Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: These are more of these amazing Zechariah prophecies that were perfectly fulfilled in Jesus. Jesus, of course, was betrayed by Judas Iscariot with the 30 pieces of silver. Judas cast down the pieces of silver into the temple and departed and went and hanged himself.

Guest (Male): On today's word, Pastor Brett Meador and an Old Testament prophet of God, prophesying of the Son of God.

Brett Meador: What an amazing thing that Zechariah, 500 years before this happened, he gets these elements of this story. All of this was mentioned by Zechariah the prophet.

Guest (Male): We've learned in today's word of several visions given the prophet Zechariah to instruct God's people. But Chapter 11 presents a striking moment where God's shepherd is valued at a mere 30 pieces of silver, revealing more rejection by the people of that day. But with the hardened hearts exposed, Pastor Brett Meador reflects on the prophecy of a greater betrayal.

Brett Meador: Zechariah Chapter 11, verse eight: "Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me." Now, 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 established that.

So who were the shepherds or the leaders during the time when that happened? 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 those real quick. The first one that we talk about is the Pharisees.

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. 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. They didn't believe in the resurrection; they also didn't believe in miracles. That's why they were sad, you see.

The third group would be called the Herodians, and they were basically hoping to usher in the kingdom of God politically. There's a group of that today, the same thing happening today as the Herodians. The kingdom now, there are these people that think we've got to elect Christian people into office and change the world, and then Jesus can come back and usher in the kingdom. No, that's not going to happen.

The kingdom's going to be brought in when Jesus is good and ready to come. That's really important to understand that, but I digress. All that to say, these were the three leaders. By the way, we still see the same things today. The Pharisees, legalism. 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 churches have 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.

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 everyone the flesh of another." What is that talking about? Cannibalism. And by the way, that happened in several times in Israel history, 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. The sickness of sin got to where they were eating each other, and we could talk about biting and devouring one another. 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.

Verse 10: "So I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, chopped the Beauty in half, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people. And it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of God." Now, question: the Lord just says through Zechariah the prophet that he's going to break the Beauty, the staff, and he says that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people.

Can you guess what false teaching uses this verse as a very important verse to support their understanding? Replacement theology, correct. Because here is where the Lord breaks his covenant with the Jews right here. Now, this is a very poor interpretation of scripture, and when you take an interpretation of scripture, it can't contradict other scripture. It's got to all fit together.

So what this does is these people are saying, well, God broke the Abrahamic covenant right here, saying God no longer is covenanted with his people. He breaks them off when Zechariah broke the staff; that was the end of his covenant with Israel. And that's their point. The argument on that is really elementary and basic. There are tons of covenants that God makes with the Jews. If you're a Bible reader, you realize there are tons of covenants.

But there's some that are unconditional covenants, and then there are other ones that have conditions or have requirements or else the covenant is going to be broken with them. Let me give you a couple examples of that. For example, Second Samuel chapter seven, verse 12. Let me read you this. This is a great example of one of the covenants the Lord makes. And you tell me, is this a conditional covenant or an unconditional covenant? It's Second Samuel 7, verse 12 through 17.

"When thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom." Who are we talking to? This is Nathan the prophet talking to David. Verse 13: "He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom how long? Forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of children of men: but my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee: thy throne shall be an everlasting throne forever. According to all the words, and according to all the vision, so did Nathan the prophet speak to David."

Conditional covenant or unconditional covenant? Unconditional. That's the Davidic covenant, and it's an unconditional covenant. God says, even if you sin it up, I'm going to judge you and I'm going to punish you, but I will not, even if you sin, he says here, I'm still not going to break my Davidic covenant. That is, that someone from the line of David, the descendants of David, would sit in the throne of Jerusalem. This is a great prophecy that's still yet to be fulfilled where Christ, who is of the line of David.

Remember when they said of Jesus, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus was related to David. He's a rightful heir to the throne, and he will sit upon the throne in Jerusalem at the second coming of Christ. That's a covenant that God made with the Jews that is one of the everlasting covenants, and it's not a conditional covenant. Another unconditional covenant, by the way, is the Abrahamic covenant.

And that's another one that's not based on Abraham doing the right thing. Now, there's hundreds of other covenants the Lord makes that are conditional covenants. I'm not going to go over all those because really, if you want to know what those are, just read the book of Deuteronomy. The whole book of Deuteronomy is a bunch of conditional covenants. I call them, for you computer programmers, remember Basic?

