quick buck. This sheep was supposed to die, and I sold it to somebody for money. So he gets excited that he sells it. You can kill them. You can slaughter them and go unpunished. So the point of all this is to say, like, nothing's good about these sheep. They're the unwanted sheep, and the shepherds don't care about. About them. They're not taking care of them. They're having no pity on these sheep.

24:06Verse 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. Okay, so he's communicated two things with this first part of the vision, or the first part of the illustration, is that the shepherds don't really care about the sheep, right? It's the flock that's going to be slaughtered anyways. They don't have pity on these sheep. And so the shepherds aren't being tender with them. They're not, you know, nursing their wounds, things like that. They're not being good, loving shepherds towards these sheep. But also something else is that the people that the sheep represents, the inhabitants of this land, and who does that sound like?

25:07Israel, Judah, right? The inhabitants of this land, that God is not going to have pity on them anymore. So they've done something that has caused the Lord to say, judgment is coming. And 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. Okay, so judgment is coming on the inhabitants of this land, and it's severe judgment. And now you can kind of get what verses one through three were about. This is why people are wailing this judgment that's coming. Okay, so so far he's told us two things: the shepherds are bad, and they don't care, they don't have pity, but also the people are bad, and judgment is coming on them. Okay, look down at verse 7.

26:01So, he's going to do what God tells him to do. So, I became shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named favor, and the other I named union, and I tended the sheep. Okay, so the prophet goes and does this. It sounds kind of like what we've been studying in Ezekiel. Ezekiel, over and over and over, is supposed to not just prophesy, but also act out his prophecies. And this seems to be what Zechariah has to do. He's doing a prophetic act that's going to foreshadow something and tell us something that's going to happen. And so, Zechariah does what the Lord says. He goes and finds this flock that's doomed to be slaughtered. And he's got two staffs. I don't know why. Maybe that's super cool for a shepherd to have two staffs instead of one, but he's got two, and he names them something. And both of those, and maybe this is why he had two, are going to signify something. So, one, he names favor. In one, he names union. He names his staffs as he's taking care of these sheep.

27:10The word for favor is also like grace or mercy. That kind of favor, the word for union is actually the word for like bindings or things bound together. But in most of our translations, it's translated favor and union. And I tend to the sheep. Verse 8. In one month, so he did this for at least one month. In one month, I destroyed the three shepherds. We don't really know what that means, right? Sounds not good. But maybe he kicks them out, or maybe he kills them. We don't know. But in one month, I destroyed the three shepherds. So they're these shepherds that weren't caring for the flock. They had no pity. They're happy to sell them or slaughter them. Zechariah gets rid of them.

28:06A lot of people also, by the way, just pausing here, try and give a significance to those three shepherds, a symbolic significance. Maybe like the prophets and the priests and the king that were wicked over the land and they were leaders and that's why they needed to be destroyed, something like that. But I don't know if we can say that with confidence. So in one month I destroyed the three shepherds, but. I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. That seems to be the sheep, because listen to what he says in verse 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. Let those who are left devour the flesh of one another. So either he's saying this to like undershepherds, that he's not going to be leader over their flock, or he's talking about the sheep, that they, the sheep, detested Zechariah, and he was impatient with them.

29:12What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed, and let those who are left devour the flesh of one another. What's he talking about there? If he's not doing his job as a shepherd, and he's just going to abandon them to whatever they want to do, then sheep are going to die, and he's going to let it die. Sheep are going to be destroyed, and he's going to let it be destroyed, and they're going to devour the flesh of one another. So these sheep are going to descend into death and chaos and even devour each other. Because Zechariah, as the shepherd who stepped in with favor and unity, he He becomes impatient with the sheep, and they hate him. And so he steps back and says, okay, I'm not going to be your shepherd.

30:10Sounds kind of mean, but remember, all of this is symbolizing something, an illustration of something. Verse 10, and I took my staff favor, and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep traders who were watching me knew that it was the word of the Lord. Okay, so the first staff he takes, favor, and in front of everybody, he breaks his staff, and everybody sees it. And I took my staff favor, I broke it, annulling the covenant I had made with all the peoples. So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep traders who were watching me knew that it was the word of the Lord. So the people that are watching Zechariah do all these things, they know he's doing this to be the word of the Lord. They see what's going on. They know this is prophecy coming.

