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THE BOOK OF ZECHARIAH
Lesson 24, Chapter 11 Continued 2

We’re still in Zechariah chapter 11, and concluded our last lesson at verse 8.
The material is so dense in information, and yet can be so puzzling in its
meaning, that it is always best that we take brief moment to review and
summarize. It is not possible to overstate how important this material is for
Believers to know as it was intended for us to know, because this is our
present and near future that is being depicted. I hope you can hear that and
let it impact you.

Recall that Zechariah chapters 9-14 are now regularly called Second Zechariah
because it is so different in structure and character than the first 8 chapters.
Whether these last chapters were written by someone (or more than one
person) other than the writer (Zechariah) who created those first 8 chapters,
we can’t know for sure. I lean towards thinking that Zechariah wrote it all, but
that indeed over the centuries there has been some re-wording. There has,
without doubt, been some scribal errors introduced because that is simply
inherent in the hand copying of the text every time another copy is wanted.
And, as we today have Bibles from many different ancient cultures (some Bible
versions that only the most educated theologians are even aware exist) that
have some differences between them, we know that there were Bible editors
who translated the Hebrew into their local language from their own cultural
worldviews. Zechariah is probably the champion of being the most variously
translated of all Bible books because of its challenging nature. But also, I
think, because institutional Christianity simply doesn’t like what it says as it
flies in the face of much long-cherished doctrine especially about the End
Times.

What makes it the most challenging is that it speaks so much about the future
and the End Times; and yet it also mixes in what was already history to
Zechariah and his contemporaries. Some of the verses even deal with
Zechariah’s present. Then there is the issue of Hebrew poetry interspersed
with prose, and the use of metaphor as symbolism that is the necessary
literary tool for speaking about events in an unknowable future.

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What we have learned so far from Zechariah chapter 11 is that the time these
passages are mostly speaking about (the future from Zechariah’s day, up to
and including the End Times), is pretty gloomy. Not all is despair, however, as
it also speaks of the wonder of the return of Ephraim (the 10 Lost Tribes) from
their many centuries-long exile throughout the Asian continent, and back to
the Promised Land. There they will rejoin their brethren from the House of
Judah (today we call them Jews), but only after Israel is re-established as a
Jewish state (which, obviously, happened already in 1948). Even more, we’re
told that Jewish Israel will have a strong and formidable military that will play
a significant role in facilitating the return of the Lost Tribes. And, if the present
has taught us anything (from the perspective of early 2025), it is that Israel
has a military that is much more capable and powerful than the world had
previously understood.

One of the most impactful things we learn from chapter 11 almost seems too
fanciful to be taken seriously… and yet, we better believe it and do so soberly.
It is that the numbers of people of the 10 Lost Tribes who are returning will be
so mammoth that Israel has too little land mass to hold them all. So, they will
be annexing all or parts of Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan to handle the
overflowing new population.

Using the standard Hebrew sheep/shepherd metaphor, chapter 11 deals with
the problem of bad leaders within the Jewish community (characterized as
false shepherds). And, while the people (the sheep) cannot escape guilt for
their unfaithfulness and for their wrong behavior and beliefs, the shepherds
are held as the most responsible. What is made doubly clear is that these false
shepherds are not foreigners… they are not outsiders to Israel. Rather, these
are Israel’s own internal leaders… their leading men… both civic and religious…
that are, and have been, leading Israel astray even though they claim to be
God’s representatives or at least doing what they think is Godly.

We also saw how the core message of this prophecy of Zechariah is reflected,
even amplified, in the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. So, I made the point
that while we can all wait with joyous expectation of the return of Messiah, we
must realize that events that mark the arrival of the End Times and the soon
coming of Messiah will be awful, and even the first stage of Yeshua’s return

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will be deadly and destructive like never before in the history of the world.
Since the Millennial Kingdom will be established on the Earth as it will be at
the end of the Armageddon wars, then we must also accept that living
conditions won’t be easy for several years. The Earth will be deeply scarred,
pretty much everywhere. There will be much for the survivors to overcome,
and we get no hint that some supernatural intervention by God will
immediately or miraculously restore all the damage.

