First of all, our prophecy that
we're looking at today, and this has to do with the one that is
pierced, the piercing of Messiah. Verse 7, 8, and 9, Zechariah
13. Awake, O sword, against the man
that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. smite the shepherd,
and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn mine hand upon
the little ones. And it shall come to pass that
in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut
off and die, but the third part shall be left therein. And I
will bring the third part through the fire, and refine them as
silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried. They shall call upon my name,
and I will hear them, I will say, It is my people, and they
shall say, the Lord is my God. Now, in Matthew chapter 26, verse
30, the supper is finished in the upper room. And verse 30,
when they had sung and hymn, they went out onto the Mount
of Olives. then said Jesus unto them, all
ye shall be offended because of me this night. For it is written,
I will smite the shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall
be scattered abroad. But after I'm risen again, I
will go before you into Galilee. Now that is the fulfillment of
the prophecy, but Matthew only, as you see, refers to a small
part of it. Now, I want us to notice something
in our beginning of this prophecy of the day, ere we pass out of
the book of Zechariah. And that is that our prophet
uses a phrase over and over again. It is a phrase that's also found
in many of the other apostles and prophets, and also by our
Lord himself. And we meet it again and again,
over and over in the scripture. And that expression is the three
words, in that day. And we see it over and over. Meaning, a coming or a future
day or time, or event, referring to some great event, whether
it be a great blessing, a fulfillment, or a judgment, or a restoration,
yet the prophets speak in that day. And sometime, the Lord Himself
spoke of, quote, that hour, as He spoke and taught in the public. As to the Samaritan woman, Jesus,
in John chapter 4 of His Gospel, said unto her, verse 21, the
hour comes, or is coming. And in verse 23, the hour comes
and now is when a certain thing has come to pass. So it ushered
in a new way of worship, and that hour had come in the Lord
Jesus Christ. It was a worship that would not
be distinguished by location. and it would not be distinguished
by a holy place, or a temple, or one certain location upon
the face of the earth. Not a certain city and not a
certain shrine would worship need to be carried on. But, in
verse 24 of John, it would be a worship in spirit and in truth. So the hour had come, and now
is, The old had passed away and the new had come in his place. Now commentators like Matthew
Henry and John Gill, whom I read a lot, understood Zachariah to
be speaking in that day. They think that it is a reference
to the times of the gospel brought in by the appearance of Messiah,
such as the day of the Lord in Zechariah 14 and verse 1. In Zechariah 13, we have the
phrase again, in verse 1, in that day there shall be. In verse 2, it shall come to
pass in that day. And verse 4, in that day. So Zechariah is speaking of a
coming and a glorious time, and many think that it refers to
the time of the Gospel. Now, in verse 7 is our prophecy
of the day, and the smitten shepherd is not hard to identify. It is the Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ Himself. And in Matthew chapter 26, and
again, in the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 27 and 28, one on the
night of his arrest, he said it, and he applied it unto himself,
that the shepherd would be smitten and the sheep would be scattered. And then they sung a hymn They
went out into the garden, John 18 in 1, across the brook Cedron,
where the Lord often retired and went there to pray. And Judas
knew that on the night that he betrayed him. Matthew seems to
tell us that it was in the garden that our Lord spoke these words
and opened up the fact that this would be the fulfillment of the
prophecy of old. And with that, our Lord made
a very chilling prediction to his little flock on that night. He had all along spoken to them
of the coming of his death. He had told them over and over
that he must go to Jerusalem, that he would die, that he would
be crucified there on the Roman cross, but also During the supper
in Matthew 26 and verse 21, he made a startling prediction under
that little flock there in the upper room. It was this, one
of you shall betray me. What a startling statement for
our Lord to make. on that sterling occasion of
the celebration of the Passover supper. Now he makes another
in the face of his coming death and he says to them, all of you
shall be offended this night because are on the account of
me. This night, all of you shall
be offended. Let's not leave that quickly.
