Chapter 11: 30 pieces of silver and Bad shepherds
To see this on YouTube: https://youtu.be/z8bA1OOuB84
What is a man’s value? A person’s worth? We tend to consider people significant who contribute to the world in which we live. It could be a person who invents something we all use, like Velcro or the hill’s hoist. Whoever brought the 2-stroke lawnmower is touted as a hero in the world of Victor here in Australia while Thomas Edison is huge in the US for all his inventions. Then there are the valuable people who paint or create poetry like Michelangelo and Shakespeare. They are worth a LOT, especially when compared to others. What we esteem or value, that’s a man’s worth.
In today’s lesson, we see a familiar quantity, that is 30 pieces of silver, and in the world of Zechariah, it’s what he is worth. And it’s all wrapped up in the double scenario of Zechariah chapter 11, two scenes both related to shepherding.
Now I’ve never been a shepherd and although I’ve driven past hundreds if not thousands of sheep in my lifetime, I don’t usually think of myself in relation to them. Back in the 1970s, when I started a congregation in Lawrence, Kansas, and found myself being a leader among them, some folks asked me what my title was. Was I the pastor? The elder? What was I? Shepherd or pastor (same word, by the way) seemed a bit too much for my youth and experience. Yet I was responsible for some of the sheep. Hmmm, what did we try out for a while? Sheepdog. That seemed to be reasonable for me. A helper of the shepherd, being God, with some responsibility, but not quite up to speed for pastoring. That lasted pretty well.
Zechariah is without question a prophet who knows how to relate to and about the sheep/ shepherd situations of ancient Israel. So in today’s episode, he uses contrasting scenarios to help us see what God sees about Bad Shepherds.
Let’s jump in.
0. PRELUDE
Verses 1-3 is the prelude to this business. Wailing and lamenting, because God is about to unleash fire on the likes of those who mislead the people of God. From all around the area, from Lebanon to Bashan and all along the Jordan River… wailing is heard, as is roaring and fantastic trees like the cedars of Lebanon are falling. This is a cacophony of violent judgment hitting the area. Why? Because of bad leadership. The flock is doomed.
1. SCENARIO 1: GOD AS SHEPHERD
Verse 4 introduces us to the first scenario. In this one, God himself is the shepherd and he is outraged. All that we had heard previously about God’s care and assurance is brought into question. Why? The bad leadership within Judah. It’s a powerful drama that unfolds in each generation when God’s good people are ruined by the likes of ruining shepherds. No wonder James the apostle warns people “Let not many of you become teachers, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.” (3.1) The word ‘stricter’ is the word ‘mega’ in Greek, like the Hebrew (gadol) it means more and more, harsher, stronger, bigger, and basically is saying whatever judgment is going to befall the people of God, bad leaders will suffer tougher, longer, stronger treatment.
The prophet actually uses three symbolic acts in this chapter to highlight the way the Lord was treating Judah after their rejection of him 70 years previously. It is a little uncomfortable to go back in time and read this after we just saw great promises unfolding in the previous chapter. I’m sorry. If I could I would cut and paste this document more clearly. This chapter is from 586 BCE and before.
A. SYMBOLIC ACT 1: PASTORING TO THE SLAUGHTER
The first symbolic act is the pastor taking sheep to slaughter. To make that point ever so clearly, verse 4 tells us to shepherd the flock to slaughter. That’s the end of an animal. Headed to the slaughterhouse. Game over. Not ‘shepherd the flock to pasture.’ Not to a restful pastoral scene. Nope, take them to death. In fact, the scene seems to be like the old Monopoly game card, “bank error in your favour. Collect $200” The abattoir is in full swing; the men running it are gaining without having to work. They are simply receiving and rejoicing. Listen “Those who buy them slay them and go unpunished, and each of those who sell them says, ‘Blessed be the LORD, for I have become rich!’” (v. 6)
There is no penalty for the slaughterers. They only have gain. The contrast is clear. If you know the prophecy of Ezekiel, you will recognise that dramatic rendering is a device he uses, including his chapter 4, where he lies on one side for 390 days and then switches to the other side for another 40. That was a symbolic act that stood for the judgment to come on Israel and then on Judah.