As we were coming to the end of our previous lesson at verse 8, we learned
that Yeshua as the returned Messiah (in being a kind of Prophet) will Himself
deal with all the bad leadership of Israel by getting rid of them in record time…
in no more than 1 month, and probably in only a matter of days. And, I also
suspect that because Israel is representative of all God worshippers (the
Church even considering itself as the New Israel), then this action of Messiah
will extend into the faith world of gentiles, and therefore include the
shepherds… the leadership… of what we call Christianity.

Let’s re-read chapter 11 starting at verse 8.

RE-READ ZECHARIAH 11:8 – 17

When thinking about who these shepherds of Israel are, we must think beyond
their political leadership. Israel’s government today is, as are virtually all non-
Muslim national governments, secular by design, with religion being
partitioned off and relegated to Churches, Synagogues, and various Temples
and Shrines for those that are not Judeo-Christian. Thus, we have to
understand that these shepherds we are reading about are primarily, and
nearly exclusively, the religious leaders.

We have a bit of a puzzle starting with verses 8 and 9, as to figuring out who
is speaking these words. Is it Zechariah’s own speech (and referring to
himself), or is it still God speaking and Zechariah merely recording it? Some
modern scholars think it is Zechariah’s own words and it is referring to himself,
but nearly unanimously those scholars writing prior to modern times held the
belief that it was still Yehoveh speaking. Why the discrepancy? The more
modern scholars say it is because of the particulars of the Hebrew grammar

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and syntax. And yet, when just reading it, we see no obvious or logical shift
from God to Zechariah as the speaker. The continual use of “I” and “my”
certainly seems to continue to point towards Yehoveh as speaker. Here’s the
thing: as is the biblical principle proved true through recorded history that
prophetic fulfillments happen more than once, then we must be reading a
prophecy about 2 or more fulfillments that have been amalgamated into a
single statement that covers them all. That, by the way, is common in
prophetic utterances of all the Prophets. That is, the precise person or event
being spoken about is only relevant to the precise fulfillment event that
happens. And the next time it happens, another and different person and
event is involved. In other words, it may well be that it does apply to
Zechariah personally as the first fulfillment. Zechariah does become impatient
with those he is trying to shepherd and the leaders of the Jews become weary
of him (again, something pretty common for biblical prophets). And,
eventually Zechariah refuses to feed the flock anymore (to go to them to take
them God’s oracles) because he becomes so disgusted with the deaf ears. But,
this also applies later to another “prophet” of a later fulfillment who finds
himself in the same position, but in a different era and circumstance because
as the centuries go by, the world becomes a different place. Ultimately, this
will apply to Yeshua at both His first advent and His upcoming return.
Remember that Yeshua biblically qualifies as a Prophet of God, just as Moses
said He would.

What is especially interesting about verse 9 is that it explains that whomever it
is that is in the role of the shepherd (a prophet in some era or another) has
determined that he will NOT shepherd Israel. Why? Because “they detested
me”, according to the final words of verse 8. The good shepherd, provided by
God, won’t shepherd God’s flock because they don’t want him to shepherd
them. They don’t want to hear God’s true oracle to them. They hate Him and
prefer the shepherds they have, who (from God’s perspective) are bad
shepherds. This tells us that these bad shepherds while spiritually harming
the flock by teaching false doctrine, don’t as a rule do intentionally malicious
things to them. Quite the opposite; they please the flock. The flock is satisfied
with them. Unfortunately, the corruption of the deceived leaders bleeds so
deeply into the flock that the flock becomes corrupted, but none of them
realizing it, and so they refuse any correction. And, no matter how hard the

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good shepherd tries to reach them, they wind up hating him. So, he loses
patience and says enough! I will no longer shepherd them. This that I have
just explained is not allegory or opinion… it is what verse 9 is explaining so
we’d all be wise to pay attention.

