Day 265 (Zechariah 10-14) - Year 4
10:01 Share

Hey Bible Readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Today we finished our 34th book of the Bible. We opened in chapter 10 with God reminding His people that He will restore things. In that process, one of His targets is the wicked leaders of Judah, the people who shepherd His flock.

Because of their passivity, the people sought out leadership and guidance from wicked sources, from diviners and false gods. Because Judah's leaders have been terrible shepherds, God is going to remove them and punish them. Then, when God's sheep are under his care, they will flourish. They'll grow strong and majestic and they'll have victory over the enemy. He'll bring them back from the nations where they've been scattered and he'll multiply them in the promised land again.

For the people of Judah, we know this definitely has literal implications, but it's likely this also has spiritual implications. For instance, the way God's people can fight against sin and win is because he is with us and grants us victory, like verse 5 says, and he grants us strength, like verse 12 says.

In chapter 11, God tells Zach to try his hand at shepherding the flock destined for destruction. There are lots of ways to interpret this passage. Some believe it's a prophetic parable, like a metaphor God told Zach to help him better understand God's perspective on things. Others say it's a sign act where Zach becomes the literal shepherd of a group of animals known as the flock doomed to slaughter.

This unfriendly-sounding title probably refers to animals that were kept near the temple to be used as sacrificial offerings. In those days, not everyone raised their own animals for the offering. Some people owned animals and hired shepherds to watch over them, and others would buy the animals from them to use as sacrifices. But because the animal owners and shepherds of Judah were wicked people, these animals only mattered to them because of how they could benefit them financially when they sold them for slaughter.

This shepherd-sheep metaphor seems to provide a really good parallel for the leaders got appointed over Judah and the people got appointed them to watch over. You'd think Zach would take pity on the sheep, and he initially does. In one month, he fires three of their wicked shepherds. He guides the sheep with two staffs, which he names Favor and Union, or Kindness and Unity, representing not only his relationship to the sheep individually, but also the relationship the sheep have as a whole flock.

After a while, though, Zach loses patience with them. He's been trying to treat them well, but they hated him. So he snaps his staff in half and quits his job. He gets a payout of 30 pieces of silver. But then God tells him to give it to the person who makes the clay pots that are used in the temple. We're not done talking about this chapter yet. We'll come back to it in a minute. But for now, let's move on to chapter 12.

Chapter 12 gives a future prophecy of a day yet to come when the nations will gather to attack Jerusalem and the people of Judah. But God will fight on Judah's behalf and destroy those who have come against them using panic as his weapon of choice. There are a few different interpretations of verse 7, which says God's provision and protection will come to those living in the tents outside Jerusalem first.

Some say this is just the logical progression, since invading armies would encounter the tent dwellers in the suburbs before they get to the city center. Others say the tent dwellers are the poor people, and this indicates God's care for the poor, especially since the verse says the city dwellers are maybe arrogant.

A third interpretation is that the tent dwellers are likely soldiers, so those on the front lines of the battle get to witness God's deliverance in a way others don't. Regardless of which interpretation is accurate, all of Judah will recognize Yahweh as the reason for their victory. Verse 5 says, Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the Lord of hosts, their God. Even the weakest among God's people will have a strength that isn't their own.

God promises to pour out his spirit on his people, and his spirit is one of grace and pleas for mercy. Because of the way God's grace and mercy change people, they will mourn over what they've done to him. Verse 10 says, They will look on me, on him whom they have pierced. They shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him as one weeps over a firstborn.

In John 19, the gospel writer points back to this verse as a prophecy of Jesus. They pierced him and they will mourn over him, the firstborn son. Chapter 13 gives us more prophecies of Jesus. He is the fountain who washes his people clean from their sins and uncleanness.

One thing that is subtly sprinkled all throughout the Old Testament is the distinction between sin and uncleanness. Being clean isn't the same as being righteous. The ancient Jews viewed this like rungs on a ladder, with the top rung being holiness or set-apartness, the second rung being common and clean, and the third rung being common and unclean. The best you could hope for with obeying the law is to be on the common and clean rung. You can't get to holiness or righteousness on your own.

