Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: The juxtaposition here of the false shepherd is he sold the sheep out for the slaughter and could care less and didn't have pity on them at all. That's the true sign of a false shepherd.

Guest (Male): We like sheep may go astray. Pastor Brett Meador says restoration is only found in the good shepherd. 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 namesake.

The symbolic bad shepherds described for us in Zechariah 11 are feeding the sheep the wrong things and leading them astray. As Pastor Brett Meador picks up our study of the book of Zechariah in today's word, we'll find out who those shepherds are, the evil they do, and what the literal interpretation is prophetically for both the people of Israel and the world today.

Brett Meador: We have a good shepherd in the Lord. In fact, the Bible talks all about the good shepherd who becomes the chief shepherd and then the great shepherd. Jesus the shepherd, what a glorious truth that is. When we read about the shepherd in John chapter 10, there are some great passages there about what the shepherd does. John 10:27 says, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." The more we learn of the good shepherd, the safer, the better, the more full and satisfied we find ourselves as sheep.

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 have gone astray. But instead of turning to the good shepherd, there's a prophecy about how the children of Israel will turn to the wrong shepherd, the foolish, evil shepherd. We're going to see that here in Zechariah chapter 11. Now, we're going to see here in verse four someone who's feeding the sheep. Is feeding the sheep a good thing? It depends on what you feed them.

Let's keep reading here in verse four. It says, "Thus saith the Lord my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter." Now, does that sound a little weird? 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. Feed the flock of the slaughter." Verse five says, "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." You guys know the rest of the story, don't you? These Jews got fattened up for the Babylonians and then later they'd get fattened up for the Romans only for the slaughter. Who was the one 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.

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. That's what's going on here in verse five. Did you see what was said here? The possessors, the shepherds, slay them and hold themselves not guilty. 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 and 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. It's heartbreaking to see.

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 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? 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 namesake. So, the juxtaposition here of the false shepherd is these guys sold the sheep out for the slaughter, fattened them up for the kill, and could care less and didn't have pity on them at all. That's the sign of a false shepherd.

These sheep aren't going to be saved; they're being fattened for the kill. So, who are these shepherds or possessors, as called there in verse five? They're basically haters of their own people, the Jews. You could put in there, by the way, the possessors might be Babylonians and the Romans and all the other empires that came and went hating Jews. You could also put them in there, but most commentaries argue that these are their own shepherds, their false guides of their own false prophets that led them to their own destruction.

And so, that's exactly what happened. By the way, Luke chapter 21 reminds us that this is what happened: "And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, they shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." This was Jesus saying, "This is what's coming." And it's again because they weren't following the good shepherd, even in Jesus's time.

By the way, that verse in Luke 21:24, there's the times of the Gentiles and then there's the fullness of the Gentiles. Don't be confused on that. Jesus here talked about the times of the Gentiles, and that would be when Jerusalem would be lost in AD 70 until the Gentiles would not rule over Jerusalem anymore. So the times of the Gentiles refer to that period. But the fullness of the Gentiles, where do we read about the fullness of the Gentiles?

Romans chapter 11, verse 24 and 25 talks about the fullness of the Gentiles. So, that's going to be the rapture of the church. When the rapture of the church happens, then the Lord's going to intervene in Jerusalem again and end the times of the Gentiles. Just some clarification on some prophecy terms. Times of the Gentiles is from AD 70 all the way through the present age to the rapture of the church. The fullness of the Gentile is when the full length of that time is over, that's the rapture of the church as talked about in Romans 11.

Anyway, all that to say, the Jews will be under control of Gentiles. And by the way, that's why the Temple Mount has remained. Remember Moshe Dayan and we raised the question why did he give the Temple Mount back? There's no reason he did it other than stupidity, some people say. But Moshe Dayan wasn't a stupid guy. So why did he do it? To fulfill Bible prophecy because the Bible said the Gentiles would be trodding down the Temple Mount until the fullness of the Gentiles is over. Just doing the math.

Verse five says that those that sell the Jews out, they're going to say, "Blessed be the Lord." They're going to act like they're giving glory to God for their own gain at the expense of the Jewish people. We see that today, political leaders, religious leaders selling out the flock. Discord, disunity would lead to the Jews falling and not following the Lord. Well, that takes us to verse six.

