Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: Paul said in 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 15, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." Paul wasn't just being falsely humble here; he was acknowledging that he was a sinner just like everybody else. I think that's the right mentality.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador with the acknowledgment that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Brett Meador: But we have ourselves to blame when it comes to our own sinful condition, our own sinful attitudes.

Guest (Male): We learn from the book of Zechariah that even after the temple was rebuilt following the Israeli exile, the people chose to reject the Lord, doing what was right in their own eyes. But in today's word, Pastor Brett Meador recognizes the same kind of rebellion we see all around us even today, as we continue our verse-by-verse study through Zechariah chapter 11.

Brett Meador: One of the things I often am thankful for in a cool way, but I also have to remind myself that it wasn't all. You know how you have memories that were glorious memories of your past, and then you kind of remember, "Oh, it wasn't really that glorious"? This is one of those. I have fond memories of growing up on our little farm as a kid.

I talk about it from time to time, and my wife's like, "Oh, Brett, man, we need to get some farm animals like when you were a kid." And then I think about it, I'm like, "Wait a minute, that was a lot of work." We had a little piece of farmland out in the middle of nowhere in Applegate, Oregon. It wasn't large, but it was big enough to where we had horses, cattle, sheep, chickens, goats, geese, rabbits, quail, bees.

Of all the animals that we had, the sheep were the dumbest. Oh, they were cute and cuddly and all that, but they were really, really dumb. That's the problem. It's funny when the Bible compares you and me to sheep. It's actually a little painfully true. No wonder the Lord says that to us. I'm reminded of what Isaiah the prophet said: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we've turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."

We're the sheep who go astray and good thing for us, we have a good shepherd in the Lord. In fact, the Bible talks all about the good shepherd; he becomes the chief shepherd and then the great shepherd, as Jesus the shepherd. What a glorious truth that is. When we read about the shepherd in the book of John chapter 10, there's some great passages there about what the shepherd does, like John 10:27. I love where it says, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me."

This is what the good shepherd does. The more we learn of the good shepherd, the safer, the better, the more full and satisfied we find ourselves as sheep. Now, I know what the bad shepherd looks like because I was one. When I was seven or eight years old, I entered into the 4-H with a lamb because my sisters did. My lamb was really nice. His name, Pierre. He was a Suffolk lamb with a little white mustache and he just looked like a Pierre.

I did everything right to get him all ready for the fair, but I was a total greenhorn. I didn't know how to take care of sheep, but we were learning from the 4-H people and stuff. But the one thing that I didn't really notice until I got to the fair and compared him to all the other sheep—he looked puffy and clean. I did all the right trimming. You shear them just at the right time of the year so that their wool grows out just long enough, and then you learn how to shear them and make them perfectly smooth.

Their little smooth wool coat is just perfect. But when I got him to the fair, I realized my sheep was shaped different than all the other sheep. I remember looking at them, and they all looked so healthy and muscular, and mine looked like a basketball. He was very round. It wasn't the way I trimmed his wool; he was round. So you weigh in and you do all this stuff and you have to get in there.

I remember the judges said, "Son, you can't show this sheep." I'm like, "Why? He's all ready. Look at him, Pierre's a wonderful lamb." And he said, "Son, your lamb, it made weight, but it didn't make grade." The reason he didn't make grade is he said, "Son, your sheep has worms." That's the problem. I didn't realize. So I was disqualified from showing in the normal bracket. I had to show Pierre in the loser bracket, where all of us losers went around showing our sheep that were dying of worms and stuff like that.

I am the bad shepherd. I felt horrible because I didn't know that he had worms. But there's a good shepherd and there's a bad shepherd. As it turns out, Zechariah chapter 11 is about the bad shepherd. It's very much about how the people of Israel are like sheep who've gone astray, turned every one to his own way. But instead of turning to the good shepherd, there's a prophecy about how the children of Israel would turn to the wrong shepherd, the foolish, evil shepherd.

