SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/13/2016 9:17 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
The wailing Shepherds
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Zechariah 11:1-3
Message of the verses: “1 Open your doors, O Lebanon, That a fire
may feed on your cedars. 2 Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, Because
the glorious trees have been destroyed; Wail, O oaks of Bashan, For the
impenetrable forest has come down. 3 There is a sound of the shepherds’ wail,
For their glory is ruined; There is a sound of the young lions’ roar, For the
pride of the Jordan is ruined.”
I have
looked at both Dr. Wiersbe and also from John MacArthur’s commentary on what
these verses are talking about and both agree that these verses speak of the
Roman invasion of Israel in 70 AD. It
begins in the North and spreads to the South where it ends up in
Jerusalem. MacArthur actually said that
this is the oldest interpretation as it comes from the Rabbis. This is when it is good to look at good
commentators to find out what is going on here as I have mentioned before that
this book especially in different spots if very difficult to understand. Now as
far as who the wailing shepherds are Dr. Wiersbe writes that “they are the
rulers of the nation who have led the people astray and are now paying for
their sins. In the East, leaders and
rulers were called ‘shepherds’ because they led the people, protected them, and
provided for them. Jeremiah saw a
similar scene: ‘Weep and wail, you
shepherds; roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock. For your time to be slaughtered has come’
(Jer. 25:34, NIV). Usually the shepherds
gave the sheep for slaughter, but here the shepherds themselves are led to the
slaughter!”
Let us look
at John 11:47-53 and then comment on it:
“47 Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council,
and were saying, "What are we doing? For this man is performing many
signs. 48 “If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the
Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." 49 But one
of them, Caiaphas,
who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all, 50 nor do you take into account
that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the
whole nation not perish." 51 Now he did not say this on his own
initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going
to die for the nation, 52 and not for
the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the
children of God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they planned
together to kill Him.” Well we know that
the whole nation of Israel as far as the people in it did not perish, but they
were surely taken out of their land, so only part of this “prophecy” came true
and that is that “One Man did die for the People,” but the nation would not be
saved when it came to 70 AD, as the Romans marched in and burned everything in
sight.
It was the
rejection of their Messiah that caused Israel to once again be defeated, and
this time they were spread out all over the world. Moses writes of this event some 1500+ years
before it happened: “68 "The LORD will bring you back to Egypt
in ships, by the way about which I spoke to you, ’You will never see it again!’
And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female
slaves, but there will be no buyer’ (Deut. 28:68).” This is exactly what happened to the people
of Israel after the Romans defeated them.
8/13/2016 9:45 PM
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