Reasoning Through the Bible
Taking a cue from Paul, Reasoning Through the Bible is an expository style walk through the Scriptures that tells you what the Bible says. Reviewing both Old and New Testament books, as well as topical subjects, the hosts methodically show how Scripture is one cohesive story. Critical Thinking with a little bit of theology and apologetics and you have what this podcast is about. Just like Paul on Mars Hill, Christianity today must address woke, deconstruction, and progressive Christianity, all topics that are addressed if we go purposefully through the Bible. Join Glenn and Steve weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as they reason with you through the Bible.
Reasoning Through the Bible
S22 || Shepherds of Deception and the Path to Israel's Restoration || Zechariah 11:14-17 || Session 22 || Verse by Verse Bible Study
The episode takes a critical look at the ominous presence of false shepherds, drawing parallels from biblical teachings to our contemporary world. We discuss how God's sovereignty allows such leaders to emerge, tasking us with the responsibility of discerning truth from deception. With references from Zechariah and the New Testament, we illustrate the consequences awaiting those who mislead and the vital role of vigilance in maintaining our spiritual integrity. As we transition to a new chapter in Zechariah, we gear up for a profound exploration of Israel's future, inviting listeners to join us on this enlightening journey. May these insights inspire and challenge you as we navigate the complexities of faith and leadership.
Here in the Old Testament, book of Zechariah, we've been reasoning through some very, very strong medicine, but it's medicine that we need to hear, especially in this day where we have soft messages and soft feelings towards the Lord. God, we're in a section that is still very strict and very severe, so we're going to continue here and gird up your loins because it doesn't get any easier. We've been in some tough passages and it will continue, because our Lord has some very tough messages for us. Steve, if you could start in Zechariah, chapter 11, and read verses 13 to 17.
Speaker 2:Then I cut in pieces my second staff Union to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. The Lord said to me Take again for yourself the equipment of a foolish shepherd. For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for the perishing, seek, the scattering, heal, the broken or sustain the one standing, but will devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hooves. Woe to the worthless shepherd who leaves the flock. A sword will be on his arm and on his right eye. His arm will be totally withered and his right eye will be blind.
Speaker 1:With this in verse 14, steve, why does it say that Zechariah broke his second staff?
Speaker 2:Well, it refers there to Judah and Israel, who were the southern kingdom and the northern kingdom. The Israelites had broken up through the kings that they had. That's the state that they were in before they were carried off into captivity On their own. They had been divided up. He's referring back to, I think, these two kingdoms that were really one people, but now he's breaking. This staff called union this brotherhood of union. It's another representation that he's making that this is going to be broken up, the union between the Israelite nation.
Speaker 1:We talked last time, but we'll go ahead and mention it again here, that in many, many places in the Old Testament God was quite clear about his overall covenant that he made with Abraham. He repeated it to Isaac, he repeated it to Jacob. Many passages where he uses words like everlasting and eternal and forever. And there was this very dramatic scene where only God made the covenant with Abraham with the animals in the smoking oven. Over and over many, many times God says I will do these things because of my name. Is he going back on that here and just saying, okay, now I'm really frustrated so I'm throwing all of that away, or does he mean something else?
Speaker 2:I think this is all still in line with him disciplining the people we talked about in last session, towards the end there of Jesus's parable. That was very clear in that parable in Luke, chapter 19, that the people didn't want to be ruled by him. They were rejecting their king. And even over in John 19, 15, whenever Pilate asks a question to the Pharisees do you want me to kill your king, to crucify your king? And their answer back to him very pridefully, was we have no king but Caesar. I think again here in Zechariah he's giving this description of the attitude of the people and he says here that he is going to raise up, actually a foolish shepherd that is going to lead them astray, or stand one up so that they're going to be disciplined.
Speaker 1:He talks here about breaking this union, and the last one was I'm going to break the favor. What he's not going to do is break his covenant that he made with the nation Israel simply because of the way it was made. And I would just refer our listeners back to the book of Galatians, our series. There we went through this in a good bit of detail, where no less than our salvation in Jesus Christ is built upon the unilateral, unconditional promise that God made to Abraham. If indeed Israel could then break favor with God to the point of losing salvation entirely, then because of their disobedience, then we could also in our salvation. But God will not break our salvation simply because it's not based on my obedience and it's not based on your obedience. It's not based on your obedience. It's based on God's promise that he made a very long time ago. We again talked about that in detail in the book of Galatians.