When you used to have Basic computer programming, and there was the If-Then statement. There are still things like that in digital programming and stuff, but if this happens, then the other happens, and there's a consequence, cause and effect kind of thing. Well, the book of Deuteronomy is full of that. If you keep my statutes and judgments, I will bless you and keep you safe from your enemies. But if you worship idols, worship Baal and Ashtoreth and Moloch, then I will withdraw my protection from you and you will be defeated by your enemies.

Over and over in the book of Deuteronomy, If-Then statements, conditional covenants. This is the covenant that was broken that Zechariah is referring to here, is when the people rejected God, rebelled against God, and the staff called Beauty was broken. The Lord says here in Zechariah, when he's talking about this breaking of the staff, which he defines and he says, I will break my covenant which I had made with all the people, and those are those other covenants that have to do with the protection of the Lord.

The Lord told them, if you do these things, I'm going to lift my protection from you. He's not going to do away with the Jews, but he was going to allow the Jews to go through time of massive correction. Are you guys with me on that? Don't be duped by this single little verse people saying, see, God's done with the Jews and the church has replaced the Jews, and we are now His covenanted people.

We are saved, and we are covenanted by God, and we get to be. What's the language of the New Testament? You and I get to be grafted into the vine of who? The Jew. That's what's happened. You and I have been grafted in. The Catholic Church and the Presbyterians and a bunch of others, they're the ones who say, nope, the Jews have been cut off and they are no longer God's chosen people. What happens if you cut off the Jew tree and we've been grafted into that vine?

Let's do the math here, folks. If God bailed out on the Jews, He bailed out on you too. God does not break His covenants unless it was a conditional covenant, like this one. But anyway, I digress. The Abrahamic covenant, by the way, you can talk about that from Genesis 15. In fact, let's take a quick peek at that. Genesis 15, verse 17 through 18. It came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those places. In the same day, the Lord made a covenant with Abraham. Does anybody remember what this is called in Jewish tradition?

Cutting covenant, right. And this is the way you signed a contract. When God made His covenant with Abraham, he did this cutting covenant thing. The tradition of cutting covenant was the two parties would join hands and walk between the animals that had been sliced in two, and you walk between them and say, if you break this covenant, you're going to be like this chopped-in-half cow.

That's the way they did it in those days. But in this particular case, the Lord caused Abraham to go into a sort of a sleep, and the Lord himself passed through the covenant. The point is, this cutting covenant of Genesis 15:17-18 is based on the Lord making a promise to Abraham, not Abraham keeping his promise. So all that to say, those are the covenants that are unconditional covenants, and the Lord's going to stick with them.

By the way, I always like to say this, and we'll end with this particular thing on this point. If God bails on the Jews and says, yeah, I'm done with my covenants with you and chops them off, what's keeping him from doing that with you? That's not the Lord we serve. We serve a God whose mercy endures for how long? Forever. Amen to that.

Well, verse 11: "That staff, it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the Lord." So this is just confirming of the breaking of that staff called Beauty. You say, well, what about Bands, the other stick? Well, verse 12: "And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me any price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver." Uh-oh, this starts to get weird and familiar, right?

But it gets even more crazy. Check out verse 13: "And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prized at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord." Now you say, Brett, what is this? This is an amazing little tucked-away section of scripture, verses 12 and 13, that is amazingly prophetic. And by the way, jot this down in your notes: Matthew chapter 26 and 27. Because these are more of these amazing Zechariah prophecies that were perfectly fulfilled in Jesus.

Jesus, of course, was betrayed by Judas Iscariot with the 30 pieces of silver. He betrayed Christ there in Matthew 26:14 and 16. But then in 27, verses 3 through 10, let me just read it to you. "Then Judas, which had betrayed Jesus, when saw that he was condemned, repented himself." Now, by the way, that doesn't mean he repented; it means the way that's phrased is more like he realized he was doomed, not repenting like, save me.

"And he brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, what is that to us? See thou to that. And Judas cast down the pieces of silver into the temple and departed and went and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, it is not lawful for to put them in the treasury because it is the price of blood."

