December 6, 2019: Day 83 – Zechariah 11

We have another oracle, replete with images and visions, against the shepherd, those charged with caring for the flock.  These would be the priests and those who had charge of the souls of the people of Israel.  The Lord says basically that he has had enough and will not deliver the people from their bondage and from their plight.  

He uses the examples of staffs broken to describe what is to happen.  He speaks about a staff named Favor, with the meaning that over the years the Lord has shown His favor to the people of Israel.  They were His chosen ones, they were the ones that he said would be under his care.  But with the breaking of this staff he states in vs.10: “I took my staff Favor and broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all peoples.”  The covenant that the Lord had made with the people of Israel was broken.  

The next depiction is that of 30 pieces of silver which were supposed to be the wages that the Lord would be given to care for his people.  It was about the price of an ox, so not an exorbitant amount of money.  It is the same amount that in Matthew 26:15 Judas is given to betray Jesus.  The thinking was that God cannot be paid  for the care that he gives to us, and in like manner the amount Judas was given was a pittance for the changing of human history.

The next staff that is broken is that which is called Unity.  This broke the ties between the northern and the southern kingdoms and thus destroying the bond that had been present ever since Jacob had been called Israel by the Lord.