Speaker 1:Here what he's saying again is he's breaking this union between these two Old Testament nations that were both Jewish. There was Judah and Israel. I would hope that by this point of the book he's dealing with these things and this idea that Israel and the Jews are two different ethnic groups are done away with, simply because he keeps saying it over and over. But yeah, there just seems to be a lot of people running around the countryside. That misses this point, but nevertheless there's one Jewish people and we today just refer to them as Israel, simply because that's the way the Word of God refers to them, and he's not referring to the two Old Testament nations. Now back to the main point here. He says here that I'm going to raise up a shepherd. What kind of a shepherd does he say?
Speaker 2:he's going to raise up A foolish shepherd, interested in the welfare of the sheep. Now, what are shepherds supposed to do? They're supposed to shepherd. They're supposed to guide the sheep. They're supposed to look out for them. They're supposed to keep them out of danger. They're supposed to take them out in areas where they could get good food, good grasses, out where they could get watered. They are there to take care of, protect and guide the flock.
Speaker 1:God says through Zechariah that I'm going to raise up a shepherd that not only doesn't protect the sheep, but he's going to eat the sheep. That's exactly the opposite. The shepherd is not supposed to eat the sheep. The shepherd is supposed to protect the sheep. That's exactly what he says here in verse 16. I'm going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for the perishing, not seek the scattered, heal the broken or sustain the one standing, but will devour the flesh of the sheep. Now, Steve, that is exactly what he's saying here. I'm going to raise up a leader that's not going to protect the people. This brings up a question about God's character and how he's responding, and it's come up again in the text, so we'll deal with it again. God can raise up somebody here that is doing a very painful thing. Does that mean that God is causing sin, or God is causing someone to be a sinner? Or how else could we?
Speaker 2:explain this. Back in the earlier chapters of Zechariah he mentioned that the nations that he used to discipline the Israelites, that they went too far and that therefore he was going to then judge those nations that went too far. But he was clear that he used the nation of Babylon to take that southern kingdom of Judah off into captivity, destroy the temple because of the judgment of them not following the rules. Daniel, we see that Daniel is reading Jeremiah, who's given a description because you didn't let the land lay fallow for every seventh year for 490 years. You're going to be disciplined for 70 years. Even before that the Assyrians came and took off the northern kingdom.
Speaker 2:God is clear that he utilizes other nations to discipline the nation of Israel itself. Here he's just using a different form of language. Here he is allowing foolish rulers, foolish shepherds, to come in and lead the people astray. But one last thing as we've mentioned before in other sessions, the people have a way to counter that. The way to counter that is to not follow the foolish shepherds, to know when the actual shepherds are leading them astray and to not follow those foolish shepherds. To know when the actual shepherds are leading them astray and to not follow those foolish shepherds. That is a way to counter it, but the people unfortunately didn't do that.
Speaker 1:There's at least two responses we can give to this idea of God. What it says here, using the language raising up a false shepherd One, is it's his sheep, it's his flock, he's sovereign, he's Almighty God. He can do with the flock as he sees fit. You and I are in no position to question him. Thank you very much. Secondly, these people were in a position to be sinners. We are all sinners. If God merely withdraws his spirit, then all of us would raise up as sinful people. It is his Holy Spirit that is poured out on mankind in a. I believe some of the theologians call it a prevenient grace. It prevents some evil and without his grace being generalized, jesus said that God sends rain on the just and the unjust, so he sends blessings, and part of that blessings is on all people. That keeps us from being as bad as we could be. If he merely withdraws his Holy Spirit, then a shepherd will rise up. So in that sense, god is not causing the false shepherd to sin. He's merely backing off and allowing the false shepherd to do what false shepherds do, which is lead the sheep astray. And he is sovereignly can do that because, as you well pointed out, steve, the sheep have decided to follow the false shepherd.
Speaker 1:Now we're reminded here of the false shepherd, the Antichrist, that's mentioned over in the book of Revelation, where the ultimate false shepherd is the Antichrist, who will rise up and deceive many, and he will indeed be a figure that the Jewish people will think at the time is desirous to follow. Oh, this person's going to get us out of a lot of the confusion and they will try to follow this false shepherd. Only later will they find out that the false shepherd is false and he leads them into destruction. The Antichrist will rise up and deceive Israel and many others, and he will be welcomed and wanted by the sheep. They will invite him to come and be their leader. Only later will people realize he's a false shepherd. Moving on, if we look at verse 17,. Again, all these woes. Woe to the worthless shepherd who leaves the flock. A sword will be on his arm and on his right eye. His arm will be totally withered and his right eye will be blind. Steve, what do we know from that passage?
