we turn then to the chapter that
we just read here in the prophecy of Zachariah chapter 11 and considering
for our text verse 7 the prophet says I will feed the flock of
slaughter even you O poor of the flock and I took unto me
two staves one I called beauty and the other I called balance
and I fed the flock and he is responding to the word of the
Lord, the commandment that was given back in verse 4, Thus saith
the Lord my God, feed the flock of the slaughter. Taking up then
this theme of the flock of slaughter and it is in fact one of the
names that is given to the church, given to the people of God. Looking
up Cruden's concordance earlier there are about 140 names listed
by Alexander Cruden which he says in scripture are applied
and belong to the church 140 names and this is one of them
the flock of slaughter and that's what I really want us to consider
but first of all to say something of the true shepherd the true
shepherd and in a sense of course that is true of Zechariah who
is the Lord's prophet in the days of Ezra when they are rebuilding
the temple of the Lord he is that one who brings to them God's
words and encourages Zerubbabel principally in the great work
of that rebuilding of the temple after its destruction at the
hands of the Babylonians after the 70 years of captivity those
had returned with Ezra and were engaged in that great work. And so first of all I want to
say something with regards to the true shepherd before we come
to consider the flock of slaughter. And in many ways, surely Zechariah
here is representing the Lord Jesus Christ, not saying he is
necessarily a type. We know that Zerubbabel, who
is spoken of in the book, is very much a type of Christ. But
also, there's a sense in which Zechariah the prophet is a representative
of Christ. The language that we have in
verses 12 and 13, the prophet says, he said unto them, If ye
think good, give me my price, and if not, forbear. So they
weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said
unto him, He cast it unto the potter, a goodly prize that I
was prized out of them. And I took the thirty pieces
of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord."
Now, I'm sure we're aware of the fact that those words are
taken up and used in reference to the Lord Jesus in the Gospel,
in Matthew chapter 27 with regards to that price for which Judas
Iscariot betrayed his master and when he saw Christ condemned
how he repented himself it says brought again the 30 pieces of
silver to the chief priests and elders and then there in Matthew
27 verse 6 we read the chief priest took the silver pieces
and said it is not lawful for to put them into the treasury
because it is the price of blood and they took counsel and brought
with them the potter's fields to bury strangers in wherefore
that field was called the field of blood unto this day Then was
fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying,
And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that
was valued, whom they slew of the children of Israel, and gave
them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me. I know it says Jeremy or Jeremiah,
but J. B. Lightfoot, the great Hebraist
and commentator, reminds us how the Jews would often refer to
all the prophets by the name of Jeremiah. Clearly the scripture
that is being referred to and having its fulfillment is what
we have here in the book of Zechariah. And what we have in this 11th
chapter is really a contrast between true shepherds and false
shepherds in verse 8 for example we read of three shepherds three
shepherds also I cut off in one month and my soul loath them
and their soul also abhorred me three shepherds of course
in the Old Testament we certainly see that there is a threefold
ministry of the shepherds. The shepherds being the prophets
and the priests and the princes or the kings. And they're addressed,
aren't they, in the 34th chapter of Ezekiel. Those words that
the Lord himself addresses to those men who should have been
his faithful servants. and caring for the people, being
good shepherds. But the language that is used
there as the Lord upbraids those false shepherds. In the opening
words of Ezekiel 34, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy
and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds,
Well be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves. Should
not the shepherds feed the flocks? And then, as God reproves these
men, the various offices that God had given for the care of
His ancient covenant people, the prophets speaking God's words,
and the princes who were to rule over them, and the priests who
were to minister to them in the sanctuaries, Now God reproves
them throughout that chapter and then of course we have that
promise of the true shepherd whom the Lord God will set up
over his spiritual people. Verse 22, Therefore will I save
my flock, they shall no more be a prey, and I will judge between
cattle and cattle, and I will set up one shepherd over them,
And he shall feed them, even my servant David, he shall feed
them. And he shall be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their
God, and my servant David a prince among them. I, the Lord, have
spoken it. And as I said, it's the same
here really. There's a contrast in this chapter
between those who were the false shepherds and those who were
the true shepherds and ultimately The chapter is a prophecy of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of his sheep. In the opening 10 chapters, we
see the historical context very much to the fore, the rebuilding
of the temple in the days of Ezra. right through those opening
chapters from chapter 1 right through to chapter 10 and we read there in the second chapter
for example Zechariah says I lifted up mine
eyes again and looked and behold a man with a measuring line in
his hand And I said, go as thou, and he said unto me to measure
Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof and what is the
length thereof. Surely this is a reference to the work that
Zerubbabel is going to put in hand, the rebuilding of the Temple. We relate her in In chapter 4
at verse 8, Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house.