Next 3 consecutive clauses describe the fate of the deceived flock (and this is
Israel but in later times will extend into including the Constantinian Church),
whom the good shepherd refuses to lead. The first is, whoever is to die
shall die. Literally this says, “whoever is dying will die”. Meaning, the dying is
already in progress, but no rescue attempt will be made for them. This is not a
peaceful death of old age; this is a most dramatic way of speaking about total
annihilation of both the physical and the spirit. Next, whoever is to be
destroyed shall be destroyed . This is a pretty broad statement that means
a person is brought to ruin, and again, the good shepherd will not intervene to
deliver that person. It could be physical ruin or being forcibly removed from
wherever it is they normally belong. Then finally, whoever is left shall
devour. The bottom line is that people of faith are destroying themselves or
others are doing it to them, and they are doing nothing to prevent it and are
not open to changing their ways. The final result is that: all the rest can
devour each other. Likely this has a double meaning. I cannot buy that this
is speaking about actual cannibalism as some commentators think. Rather this
is the equivalent of an idiom in common use today, when we speak of a person
or a group “who eats their own young”. It means to betray someone or even
to attack someone in your group for your own gain. The flock of Israel (and by
extrapolation the Church) will turn on one another. However, this also no
doubt is figurative and expands to mean spiritual betrayal as well. The flock’s
own internal corrupt nature explodes into action, refuses to hear the truth, and
makes themselves even more corrupt and deceived, and therefore all the more
ripe to experience God’s wrath.

Let’s put this head-spinning couple of verses into real terms that should this
happen today is what it would mean. The religious shepherds of Israel have
been for 2000 years, and remain, the Rabbis. They are the ones the Jewish
people look to for wisdom, truth, law and guidance. But, these same Rabbis
are preventing their flock… or at least discouraging them… from accepting
Yeshua as their Messiah. Much manmade Rabbinical tradition and Jewish Law

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has also replaced the truth and the commands of God’s Word, and as a result,
much of what they believe and do is, from a divine standpoint, corrupt. Yet,
might this also expand into all who claim to worship the God of Israel, Jew or
gentile? Yes, it does. So much of what is prophesied about Israel in later times
directly does. Since this is the case then I’m speaking of the Church as we
know it… the one I label the Constantinian Church. The Pastors, and Bishops,
and Priests, and Seminary Professors, and Bible Teachers and whomever else
shepherds the Church but who teaches and leads using their various manmade
doctrines and traditions that in many cases defy the Word of God. These same
shepherds tell their congregations that they have no obligations or duties
before God, nor do they have to obey any biblical command or rule, and in fact
to attempt to obey God’s written commands is tantamount to rejecting Christ.
These are also among the false shepherds that are spoken of in Zechariah. At
the same time, by definition the Church flock has been deceived by their
leaders and thus is believing wrongly. In fact, in some passages and chapters
to come in Zechariah, we’re going to see the most amazing role reversal
concerning prophets. That this reversal takes place at all is baffling if not
upsetting, but then we realize that it is actually addressing this issue of false
teachers and the religious institutions they govern.

Verse 10 is where the speaker switches from being God to Zechariah, and for
a while, Zechariah is speaking of himself. Zechariah takes his 2 staffs and
snaps one of them into two. The staff that is physically broken into 2 is called
No’am, which means something like delight or pleasant. The next statement
is constantly misconstrued: it says, “… in order to break my covenant…” Now,
to the Christian world this says that Zechariah’s symbolic action indicates that
God has abolished the covenant (and the covenant always means the
Covenant of Moses). As Eric Meyers explains: “Yet because Delight (No’am)
represents the covenant, severing it makes it ineffectual, just as cutting the
Asherim or other idols removes their efficacy”. To repeat: to break the
covenant does NOT mean to abolish it; it means to make certain terms of it
ineffectual.

When a covenant agreement is broken, the covenant is not terminated.
Rather, it invokes certain prescribed penalties as punishment. I want you to
stop and think for a second: if the Covenant of Moses with its 10

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Commandments followed by about 600 more laws was abolished and
terminated, then how could anyone ever be accused of sinning? To sin means
to break the rules that God set down. But, if the rules no longer exist, there is
nothing to break. If God had never given Adam and Eve the rule that they
were not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, then when they did
eat from it they committed no offense. Sin can only happen when there are
rules to break.