We're going to see that here in Zechariah chapter 11. Don't forget, the Lord calls out to Israel all throughout the Bible about being the good shepherd. "The Lord is my shepherd," Psalm 23 declares. Don't forget that. But meanwhile, the people are going to look to the wrong shepherd. I think we're doing that today. We'll see some correlations here in Zechariah chapter 11 to that kind of behavior. Let's take a look. Zechariah 11, verse 1:

"Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars. Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled: howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down."

Now, pause here just for a second. This is an interesting introduction. One of the things you might find sometimes when you're reading the Bible is just the way things are worded—what in the world is being said? You have to look at it multi-layered. It does help sometimes to go back to the original language of the Bible. But some of you are like, "Brett, we're not Greek or Hebrew scholars, nor do we know Aramaic, so good luck with that."

Good news: we're spoiled today because we have so many cool bits of software and stuff that helps us with Greek and Hebrew and all the language stuff. It's amazing. We're totally spoiled now to be able to look into the Greek and the Hebrew. But there are times like here in Zechariah 11 that it's kind of rewarding because we miss something that's a literary technique that Zechariah is using here in chapter 11. He's using Hebrew rhyme and onomatopoeia.

Do you remember what onomatopoeia is? It's like those words that sound like they are, like crack or pop. That's onomatopoeia. But the emphasis on these words that we have translated to howl and roar—this is basically a poetic lament, dirge, rhyming rhythm to it. When you read it in the Hebrew, it's got almost a poetic value, but it's meant to be sorrowful and a sad poem that rhymes and has words that sound like they really are in the Hebrew.

So all that to say, that's kind of why some of your verses come off a little weird depending on what translation you have. But when we're talking about these cedars and all that, let's read on. Verse 3 says, "There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds; for their glory is spoiled: a voice of the roaring of young lions; for the pride of Jordan is spoiled."

What's being talked about here? The howling and the roaring is because it says there's a voice howling of the shepherds, for their glory is spoiled. So we have to wonder, what shepherds are we talking about here? The lament of these shepherds are the ones that should have been really caring for the sheep, but they were not. And because the shepherds, as they're called here, of Israel were misleading the people.

Remember the prophets that were giving them bad advice and saying stuff all through Jeremiah and Isaiah? They didn't listen to the prophets, but they listened to their false shepherds and their false prophets who only told them things they wanted to hear and positive messages. Remember that? The shepherds, the prophets would only give them good things. "Oh, you're going to be victorious against the Babylonians; you shall prevail."

They should have been listening to Jeremiah because Jeremiah says, "You're all going down." "Yeah, but we don't like that message." We're not going to listen to that stupid message of Jeremiah. And they threw him in the dungeon while the other prophets said, "You're going to be victorious and God loves you and it's going to be victorious."

Sometimes the positive message might sound good to people, but you can be leading people astray even though it sounds good. That's these false shepherds here that are going to be howling: "the howling of the shepherds for their glory," that is the glory of Israel, is spoiled.

There's several locations here that are mentioned in Zechariah chapter 11. The interpretation of this chapter is interesting because you'll hear many different interpretations. Some of them are true; some of them may not be true. But there's a lot of different interpretations you'll hear from different commentators. Zechariah definitely talks in a multi-layered way, so it can be a little confusing, let alone the language barrier that we have here of the Hebrew language.

But there's a few things that help us build our understanding of what's going on. One thing is the places. Here in verses 1 through 3, we have the first place mentioned: the cedars of Lebanon. The reason it's called a white place, which is interesting, is because back in those days there was more snow-capped mountains. By the way, when you go to Israel, you can stand on the border of Lebanon and Israel.

There's a mountain where they have a ski lift and they ski during the wintertime, snowboard and stuff up there. I've been on that ski lift. So the cedars of Lebanon grew in the mountains of Lebanon and there were, especially in the climate of those Hebrew 500 years before Christ according to history. 1 Kings chapter 5, verse 6 tells us that's where they got the cedars for the temple.