So in our chapter today, Act #1 is the march to the abattoir. God as overseer removes the three shepherds (verse 8), that is, three leaders within Judah (king, priest and prophet) which you might remember took place in one month! Jeremiah the prophet had spoken about this in similar terms (12.3, 52.6-27) “Drag them off like sheep for the slaughter And set them apart for a day of carnage!”
And again
9th day of 4th month—10th day of 5th month
Who are the men at the abattoir? They are the false shepherds! They are fleecing the flock and making themselves rich. Yeshua warns us of this in our day, as does Paul writing to Timothy.
“who devour widows’ houses, and for appearance’s sake offer long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.” (Mark 12.40)
I’m led to add this warning about the love of money
“If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not 1agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, 4 he is conceited and understands nothing; but he 1has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that 1godliness is a means of gain. 6 But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. 7 For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. 8 If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. 9 But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all 1sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (1 Tim 6.3-10)
Love of money. Not money itself.
B. SYMBOLIC ACT 2: BREAKING OF THE STAFFS
Back to Zechariah. The 2nd symbolic act is the naming and breaking of the 2 staffs. Favour and Unity. Odd names, eh? Favour is overturned, as verse 10 says to break the covenant. What? God is breaking his own word? Impossible. Inconceivable. What he is doing is actually fulfilling his covenant which seems like a breaking. What I mean is this. By judging his people, delivering us to Assyria and then Babylon, he is ensuring that his word is fulfilled. He is enhancing the power and demonstrating his own nature to fulfill what he has spoken. If we lived sinfully, we would be judged. He said that over and over. Will we listen? Will we again listen in the days of Zechariah? Will we again listen in 2023? That’s what will enact favour. That’s what will cause his covenant to be renewed. When we listen and obey. When we do what we are told. When we put away false shepherds and listen to God and his own prophets and leaders. We will either make or break the favour of the Lord.
When God breaks the staff of favour he is actually clarifying his favour… on those who listen to him and keep his word. But act 2 here is the breaking and proclaiming what’s true to the Jewish people of 586 BCE.
The breaking of the other staff, Unity, brings the message home again that the ‘all Israel’ of Judah and Israel, all the 12 tribes which should be God’s people, should be united, are again broken up. We are not one. We are dismantled. Why? The bad shepherds who attend to us.
2. SCENARIO 2: ZECHARIAH AS SHEPHERD
C. SYMBOLIC ACT 3: THE 30 PIECES OF SILVER
The third act is the most expressive. The 30 pieces of silver. Verses 11 to 13. That’s the value that the people gave to the shepherd. It was the value/ price of a slave in those days. They gave the money to Zechariah himself. In the symbolic act. Not necessarily in living person. They are undervaluing him. His value is much more, but they are taking 30 as base number.
A terrible comparison is made with a man named Micah in Judg 17:4 Micah made an idol, where two hundred shekels of silver were made into a molten image. By comparison thirty shekels would only make a figurine and therein lies the irony (Delcor, “Deux Passages Difficiles . . .” VT 3 [1953] 74).
Another way to read this is that after the prophet is rejected by the people he asks for the wages he earned as their shepherd, leaving the amount up to his employers. They weighed (verb שקל, “shekeled”) out “thirty” (shekels = a unit of weight) of silver. Then Yahweh commanded him to cast it (his wages) to the potter (יוֹצר MT). The Syriac uses the term treasury איצר. So the prophet took the noble price (irony) and cast it to the potter (יוֹצר) in the house of Yahweh.
Ralph Smith says, “The term יוֹצר “potter” in v 13 in the MT has caused some consternation for many interpreters. Why would the prophet cast his wages to the potter? Was there a potter working in the temple? Can the word יוֹצר refer to a shaper of metals as well as to a shaper of clay? Was the word in the original text אוֹצר “treasury” (cf Neh 10:39; Jer 38:11), as the Syriac has it, rather than יוֹצר “potter”? The overwhelming weight of the evidence favors יוֹצר “potter” as the original reading. But according to Torrey it can mean “one who melts and moulds metal.” Torrey cites the example of Aaron taking gold from the people, casting it in the fire and with an engraving tool fashioning (יצר) it into an idol (Exod 32:2–4, 24). Torrey also refers to Herodotus’ account (111, 96) of Darius Hystaspis’ melting metal and storing it in earthen jars. When it was needed the jars were broken and the metal was cut in pieces and used. Torrey says, “The same process was required for the Hebrew temple, and the official in charge bore the title יוֹצר” (“The Foundry of the Second Temple at Jerusalem,” JBL 55 [1936] 256). If Torrey is correct one can see how the potter and the treasury were connected.”