Let's catch on to every word and every phrase in this statement
or saying of our Lord. Look at the word, shall, or rather,
all of you. Each one of you, no exception. Every one of you is going to
be offended because of me. And then the words, shall be
offended. Now, they say that that word
in the Greek is like our answers to our word scandal or scandalize. To stumble, to trip up, to be
caught in a trap. to be the occasion of stumbling. They say the Greek is of a bent
stick or twig that might cause one to stumble. Why will that
occur? Well, notice, because of me,
on account of me. You will stumble. You'll be scandalized. you will be offended on account
of me." This would occur in connection with the Lord, but also in connection
to what would befall him on that night, their Lord, their God,
and their Savior. And then notice, it would be
this night, not sometime in the future, a week, a month, a year,
This very night shall it come that all shall be offended because
of me. Before the morning, before the
rooster crow, as he said unto Simon Peter, before the dawn,
before another sun. All of you shall be offended
because of me this night." And to confirm that, the Lord quotes
Zechariah 13 and verse 7, and he bases it upon what the prophet
had said and what he had written, and he uses the connection for. All of you shall be offended
because of me on this night, for all because of our sin. And because it is written, I
will smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered. Now,
as I said, the Lord only quotes a part of the great prophecy
found in Zechariah. But by his smiting, there is
no doubt or question that he's referring to his death. his death upon the cross. He would die. He would be crucified
by or at the hand of the Roman. He would be put to death. He
would be buried. He would lie there three days
and three nights, and then he would take up his life again. But we keep going back to Zechariah
13 and verse 7. And we consider there the double
designation that is given of the smitten one and of his relationship
unto God. Number one, he is called my shepherd,
my shepherd. He said, Awake, O sword, against
my shepherd. It is he that is the great shepherd
of the sheep. He calls himself the Good Shepherd
in John chapter 10 and 14. Peter calls him the chief shepherd
in 1st Peter chapter 5 and verse 4, and Hebrews 13 and 20 makes
another connection, that great shepherd of the sheep. Through
the blood of the everlasting covenant, that great shepherd
of of the sheep. Now, this opens the door for
us to consider another matter, and that is that Christ our Lord
is presented to us in several ways in the scripture regarding
his relationship unto his people, such as in the text here, he
is the shepherd. They are his sheep. John chapter
10. Psalm 100 and verse 3. We are his people and the sheep
of his pasture. And the Old Testament and the
New speaks of the people of God as the sheep of the Lord. But not only that, he's the foundation,
he's the chief corner. We are they, are the living stone
in the temple. He is the bridegroom or the husband,
and she, the church, is that bride of him. He is the head,
and they are the members, each set in their particular place
and having their particular function. Then that favorite verse of so
many, the Lord is my shepherd. Now, moreover, he noted that
he calls him my shepherd. That is Jehovah, God's shepherd. The shepherd of God, the shepherd
and bishop of our own soul. We'll say more about that later,
time permitting. Let's look at the second designation
of him in that prophecy in Zechariah chapter 13 and verse 7. Do we understand this? The man
that is my fellow. Now note if you would the two. The man my fellow, the man my
shepherd, the man my fellow. Now these both refer not to two
people but to one and the same being or individual. And the
relation of that being to the speaker who is Jehovah, the man
who is my fellow. This one is a man. He is called
In many places in the scripture, a man, a true man, having humanity,
because he partook of flesh and of blood, Hebrews chapter 2 and
verse 14. He was found in fashion as a
man in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 8. He had the body prepared
for him by God, Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 5. He had a flesh
and blood and bone body made of a woman, Galatians chapter
4 and verse 4, yet without a human or a man father. But his higher