So almost all of these things that are mentioned are indirectly linked to the temple in Jerusalem. It's all about the temple. The temple in Jerusalem is—remember we talked about this—it's God's focal point. Jerusalem is the epicenter of Bible prophecy and the Temple Mount is the epicenter of Jerusalem. You've got to kind of keep that tucked away in the back of your mind. 1 Kings 5:6, the cedars for the temple.

Then it talks about the next area: the oaks of Bashan. That is none other than modern-day Golan Heights, which is interesting. You say, "Brett, I've been to the Golan Heights and there's not a lot of oaks there; there's a lot of landmines there." But the oaks of Bashan was a thing back in 500 BC. The big trees, the cedars of Lebanon, were in fact impressive.

So you've got the oaks of Bashan mentioned here and then also you have the last place, which is sort of a big definition: the Jordan. It says, "the pride of Jordan is spoiled" there in verse 3, which basically is saying that there's going to be devastation in the entire land from the spring waters of the Jordan, which goes way up to Tel Dan and Caesarea Philippi, and there's another third spring in Lebanon of the headwaters of the Jordan River.

But basically, all the way down the Jordan River Valley, down through the Dead Sea, down to the Red Sea, from top to bottom of Israel. When it says the Jordan, we're talking about the Jordan Valley that extends the length of Israel. So basically, the shepherds are going to lament and howl because of the devastation that's going to happen to all of these places: the temple in Jerusalem, the northern region of the Golan Heights, all the way down through the Jordan Valley to Eilat in southern Israel.

This is a definition of the people of Israel that's going to be spoiled and devastated is the idea here. Now, you say, "Brett, why are they going to be howling because of devastation?" The answer is pretty simple: it's because of the people choosing to reject God. They have made a choice. By the time Zechariah is on the scene, even to the captivity of Israel, even after the captivity's over, Zechariah comes back and they've rebuilt the temple, but the people are still in great rebellion.

Zechariah is saying there's going to be a howling because of their rejecting of the Lord. Some commentators talk about this, the howling—these are areas not only was the cedars of Lebanon one of the places, but the oaks of Bashan and the Jordan Valley is where all the supplies would come for the building of the temple. So there are some commentators that say all three of these places that I've just listed are the source of the temple building.

They may just say, "Well, this is talking about the Temple Mount specifically," which you could make that argument if you want to. But most scholars say, "No, all of Israel was going to be devastated." And that's really what happened. When we have the value of hindsight looking back and saying, "Wow, the Lord did devastate and really destroy all of Israel from the north to the south."

These people were rejecting the Lord, doing their own thing, walking in their own ways, doing that which was right in their own sight. You know what makes me nervous about this? These are the same things that are happening globally today, not just in Israel, but globally. The same kind of rejection of the Lord and the same kind of rebellion that these people were doing in those days, even the worshipping of idols.

Now, you say, "Brett, we don't worship idols." We do. They're just—we don't worship little gold statues. But it's the same sort of idolatry. We've taken it to a whole new level. When they worshipped Ashtoreth, they were just worshipping sexuality in general. Today, we're celebrating our pride as it relates to homosexuality, LGBTQ+, and all these other things. We're rampantly celebrating our rebellion against the Lord. I hope you know that.

An old buddy of mine, I was kind of shocked when I saw it, but I thought, "You know, it's kind of true." On his social media he said, "In celebration of Pride Month," and then he had these pictures of these certain rocks. He was in the Dead Sea area and he collected some actual brimstone from the salty area of the Dead Sea region. And he said, "In celebration of Pride Month, I'm showing some of the brimstone from the valley of Sodom and Gomorrah."

I was like, "Oh, well, that's one way to celebrate Pride Month." And it's probably more legit than we even want to know because the Lord does seem to acknowledge that as the end of a given culture. When a culture gets so against the Lord, especially in the area of sexuality and even homosexuality, which we've far surpassed that. Today we're beating our heads trying to accommodate all kinds of sexual deviancy and even things we used to call disorders and medical conditions.

