The eleventh chapter of Zechariah has generally been thought one of considerable difficulty; but there are some points in our Lord’s character, and the unfolding of the purposes of God in His actual ministry, which I think make comparatively easy what seems most difficult, and may, perhaps, lead the way to what is yet unexplained. The strong expression of our Lord’s mind in Spirit—the full representation of the moral force in the sight of God of what took place upon His presence on earth—the breaking up of all God’s purposes in their present ministration—the immense importance which we find consequently to be attached to what in the eye of reason might seem small circumstances, because the principles of God’s moral government are involved in them, and all brought out into relief in the person of the Lord Jesus; all contribute to attach the deepest interest to this morally comprehensive chapter, as God’s version of all that then passed. The glory of the house of Israel is laid low—its external strength and glory. The glory of the shepherds is spoiled—its rulers and guides. The pride of the river of Israel is spoiled—the national fullness and power.
This is the general statement. The command follows—
“Feed the flock of the slaughter.” Their possessors, (though I have doubted it,) I apprehend, must be the Gentiles. Their own people, those that sell them to them; Herod for example, and the preceding chief priests and princes, or any such characters; some one who owned Jehovah, but sold His people; the Lord does not think it necessary to say who they are, as He owns them not at all; they are possessed by those who slay them, and sold by persons more or less owning the Lord openly, but loving covetousness, — anything but the Lord’s care as to their present estate. This flock of the slaughter—their own shepherds, (who they are there can be no doubt) their own leaders and rulers pity them not. The 4th verse is the delivery of them, under these circumstances, into the Lord Christ’s hands to feed, or take charge of them. The next verse shows however, that the body of the nation then, who inhabited the land indeed, but were not God’s flock, (compare 1 Peter 5 and the corresponding charge to Peter in John 21 all of which is properly Jewish,) would not be spared. “I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land—Israel’s land, saith the Lord; but lo, I will deliver,” &c. When the care was delivered to Him, He would not spare but deliver them to the fruit of their own ways. Such would be the general state of the inhabitants of the land, and then, “I will feed the flock of the slaughter,” —the poor, despised people. “Blessed are the poor, and ye poor,” said the Lord, Himself the feeder of the flock of the slaughter: generally the nation was the flock of the slaughter; but in His hand a distinction was made, between those who were identified with the slayers, and the real flock of the slaughter, even the poor whom He saved. In judgment He had given up the inhabitants of the land, every man to his neighbor; He would not be a judge and a divider over them; and Herod and Caesar alike preyed upon the land, and they all preyed upon each other—now especially Caesar their king, “we have no king but Caesar.” But he took his two staves, of which words we shall see the force presently, and He fed them as a good shepherd, even them—the poor of the flock: as for their shepherds they were cut off; between them and the good shepherd there was nothing in common. His soul loathed them, and their soul abhorred Him. He had taken however two staves, one, Beauty; and the other, Bands; and fed the flock.
Then viewed as in connection with their shepherds as a nation which must abhor Him, He would not feed the flock; as such they were delivered up to the fruit of their own will and depravity as it came upon them. And He took His staff, Beauty, and cut it asunder, that He might break the covenant He had made with all the people, that is, all the peoples כּל־חעמּים. Now this was formally done at the destruction of Jerusalem, and in fact at the rejection or death of our Lord, when He refused the nation, or when the nation refused Him; in principle, when they rejected His word and works. To Him was the gathering of the עמים to be. All nations were to be gathered to the throne of the Lord, to Jerusalem; this was the great, wide, circling covenant, that was made by Christ—made with Christ. This gathering of the peoples to Jerusalem, clothing herself with them all, was the great gathering foretold; it was to be to Jerusalem, but it was of the peoples; but when Jerusalem rejected Him, to whom was it to be? So upon the rejection of Him, He broke the covenant made with the peoples, and the destruction and rejection of Jerusalem made the poor of the flock that waited upon Him know that it was the word of the Lord; they knew in faith upon His rejection. It was then manifested in result, for His rejection had proved the rejection of all their hopes, and they lost the gathering of the nations. The whole plan was not abandoned but frustrated, that is, in present ministration, (in the wisdom of God’s counsels) in the rejection of the Lord, who had shown and warned of all this, and Jesus was the Lord.