His hand shall also finish it. And thou shalt know that the
Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you. Who hath despised and doused
more things? For thou shalt rejoice and shalt see the plummet In
the hand of the rubber bull with those seven they are the eyes
of the Lord, which run to and through the whole earth. In those opening chapters then,
it's very much a ministry that's taken up with encouraging those
who are engaged in this great work of the rebuilding, principally
of the temple of the Lords. But then, when we come to chapter
11, It speaks more particularly of judgment. The temple will
be built. Zerubbabel will complete the
task, bringing the headstone and crying graves, graves onto
it. But then, of course, even that
temple would eventually be destroyed. And so it came to pass in the
year 70, And this chapter is very much speaking of God's judgment
that was to come. It opens with the Lord speaking
of fire devouring the cedars of
Lebanon and so forth. The materials that were being
used in the building of the temple, the rebuilding of the temple.
Open thy doors, O Lebanon, the fire may devour thy cedars. Howl,
fir-tree, for the cedar is fallen, because the mighty are spoiled.
Howl, O oaks of Bayshore, for the forest of the vintage is
come down." There would be another judgment that would come and
it came, of course, we know it's there. It's in history, the year
70, when the Roman legionaries under their general Titus come
and sack Jerusalem and the temple is again destroyed. How solemn, how solemn. They
had rejected the Messiah. The Lord Jesus came, He came
unto His own, His own received Him not. They preferred the ministry of
the Pharisees and the scribes to that of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so God's judgment was to
come upon them. Verse 9 then said, I will not
feed you, that that dieth, let it die, that that is to be cut
off, let it be cut off, let the rest eat every one the flesh
of another. It was terrible. The destruction that fell upon
Jerusalem under those Romans in the 70's what folly it was that they rejected
him who was the true shepherd of Israel and they still preferred
those false shepherds it says here doesn't it verse 5 whose possessors slay
them and hold themselves not guilty and they that sell them
say blessed be the Lord for I am rich and their own shepherds
pity them not, how foolish to have these men as those who were supposedly caring for them and
yet only concerned for themselves. Again at verse 16, Lo, I will
raise up a shepherd in the land which shall not visit those that
be cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that
that is broken, nor feed that that standeth still but he shall
eat the flesh of the fat and tear their claws in pieces just as we see in Ezekiel 34
just as it was with those wicked sons of Eli in the days when
Samuel was born as I say in the chapter there is this contrast
really between Christ who is the good shepherd, the obedient
shepherd. And Zechariah, so representative
of such a man, thus said to the Lord, My God, feed the flock
of the slaughter. And then the words of the text,
And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of
the flock. And I took unto me two staves,
one I call Beauty and the other I call Bands, and I fed the flock,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd. I am the Good Shepherd,
he says, the Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. He is obedient to all the commandment
that he had received from the Father. Therefore does my Father love
me, he says, because I give my life for the sheep. No man taketh
it from me I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down.
I have power or authority to take it again. This commandment
have I received of my Father. And though He is that One who
as the Good Shepherd will correct His sheep, but He will also support
His sheep. Now David speaks of the Good
Shepherd in Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. thy rod and thy
staff, they comfort me, he says. Oh, he has a rod to correct,
but he has a staff to comfort his people also. And he gives
himself, his life for their life. I give unto them eternal life,
they shall never perish, he says. No man is able to pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all. No man can plucked them out of
my hand. They have a good security, a
double security. They're in his hand, they're
in the Father's hand. They're safe, they're secure.
So here we see the language really of the good shepherds, Zechariah,
but directing us really to the Lord Jesus Christ. But I want
us to come to the flock of slaughter and to consider the content really
of this seventh verse. turning to this flock of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Though they are a people who know what troubles are, they're
afflicted and they're poor. But what does Peter say of these?