or nearer relationship to the father is my fellow. My fellow. We need to look at
that. Expositors, those that are familiar
in a good way with the Hebrew language, says that it has the
meaning of nearness of relation or of kinship. A very next of
kin, as it is used back early in the writing of Moses. The nearest of kin. And it has
been translated several ways by different people and versions
over the years. A man, my kinsman. The man, my
equal. The man with whom I associate
myself. Again, let's see the two expressions
that are used. The man, a man, my fellow, my
associate, my kinsman, my comrade, a man who is my fellow. One expositor said that the word
always referred to the nearest of kin, or relation, so that
in addition to the human nature, the divine has a nature in the
exact likeness of Jehovah, which is a real, eternal, divine, unending
nature. In other words, this one is both
God and man in one person by the miraculous incarnation. A twofold nature dwells in this
great one. One, eternal and uncreated. And the other, a human nature
that is given unto him by the great work of the virgin birth,
immaculate conception, and birth at Mary. So that the eternal
person, the eternal nature, is three persons in one nature,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This we call the Trinity, and
is known as the Trinity in the scripture. All being eternal,
all being a part of the divine essence, and a person, all without
beginning, and we can conclude, shall have no end. They had no
beginning, they have no end. And so we might point out that
the Lord Jesus in John chapter 10 and verse 30 threw the Pharisees
into a hissy fit when he said to them, I and my father are
one. John chapter 10 and verse 30. What is he saying? He is claiming
a clear equality with the Father, and that by the words, I and
my Father are one. Often he claimed to be the Son
of God, and referred to God as my Father, again and again. And that he came down from the
Father in heaven. And so this is important later
on. called God my father over and
over. But again, Zechariah 13 and verse
7. And we'll see. Let us know the
words are the words of God. Who are they spoken to? And we notice that's interesting. They are spoken to, O sword. Not a man, not a prophet, but
O sword. Now, the sword in scripture is
a symbol of judgment and of death and of war and so on and so forth. As in Romans chapter 13. The
civil magistrate, Paul says, bears not the sword in vain and
is a terror to evil. Paul calls him a minister of
God, that is, the civil magistrate, and he bears not the sword in
vain. It is an instrument of death,
of punishment, of judgment, of war. and even of capital punishment
at the hands of the government, and of a death of any kind. They didn't pull out a pistol,
they pulled out a sword. So the sword is a symbol of judgment
upon others that are worthy of it. And in Zechariah, 13 and
7, let us see two things. Number one, the arousing of the
sword. It has been slumbering, as it
were, asleep. It is calm and has been at ease
so far as this case. And God all of a sudden gives
it a command, awake, O sword. Awake, arouse. Wake up. Come
to attention. Awake, thou that sleepeth. Be not drowsy. I have an errand
for you, and I will send you on a mission armed with a mandate."
So the command is, awake, O sword. Then secondly, we notice, who's
the victim of this awakened sword? The man, my shepherd, the man,
my fellow, my shepherd, which does not refer to a temporary
wound that will heal in time, but it is to be a wound or a
strike of death against the shepherd. It refers without question to
a death blow, a killing blow, as when David set Uriah out there
in battle that he would be killed by the sword in 2 Samuel chapter
12 and verse 9. But would you like to turn with
me to the book of Ezekiel in chapter 47. Then I'd like to
read a couple of verses if you'd like to follow along. It's Ezekiel,
the Old Testament prophet, one of the major prophets, chapter
47 and verse 6 and 7. O thou sword of the Lord, how
long will it be ere thou be quiet? See here it is the opposite,
to settle it down. that it might take a respite
and that it might take a rest. O thou sword of the Lord, how
long will it be ere thou be quiet? Put up thyself into thy scabbard,
rest and be still. So there you see in verse 7,
the Lord had given it a charge against Ascalon he hath appointed
it to go on a mission and it will not be quiet until the Lord
said it is enough. Then flip if you want to to Ezekiel