Now we're saying it's mainstream and we're celebrating it. It's heartbreaking. You know, maybe you've seen this, but even in the transgender world, the suicide rate is higher than any other people group in the world: transgenderism. And we're encouraging young children to engage at an early age in transgenderism, and we're acting like we're doing them a favor.

But the 86% of transgender youth reporting suicidality—that is deeply depressed and have contemplated suicide within teenage youth—that should wake people up, but it doesn't. And you can get this information, by the way, off the CDC, which is not necessarily a Christian organization. And we wonder why America seems to be slipping and why we're not doing well and why things seem to be spiraling.

It's only going to get worse unless we repent of our sins. I believe that. Now, some of you might be tempted to say, "Yeah, Brett, preach it, those people." But don't forget, we are sinners too. You and I can be guilty of doing our own sinful things. I'm not saying they're worse than we are. Sometimes I wonder, at least they're boldly saying, "Yeah, we're sinners," and they acknowledge that.

Do you wonder why the Lord said, "I would that you be hot or cold but not that lukewarm"? There's something wrong with the person who's sort of on the lukewarm category where, "Hey, I'm praise the Lord, I'm a Christian and I'm pretty good," but then we have our own little sins that we've hidden and tucked away and we don't want anybody to find out about. But we also have to put the blame on ourself when we realize that the world is sinful.

I'm not just saying, "Oh, those sinners out there." I'm saying, "Ooh, there's a sinner right here." I think that's what Paul meant, don't you think? When Paul said in 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 15, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." Now Paul wasn't just being falsely humble here; he was acknowledging that he was a sinner just like everybody else.

In fact, he was arguing that he was the chiefest of sinners. I think that's the right mentality. It's funny how you and I can wrongly put greater emphasis on one sin over another. Now, don't get me wrong, there are greater consequences to different sins. But we have ourselves to blame when it comes to our own sinful condition, our own sinful attitudes. It makes me realize that when I read a passage like this here in Zechariah when the people were like, "What are you talking about, all this sin stuff?"

They needed to look inwardly and say, "What am I doing that's sinful and wrong?" because nobody was willing to do that. I think one of the problems is you think, "Oh, that's everybody else who's off or wrong," but meanwhile we have our own sins that we need to deal with. I think the psalmist David put it right when he said, "Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from my secret faults. Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me."

That's a good prayer right there. Take it from a guy like David who had secret sins. Remember when he committed adultery and then murdered the girl's husband, Uriah the Hittite, Bathsheba? He had his secret sins that he was hiding, but the Lord sees everything. So if we're sitting there, "Oh, look at all those LGBTQ+ people that are sinful," we have to also remember, "Wait a minute, I'm also a sinful person and we need to also repent of our sins same way they do."

But our world is not in a place of real repentance; we're in a place of real rebellion. And that's where Zechariah 11 starts to make me a little concerned: the howling of the leaders of Israel, the shepherds that should have been caring for the flock, caring for the sheep. They're now howling and mourning. It says, "howl for the cedars" and "roar for the young lions for the pride of Jordan is spoiled."

We have to have that same kind of repentance, but they weren't really repentant. That's the problem. These people—now, we're going to see here in verse 4 someone who's feeding the sheep. Is feeding the sheep a good thing? Depends on what you feed them. Let's keep reading here in verse 4 because that was a trick question. It says:

"Thus saith the Lord my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter."

Now does that sound a little weird? "Feed the flock of the slaughter." That doesn't sound like the other "feed my sheep" Peter. Was Peter supposed to feed my sheep so they're ready for slaughter? This is a different kind of feeding that's going on. Don't be duped by this language. The Lord is saying, "Go ahead, make my day" kind of, "feed the flock, fatten them up for the slaughter" is the idea here. "Feed my sheep," he says, or "feed the flock of the slaughter." 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."

