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12 I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. 13 And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord. 14 Then I broke my second staff called Union, breaking the family bond between Judah and Israel. 15 Then the Lord said to me, “Take again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16 For I am going to raise up a shepherd over the land who will not care for the lost, or seek the young, or heal the injured, or feed the healthy, but will eat the meat of the choice sheep, tearing off their hooves. 17 “Woe to the worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! May his arm be completely withered, his right eye totally blinded!” ~ Zechariah 11:12-17
As we come back to Zechariah 11, the page is turned from the Lord's offer of redemption to the peoples rejection of the Lord's offer. We, daily, have a choice to live our lives looking to the Lord for His provision and protection or not. And, the more we look to Him and walk with Him, the more we will see that His way is best. Of course, the less we walk with Him, the less we will see that His way is the best.
In v.12-13 of today's text we read, "12 I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. 13 And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord."
The prophet Zechariah is picturing Israel's Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, asking the nation of Israel, the worth of their Messiah. According to Exodus 21:32, thirty pieces of silver was the price for a lowly slave. This was the answer the people of Israel gave: thirty pieces of silver. The Lord Jesus came unto His own and His own received Him not.
When it was all done, we must answer the question, "What is the Lord Jesus worth to us?" As indicated in this passage, the world held no value in the Lord Jesus. They couldn’t just ignore Him, though, so they determined He was worth thirty pieces of silver, the price of a lowly slave. This is why they missed Him. Their value system had been so stunted by this world because they had long rejected the value system of the Lord.
In Matthew 27 we read the well known story of Judas and his betrayal of the Lord Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Judas received thirty pieces of silver for betraying the Lord Jesus. After doing so, ridden with guilt, Judas threw the silver on the floor of the temple. The religious leaders gathered the money up and they bought a potter's field, fulfilling this prophecy.
In Matthew's gospel it says, according to the word of Jeremiah, which causes many to doubt the veracity of the Bible. There is much evidence that shows the scroll that the book of Zechariah was found in was book of Jeremiah. In fact, it was called the scroll of Jeremiah and it included the book of Zechariah in that scroll. That's why it says in Matthew 27, "according to the prophet Jeremiah."
In v.14 of today's text we read, "Then I broke my second staff called Union, breaking the family bond between Judah and Israel."
The Jewish historian, Josephus, tells us that when Jerusalem fell to the Romans, not only did the Romans kill the Jews, but there developed such bitterness between the different factions among the Jews that fellow Jews treated their other fellow Jews with the same kind of contempt as the Romans. So that the bonds of brotherhood were broken. And, the removal of the Lord Jesus, the Good shepherd, made way for the rest of this prophecy to be fulfilled at the end of time.
So, in v.14, the Lord is saying, "I will break the bond of brotherhood between Judah and Israel." In the end, that will mean He will destroy the nation. This prophecy was all set into motion when He broke the band that held the nation together. They killed each other and they were scattered all over the world. One day, soon, He will complete the comeback of the Jews into the land, and that will bring to the completion this prophecy spoken in Zechariah 11.
In v.15-16 of today's text we read, "15 Then the Lord said to me, “Take again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16 For I am going to raise up a shepherd over the land who will not care for the lost, or seek the young, or heal the injured, or feed the healthy, but will eat the meat of the choice sheep, tearing off their hooves."
In these verses, Zechariah jumps from the first century AD all the way to the end of time as we know it. In these two verses, Zechariah provides a contrast between the Good shepherd and the Antichrist. The Antichrist, unlike the humble Messiah who rode into Jerusalem on a donkey to provide salvation to doomed man, will not be so selflessly motivated. The Antichrist will come seeking power and dominion. He will gain such power through his incredible powers of deception. His deceptive powers will garner for him a huge following of people all over this world.
In v.17 of today's text we read, "Woe to the worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! May his arm be completely withered, his right eye totally blinded!"
It helps us to understand this verse when we remember the Bible often uses the word "arm" to identify a man's strength. The right arm is always the symbol of strength. And the Scripture often uses the word "eye" to designate intelligence. The worthless shepherd or the Antichrist will splash on the scene as soon as the Rapture of the Church has taken place. But his doom will soon come to fruition.
This passage means God will come with a sword of judgment and will cut off his right arm. His right arm will shrivel and the means of his power will be torn away. And, his eye or his intelligence, will be turned into idiocy. He won’t know right from wrong, up from down, or in from out. And, the sword of God’s vengeance will fall upon him and all who follow him.