31:14Verse 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 30 pieces of silver. Okay, so now, so think if you're in the sheep trader's shoes. God had told this guy to. Come be shepherd over your flock of sheep. And these sheep were doomed for the slaughter, anyways. And he comes, and the sheep hate him, and he's impatient with the sheep, and he's fine with just letting them die. And you see him break his staff, and now you start to see, okay, this is the prophet. He's doing this to be the word of the Lord. He's not just a crazy man. And so then Zechariah says, okay, if you want to pay me, he's been a shepherd, remember, for a month now. So he says, if you want to pay me for my services, go for it. But if not, keep the wages. And they wanted to pay him. So they weighed out as my wages 30 pieces of silver. Okay? So are you following along with the whole story here? Zechariah becomes a shepherd. At the end of it, they hate him, the sheep, and he says, I'm out of here. And you can pay me if you want to, but if not, just keep your money. And they gave him 30 pieces of silver. Okay, but then, verse 13, the Lord said to me, throw it to the potter.

32:43The lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, to the potter. Okay, so they do pay him his wages, but then God. Speaks to him and says, There's something very specific I want you to do with this money. And he doesn't explain why, and we'll see why, I think, later. But the Lord tells him and speaks to him and tells him something very specific to do with that money. That 30 pieces of silver, he's supposed to throw it into the house of the Lord to the potter. And then he just goes on. Verse 14: Then I broke my second staff, union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. So he's just in the chapter before had this talked about this future time where Israel and Judah would be united and things would be going so well for them. Well, in this vision, in this time of judgment that's going to come before, he's saying, I'm going to break that staff of unity because during this time of judgment, Israel and Judah are going to turn against each other. There's going to be discord in the land. It's not all of God's people of Israel unified at this time.

33:58So he breaks the staff. Then the Lord said to me, Take once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd, 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. 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. Okay, so let's. Recap some details that we have together.

34:33The people of the land. He's already told us that the flock represents the inhabitants of the land. He gave that away back in verse 6 because he said, No one has flock on the sheep, just like I am not going to have pity on the inhabitants of the land when this time of judgment comes. Okay, so the flock represents Israel and Judah in the land. He tells us that again in verse 14: Then I broke my second staff union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. So this is about Judah and Israel and judgment that's coming to them.

35:10They are not being taken care of by their shepherds. Their shepherds don't care about them. They're worthless to them. And so a special shepherd comes and they hate him. And he grows impatient with them. And he gives them what they want. And he backs off. And the price that they think is good for him is 30 pieces of silver. And that 30 pieces of silver gets thrown into the house of the potter. And the second staff is broken. Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. And so there's this disunity again in a time of judgment.

36:01Does any of this sound familiar? What does that sound like to you? Yeah, I think so. So if we are putting ourselves in their shoes, they haven't heard the story of Judas yet with the 30 pieces of silver. And so maybe they don't know why the Lord said, take that 30 pieces and throw it to the potter. It doesn't say in the text, but God did tell them to do that. Well, the rest of the text, I think, is a pretty clear picture that the shepherds are bad. And they know from the prophets that the shepherds are supposed to be good, and there's going to come a day when the shepherds are good at the end of times. But for now, the shepherds are bad, and God is very angry with the shepherds. And so, just like Zechariah comes in and takes over for the three shepherds that don't care about the people, and he destroys them, and he's there as the prophet, being this special shepherd.

37:09I think God is saying, I am going to send to the inhabitants of the land. Remember, that's who the flock represents. I'm going to send a special shepherd. But they are going to detest that shepherd, and he's going to grow impatient with them and let them. Them do what they want to do. Does that make sense? You guys see that? Verse 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 30 pieces of silver. Then the Lord said to me, throw it to the potter. The lordly price. I think that's kind of ironic. You know, it was not a lot of money. The lordly price at which I was priced by them. Maybe sarcastic. I don't know if I know the difference. But the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, to the potter.

38:15Before we look at that, let's talk a little bit about favor and union. So what I think is happening in this passage is he's saying there's going to be a special shepherd that comes, and the flock itself is going to detest that shepherd. And because it detests that shepherd, that shepherd is going to break favor. He's going to break that staff favor, the grace and the mercy that he was going to give upon them. In verse 10, I took my staff favor and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples or all the nations. So maybe this symbolizes that God, as long as Israel was being faithful and obedient, God was going to bless him and not let these peoples attack them. Something like that. But now that they have rejected their shepherd, he's going to back off and the peoples or the nations can come in and attack.

39:09Does anybody know about a big attack after Jesus is off the scene, after he's rejected and gone and ascended into heaven? What big attack, what big judgment do we hear about in Scripture? Not in Scripture. Yes, when the temple was destroyed in 70 AD. And then after that, more than just the temple, right? Big battles and destruction all over the land. And so this judgment is coming. And then look down at verse 14. Then I broke my second staff union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. We don't have this in Scripture, but history tells us that after the temple is destroyed, the people of Israel turn against each other. And one writer, I think, even said they were worse to each other than the Romans were to them when they came and conquered them.