Rejoicing as much as ye are partakers of the sufferings of Christ,
and one with their good shepherd, Ishi. But let us look at the
content of this seventh verse and what he says, And I took
unto me two staves, the one I called Beauty, and the other I called
Bands, and I fed the flock. What are we to make of this language? These are really the instruments
of the foolish shepherd, these two staves. The same as those
spoken of in verse 15, the Lord said unto me, take unto thee
yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd. And these instruments, these
two staves, one beauty, one dance, Because they are the instruments
of a foolish shepherd, they are each of them being destroyed. The contrast, of course, is with
what we just referred to in Psalm 23. The good shepherd has a rod
and a staff with which he ministers to his people. Now, as I say,
these instruments of the foolish shepherd are clearly destroyed
here. Verse 10 he says, I took my staff,
even beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant
which I had made with all the people. And it was broken in
that day, so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew
that it was the word of the Lord. And then at verse 14, the other,
then I God has to undermine other stuff, even bans that I might
break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. It's a strange book and it's
a book as we know that's full of visions. Back in chapters 5 and 6 there
are many strange visions being spoken of. And so, much that's
in this book is symbolic. We have to recognize that fact
if we're going to rightly understand it. And these instruments of
the foolish shepherd are also symbolic. These two staves, beauty
and bands, what do they represent? What do they represent? Well,
beauty there's a staff called beauty, which is representative
of something that appears beautiful, obviously. That's why it's given
that particular name. It represents, we might say,
a fleshly, a legal type of holiness. We know, we know that there is
no legal righteousness that we can do whereby we're able
to stand before the Lord God. We have the law of God and that
law is holy and the commandment says Paul is holy and just and
good. It's God's law, but it's God's
law that finds us out as sinners. The fault is not with the law,
the fault is with us. And what folly it is to think
that we can, of ourselves, honour and magnify that Lord of Gods. By the law, Paul says, is the
knowledge of sin. That's quite a plain statement
he's making there in Romans 3. There's no righteousness to be
attained by the deeds of the law. It's a ministration of condemnation. It's a ministration of death,
as we see in the third chapter of 2nd Corinthians. He makes
that quite clear. What does God do with the law?
He brings us to that point of conviction. We see that our case
is so utterly helplessly We know that what things soever the law
saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth
may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God. That's
the point and purpose of it. We cannot make ourselves beautiful
and acceptable by the law of God. And we have that quite clearly,
surely stated in Psalm 39 and verse 11. When thou with rebukes
doth correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume
away like a moth. Surely every man is vanity."
Men don't like that. Man is a proud creature. That's
a consequence, of course, of Adam's fall into sin. He shall
be as God's. He doesn't like to think that
This beauty is just consumed away under the Lord of God. We are all as an unclean thing.
All our righteousnesses, our righteousnesses, our best deeds,
what we might think are our beautiful deeds, all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. When we fade like the leaves
and our iniquities, like the wind, they carry us away. And here we see the destruction,
you see. of the band called Butan but
then there's this other this other stuff which is called Bands or Binders it says in the margin
and what are we told concerning this in verse 14 there we it's
indicated what it represents really. Then I cut asunder my
another staff even bounds that I might break the brotherhood
between Judah and Israel. So, historically it's referring
to the division that would come and had come many years previously
of course in the great kingdom of Israel after the death of
King Solomon. In many ways the kingdom of Israel
reaches its greatest glory in the days of Solomon the son of David of course but
then his son Rehoboam behaves foolishly and the consequence
is the division and the ten tribes to the north principally Ephraim
amongst them choose Jeroboam the son of Nebat to be their
king we read of it there in 1st Kings
chapter 12 and because Jeroboam doesn't want the ten tribes to
have any dealings really with Jerusalem doesn't want the people
there to go up to the great feast at Jerusalem so he sets up the
golden calves, one at Dan and another at Bethel and they are
to worship the Lord, they are to worship the Lord God by means
of these idols really. All of this represents apostasy
surely. All of this represents to us
the false worship of those who are apostates. And remember how
Hosea speaks, the prophet Hosea chapter 4 and verse 17, Ephraim,
that's the principal tribe amongst those ten that have rebelled
against the house of David. Ephraim is joined to idols. Let
him alone. and then again in Isaiah 11-12
Ephraim compasses me about with lies and the house of Israel
with deceit this is apostate religion that we see in the northern
tribes and so here verse 17 woe to the idol the
idol shepherds that leaveth the flock these men who are idolatrous
men really. Well, what is the principle that's
being taught by the Good Shepherd when he destroys his other staff,
as well as beauty? Beauty represents to us the folly
of and the imagined legal righteousness that we can attain by our own
efforts. What does this other stuff suggest? Well, it shows us the folly of
confederacy. There were times in Israel's
history when there was a confederacy still between the two kingdoms,
between Judah and Israel. Some of the good kings of Judah
behaved foolishly and would enter into league with the King of
Israel at Samaria Isaiah, remember says, say not a confederacy to
all them that say a confederacy neither fear ye their fear nor
be afraid the Good Shepherd, the Good Shepherd
as he exercises his ministry it will be like the Lord's ministry,
it will be a discriminating and a separating ministry. Remember
the threefold office, the three shepherds as it were, spoken
of in verse 8, it's the ministry of princes and priests and prophets. And Jeremiah says, if they take
forth the precious from the vial, they shall be as my mouth and so here what does he do?
the faithful shepherd I cut asunder mine other staff even bands that
I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel the
Lord's people are a separated people we know that the Lord's
own ministry was such a ministry a discriminating ministry time
and again there was a division amongst the people because of
him or because of his sayings we read that three times in John's
gospel Christ makes it clear that He came not to call the
righteous, not the self-righteous, you see. Not those who imagine
that they have some beauty, that they can do something to beautify
themselves. He comes not to call self-righteous
men and women, but He comes to call the sinners. The ministry
of the faithful shepherd then, He said before us, I will feed
the flock of slaughter. Even you, O poor of the flock.