He says, "For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour's hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand will I not deliver them." Interesting. That's not a place you want to get to with the Lord in your relationship with the Lord, where the Lord says, "I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land."

And this is a theme we read out throughout the Bible where God, there's a point where God just says, "I'm done. Time's up." And there's language that maybe some of you are familiar with. The Lord says, "I will give them over. My spirit will not always strive." Remember Genesis 6:3, "My spirit will not always strive with man." Man, you don't want to reach that point where God says, "Yeah, I'm going to withdraw my spirit from you."

First Timothy chapter four talks about the last days in the same way. "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; and having their conscience seared as with a hot iron." Remember Romans chapter one says that eventually the Lord will give them over to their own lusts, especially in Romans 1, you can't deny it's about the homosexual agenda and those that say we can do this and who cares what God says.

And the Lord says, "I'll give you over to your own lusts and your own desires." And it also says that you're doomed and those who have pleasure in such things that do those things, you're also doomed. Boy, that's something we have to be careful of as Christians, having this seared conscience, desensitized to what the Lord says, "This is wrong and this is sinful."

Again, I turn to David the Psalmist to remedy this because David, like us, we have that sinful tendency. So what do you do? David made this prayer. He said, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit."

This is what David the Psalmist would say in that checkpoint to say, "Lord, will you create in me a clean heart?" Because we live in this dirty world and your heart gets dirtied and we need to make this prayer, I think, often. It's a good prayer from David. All that to say, this is what this is all talking about is the Jews just becoming seared in their conscience, they'd given themselves over to sin.

The Lord says, "Because of that, you're going to fall into the hand of another king." You say, "Into the hand of his king," like the Jew is calling them his king. What's this about? Some people might say this is brutal that the Lord will turn them over to another king, but you got to remember the Jews rejected the King of Kings. When Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the King, showed up, they rejected him.

They wanted their own king, just like in the day when they said, "We want our own king," and God gave them Saul. Later on in the times of Christ, they said, "We will not have this man rule over us." Remember John 19, verses 15 through 16: "But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar."

Think about that last statement there, the Jews. How hard do you have to be? How stubborn do you have to be to get to this place where the Jews are saying, "Here's their Messiah, Jesus, we will not have this man rule over us but Caesar. We have no king but Caesar." Oh, Caesar was whacko crazy, sinful weirdo, and the Jews are under the oppressive iron fist of the Romans.

But so stubborn are they they'd rather be under the iron fist of the Romans than to have Jesus be their king. "Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified." And the Jews got what they demanded, to be ruled over by Caesar instead of Jesus. And that would ultimately lead to their crushing in AD 70. This is all part of what Zechariah is prophesying. Verse six is really talking about that when it says, "And into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand will I not deliver them."

That's exactly what happened when the Romans wiped out the Jews in AD 70. Fulfilled prophecy right there. Sad, but true. Well, then verse seven, we have two sticks. Two sticks? Yep, check it out. It says, "And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves," or sticks. "And the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock."

Now, this is an interesting thing. This is sort of characteristic of some of the other prophets that you and I have read about, like when we saw Ezekiel and some of the other prophets doing those more demonstrative kinds of actions. Isaiah walking around naked for a year and people are like, "Uh, Isaiah, what are you doing?" It says, "Even as I am naked, so are you naked before the Lord, thus saith the Lord." Being a prophet in those days would have been a tough gig.

But Zechariah's little illustration is not too tough. He's got two sticks. Now, most scholars believe the context of this is the shepherd of not only this chapter but even the verse. He says in verse seven, "I will feed the flock of the slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took me two sticks, one called Beauty, one called Bands." Remember in the Psalm where the Psalmist declared, he said, "Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." Remember that in Psalm 23, shepherd's Psalm?

There are two sticks there and they serve two very different purposes. FYI, the rod was a shorter implement kind of like a club and the staff was what you would picture as a shepherd having a longer pole. And some of them throughout history had the hook at the top and that would be the shepherd's staff. So the rod and the staff, two sticks. The tall stick would be used to keep the sheep out of danger, more of a protection, also for direction, for guiding the sheep.