40:02That they turned against each other and there wasn't this unity. Okay, so think about how tragic this is. Because if the shepherd was coming and this was their Messiah and this was a time that they could have been united again and everything was going to be awesome and they could have had Israel and Judah together, but they rejected that Messiah. And as a result, the exact opposite happens. They're not blessed in the land. The temple is destroyed again. The one that the people are building right now in Zechariah's day. The temple is destroyed again, and I just lost my train of thought. The temple is destroyed again, and then all the people, instead of being unified, are against each other. It's not a fun time, and of course, lasting even until today, that there is not this big unity among all the Jews, that there's not this temple, there's the dome of the rock sitting on the temple mount, just not the future, the glorious future yet. Okay?

41:11So, favor and union have been broken, and the people are allowed to be attacked, and there's discord among the people instead of security for the people in union. In short, that's what I was trying to spend forever to say. So, turn over to the end of Matthew. Matthew chapter 26, and we'll talk a little bit about the money going to the potter. 26, verse 14. Then, one of the 12, Matthew 26, verse 14, then one of the 12, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, What will you give me if I deliver him over to you? And they paid him 30 pieces of silver. And from that moment, he sought an opportunity to betray him. Okay, so just like Zechariah said, You can pay me if you want to, but if you don't want to, you don't have to. And they put a price on him. This special shepherd of 30 pieces of silver, so the price that's put on Jesus' life is 30 pieces of silver. Turn over to Matthew chapter 27, a couple pages over.

42:14Verse 3. Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. They said, What is that to us? See to it yourself. And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, just like Zechariahs were thrown into the temple, throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself. But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, It's not lawful to put them into the treasury since it is blood money. So they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. Therefore, that field has been called the field of blood to this day. Then what was fulfilled, then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, And they took 30 pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter's field as the Lord directed me. Okay.

43:20Did you notice something funny about what just happened, what we just read? Anything stick out to you? Raise a red flag? Noah? Right. It said Jeremiah. This then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, and they took the 30 pieces of silver. But what prophet are we studying tonight? Zechariah, right? So do you think that's a mistake? No, the scripture doesn't have mistakes, right? It's because there's more than one prophecy being fulfilled here. This whole section is full of things that are being fulfilled. In Jeremiah 19, we hear about he's supposed to take a pot, a vessel from the potter, and they go out the potter's gate, and they're supposed to buy a field, and that field is going to be called the valley of slaughter, and all of these other things. And you can see how that lines up. They took counsel with them in the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. Therefore, that field has been called the field of blood to this day. So there's already a lot of parallels with Jeremiah. I think his point is this agrees with the prophets, Jeremiah and Zechariah, and he just names the bigger one. The young adults saw this also with, I think it was John the Baptist, quoting from Malachi, but also referencing prophecies from Isaiah. And instead of saying Isaiah and Malachi, he just says Isaiah. Isaiah the prophet said this. And really it was mixed with the quotes. Malachi. So they do this somewhere else too. But anyways, so verse 9, then it was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, And they took 30 pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter's field as the Lord directed me. And so you have this concept that this is in fulfillment of what Zechariah was doing. I think we didn't know why the Lord just stepped in and spoke to Zechariah and said, Make sure that 30 pieces of silver, make sure you throw it into the temple to the potter. Well, I think it's because it was a prophecy of what's going to happen about that rejected shepherd. We know it's a rejected shepherd who comes to his people and the people hate him. And so favor is broken and the nations are allowed to come in. Unity is broken and the people turn on themselves. And this is exactly what happens when Jesus is rejected and detested by the people. And he also was valued at 30 pieces of silver. And he also, that those 30 pieces of silver get thrown into the temple to the potter.

46:14James? I was just going to say that Romans 11 talks a little bit to you about favor being broken in the sense that the Gentiles have kind of the favor of God as kind of like avenues of salvation. In the New Testament. Yeah. And Paul kind of talks about that there will be a purpose for the building surprising for Romania. Yeah. And the nations have been grafted in. Pat, did you have something? Oh. Were there any other thoughts or questions before we bring this to a close?

46:54Actually, there is one thing. You were talking about how they were fighting against each other, the Romans were attacking them. Actually, one of the worst killing situations was when one group told the other major group fighting against the Romans, you can come into the temple map, only you can disarm yourselves. It's a special religious holiday. So they go in there and disarm themselves, and then the other group killed them. And here they are fighting the Romans. They needed these people to help them fight the Romans. They hated each other so bad that they were killing each other instead of unifying to fight the Romans. That's how bad it got.