or rather to yes Ezekiel chapter 21. And here we like to read
beginning in verse 4, 5, and 6, and a few verses, just chosen
passages out of this prophecy. Ezekiel 21 and verse 4. Seeing then that I will cut off
thee from the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword
go forth out of his sheath against all flesh from the south unto
the north. Again, verse 5, that all flesh
may know that I the Lord hath drawn forth my sword out of his
sheath, it shall not return any more." 9 and 10, verse 9 and
10. So in the man prophesy and say,
thus saith the Lord, say, a sword, a sword is sharpened and also
furbished. Verse 10, it is sharpened to
make a sore slaughter. It is furbished that it may glitter. Should we then make mirth, it
contemplated the rod of my son as every tree. And then all the way down to
verse 28 of that same chapter, and her prophets have daubed
them with untimpered mortar, seeing vanity and divinity. Wait a minute, I think I skipped
a chapter. Sorry. Sorry about that. Chapter 21
and verse 28. And thou, O son of man, prophesy
and say, Thus saith the Lord God concerning the Ammonite and
concerning their reproach, Even say thou, the sword The sword
is drawn. for the slaughter it is furbished
to consume because of its glittering. Now these things refer to the
judgment that God visited upon their wickedness. The sword arouses,
it moves, it acts, it smites its victim by the authority and
the command of God, it being empowered by the word of God
to go forth and to smite. However, in Zechariah 13 and
verse 7 and the text, the sword is not sent against a wicked
or a disobedient man or people or country, not against an enemy
of God and an enemy of righteousness, but against the Lord's own shepherd
and fellow. Go and smite my shepherd, the
man that is my fellow. And yet some of the very same
images and symbolic language of a sword is used and applied,
such as the sword is God's judgment. It has its charge. from God to
go and to smite. For example, again, Jeremiah
47 and 7, the Lord has given it its charge against a specific
and direct target. And the image in Ezekiel chapter
21, verse 9 and 10, did you notice it? It is both sharpened and
furbished that it might be used in the best way. Sharpened, that
is, it is whetted. It has been sharpened. It has
been whetted and made sharp. It is furbished, that is, it
has been cleaned. All the rust has been off of
it. And it has been polished. and
made to shine and to glitter, it is ready for the action that
God will require of it. Now, sword was usually carried
in a sheath or a scabbard upon the side of the individual when
it was not in use. And in Zechariah 13 and 7, the
call goes out to God's sword, awaken, awaken out of its slumber. Take no more its rest. Taking ease. It is to be awakened. It is to leave its scabbard and
go on a mission and to smite. We know from Matthew chapter
26 that it refers to the death of our Lord. If I might paraphrase
Jeremiah 47 and verse 7 again, How can it be quiet, seeing the
Lord has given it a charge against my shepherd and against the man
that is my fellow? There has been an appointment. Messiah must be smitten. Messiah will be cut off. but not for himself," says Daniel
chapter 9 and verse 26. He is the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world, saith Revelation 13 and verse 8. And he has a command from the
Father to lay down his life, as he says in John chapter 10
and verse 18. Not that he resisted or resented
laying down or giving up his life, but he had that command
from the Father. Now, in transitioning to the
New Testament, let's go, if we might, all the way to Romans
chapter 8. And there's a verse here that
we enter into our record and recall and use. Romans 8 and verse 32, if you
have turned there, where Paul writes this. that God spared
not his own son, but delivered him up for all. Especially, notice those two
words, spared not. He spared not his son. Because we meet him again in
other places in the Holy Scripture of the New Testament. For example,
In Romans 11 and verse 21, we read there in that particular
place that God spared not the natural branches, that is, Israel
or the Jew. He did not spare them. 2 Peter 2 and verse 4, He spared
not the angel that sinned. And when we look at all these,
it gives a greater focus upon what He said about the Lord,
that He spared not His own Son. Again, in 2 Peter 2 and verse
5, He spared not the old world. Now, let's go a step further.