Speaker 2:It's given a depiction of the shepherd being disciplined. You're leading the flock through your right arm. You're carrying your staff in your right hand, your right eye. You're supposed to be watchful over the flock and lead them and protect them. So this is a picture here of God disciplining this false shepherd.
Speaker 1:This idea of the shepherd, and in this case a false shepherd, was picked up on in many of the teachings of our Lord Jesus. Jesus called himself I am the good shepherd who gives my life for the sheep. He talks about a false shepherd who will not give his life for the sheep but will run. That's the idea here that Zechariah is portraying is that the false shepherd will leave the flock, it says in verse 17. He will not give his life for the flock, but will leave them. He talks there about the shepherd getting punished or suffering the consequences for it. Steve, here's a question. He's talking about here a false shepherd who will abandon the sheep. Are there false shepherds today?
Speaker 2:They're running around all over the place. How do you know they're false? You've got to take it against the Word of God what they're saying. That's why we have said over and over in these last few sessions here in chapter 11, that there is a responsibility of the flock to know whether or not the shepherd that is leading them is a false shepherd or a shepherd. That's not good for them. If you don't know the Word of God and you're just going to follow any shepherd, you're at risk of following a false shepherd.
Speaker 2:Believe me, there are plenty of them out there. One way to know if it's a false shepherd or not is where do they focus? Did they focus the situation on themselves? Is their ministry around giving funds to their ministry so that they then can go buy jets that they brag about? Is their ministry focused around healing, where it's obvious that people aren't being healed? That's going to help people have better lives through knowing Jesus Christ and building up a relationship with him. So yeah, there are false shepherds all over the world, and I think it's an unfortunate thing that they are.
Speaker 1:False shepherds often only talk about certain things in the Word of God. They focus on certain parts that sound good to a congregation, and they could build up a congregation that'll focus on them and not on Jesus and the Word of God. The Old Testament talked about false prophets. The New Testament talks about false teachers. There had already been false teachers that had crept into the church. That's why many of the New Testament epistles were written to talk against false prophets. It mentions them by name and warns us to avoid them.
Speaker 1:We have, from start to finish, the Word of God dealing with false teachers, false prophets and warning the shepherds against that. False prophets and warning the shepherds against that. I'm reminded of Matthew 24, steve, where the disciples came to Jesus in the temple and said when will these things be? And the first thing he said, before he got into the details of his answer, was watch out for the false prophets that will come and deceive many. And he said it about three times in Matthew 24 and 25, watch out for false prophets. We have that message all the way back here in Zechariah this chapter, steve, as we're at the end of chapter 11 here.
Speaker 1:It talks about some very hard things as we've gotten through this chapter and the tail end of it. Look at verse 17, hard things as we've gotten through this chapter and the tail end of it. Look at verse 17,. A sword is going to be on the arm and it talks about the right eye being blinded and his hand being withered. That's just one more of many of the very difficult things that have been in this chapter. We've explained it by saying God will deal with sin. How bad is sin really? Do we have an accurate view of sin? Because this chapter is very hard. Once we really internalize what this is saying, this is difficult. He's saying this because of sin. How bad really is sin?
Speaker 2:because of sin. How bad really is sin, sin? Even in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, the meaning of the Hebrew word and Greek word is to miss the mark. Sin is missing the mark of what God wants for us, of how he wants us to act towards him, of the relationship that he wants to have with us. Use that in every situation where we're doing things that are not godly. We're missing the mark. Think of it this way we're missing the whole purpose of our lives. That's what sin is.
Speaker 2:So, yes, there's sin all around us and people are sinful because they continue to miss the mark of what God wants for them. Now how can we be protected from that? We can be protected from that by becoming a believer in Jesus Christ, the Messiah, just the one that Zechariah is talking about here. There's a coming Messiah that was going to be over this kingdom of Israel. So we can have a relationship with God because Jesus was God or is God. We can have a relationship with God because Jesus is God and we can have the promises of eternal life by having a relationship with him, becoming a believer in him, being firmly convinced of who he is, of his death, burial and resurrection and the promises of eternal life that he has given us. That's how we can be protected from this sin, this missing, the mark missing of the things that God wants us to have and to be.
Speaker 1:And I would agree completely. In God's eyes, sin is very serious, and so is His promise of love is also very serious. That brings us to the end of Zechariah, chapter 11. We're going to pause here simply because the next chapter chapter 12, is so rich and it deals with a large number of questions that deal with when these prophecies are going to occur. In chapter 12, we're going to turn a hard corner. We're going to see God give a quite different message, but he's still dealing with the future of Israel. We have in chapter 12 some very, very interesting things and very complex things that we'll be getting to next time.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.