If Yeshua abolished all the rules 2000 years ago, and replace them with only
the command to “love”, then since that time it has been impossible to sin. And
if it’s been impossible to sin, what use is there for a Savior to save us from
what can’t be done…to sin? Can you see how irrational the Church doctrine is
that Christ abolished the Law? Then, there is this:

CJB
Matthew 5:17-19
17
"Don't think that I have come to abolish the
Torah or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete.
18

Yes indeed! I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not so
much as a yud or a stroke will pass from the Torah - not until
everything that must happen has happened.
19
So whoever disobeys
the least of these mitzvot and teaches others to do so will be called
the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever obeys them and so
teaches will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

How much more plainly and forcibly can it be said? But, the false shepherds
that have steered the Church since early in the 4
th
century A.D. have deceived
the flock and it has led to corruption of the faith that Yeshua taught and the
loss of moral guidance. And, whomever is a leader of a flock that might be
hearing this, just remember that you are going to be held accountable to God
for what you are doing to that flock by feeding them wrongly. Stop it now,
immerse yourself in God’s Word, learn the truth and teach it even if it means
recanting what you have told them before.

Because of the enormous ramifications of what “breaking the covenant”
means, I want to speak to that for a few minutes because this is what either
validates or it makes the Constantinian Christian doctrine about abolishing the
Law untrue.

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The entire notion of a new covenant is found in Jeremiah 31. Let’s look at it.

CJB
Jeremiah 31:30-36
30
"Here, the days are coming," says Yehoveh
"when I will make a new covenant with the house of Isra'el and with
the house of Y'hudah.
31
It will not be like the covenant I made with
their fathers on the day I took them by their hand and brought them
out of the land of Egypt; because they, for their part, violated my
covenant, even though I, for my part, was a husband to them," says
Yehoveh.
32
"For this is the covenant I will make with the house of
Isra'el after those days," says Yehoveh: "I will put my Torah within
them and write it on their hearts; I will be their God, and they will be
my people.
33
No longer will any of them teach his fellow community
member or his brother, 'Know Yehoveh'; for all will know me, from the
least of them to the greatest; because I will forgive their
wickednesses and remember their sins no more."
34
This is what
Yehoveh says, who gives the sun as light for the day, who ordained
the laws for the moon and stars to provide light for the night, who
stirs up the sea until its waves roar- Yehoveh-Tzva'ot is his name:
35

"If these laws leave my presence," says Yehoveh "then the offspring
of Isra'el will stop being a nation in my presence forever."
36
This is
what Yehoveh says: "If the sky above can be measured and the
foundations of the earth be fathomed, then I will reject all the
offspring of Isra'el for all that they have done," says Yehoveh.

I read this full excerpt from Jeremiah because, otherwise, what has been
taught about it goes unchallenged. We all, in our times, have learned the hard
way that photos can be cropped, videos edited, quotes only partially given, in
order to present something as evidence for a certain viewpoint, when in fact if
the entire photo is shown, or the video is unedited, or the entire quote is
presented, it proves the exact opposite. This is exactly what the Church has
done to Jeremiah 31 as regards the matter of a new covenant.

First and most glaringly, verse 30 says that this covenant will be made with
the House of Israel and the House of Judah. Not with gentiles. Not with
something called The Church. Only with Judah and Israel.

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Second, the issue is not the abrogation of the covenant, but rather the
violation of it. Two entirely different things. Just as it is today regarding civil
laws, there is the matter of voiding that law and taking it off the books, then
there is the different matter of violating a law and facing the repercussions.

Third, the foundational point in Jeremiah 31 is that the covenant that was long
ago presented on a mountaintop, written on stone tablets and then more of it
on sheepskins, will now be directly placed, by God, into a person’s heart
(which, in that era meant “mind”).

