November 27

Zechariah 11
Today’s passage is a marvelous double fulfillment prophecy of the rejection of the Messiah and the consequent destruction of the nation by Rome and then again in the day of Jacob’s trouble. Verse 4 presents God the Father speaking to God the Son as the Good Shepherd. The flock, Israel, was prepared for their slaughter because of their rejection of the Messiah. The Messiah takes two staffs. The oriental shepherd used two staffs, “one to protect the sheep from wild beasts and the other to assist the sheep in difficult and dangerous places. “ He calls them Beauty and Bonds or grace and unity respectively. It is interesting that it is grace that gives the body of Christ the gifts to build itself up to protect itself and it is unity that encourages us to propel us through difficult times and dangerous places
When Jesus presented Himself as King to the nation, He was rejected by the officials who fulfilled the roles of prophet, priest and king of that day. Perhaps that is what He meant by the reference to dismissing the three shepherds in verse 8. They rejected Him; He in turn dismissed them. So He demanded His wages. They weighed out 30 pieces of silver as they valued Him. Exodus 21:32 values a maimed servant at 30 pieces of silver. He is valued cheap, not even the value of a healthy slave. The priests who gave Judas his blood money would have been well aware of the Scriptural value which they paid Judas. It was probably an intentional insult. The command is given to throw the money to the potter. So it was thrown in the house of the Lord for the potter. The potter makes things of the earth. He was not even valued on a spiritual level. In sarcasm He calls it that “princely price.” The poor of the flock were watching. The spiritually humble, the disciples, were the ones that eventually recognized the prophetic impact of the events. One of those disciples, Matthew, clearly understood the import of the action of the chief priests and appears to quote Zechariah but attributes it to Jeremiah. The KJV Commentary has this to say about designating the source of the quote.
Some have expressed concern over the mention of Jeremiah in this passage on the basis that the quotation apparently comes from Zechariah. While there is an allusion here to Zechariah 11:12–13, the actual words do not agree with either the Hebrew or the LXX. The major difference is the addition of the word field, upon which the fulfillment claimed is based. This word, and the conception behind it, comes from Jeremiah 32:6–9, where the prophet refers to the purchase of a field for certain pieces of silver. It is obvious that Matthew’s concept of prophetic fulfillment rests upon both passages. Thus, he combines both passages into one quotation, giving credit to Jeremiah as the older and more predominant of the two prophets. Hendricksen (p. 948) draws the same conclusion, noting that a major prophet is preferred over a minor one in a similar double reference in Mark 1:2–3. There Isaiah is credited instead of Malachi (see Mal 3:1). This is certainly to be preferred to Plummer’s suggestion (p. 386) that it was a “slip of the memory.”
What an amazing thing about our Lord! He controls even the details of His death! He knew the rejection He would experience. He knew the price at which they would value Him. He did it all for us. Indeed, we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john