This is typical religion sanctimonious behavior. We can't put this money in the temple because it's blood money we paid for, and we don't want to defile the temple, even though they just killed God. That's weirdness, religion at its finest. So they took counsel and they bought with the money, Potter's Field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called the Field of Blood to this day.

Then was fulfilled of that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet saying, they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value, and they gave them for the potter's field as the Lord appointed me. What an amazing thing that Zechariah, 500 years before this happened, he gets these four main elements of this story. In fact, notice with me, you can jot these down.

The first thing was the price, 30 pieces of silver. And by the way, whenever you see someone sold for pieces of silver, whether it's 30 or 20 or whatever, it's worth taking note in the Bible. Does anybody remember who else was sold out for 20 pieces of silver? Joseph of the Old Testament. Sold out by who? His brothers, the 12 tribes of Israel if you would, sold out Joseph for 20 pieces of silver and left him for dead.

It's an amazing correlation all this. But Zechariah says 30 pieces of silver, the price, but also the site of transaction. It says it right here, in the house of the Lord, at the end of verse 13. Zechariah gets that part right as well. And then the ultimate recipient was the Potter's Field was the one who finally got the money, which is kind of interesting. And then the nature of the transaction was the purchase of blood.

All of this was mentioned by Zechariah the prophet. Now, this is just proving that Jesus was the Messiah, just because Zechariah nails this and Jesus fulfilled this. That's the simple layer of this, but there's even a deeper layer that I find interesting because what was the Potter's Field for? It was a field that was good for nothing. It's where they threw broken pieces of pottery. You couldn't farm it, you couldn't walk on it, it was just a waste of land.

But what they did do with that Potter's Field in Jerusalem in those days is they would bury the homeless, the broken down, the lost, nobody who had family members. If somebody was found dead in the streets and nobody claimed them, they would bury them in the Potter's Field. And there's a picture there of, I think, even in a beautiful way, the redemptive nature of the Lord. Jesus and his blood paid for 30 pieces of silver.

That same money purchased the Potter's Field where strangers would be buried in. And I believe there's a redemptive part of that. Who are we? We're broken pieces of pottery. We're broken and messed up. And some of you say, well, Brett, I'm no flashy Christian, I'm not dialed in or all perfect. Good news: the Lord saves even to the uttermost. Who was it, one of the old revival preachers said, the Lord saves even to the guttermost?

And he was talking about the people in the gutter in the city that he was preaching in. When we are broken, there's a place where Jesus has redeemed us. Man, we could talk more about the potter. Jeremiah 18 is the beautiful picture of the Jeremiah and the potter, Zechariah 11 right here, and then Matthew 26 and 27. You put those three passages together and you have this beautiful picture of the betrayal of Christ and the purchasing of the Potter's Field.

Well, what about the other staff? Verse 14: "Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel." So this is speaking of the unity that's broken even as the Beauty was broken because of their sinful rebellion, so would their unity be broken, and their rebellion would cause that. By this time, you know, they'd already split from Judah and Israel. So if you're thinking they're referring to that, I don't think so. I think this is talking about the diaspora, the scattering of the Jews.

Now, in between verses 14 and 15, we have the church age gap. You might draw a line between verse 14 and 15 and say the church age between those two verses. And I could spend a lot of time explaining that. And you're saying, Brett, you're just making that up. Remember the gap? The church age is always with the Jews pictured as a gap. And Jesus even talked about this gap, or he implied it.

Do you remember when Jesus in Luke chapter four went to the synagogue in Nazareth? And he opens up the scroll of Isaiah and he starts reading there in Luke chapter four, verse 20 and 21. And then he, after reading part of the Isaiah passage, Isaiah 61 was what he was reading, but he didn't even finish one of the sentences, which was a total no-no. Like a rabbi was not supposed to only read part of a section of a script, let alone leave a sentence half-filled.

But let me show you the part that Jesus left out. So Jesus is reading this passage in Isaiah 61:1-2: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of our Lord," and see how there's a comma there after the word Lord? That's where Jesus rolled up the scroll and sat down.

And all the people there, what did they do? Well, the Bible says in chapter four, "And he closed the book, and the eyes of them that were in the synagogue fastened on him." They were staring him down. And then he turned to them and he said, "Today this is fulfilled in your ears." Now, had he read on and finished the sentence, would he have been able to say that? See, because what we're seeing here is Jesus talking about his first coming and his second coming.

