Zechariah: Rejecting the Good Shepherd

Zechariah 11 opens with a picture of coming destruction. Lebanon’s cedars, Bashan’s oaks, the shepherds, and even the lions all wail because the land’s glory is being ruined. The imagery points to devastation rolling down from the north, leaving the land exposed and its people crushed. God’s judgment would not be random. Israel’s leaders had acted like bad shepherds, using the flock for wealth and power instead of caring for them.

The Lord then tells Zechariah to role play as shepherd of “the flock doomed to slaughter.” Zechariah becomes a living picture of the coming Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, who would come to lead, protect, and care for people who had been abused by those meant to shepherd them. The buyers slaughter the sheep, the sellers get rich and say, “Blessed be the Lord,” and the people’s own shepherds have no pity. God gives the people over to the king they chose when they declared, “We have no king but Caesar.”

Zechariah’s two staffs, Favor and Union, picture God’s gracious protection and the unity the Messiah would bring. Christ came showing God’s favor and offering true union, first with God and then among His people. Yet the corrupt shepherds, understood as Israel’s religious leadership, detested the Good Shepherd. Christ also rebuked their hypocrisy, exposed their self-interest, and was rejected by those who should have recognized Him.

The breaking of Favor pictures the removal of God’s protecting hand after the rejection of Messiah. Jerusalem’s destruction in AD 70 stands as the awful historical outworking of that rejection. The thirty pieces of silver make the prophecy even more direct. Zechariah’s wages become the price placed on the Good Shepherd, the same amount Judas received to betray Jesus, the price of a slave gored by an ox. Yahweh Himself identifies with this Shepherd, showing that Jesus is not merely a shepherd sent from God, but God in flesh.

The breaking of Union shows that Israel’s promised restoration and unity would be delayed because of unbelief. Christ will yet gather the remnant of Israel around Himself when they look on the One they pierced and receive Him as King. Until then, Christ still saves Jews and Gentiles alike. The poor in spirit recognize their need, receive Him, and are given the greatest favor possible: becoming children of God. Communion then becomes a fitting response, because Christ’s broken body and shed blood bring forgiveness, favor with God, and union with His people.

##

---

Key Takeaways

• 1. Jesus is the Good Shepherd Christ does what bad shepherds never do: He lays down His life for the sheep. Religious power can use people, neglect people, and even destroy people, but Christ gives Himself for their good. His shepherding is not sentimental; it is costly, holy, protective, and saving. [68:37]
• 2. Pride rejects the Shepherd’s voice Israel’s leaders rejected Christ through self-interest, spiritual blindness, and a desire to preserve control. Pride still refuses to admit need, sin, or dependence upon God’s mercy. The heart that insists it can stand on its own will not gladly receive a Shepherd. [69:22]
• 3. Thirty silver pieces reveal contempt The thirty pieces of silver expose how little the religious leaders valued the Messiah. The price was not merely Judas’s payment; it showed the treachery of hearts that preferred political security and personal gain over God in flesh. Every refusal of Christ treats the only Savior as though He were worth very little. [59:21]
• 4. God’s favor is found in Christ The staff named Favor points to the grace that Christ alone provides. Those who receive Him are not merely spared judgment but adopted as children of God. His favor cannot be earned through religious effort, moral performance, or self-sufficiency. [72:18]
• 5. Christ creates real union with God The staff named Union points beyond national division to the deepest unity possible. Christ unites believers to God through His blood and joins them to one another through a shared Savior. Communion remembers that forgiveness and fellowship come from the same crucified and risen Lord.
  
  ## [73:03]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [29:26] - Zechariah’s Context and Chapter 11
• [33:13] - Reading Zechariah 11:1-14
• [36:37] - The Coming Destruction of the Land
• [44:00] - The Flock Doomed to Slaughter
• [49:23] - Favor and Union: The Shepherd’s Staffs
• [53:18] - The Corrupt Shepherds Reject Christ
• [55:14] - Favor Withdrawn and Jerusalem Judged
• [58:49] - Thirty Pieces of Silver
• [60:48] - Judas, the Potter’s Field, and Fulfilled Prophecy
• [63:26] - Union Broken and Future Restoration
• [66:48] - Why People Reject the Good Shepherd
• [72:18] - Favor, Unity, and Communion

Bible Reading

Zechariah 11:1-14
“Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars! Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, for the glorious trees are ruined! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been felled! The sound of the wail of the shepherds, for their glory is ruined! The sound of the roar of the lions, for the thicket of the Jordan is ruined! Thus said the LORD my God: 'Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. Those who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, "Blessed be the LORD, I have become rich," and their own shepherds have no pity on them. For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, declares the LORD. Behold, I will cause each of them to fall into the hand of his neighbor and each into the hand of his king, and they shall crush the land, and I will deliver none from their hand.' So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named Favor, the other I named Union. And I tended the sheep. In one month I destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. So I said, 'I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. And let those who are left devour the flesh of one another.' And I took my staff Favor, and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep traders, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the LORD. Then I said to them, 'If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.' And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. Then the LORD said to me, 'Throw it to the potter'—the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter. Then I broke my second staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.” [33:13]

Matthew 27:3-10
“Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, 'I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.' They said, 'What is that to us? See to it yourself.' And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself. But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, 'It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money.' So they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, 'And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me.” [01:00:48]

John 10:11
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” [01:08:37]

Observation questions

1. What images of loss and ruin appear in the opening of Zechariah 11, and how do they show the extent of the coming devastation? [36:37]
2. How are the people treated by the buyers, sellers, and their own shepherds in Zechariah 11:4–6? [46:27]
3. What are the names of Zechariah’s two staffs, and what happens to each of them in the passage? [49:23]
4. What details connect the thirty pieces of silver and the potter in Zechariah 11 with Judas’s actions in Matthew 27? [01:00:48]

Interpretation questions

1. Why does God use the picture of shepherds and sheep to expose leaders who use people for wealth, security, or power rather than caring for them? [46:46]
2. In what ways does Zechariah’s role as shepherd point ahead to Jesus as the Good Shepherd who gives Himself for His sheep? [01:08:37]
3. What does the breaking of the staff called Favor communicate about the seriousness of rejecting God’s Messiah? [56:37]
4. Why is the payment of thirty pieces of silver more than a detail about Judas’s betrayal? What does that price reveal about how the leaders viewed Jesus? [59:21]

Application questions

1. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. Where is it easiest to forget that His leadership is loving, holy, and for His people’s good—especially when His direction challenges personal plans or desires? [01:08:37]
2. Pride can keep a person from admitting sin, need, and dependence on God. What forms can self-sufficiency take in everyday life, and where might it be tempting to act as though God’s grace is not truly needed? [01:09:44]
3. Bad shepherds use people for their own gain. In relationships, work, ministry, or family life, what are some warning signs that a person is treating others as a means to an end rather than caring for them as people made in God’s image? [47:30]
4. The poor in spirit recognize their need and come to Christ. What would it look like this week to approach Jesus honestly with an area of weakness, failure, hurt, or fear instead of hiding it or trying to manage it alone? [01:12:18]
5. God’s favor cannot be earned through moral performance or religious effort; it is received through Christ. When does the pressure to “earn” God’s acceptance show up most strongly, and how can the gospel speak into that pressure? [52:21]
6. Christ brings believers into union with God and with one another. Is there a strained relationship, lingering resentment, or pattern of isolation that makes it difficult to live out that unity? What might be one faithful next step toward peace, repentance, or renewed connection? [01:13:03]