SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/18/2016 10:00 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 The Rejection of the True Shepherd
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Zechariah 11:7-
Message of the verses: Now we mentioned in our last SD that verses 5-6
were like a parentheses and so as we begin to look at verse seven it will
actually follow verse four which says “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.” Now this part with the two staffs is one of
the difficult things to understand in this chapter. Zechariah says that he pastured the flock that
were doomed to slaughter, and the question is who was listening to his
teaching, (remember that word [pastured] speaks of teaching. The answer is that the ones listening are
seen in the life of Jesus Christ while He was on earth, and that would be, as
Zechariah tells in his little action sermon, the afflicted of the flock. Remember these words from the Sermon on the
Mount from the book of Matthew? “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Paul writes similarly in his letter to the Corinthians
“Not many noble and not many mighty.”
John MacArthur writes the following about the word “poor” “the Hebrew
word for ‘poor’ is used in many ways, when it’s used in an economic sense, it
means those without any means, the poor, the destitute economically. When it is used to speak of disease, it means
somebody who is wretched or somebody who is afflicted. So, it’s simply saying it was the sick and
the afflicted and the wretched and the poor and the commoners who heard.”
As we have
studied the books of Mark and also John we can see the truth in that statement,
and the prophecy that Zechariah gives us here.
While studying the book of John we only saw one of the Pharisees who
came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord, while the rest of
them were too afraid that He would take the people away from them, and so we
see in the Scriptures that only a few of the more wealthy came to know the
Lord. We can read from the first chapter
of John the following to show that not many of the children of Israel came to
know the Lord “He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive
Him.” The next verse says “But as many
as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to
those who believe in His name.”
As we look
now at the two staffs we can remember from the 23rd Psalm “Even
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for
You are with me; Your rod
and Your staff, they comfort me.”
Zechariah says that the names of these two staffs are Favor and Union
(NASB). The KJV says “the one I called
Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.” MacArthur
calls these staffs “unity” and “graciousness.”
This first staff shows Gods loving gracious and tender care, something
we know that a Shepherd does for His sheep.
When Jesus came He came being gentle and also loving as He was kind and
merciful and forgiving. He was also meek
and lowly which speaks of His humility.
Now the
next staff is called “union” or “unity,” and this speaks of the truth that
Jesus had a unifying ministry. Now we
know from the verses that we looked at in John that Jesus came to the children
of Israel, and many of them rejected Him and so His message was also for the
Gentiles where many of them have come to know Him as Lord and Savior, and so
His ministry was to bring about one flock.
We will look at verse eight in our next SD.
9/18/2016 10:32 PM
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