The first part of those verses one and two all are speaking of his first coming right up until the word Lord, and then it says, "and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn." That part was yet to come. That's going to come in his second coming. So Jesus closes up the scroll to say, all of these things I just read have been fulfilled, but the last sentence hasn't yet. That's the gap we're talking about, the second coming versus the first coming.

The church age after Jesus rose and ascended into heaven to the rapture of the church. That's an age that's called the gap, and that gap you need to see that in verses 14 and 15. Are you guys with me on that? Because look what we get into in verse 15. We start talking about the foolish shepherd. Anybody want to guess who the ultimate foolish shepherd is? Antichrist, correct.

Let's read verse 15: "And the Lord said unto me, Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd. For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young ones, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that standeth still: but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws, or literally hooves, better translation because they're sheep, in pieces." So this is a shepherd that's going to rip the sheep apart is the idea.

And then verse 17: "Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock!" Now, some of your newer translations use different words for the word idol, but most scholars of the Hebrew language say not idle like I-D-L-E, but it should be I-D-O-L, like idolatrous shepherd is the idea. Not only is he an idolatrous guy, worshipping munitions, we know that from Daniel chapter 11, but he also sets himself up as an idol to be worshipped in Revelation 13, right?

So he is a literally an idol shepherd that leaves the flock. "The sword shall be upon his arm, weaponry, military, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened." Anybody want to take a stab at what happens here? What happens to the Antichrist in the tribulation period, anybody? He gets a wound. He gets wounded and then he gets healed sort of seemingly miraculously.

In fact, in your own time, look up Revelation 13:11-15 where we see this beast come out of the earth, which is Antichrist. And it says that he'll get a wound and that wound will seem even unto death, a wound by a sword and he still did live. But then there's all thing in Revelation 13:15 where it says, and he'll have power to give life to this image and the image would both speak and cause as many as would worship the beast, the image of the beast that would have been killed but miraculously healed.

That's all in Revelation 13, talking about the Antichrist. This is also foretold here, this assassination attempt of the Antichrist. But apparently this assassination attempt, he'll be injured head and arm according to Zechariah. And who knows, possibly the head wound takes out an eye. There's some interesting things we could talk about about Zechariah's deal here. But all that to say, in chapter 11, we kind of end with this whole Antichrist imagery.

And we'll see more of that, by the way. But good news: chapter 12 is going to be more about the true shepherd. So we got the false shepherd in chapter 11, and in chapter 12, we'll pick up the true shepherd. I love how in chapter 12, we're going to come across the phrase, "In that day," 17 times in chapter 12. We're going to come across the word "Jerusalem" 22 times in chapter 12. And the nations of the world are going to be talked about 13 times, and it's going to be about the end of the whole deal in chapter 12.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador concluding a fascinating verse-by-verse look into Zechariah chapter 11, while looking at what's ahead to chapter 12 in today's word. And Pastor Brett will be closing in prayer in just a moment, so I trust you'll stick around for that. But first, today's word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church in the Portland area 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. Our vision on today's word is to proclaim the hope of salvation and help people know Jesus through careful study of the Bible. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. I also want to mention that in addition to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn, Oregon, we also have locations in Hillsboro and McMinnville.

For more information, just go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link "Locations." Again, todayswordradio.com and click the link "Locations." Well, with our final few minutes, Pastor Brett offers a closing prayer.

Brett Meador: Let's pray together. Lord, how thankful we are that we have the blessed hope of your return for your church, the rapture of the church where we get to be with you. We know the stage is being set for this false shepherd who's going to come and dupe the world. Lord, your word is clear on what's going to happen.

But we get to be with you and be with the true shepherd where no man can pluck us out of your hand. How thankful we are for that. Lord, I pray that the believers here studying this passage that we find ourselves just comforted knowing that you're the great shepherd that we can put our trust in. Lord, I pray for revival in this world. We're so far from you and we continue to spiral away from you.

Lord, we do pray for revival that people would be broken before you and saved and repent of their sins. But unless that happens, Lord, we see that the days seem to be coming soon where you're going to intervene and the day of the Lord is at hand. We really believe that. But until then, help us to serve you, walk with you, and be bold in our faith. Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador closing our time here on today's word. And that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will look at what Zechariah tells us about a fountain, what it symbolizes, and how it will factor into end times prophecy. Today's word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.