SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/16/2016 11:04 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 The True Shepherd
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Zech. 11:4-14
Message of the verses: “4 Thus says the LORD my God, "Pasture
the flock doomed to slaughter. 5 “Those who buy them slay them and go
unpunished, and each of those who sell them says, ’Blessed be the LORD, for 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 the land," declares the
LORD; "but behold, I will cause the men to fall, each into another’s power
and into the power of his king; and they will strike the land, and I will not
deliver them from their power." 7 So I pastured the flock doomed to
slaughter, hence the afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two staffs:
the one I called Favor and the other I called Union; so I pastured the flock. 8
Then I annihilated the three shepherds in one month, for my soul was impatient
with them, and their soul also was weary of me. 9 Then I said, "I will not
pasture you. What is to die, let it die, and what is to be annihilated, let it
be annihilated; and let those who are left eat one another’s flesh." 10 I
took my staff Favor and cut it in pieces, to break my covenant which I had made
with all the peoples. 11 So it was broken on that day, and thus the afflicted
of the flock who were watching me realized that it was the word of the LORD. 12
I said to them, "If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if
not, never mind!" So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my
wages. 13 Then the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter, that
magnificent price at which I was valued by them." So I took the thirty
shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD. 14
Then I cut in pieces my second staff Union, to break the brotherhood between
Judah and Israel.”
It is good
for us to remember that what we are looking at in this section of Zechariah is
what Dr. Wiersbe has called an “action sermon.”
So I believe that Zechariah is giving this action sermon as if he was
the Messiah, for I believe that the time period that he is prophesying about is
the time when the Lord Jesus Christ was on the earth, and so Zechariah is showing
the people what will happen when the Messiah comes to earth the first
time. I have to say that I listened to a
fairly lengthy sermon on this 11th chapter of Zechariah today while
in my car and John MacArthur said in that sermon that the 11th
chapter of Zechariah is one of the most difficult chapters in all of the Word
of God to understand. I have to say that
I truly agree with him.
We know
that verses 12-13 speak of Judas betraying Jesus, and he was paid 30 pieces of
silver for what he did, the price of what a slave was worth that was gored by
an ox, that was what it would cost the owner of the ox if it damaged a slave,
so not very much at all. After doing
what he did Zechariah writes that he wants to receive his payment if it is good
in their sight, but if it is not then he wants nothing. He receives the money and then throws it in
the temple for them to buy a potter’s field, a field where the non-wealthy dead
could be buried.
Dr. Wiersbe
comments on this prophecy: “If we have a
high view of inspiration, we can’t simply dismiss this statement as a mistake
or a scribal error; nor can we escape by saying that Jeremiah spoke the
prophecy, but Zechariah wrote it in his book.
Wouldn’t you expect to find it in Jeremiah’s book? Perhaps the solution lies in understanding
the way ancient authors used texts from other writers.
“First of
all, how does Jeremiah get into the picture?
It appears that Matthew alludes to Jeremiah’s actions recorded in
Jeremiah 19, when he broke the jar and pronounced judgment on Judah and
Jerusalem. He announced that the Valley
of the Son of Hinnom, outside Jerusalem, would become a cemetery because of the
sins of the people (Jer. 9:11). Note
that this event took place near the entrance of the east gate, which was the
Potter’s Gate leading to a potter’s field (vv. 1-2), and note also the phrase ‘innocent
blood’ in verse 4, a phrase that Judas used when he returned the silver to the
priests (Matt. 27:4). So, form Jeremiah,
Matthew borrowed the images of a potter’s field, innocent blood, and a
cemetery.” Now the reason for this
explanation is what is found in Matthew 27:9 which says “Then that which was
spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: "AND THEY TOOK THE
THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER, THE PRICE OF THE ONE WHOSE PRICE HAD BEEN SET by the
sons of Israel.” I hope that this
explains why Matthew did what he did in writing verse nine.
It looks like we will need one more day to finish this very
difficult section, hopefully that will be tomorrow.
8/16/2016 11:33 PM
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