In all of these verses, there is a contrast that is made. He spared not, but delivered
up His blessed Son. He spared not the natural branches,
but they were broken off. He spared not the angels that
sinned, they were cast down to hell. He spared not the old world,
bringing the flood upon the world of the ungodly. Now these two
words, spare not, they set forth the truth that God's punishment
was meted out in righteous measure, exactly as deserved. It was not slackened. It was
not mitigated. It was not softened. There was
no holding back when God sent the sword of judgment in regard
to the recipient. He did not give them less than
what was deserved. He did not give them less than
what was to be given. So now let's work our way backward
in these verses that we have just made reference unto. God
did not spare the old world. And let's think about who or
the judgment and who and what it came upon. He did not spare
the old world. Now what was it? Well, it was
his original creation. It was, in effect, his masterpiece. He made it, he looked upon it,
and he declared it to be good. And in it, his power and eternality
was displayed, and it preached his being, the world, the creation,
the sun. Remember that? Again, God did
not spare the angels that sinned. They once resided in heaven.
about the throne of God. They no doubt were like the other
angels, and at one time they had praised Him. But when they
sinned, He spared them not, and cast them down unto hell. Again,
God did not spare the angels that sinned. And likewise, God
did not spare the unbelieving Israelites. Think of this. They
were the seed of Abraham. They were the covenant people,
the chosen race. the possessors of the oracles
of God, of the promises, the worship of God, and the services,
and such like. Highly privileged, but God did
not spare them, but broke them all. Now, most amazing of all,
He spared not his very own son, his only begotten son, the object
of his great love and delight, his eternal fellow. who dwelt
with him everlastingly. And again, the contrast, he spared
not, but delivered him up. He did not spare when he sent
the sword against our Lord, but delivered him up. And if you
might pardon a short digression, but I think that we see this
typified in Abraham. In Genesis chapter 22, offering
up his only promised and beloved son upon an altar. Genesis 22, Hebrews 11, 17 through
19. What a picture we have. Abraham
has built the altar, and there Abraham binds his son to that
altar. And Abraham has in his possession
the wood, the fire, and the knife. He has all of those things ready
to plunge it into his beloved, promised son, Isaac. ready to sacrifice his own son
by his very own hand to put his beloved unto death. Abraham had
a knife, God had an awakened sword, and they were ready to
act. Each raised it against their
most precious and beloved son. And while Abraham's knife What
returned again into its sheath, God's went forth to smite his
blessed and beloved son. Abraham's son was spared. God's
son was not spared. The agony and the death of the
cross. And notice God delivered him
up. It's not said here the Jew or
the Romans, God delivered him up. We read in Acts 2 and verse
23, he was delivered by the determinant counsel and for knowledge of
God. The three words in that verse,
let's look at them shortly. Number one, determinate. The determinate, as Luke writes
there in that place. The word is the word horizo,
meaning to set a mark or to set a boundary, to decree or appoint
so far and no further, to ordain. And this word is eight times
in our New Testament. And it literally means to set
a mark or a boundary. Second, there's the word counsel
in that verse, the determinate counsel of God. And counsel is the Greek word
boule, from a word meaning will, volition, or minded, the determinate
counsel or will of God. And thirdly, the word foreknowledge
is the word Prognosis, I believe, from a
word that means to know and to a point beforehand. Not by looking ahead to see what
will happen, but by ordaining it so that Acts 4 and verse 28,
what was done to Jesus Christ, quote, whatsoever thy hand and
thy counselor will determine to be done," unquote. So let us be clear on this, that
the crucifixion of the Lord by an allegiance of all of those
wicked ones named in Psalm 2 and Acts chapter 4 was not flying
out of the bounds of the will of God. It did not frustrate
the will or the purpose of God with regard to the Lord Jesus
Christ. For, as the prophet has told
us, Jehovah commanded the sword to smite him. Jehovah aroused