Fourth, the result of this is as it says verse 32: “I will put my Torah within
them”. Or in other English translations, “I will put My law within them”. Note
that the original Hebrew word used here is NOT law, it is precisely the word
“Torah” as we have known it since the Book of Exodus.

Fifth, the word chadash is what is usually translated as “new” (new
covenant). The issue is this: it means new in the sense of something fresh or
renewed. That is, if you were to go and buy a used car, you might say to
someone “come and see my new car”. You don’t mean that the car is brand
new and unused, you just mean that it is new to you. The Bible records a few
instances in which the Covenant of Moses was chadash… renewed… such as
soon after Israel crossed the Jordan River into Canaan. It was a re-validation
or re-dedication of the Torah… and not a dedication of something that had
never before existed.

Sixth, God goes on to explain that His laws, even going back to before there
were humans (when He established the moon and the stars), will never end
unless the sky becomes measurable, and so until it does, neither will He reject
Israel permanently. So, the foundational doctrine of the Constantinian Church
that God rejected Israel forever and gave this promised covenant of Jeremiah
to the gentile Constantinian Church defies what we just read on every level.
What Jeremiah tells us is that what changed with the covenant was merely the
medium. God’s laws didn’t change, it’s only that they went from external to
internal. Or as Meyers so well puts it:

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This is essentially what Yeshua told everyone in His Sermon on the Mount.
And, He also made it clear that He is the means by which that renewed Torah
can be placed internally into our hearts. Yet, is that what the institutional
Church teaches? No. They disregard the Scripture and teach their flocks the
opposite, even misquoting and editing Jeremiah 31 to make it seem otherwise.
This is the very definition of the actions of a bad shepherd according to
Zechariah.

One final thing and we’ll move on. A good shepherd does not mean a perfect
shepherd. The only perfect shepherd is Yeshua. All the rest of us now and in
the past are subject to error. So, if your shepherd makes an unintended error
occasionally it merely means he’s human, and not a bad shepherd. But, when
presented with evidence of his error and he insists on still preaching what he
now knows is wrong…? That’s different.

Verse 11 says:

CJB
Zechariah 11:11
11
On that day when it was broken, the most
miserable of the sheep who paid attention to me knew that this was
indeed a message from Yehoveh.

When the covenant was broken, the penalties took effect. And perhaps one of
the most major and pertinent effects of the break was that God withdrew His
protection over His people and His nation. God had imposed upon the gentile
nations of the Earth a warning not to harm His people or to destroy them; this
was part of the Mosaic Covenant. Thus, when Israel broke the covenant
through their unfaithfulness to it, God’s restraining hand was lifted and Israel
was delivered up to the nations.

Although we more typically find that phrase of “on that day” used to speak of
Judgment Day, or the Day of the Lord that occurs in the End Times, here it
might not mean that. It might just mean the unspecified time when the people
broke the covenant with God. Or, equally as possible, it means both. That is,
in its first fulfillment it meant the day the Lord first declared a broken
covenant. But, in a later time, it will happen again. It is simply not clear.

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Next we encounter another problematic phrase, “The most miserable (or
afflicted) of the sheep…” We find the same thing back in verse 7, so I won’t go
over it again. But, the Greek Old Testament says here, “the merchants of the
flock” referring to the wicked buyers and sellers, who in turn represent the bad
shepherds. “Merchant” is a nasty epithet that speaks of an unfair and
dishonest person. So, this verse perhaps ought to read: “On that day when it
was broken, the merchants of the flock who paid attention to me…” So, this
could be referring to the sheep, or it could be referring to the shepherds, and I
lean towards thinking it’s the shepherds, but that is my best guess and not
something that I’m certain about.

It is so very interesting that whether it was the sheep or the shepherds, those
that heard Zechariah knew that his words to them were genuinely from
Yehoveh. Essentially the Prophet is saying that somehow those who heard his
oracle from God knew it was valid and true. It indeed was God’s will they were
hearing. Further, because of what they had always known, when a Prophet
spoke God’s oracle, that was the moment the claims and promises of the
oracle were set into motion and however near or far into the future they were
meant to happen, there was nothing that could stop it.