That's only granted by God. All your best efforts couldn't take you as far as God required. So anytime we see a verse that points to God's people being purged, not just of their uncleanness, but of their sin, that's a huge deal. That's a divine act, something we categorically cannot accomplish. By the way, scripture doesn't say you can't accomplish it on your own. Scripture says you can't accomplish that, period.

Christ the fountain accomplished it for us. Someday, he will cut off all the idols and the false prophets in the land, because you don't need prophets anymore when all the prophecies have been fulfilled. The false prophets will go into hiding, but they won't be able to keep up the ruse because their backs will be covered in the ritual scars that they got from the cutting practices associated with worshiping false gods. The last half of chapter 13 brings us another prophecy of Christ's death.

Verse 7 is quoted in Matthew 26 and Mark 14, where Jesus dies. It says, Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. And that's what happened when Jesus died. The sheep were scattered. But in God's great plan, that's exactly how the gospel was spread to all the nations. There will be trials and sanctification, but what appears to be only tragic is actually used for God's glory and the good of all his people.

Chapter 14 recounts the future prophecies of the coming day of the Lord again, this time going into great detail about how Jerusalem will be attacked and God will win. And when I read what will happen to his enemies in verse 12, it sounds like chemical warfare, honestly. On that day, God, presumably God the Son, will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is just outside the city gates on the east side of Jerusalem, and the mountain will be split, probably by an earthquake.

There will be some residual effects of the earthquake, it seems, with one of those effects being the river that will flow out of Jerusalem. We keep seeing this and here it is again. Then God will reign on the earth and own everything in it. Everything will get an upgrade. The common pots will be like the holy bowls used in temple worship. And even the horses, which were originally listed among the unclean animals, will be marked as holy to the Lord, a phrase that used to be written on the priest's turbans.

I promised we'd come back to chapter 11, where Zach becomes the shepherd of the flock destined for slaughter. Some commentators find this imagery confusing, so if that's you too, don't lose heart. But if we zoom out on this, there are a few things this prophecy seems to be pointing toward, and that's where I saw my guide shot for today.

Our first major hint that this is pointing towards something is in the 30 pieces of silver, which is the exact price Judas Iscariot is paid for betraying Jesus to the authorities in Matthew 26. It's roughly $3,000 in today's money. Then we see some connections with what happens to that 30 pieces of silver in both stories. Zach gives his to the temple potters.

And in Matthew 27, Judas regrets betraying Jesus, throws his money back into the temple, and they use it to buy his burial plot in a potter's field. So again, the money goes back to the potters via the temple. And of course, we can't ignore the fact that Jesus was the lamb destined for slaughter. Revelation 13 tells us that this was the Father's plan before the world was even formed.

So while Zechariah chapter 11 is a really dark chapter, it points us to Jesus, the good shepherd, who was first rejected by his sheep, but then took the place of those sheep in the slaughter. Jesus is the shepherd and the sacrifice. Because when it comes to his kids, God provides all he requires. He's where the joy is.

Tomorrow, we'll be starting the book of Esther. It's 10 chapters long. As usual, we're linking to a video overview in the show notes. It's super short. It's just nine minutes long, and it will really help set you up for success with this book. Each month, we offer special bonus content to those of you in our Patreon family. For the month of September, we're offering four bonus episodes where I talk about the Sabbath and learning to abide and rest in Christ. We'll be sending this out to patrons who've joined at the bonus content tier or higher.

If that's you, just log into your Patreon account to get your perks. Or if you've selected to have your perks emailed to you, you can look for it there. If you're part of our Patreon at a different tier and you want access to this perk, just log into your Patreon account and adjust your membership accordingly. And if you're not yet part of our Patreon family, this is a great time to join. Check out today's show notes for a link so you don't miss out. Or click the Patreon link on our website, thebiblerecap.com.

The Bible Recap is brought to you by DGroup, discipleship and Bible study groups that meet in homes and churches around the world each week.