Christmas - Who is Jesus - 10. Messiah’s Rejection

Messiah's Rejection

11:1 Open your doors, Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars. 11:2 Wail, fir tree, for the cedar has fallen, because the stately ones are destroyed. Wail, you oaks of Bashan, for the strong forest has come down. 11:3 A voice of the wailing of the shepherds! For their glory is destroyed: a voice of the roaring of young lions! For the pride of the Jordan is ruined. 11:4 Thus says Yahweh my God: "Feed the flock of slaughter. 11:5 Their buyers slaughter them, and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be Yahweh, for I am rich;' and their own shepherds don't pity them.

11:6 For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land," says Yahweh; "but, behold, I will deliver the men everyone into his neighbor's hand, and into the hand of his king. They will strike the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them." 11:7 So I fed the flock of slaughter, especially the oppressed of the flock. I took for myself two staffs. The one I called "Favor," and the other I called "Union," and I fed the flock. 11:8 I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me. 11:9 Then I said, "I will not feed you. That which dies, let it die; and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let those who are left eat each other's flesh."

11:10 I took my staff Favor, and cut it apart, that I might break my covenant that I had made with all the peoples. 11:11 It was broken in that day; and thus the poor of the flock that listened to me knew that it was the word of Yahweh. 11:12 I said to them, "If you think it best, give me my wages; and if not, keep them." So they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver. 11:13 Yahweh said to me, "Throw it to the potter, the handsome price that I was valued at by them!" I took the thirty pieces of silver, and threw them to the potter, in the house of Yahweh. 11:14 Then I cut apart my other staff, even Union, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

11:15 Yahweh said to me, "Take for yourself yet again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 11:16 For, behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who will not visit those who are cut off, neither will seek those who are scattered, nor heal that which is broken, nor feed that which is sound; but he will eat the flesh of the fat sheep, and will tear their hoofs in pieces. 11:17 Woe to the worthless shepherd who leaves the flock! The sword will be on his arm, and on his right eye. His arm will be completely withered, and his right eye will be totally blinded!" (Zechariah 11:1-17)

So far in our journey we have seen that the future is glory for the Servant Messiah and all those who choose to follow Him!  It is a future of hope, joy, excitement, awe, wonderment and glory.  But that is only one side of the future. In Zechariah 11, we come to another part of the future; the part of the future which is for all those who would reject God's Servant Messiah.  While Zechariah talks in picture language and symbols, the overall message is startlingly clear: those who reject the Messiah, will in the future be rejected by Him!  But we are not given the full details here, but rather are told the why it will happen.

Judgment is coming

Here in Zechariah 11:1-3 we see this judgement coming.  The strong barriers of the door are removed!  There are no barriers strong enough to escape the judgment of God Almighty. Fire will destroy the mighty cedar trees (Zechariah 11:1), tall pines will fall wantonly (Zechariah 11:2) and fertile land will be decimated as will the places where lions inhabit (Zechariah 11:3).  Why are the shepherds crying out in dismay and angst?  Not for the land, the trees and animals! No!  They were crying out in anguish because of their loss of income! They were too busy ripping off those the people they were meant to lead, rather than leading the people rightly and righteously.  They were leaders only for what they could get out of the position they held.  They were corrupt, deceitful and arrogant.  How were the mighty cedars destroyed and barriers broken down?  History tells us that the Roman Empire swept through Lebanon, subduing the entire Lebanese leadership & independent authority under its mighty power.

The Good Shepherd

Now in Zechariah 11:4-14 we see God offering one last opportunity for the leaders of Israel to obey Almighty God.  The leaders of Israel were not looking after the people. Instead they were abandoning them and looking only after themselves.  These leaders, or shepherds, as they are referred to here were selling their own people into slavery of other nations and getting very rich because of it (Zechariah 11:5)!  It was the height of hypocrisy because they were even praising God for their wealth achieved by disobedience, deceit and lust for money. Zechariah is asked now to pla