But now most of you on the call remember Judas and 30 pieces of silver.
Matt. 26:15 and said, “What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?” And they weighed out thirty pieces of silver to him.
Matt. 27:3 Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty 1pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,
Matt. 27:9 Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “AND THEY TOOK THE THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER, THE PRICE OF THE ONE WHOSE PRICE HAD BEEN SET by the sons of Israel.
Problem. Jeremiah didn’t predict that. Zechariah did. But this is not the only use of a dual fulfillment being attributed to a single ‘lead’ prophet. Cf Mark 1.2-3 (Malachi and Isaiah both)
Here the dual is Jeremiah 19 (.1-13) where the ‘field of blood’ which the priests purchased from the potter with the blood money of an innocent man functions typologically in the same ways as the potter’s jar which Jeremiah broke near the gate as an ongoing testimony that the leaders of Israel had shed innocent blood. The price of the field, 30 pieces, points to the typological fulfilment of Zech. 11. In the same way that the sheep merchants rejected the Lord their God and valued him at only 30 pieces of silver, so the chief priests rejected Jesus and put the same trifling value on him. In each case, the bad shepherd thought they could rid themselves of the Lord. Even Jesus.
From each act, 1, 2, and 3, we see the failure of bad shepherds. In Yeshua we see a renewal, and an overturning of the failure. In Yeshua, our great High Priest, the royal Son of David who rules well, and the Prophet who is God’s final word to humanity. In act 2, the broken covenant is restored forever under the New Covenant and unity with God and with all in the Body of Messiah is restored. In act 3 even though the price of a slave was 30 pieces of silver, under Yeshua, the shepherds in the past who gave 30 silvers to terminate the covenant, in Yeshua he gave his own life, as a ransom for us all who trust in him, who believe in his love and care.
-----------------------------------
Re: 30 Pieces of silver. Even though it is on Wikipedia: this is a very good additional resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_pieces_of_silver
Resource on video
To see a fun video overview of the book of Zechariah see this from Bible Project:
https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/zechariah/
Bibliography:
Ryken, Leland (and others), Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, 1998.
Smith, Ralph, Micah to Malachi: Word Biblical Commentary (Volume 32), Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, 1984.
Stead, Michael, Zechariah: The Lord Returns, Aquila Press, Sydney, 2015.
Webb, Barry, The Message of Zechariah: Your Kingdom Come, Intervarsity Press, Nottingham, 2003.
Wiersbe, Warren, Be Heroic: Demonstrating Bravery by your Walk, David C. Cook Press, Colorado Springs, 1997.
ACTUAL TEXT
Zech. 11:1 Open your doors, O Lebanon,
That a fire may feed on your cedars.
2 Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen,
Because the glorious trees have been destroyed;
Wail, O oaks of Bashan,
For the impenetrable forest has come down.
3 There is a sound of the shepherds’ wail,
For their glory is ruined;
There is a sound of the young lions’ roar,
For the pride of the Jordan is ruined.
Zech. 11:4 Thus says the LORD my God, “Pasture the flock doomed to slaughter. 5 “Those who buy them slay them and go unpunished, and each of those who sell them says, ‘Blessed be the LORD, for I have become rich!’ And their own shepherds have no pity on them. 6 “For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land,” declares the LORD; “but behold, I will cause the men to fall, each into another’s power and into the power of his king; and they will strike the land, and I will not deliver them from their power.”
Zech. 11:7 So I pastured the flock doomed to slaughter, hence the afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two staffs: the one I called Favour and the other I called Union; so I pastured the flock. 8 Then I annihilated the three shepherds in one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also was weary of me. 9 Then I said, “I will not pasture you. What is to die, let it die, and what is to be annihilated, let it be annihilated; and let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.” 10 I took my staff Favour and cut it in pieces, to break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples. 11 So it was broken on that day, and thus the afflicted of the flock who were watching me realized that it was the word of the LORD. 12 I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind!” So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages. 13 Then the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD. 14 Then I cut in pieces my second staff Union, to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
Zech. 11:15 The LORD said to me, “Take again for yourself the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16 “For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or sustain the one standing, but will devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs.
17 “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.”
No comments:
Post a Comment