And I took unto me two staves, one I called beauty, and the
other I called bands, and I fed the flock." And he feeds the
flock by what he does with these two bands. He shows the utter
vanity of any self-righteousness. And he shows also the futility
really of confederacy between the Lord's people. and those
who are really apostates but also he has clearly a definite
ministry to those who are referred to as the poor look at what it
says not just the flock of slaughter but the poor of the flock and
we see it in the Lord Jesus his own ministry blessed are the
poor in spirit he says theirs is the kingdom of heaven or they
are not spiritually poor of course they are not the poor of this world are those
rich in faith as James says they are not spiritually poor
when it says poor in spirit they are those who have lowly, humble
views of themselves. They are those who feel their
complete and utter dependency upon the Lord himself. They feel
themselves so vulnerable at times. There's fighting without. There's
a life to be lived in a world that lies in the wicked one.
There's a devil walking about as a roaring lion, continually
seeking whom he may devour. Remember the language that we
have in Romans 8.36? Again, there we have a reference
to Old Testament Scripture, the language of Psalm 44. So in Romans 8.36, as it is written,
For thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted
as sheep for the slaughter. It's the same people that are
being spoken of in the text. I will feed the flock of slaughter.
O poor of the flock, the Lord will attend to the needs of his
people. And who is the one who feeds
them? Well, as I said, it's the Lord Jesus Christ, ultimately.
The contrast between the false shepherds and the good shepherds,
but the great shepherd, the true shepherd of the sheep, isn't
that the Lord Jesus? And the Lord God says to him,
feed the flock of the slaughter, And He is the Lord really who
is answering. We can't dispute the fact that
this chapter speaks of Christ because we see that from what's
said, remember, concerning the 30 pieces of silver. It's a prophecy of Christ and
He says in the text, I will feed the flock of slaughter. Even
you, O poor of the flock. And how does the Lord feed His
people? Well, we know how He feeds them. He feeds them with
Himself. You know the language that we have there in the 6th
chapter of John. John 6. And what Christ says
concerning Himself as the bread of life. Look at verse 53 in that chapter.
Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, the double verily, I
say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink
his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and
drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up
at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me. and I in Him. What a union! All
our salvation surely is in Christ and we have to spiritually feed
on Him continually, delighting in His person, the wonder of
His person. God manifest in the flesh, the
wonder of the work that He accomplished, fulfilling all righteousness.
the life that he lives and his obedience unto death even the
death of the cross the death that he dies and we're not worthy
of the least of these faiths and all this truth that God shows
to us well the Lord bless what one sought to say tonight concerning
this rather strange chapter it's difficult we have these parts
of God's word and one wonders really sometimes what they mean
and one tries to meditating them and study them and we trust that
there's some profit then concerning this strange name that's given
to the Church, the Bride of Christ, I will feed the flock of slaughter,
says the Good Shepherd, even you, O poor of the flock. May the Lord bless to us His
Word, before we pray let us sing God's praise, we sing in the
metrical psalm that we've referred to, Psalm
44 we'll sing verses 1 and 2 and then from verse 22 through to
the end so the beginning of the psalm and then the end of the
psalm the beginning speaks of a time of favour and blessing
to God's people, but then the contrast at the end when God's
people are in the midst of trials and troubles, the flock of slaughter.
Sing in then Psalm 44 from verse 1 to verse 2, O God, we with
our ears have heard our fathers have us told the work that in
their days thou didst in the days of old. And then from verse
22, Yea, for thy sake we are killed all day, counted as slaughtered
sleep. Rise, Lord, cast us not ever
off. Awake, why dost thou sleep? To verse 26, the end of the psalm. So reading verse, singing verses
1 and 2 and then from verse 22. O God, we will that His hand
hath others have of stone. O God, that in the days of youth,
in the days of old, Thy hand did drive the heathen
out, And brought them in their place. The nations all thou didst defeat,
But them thou didst intrigue. Hey, for thy sake we're killed
all day, counted as slaughtered sheep. Christ, Lord, caught us
not ever off our way, why dost Thou speak? Oh, wherefore hideth Thou Thy
face Against the coldest streams, Under oppression for our souls? for thy mercies.