47:36Right. And I think that's what Zachariah is talking about. I think God is giving him this very specific, these specific things to do. Saying, okay, the leaders are not taking care of the people, and the people are going to be judged for their sins again. And this isn't before the Babylonian captivity, so we can't just say, okay, here's the thing. He's talking about Babylon coming to destroy the people because this is after. So, this is after they get back in the land. They hear judgments coming again. I'm sure they would have been maybe exasperated or something, but they know it's because of their own sin. And so, this judgment is coming again in the future. Well, the next big bad judgment is when the temple is destroyed by Rome and the people turn against each other like that. And so, this shepherd comes. So, God tells Zechariah to signify this shepherd to go and find this flock who's doomed for the slaughter because their shepherds don't care about them, and they're the ones that are going to be eaten or something like that. And he says, Zechariah, you go be shepherd of that flock. And Zechariah has these two staffs, favor and unity, union. And he becomes their shepherd, and they detest him, and he is impatient with them and lets them have what they want, and then breaks his two staffs. So, I think that this whole scene is a picture of how the leaders of Israel were not good shepherds. And so, God sends the shepherd, the good shepherd, to come, but the people detested him.

49:21And so, instead of bringing in these spectacular promises, the people are left with. What they deserve to be left without this good shepherd. Favor is broken, and the nations are able to come in. Union is broken, and they turn against each other. And he's sold for 30 pieces of silver that's thrown into the temple. The last part, just really quickly, verse 15 through the end. Then the Lord said to me, Take once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 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. 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. So after they reject this special shepherd, God prophesies that someday there's going to be another shepherd that comes, and he's going to be a worthless, foolish shepherd. He's going to not care for those being destroyed. He's not going to seek the young. He's not going to heal the maimed. He's not going to nourish the healthy, but he's going to devour the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs. Hoofs.

50:50So this future shepherd who's coming is going to treat the people despicably and terribly. I think that that's the Antichrist. I think that's pointing back to that succession that we saw in Daniel 9 of these weeks of the anointed one gets cut off, and then in that next week, there's all these desolations and these persecutions that we'll read about in Revelation. I think that that's what the faithless shepherd is there. It's not necessarily clear from the text, but what is clear from the text is after they reject the good shepherd and they detest him, this judgment is coming, and then someday they're going to have a very bad shepherd who devours the people. And it's a curse on them. And God says, woe to that shepherd who comes. Right? Let's pray. Oh, Rosemary, before we pray. I understand what you said. I heard the history. The breaking of the staff favor looks to me like, I'm probably wrong. I'm probably wrong. Breaking of the staff favor is not breaking that Jesus, symbolic of Jesus breaking the old covenant and then making a new covenant. And perhaps a union, staff union, is that there is no more tribe or nation, that we're all one in Jesus, Gentile, and Jew?

52:22Actually, in verse 10, I thought that as well the first time I read it, but what made me change my mind? Look again at verse 10, I took my staff favor, and I Broke it, annulling the covenant I had made with all the peoples. And so I thought, okay, he's breaking this old covenant of favor that he had with the people and their land, and it's moving on to something else. But what's interesting is that the covenant is actually with the peoples, it's with the nations. And so what I think it is, or what I changed to, was that I think it's something like that he was holding them back, these nations. He wasn't letting them conquer their people. And then he breaks the staff, and that's done with. These peoples are going to be able to come in and attack.

53:11Good question. Any other questions or thoughts? I was going to say, he didn't break really the old covenant. Yeah. Yeah. All right, let's pray. God, we thank you so much that we got to read this passage. We're grateful that we know the Good Shepherd. We're thankful that so many years in advance you had Zechariah act these things out in such an amazing and startling way and foretold someone who is to come. That was a good shepherd that the sheep detested.

54:06A shepherd that was valued at 30 pieces of silver. I pray, Lord, that if nothing else, that we would just be in awe and amazed at the all-knowing and all-seeing God who told, who you told your people the future. And it came to pass. And so specifically, I pray, Lord, that we would be awed and amazed. I pray, Lord, that we would respond to the good shepherd, that nobody in this room would stay as someone who is detesting that good shepherd, who's rejecting Jesus Christ, but instead that we would turn and humble ourselves.

54:59We know we're sheep, and we need the good shepherd. Lord, we are amazed at your prophecy. We pray that you'd help us continue to learn from it and understand. In Jesus' name, amen. There is actually more to come about a shepherd in Zechariah. There's even more specific, really special prophecy. So keep looking forward to it, and you're dismissed for tonight.