it. He gave it a commission, go and
smite the shepherd. Let's not forget Revelation 13
and 8, the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, though
he did not actually die until he was incarnate and in the end
of the ages. In the decree of God, he was
slain before the foundation of the world. This is a covenant
arrangement when the Lord at that time engaged himself to
be the surety of the covenant and of the elect. So God is not
smiting the guilty or the straying sheep, but he is smiting the
innocent, sinless shepherd in their behalf. Him he delivered
up to the cross and he sent his sword to smite him. Now this is not a sword of war,
it's not a sword of revenge, and it's not a sword of tyranny. It is not a drowsy sword. It is not a slothful sword. It is awakened and alert. It is devoting full attention
to its target, which is God's dear shepherd. And it's not an
earthly magistrate that has ordered this strike. It is the Heavenly
Father. Nor is it sent to slay a thousand
or ten thousand but one man, nor does it seek out the world's
worst, vilest sinner, but a holy, sinless one that it might smite
upon the cross. It is not a sword or rod of chastisement
to correct him, but it is a sword to slay him and to put him to
death. See again the word awake in the
prophet. The sword was not sent as soon
as men fell. It was not sent as soon as the
law was given and was transgressed by Israel and others. And surely we can agree that
the sufferings of Christ were dual in their nature. That is,
they had two parts or two sources. Number one, of course, and here's
what most people focus on, is the bodily outward sufferings
and wounds of our Lord. And they were great and they
were very painful. But there were also the inward
sufferings of our Lord, the suffering in his soul, in the inward part,
the heart and the mind, the soul, being forsaken by God for those
hours upon the cross, till he actually cried out, Eli, Eli,
Sama, Shebak, Thana, my God, My God, why hast thou forsaken
me? As the sword plunged in to the
Holy One of God, up to the haft, or the handle. Spurgeon had a
great gift of words and expression. And he said this on Psalm 27
and verse 46, quote, to be deserted of his Lord was the climax of
Christ's grief. the quintessence of his sorrow,"
unquote, here is the highest of his suffering. As the Lord
had said, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful unto death as he faced
that awful death of the cross. And God made to light upon Christ
every sin of every elect, that would ever be forgiven and then
exacted from him the just penalty that it required. He bore the
curse. He bare our sin in his own body. He gave divine justice, all that
it required. He gave himself as a ransom unto
God and received from him the price of our redemption, paid
into the hand of the just and righteous God. And that price
was not silver, and it was not gold. It was the precious blood
of the Lamb. It would not shed as a martyr,
but as a sacrifice for the sin of His elect. Speaking of swords,
In Luke chapter 2, 34 and 35, Simeon's prophecy unto Mary concerning
the Christ whom she had brought in. And she saw what was done
to the Holy Christ upon the cross. the one that she bare in her
own body. And yet when the shepherd is
smitten, the sheep would be scattered. They would not come together,
but they would scatter in every direction. Even one of the apostles
would betray him, and another would deny him on the night of
his arrest. And they met behind closed doors. for fear of the Jews who might
come and do them harm. Yes, they were offended, and
they were scattered on that night. And may I say this as practical
application. They who align with Christ and
who are counted as sheep are a sheep for the slaughter. If
the world hate Christ, It will hate his very own. This vile
world is not a friend to God or to Christ or to Christianity. But concerning that sword smiting
God's shepherd, I close by saying this. I concluded, I thought
about it all week, I leaned back in the chair and I thought, and
I concluded it is not possible for me either to fully understand
or fully explain unto you All that's involved in this sword
smiting our blessed Lord unto death. I can't explain it, but
I believe it. I don't understand it to the
full, but I believe it. But Jehovah smote. his nearest
fellow. It pleased God to bruise him. He hath put him to grief." Isaiah
53, 10, 11, and 12. Awake, O sword, smite my shepherd,
the one that is my fellow. And it was obedient, and he was
smitten. And he is our sacrifice for sin,
and thank God for that.