Basically, this is the Lord saying, "You guys have only fattened up the sheep for the kill." And you guys know the rest of the story, don't you? Like these Jews, they got fattened up for the Babylonians, and then later they'd get fattened up for the Romans only for the slaughter. And who was the ones fattening them up? The people that should have been shepherding them to safety, they were just fattening them up for the kill.

That's why I think we have to be careful about these false shepherds of the last days we're seeing. There could be these churches that are so-called churches. I already told you, I think it was 36% of pastors according to Barna's study—36% of the pastors in America have a biblical worldview. That's a problem. That's a big problem.

What are these other pastors preaching that don't have a biblical worldview? Well, they're teaching a worldly worldview. How do you know a good shepherd from a false shepherd or a wolf in sheep's clothing? A good shepherd feeds the flock; the bad shepherd eats the flock, lamb chops for supper.

And that's what's going on here in verse 5. Did you see what was said here? "The shepherds slay them and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the Lord." That's a hypocritical statement. They're like, "Praise God," basically, while they're chomping down on the people. "For I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not," or could care less that they're being consumed.

That's the condition of Israel. We've seen that all throughout history. It's just interestingly now as we become more and more global, we're seeing all of these things that were just localized in Zechariah's time to the Jews in Judea and Israel. But now we see those same kind of notions globally throughout the world. And the church globally is weaker and weaker and it's heartbreaking to see.

If we, God willing, have another revival in this world, which would be great to see, or even in our country ever again—if there was a revival, it's going to have to be people repenting of their sin and getting back to the word of God. And that's the only way revival's going to happen. All that to say, what you need to do is understand the difference between the good shepherd and the false shepherd.

The good shepherd feeds his flock, not fattening them up for the kill, but to satisfy their hungry souls. It sort of reminds me, I think, of the Psalm 23 of course, where it says, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." You're satisfied. That's the idea, "I shall not want. And he makes me to lie down in green pastures."

What makes a lamb lie down? Well, as an old shepherd, my sheep wouldn't lie down unless they were fed and felt safe. Then my sheep would lie down in the barnyard. He, the Lord, the good shepherd, makes us to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters and he restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador reminding us how, just like sheep, our security is dependent on the loving arms of the good shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's much more to come from today's word. We'll hear next time as Pastor Brett will join me to answer a question about those who have come before us.

But first, our teacher Brett Meador is the senior pastor of Athey Creek Church just outside of Portland, Oregon. Each day, Pastor Brett will bring you a verse-by-verse study of God's word. If you've missed any portion of our time today, you'll find all of his messages online at TodaysWordRadio.com.

I also want to mention that in addition to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn, we also have locations in Hillsboro and McMinnville, Oregon. For more information, just go to TodaysWordRadio.com and click on the link "Locations." Again, TodaysWordRadio.com and click the link "Locations." All right, I have Pastor Brett with me now. Brett, here's a question I know you've answered before, but what are some of your heroes of the faith that you read about or look to for inspiration?

Brett Meador: Well, I have to say, there's so many. I like reading all the guys that are generations ago. I think Charles Haddon Spurgeon's one of my favorites. He was so articulate and was able to bring the hay down from the loft so that the average person could really understand the scriptures.

Speaking of that, I think I got that "hay down from the loft," that terminology, from J. Vernon McGee. I love him. He inspired me to go verse by verse through the Bible, just a great guy. You know, some of my modern-day heroes of course would be Billy Graham and Greg Laurie and some of these guys that just have been unafraid to share the gospel and have really inspired me especially with the simple gospel message and letting that be what we focus on. So I've got a long list. I've read every sermon that Spurgeon's ever preached. That's probably my number one go-to.

Guest (Male): You're definitely not alone on that one. Thank you, Pastor Brett. Well, if you'd like more information about Athey Creek Church, Pastor Brett Meador, or Today's Word, you can visit our website at TodaysWordRadio.com. That's TodaysWordRadio.com. And that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will continue in Zechariah, and we'll find out how the literal interpretation of scripture in Zechariah is prophetic for both the people of Israel and the world today. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.