The rod, the club, well, that was to fend off predators, the club a predator over the head. But it was also used, the rod was used for correction of the sheep. And we've talked about that. If you read Phillip Keller's book, *A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23*, about a guy from the Middle East who was a shepherd and he talks about Psalm 23, a Middle Eastern shepherd look at Psalm 23, it's really cool.

But he reminds that sometimes those shepherds would actually take a sheep if it was prone to going wandering away, he would use his rod and break the legs of the sheep, the little lamb. And so what he would do then is he would carefully bind the little legs of the lamb up and put a splint on it. And then he would put that sheep, that little lamb, on his shoulders and carry him around for weeks and weeks.

And that little lamb was totally dependent on the shepherd for those weeks. And the little lamb would become more familiar with the shepherd's voice and would become accustomed to being with the shepherd. So that when finally the little legs started to mend, he would set the little lamb down and he would stay right at his side from that day forward. That's kind of a cool illustration.

You're like, "Wait a minute, Brett. So those Hallmark Christmas cards that have the shepherd and it's all cozy and it's on his, he just broke the little lamb's legs?" It's like that doesn't sound very fun. But some of you have been there, haven't you? Where the Lord had to break you a little bit. It was a corrective, it was painful, but the Lord in his love for you is willing. Whom the Lord loves he does what? He chastens, right?

And that's the idea there. "Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." Well, these are the two sticks probably that Zechariah is referring to. Two sticks, but he names them Beauty and Beast—I mean, Beauty and Bands. Now, before we get too—the NIV, I think, and the ESV, what do they call them? Favor and Union, is that what they are? Favor and Union. Those are good translations.

Favor and Beauty, one's meant to be favorable and beautiful. And the other idea is the bands, you're like, "You mean like Rolling Stones?" No. Like being bound up together in unity, not in a bad way. By the way, did you know that's what the word religion means, to be bound? It's a funny thing because the old, you remember we used to sing that can be that old time religion? That's when we liked religion, when religion was a good thing and it meant being bound together in sort of a cool binding of Christian people together.

That's what the original word religion meant, is to be bound up. But it's sadly become the word bound up like religion and becoming crazy religious in a bad way and it's more legalism and stuff like that. Well, that's the idea here. The bands, the idea is that it's union. They were banded together with beauty or favor and union or unity is the idea. So you're like, "Oh, that's really cool, Brett." But wait, look what happens.

So he's got the Beauty and the Bands sticks and then another very confusing verse, verse eight. "Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me." Now, in verse eight there are over 40 different interpretations that I've come across on what this is talking about. Prophets, priests, and kings, is that the three? Or is it the overseers of the time? That's more contextual what was happening earlier. Was it talking about the shepherds or the destruction of Rome or all that?

There's all kinds of—you can do your own study on this—but what does this talk about? I don't know, but here's one that I find could be interesting because we have the advantage of looking back to when this really was most fully fulfilled. And we've already told you that, verse six was fulfilled AD 70 when the Romans ultimately crushed Jerusalem. We've already kind of established that.

So who were the shepherds or the leaders during the time when that happened? Kind of an interesting question. And I'm not saying this for sure; I'm just putting this in the "could be possible" category. But the overseers, the leaders of the time during the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, there would be three specific leaders of that region of that time for the Jews.

Let's go over to those real quick. The first one that we talk about is the Pharisees. Jesus called them blind guides. The Pharisees were a legalistic bunch. They were considered to be the most holy of all their people, but they were hypocrites and blind guides and Jesus had a lot to say against the Pharisees. The second group of leaders of Jesus's time, AD 70-ish and time of Christ, were the Sadducees. And they didn't believe in the resurrection, they also didn't believe in miracles, that's why they were sad, you see. That's a problem if you don't believe in the resurrection or in miracles.

The third group would be called the Herodians and they were basically hoping to usher in the kingdom of God politically. And there's a group of that today, same thing happening today as the Herodians. The kingdom now, or these people that think, "Well, we got to elect Christian people into office and change the world and then Jesus can come back, usher in the kingdom." Nope, that's not going to happen. The kingdom's going to be brought in when Jesus is good and ready to come.

And that's really important to understand that, but I digress. All that to say, these were the three leaders. And by the way, we still see the same things today: the Pharisees, legalism. And legalism is an ugly death blow to God's goodness and his grace. We have to be careful about that. And then the second group, the Sadducees, we see that today, denying the working power of the Lord and the moving of his Holy Spirit in his church.