I cannot tell you the large number of Believers who have said to me that once
they began studying the Bible with us… and setting aside human doctrines and
traditions and just allowing the Word to speak for itself… they instinctively
knew it was the truth. How? I cannot tell you. It was something inside of them
(I’d like to think it was the Holy Spirit), that made their hearts leap at the
power of truth. I know it was that way with me and I immediately knew I
could never go back to believing what I used to believe… because it wasn’t the
truth. What I now believe has true power. What I used to believe did not and
does not because I could rather easily give it up. The difference? God’s will
and Word versus men’s will and doctrines.

Verse 12 is rather curious:

CJB
Zechariah 11:12 I said to them, "If it seems good to you, give me
my wages; if not, don't." So, they weighed out my wages, thirty silver
[shekels, that is, twelve ounces].

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The way this verse starts is why I lean towards thinking the middle part of the
previous verse ought to be translated “the merchants of the flock” instead of
“the afflicted”. Since merchants, and buy and selling all work together to
denote a financial transaction, so does the notion of being paid a wage. But,
there’s more… there’s a deep irony here. Prophets for hire existed. In fact,
there were Prophet schools and academies in existence. These were not
people God called to be prophets, rather they were people who desired to be
prophets probably because of the attraction to that status. Being a prophet in
that era was a usual practice within pagan religions. In 1Samuel 10 we read of
a Hebrew prophet guild and no doubt the graduates expected to be paid. But,
we have no such phenomenon with true Prophets that God called. If there was
any money involved, it came from an occupation the Prophet had before God
called them to be a Prophet… or perhaps being a Prophet was only for a short
time and he continued to work in his normal profession the rest of the time.
This is an important nuance to understand, especially for what we’re going to
read in some coming chapters of Zechariah.

So, the question is why would Zechariah seek a wage from the very people
that have been designated as the money-grubbing bad shepherds? It begins
by understanding that the true biblical prophets did not desire to be Prophets,
and certainly not to earn a living from it. I’m reminded of a comment about
the Prophet Amos.

CJB
Amos 7:12-14
12
Amatzyah also said to 'Amos, "Go away, seer! Go
back to the land of Y'hudah! Earn your living there; and prophesy
there;
13
but don't prophesy any more at Beit -El; for this is the king's
sanctuary, a royal temple."
14
'Amos gave this answer to Amatzyah: "I
am not trained as a prophet, and I'm not one of the guild prophets - I
own sheep and grow figs.

So, there were guild prophets and then there were Prophets of God.
Apparently there were a goodly number of guild prophets, but precious few
Prophets of God, because He raised them up as He needed a Prophet to deliver
a divine oracle. Part of what we are reading here is a surfacing of the tension
that existed between the guild prophets and a true Prophet like Zechariah.

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Guild prophets of course told their patrons what they wanted to hear (who is
going to pay for bad news?). True Prophets rarely brought anything but
criticism and warning and a demand for correction. So, how are we to
understand a true Prophet asking for a wage? When we back away and
examine this from a larger perspective, we need to be reminded that
Zechariah has adopted a copious use of irony to make his points. What could
be a greater irony to the people of Zechariah’s era than for a true Prophet
asking to be paid? All along the people of Judah feel they have been living an
irony. Their own God has turned to their enemies to punish them, His own
people. He has even replaced Israel’s government by putting the Jews under
the control of a gentile government. This isn’t supposed to happen. Yet, it’s
not the first time God has asked a true Prophet to do something bizarrely
wrong or impure. He asked Hosea to go and marry a known prostitute and
then have children with her, for instance.

I think we are getting the first piece of the picture, but we have to get through
the next couple of verses before it starts to become more clear. Before that,
note the amount of the wages paid to Zechariah: 30 pieces of silver. Sound
familiar? Good! Then you’ll remember it for next time as we’ll stop here and
finish up chapter 11 in our next lesson.