Nothing, I think, can be more simple, if the gathering of the nations (עמּיס) promised to Shiloh be seen, and that to Jerusalem, nor than the necessary results as testified by Him on His rejection, proving as to them who might be perplexed upon His rejection by the shepherds, who He was—that very Word of the Lord, and Himself the truth of all He said. His word in Zechariah was proved true—it was Himself in all that chapter. But there was another point incident to the acknowledgment of the Lord. Being thus refused, He says, “Well, what do you think me worth?” This would have been most strange, even after His rejection— “You have rejected me, I came for no other purpose, what do you think me worth? what is your judgment of the Lord?” Oh! what condemnation, while they thought they condemned Him. “If you think good, give me my price; if not, forbear.” — “I count myself nothing worth, I put no price upon myself, you can do what you please.” The fulfillment of this—our Lord indeed became as a servant—is too well, too little, known in its verity, to need or to be met by verbal explanation. The transition from all the expectations or titles of Shiloh in meek submission, when He would not have Israel, and He the Lord, is marvelous. It is here we learn what we can learn nowhere else—the strange meaning of that word, obedience—the marvelous mystery of the submission of the Lord. It is here in the contrast from Shiloh to a rejected slave not opening his mouth even for the price, (may we have grace to own Him in humiliation) discerned of us. But He was really the Lord in all this, which is the very revelation of this chapter, and it was the judicial process (yet saving to the remnant) of presenting the Lord to them.
There was another consequence connected with the acknowledgment of Shiloh, they were to be made one stick; the union of Israel and Judah was to be in His hand; the accompaniment of the same headship which involved the gathering of the Ammi, “then shall the children of Israel and the children of Judah be gathered together, and appoint unto themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land; for great shall be the day of Jezreel.” And though Jerusalem was to be the head—the Jehovah Shammai; yet they were to be no more two, but one in the land; and so the Lord always owned them. Zebulon and Naphtali saw a great tight, and the poor of the flock “the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” indiscriminately met His care, scattered though they might be, but that unity depended upon David their king—their one head. His rejection broke all this; He cut asunder His other staff, “Bands,” to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel; and this surely shall not be united again, till the king be owned again, and then indeed shall these things be according to the sure mercies of David; till then, even if in their land, they shall be a divided and a weakened people; and as I believe, “Ephraim against Manasseh, and they together against Judah t for all which, His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.” The 15th verse, and possibly also the 17th, but surely the 15th and 16th, I believe to belong to the presumptuous shepherd, the fool that says in his heart, “there is no God;” one who shall come in his own name, whom they will receive. Lord forgive them yet and deliver. The word is not merely “foolish,” though I have alluded to that word, but אולי which includes in connection with the Lord, impiety, folly against God, in a word—Antichrist. They are given up after Christ is rejected, the Gentile mystery coming in meanwhile. The idol shepherd does not seem to me to go quite so far, perhaps it applies to the Jews in that day, who desert the flock when evil comes. The shepherd who is nothing—emptiness. Yet Jerusalem shall be made a cup of trembling in that day, to the nations round about her, but this is the Lord’s mercy. Having then given what the leading principles of the chapter appear to me to be, I will not pursue that which follows, though the affording the leading principle of the whole of this prophecy would be of the deepest interest, and, I believe, afford much instruction in the testimony of God.
The following chapters are the results in the latter day, with which the prophet then is wholly occupied—the rejection of Christ, and giving up to Antichrist and the idol shepherds, being the basis on which it rests.
We have then in the chapter—the judgment in which the Lord found the Jews—Israel, and to which, in point of fact, they were given up—then the history of His assuming the pastorship—His rejecting, as He must, the exceeding evil state of them that dwelt in the land—His taking the poor of the flock, but the rejection by Him of the shepherds, and of Him by them. He had assumed necessarily in the pastorship, humble as He might seem, the double rod, not yet made one, of God’s government; but upon His rejection by the shepherds, He broke that which involved the gathering of the nations; and, so to speak, neither He nor Jerusalem were of any more avail as the then fulfillers of this counsel. It was left to the shepherds to count His price, and they gave thirty pieces of silver; but Jerusalem and they were comparatively then given up; He alone could or would gather them. “How often would I have gathered thy children together?” (Matt. 23:3737O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! (Matthew 23:37).) Then what was the use of His other staff? He broke that also, even the bond of Israel itself, that also was gone in Him; they were then given up to the foolish shepherd, though this was left future, with a woe upon their own then faithless one. Subsequently comes the unfolding of God’s unaltered purpose concerning Jerusalem, and the sure glory of Him whom they had rejected in His real and gracious character, in spite of their iniquity.
Brethren, beloved of the Lord, how should we dwell upon the extent of gracious and marvelous humiliation of that word— “If ye think well, give me my price; and if not, forbear;” even for Him whose all the glory was, “which things angels desire to look into,” — “a goodly price” that He was prized at by them. Oh! what is man? and what is Jesus to us?—The Lord our God,