A lot of the church has become impotent because they're dead, they're spiritually dead. There's no spirit of God moving in churches. We need the spirit to move and we're not supposed to quench the spirit, First Thessalonians 5 talks about. And so you've got the denying of the miracles like the Sadducees. But then you also have the group like I mentioned, the Herodians, who want to bring in the kingdom their own way. That's not the way it's going to happen.

So again, verse eight is hard for people to translate or understand, but those are some possible things. Verse nine: "Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another." Ooh. What does that talking about? Cannibalism. And by the way, that happened in several times in Israel history, by the way, some really dark times when the Jews resorted to cannibalism when they were under siege.

That happened with the Babylonian siege and also with some of the Assyrian besieging of Israel. So it got pretty dark and pretty brutal, eating their own people. By the way, I've met cannibals when we went to Vanuatu. One time I hiked across Pentecost Island to this tribe called Bunlap and there were some old fellas there that were still alive at that time that had eaten missionaries. Now, fortunately when I was there, it was illegal to eat missionaries any longer.

But when we hiked into this little town, just me and this other guy, we hike in there and it's a village like mud huts and people naked, spears, bones in their nose, that whole thing. Like just total National Geographic. And we're hanging out with these guys, we get the permission from the chief to come into their village. So we walk in and they all come running around us and they're looking at us and touching our white skin and stuff.

And then the chief walks up and lifts my arm up like this. He's lifting my arm and he says something, "Ugga ugga ugga," like that. And then they all laughed, "Hahaha!" And my interpreter said, "Oh, the chief just said you look like you'd be good to eat." Everyone's a comic, it's like, anyway, we didn't stay there long. There was a Christian village not far away, Ranwas, where we went to visit the people from Ranwas. That was nice, they didn't make jokes about eating me.

But anyway, all that to say, this idea of the sickness of sin got to where they were eating each other up and we could talk about biting and devouring one another. Like that's one of the things that a sinful condition does to people is we destroy each other and we consume one another. There's a whole thought process there.

Pastor Brett Meador pausing in a verse-by-verse study of Zechariah 11 and a challenging message for believers to consider the consequences of resisting the voice of the Lord, the good shepherd. And there's still more to come next time on today's word, and I want to invite you to stick around as Pastor Brett will join me in the studio here in just a moment.

But first, Today's Word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church just south of Portland, Oregon where Pastor Brett Meador is the senior pastor. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. If you missed any portion of this study, you'll find all of Pastor Brett's messages online at todayswordradio.com.

Pastor Brett has joined me now. Brett, there's a question I've been wanting to ask you. I know you began your ministry here at Athey Creek Church 30 years ago. So, if we could go back to a younger Pastor Brett in 1996, would you have thought that Christ's return for the church would have happened by now?

That's an interesting question and honestly, I think the early disciples probably expected Jesus' return in their lifetime 2,000 years ago. In Acts 1:11, the angels said, "This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as you've seen him go into heaven." So from the very beginning, the church was living with an expectation of his return.

Now, if you fast forward today, some people might say, "Well, it's been 2,000 years." But the Bible actually addresses that in Second Peter 3. It says the Lord is not slack or literally lazy concerning his promise, but is longsuffering, not willing that any should perish. So the delay is not neglect; it's actually mercy.

And here's the key: we're still called to live ready. Jesus said in Luke 12, "Be like the servants who are watching and waiting and ready for their master's return." So whether it was 1996 or 2026, the right posture, in my opinion, is the same. Live expectantly, stay faithful, be ready because he could be coming at any moment. Now, if he doesn't, I think I'm in good company with Peter and James and John and Spurgeon and Billy Graham and all those who have gone before us. They all expected the Lord to come in their lifetime, but I think that changed the way they lived.

That's really a great reminder that we do need to stay faithful awaiting his return knowing that that alone can keep us faithful like all those you mentioned. Thank you, Pastor Brett, for that encouragement. And I do want to remind you that if you'd like more information about Today's Word Radio, Athey Creek Church, or Pastor Brett Meador, just visit our website at todayswordradio.com. Well, next time Pastor Brett will continue in the book of Zechariah, and we'll see several visions given to the Prophet Zechariah to instruct God's people. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.