Bad Shepherds, Hard Hearts, Cannibal Conditions | Zechariah 11:1–17 | 2/2/2025

may be seated I'd like to ask you if you

would to take your Bible and turn with

me to that little letter in Zachariah at

the very end of your Old Testament if

you do not have a sermon outline uh

there are some guys that are running to

the forward to the front to help you

with that please lift your hand and they

will get one to you if you need one just

lift your hand and they will get one if

you're joining us online want to remind

you that the outline is right on our

website we're glad that you're joining

us we wish you were actually here if

you're low we hope that you'll come next

Sunday to be with us and if you're

somewhere else either in the United

States or in another country we hope and

pray that you are going to be able to

find a Bible teaching Church near to

your home where you can embrace the body

of Christ this morning we come and uh

since it's been a few months since we've

been in Zachariah we are returning to

our study of the book of Zechariah which

is return return to Hope return to hope

that's the name of the series that's

what God is calling his people under

zachariah's leadership to return to the

hope that they have in God they had left

God's hope have you ever left God's

hope have

you ever left God's

hope has there been a time when the

pressures of this life overwhelmed

you

circumstances overcame your

faith sin pulled you away from

God the message of

Zachariah is return to

Hope in fact it is stated at the very

beginning look at that with me in

Zechariah 1:3 on the screen in front of

Zechariah 1:3

you can you read that line that is there

together return to me and I will return

to you says the Lord of

hosts so let's remember this background

a little bit before we jump into what

some might say is one of the most

difficult areas of scripture to preach

and um I certainly have struggled with

this text this week and um I know that

some of you uh know what I mean by that

but we'll look at it and especially with

a title like this bad Shepherds hard

hearts and cannibal conditions what in

the world could be in this sermon um

well let's look and let's remember the

message of Zachariah the reason we do

the review is that there are some people

here for the very first time Aunt D

you're here for the first time she

hasn't heard our whole series these next

few points can help her and help all of

you both remember or if you're new to us

know where we're coming from with this

little book in the Old Testament so

let's go to the prophet number one the

prophet lived and preached in Judah

after the Jews returned to Jerusalem

from from Babylon so God's people had

been taken to Babylon they were held

there to uh the uh Persian Empire and

then Babylon and then we see that some

of them were finally able to come back

to Jerusalem number two initially the

nation of Israel was discouraged

because Jerusalem and the temple were

not rebuilt so they had been back for

about 20 years when Zachariah wrote this

letter or when zachariah's Ministry um

of preaching began among the nation so

they had been back for 20 years and not

much had been accomplished and the

people were discouraged and part of the

reason not much had been accomplished

and the people were discouraged was

because even though they had come back

to their home they had come back back to

the holy city of Jerusalem listen their

hearts were still hardened against God

they still were resistant to God even

after the blessing of coming back they

were still separated from God with a

hard heart number three Zachariah

preached God's message to them we just

read it what does it say there read it

out loud return to me and I will return

to you number four Israel had repeatedly

been

faithless and disobedient but God kept

presenting to them his salvation if they

would obey God gave Zachariah multiple

dreams to preach this theme to them and

we studied those eight dreams from the

earlier part of this little letter that

from this little book of Prophecy and

then we come to chapter 7 in chapter 7

um we see that the people persist with

what kind of

Hearts Diamond hard Hearts would you

underline that Diamond hard Hearts we

looked at the fact that diamonds are the

most um the the most dense and hard

surface um of any material that

naturally occurs on the earth and uh so

when God's word calls our hearts Diamond

hard it's very accurate they had Diamond

hard Hearts against God and we often

come with diamond hard Hearts against

God look at chapter 8 in chap CH 8 God

reveals that he is going to save his

Remnant this is a group that are true to

him that he's going to save them and

cause them to live in

obedience in chapter nine we saw this

beautiful image The Return of the King

it made us think of Lord of the Rings

make us think of that great hope that

the king is going to come home and

restore Justice restore his people in

fact um that's exactly what to is

getting on there is we see in Zachariah

The Return of the King God's coming will

claim his land through his King and for

what for his people God has a plan God

has a good Plan of

Salvation and we see this in chapter 10

oh Do You Remember December the 8th

chapter 10 do you remember this image

that we showed you that there's a

Shepherd the title of the message on

December 8th was a wanted a good

shepherd and that was cha Zechariah chap

10 and let's remember what was there

because it flows into what we see today

in chapter 10 uh we see that there over

and over again were fraudulent leaders

who misled God's people these were Kings

these were prophets and these were

priests that were supposedly God's Kings

God's prophets God's priests and yet

they were in it for themselves and they

lived off the people they abused the

people they did not honor God they did

not lead the people to God in fact they

LED for their own desires notice the

next part here they were weak and

dysfunctional and kept wandering far

from God and it wasn't just the leaders

that did that it was the people who did

that but God but God promised a chief

Shepherd who would be both great and

good so he promised that there would be

a chief Shepherd in fact he would be the

perfect Shepherd and fill it in this

would be our Lord Jesus Christ you

remember before the Kings there were the

judges that God had set up to lead his

people but the people went in and they

saw that all of these other lands had

Kings and they said well we want kings

like the other Pagan Nations have Kings

and God would say to them no no let me

be your king let me be your king and

they would say no we want an Earthly

King and so they got their Earthly Kings

and their Earthly kings were evil there

were only a few that were good there

were only a few that honored the Lord

the vast majority of them Dishonored the

Lord and so in the midst of all of that

pushing back against God over and over

again God is saying I know what's best

for you and his people have a heart that

say oh yes

but and put him at

distance and we in our own lives in our

own little microway ways can do that as

well that we think that we know better

we keep pushing God at Bay we ignore our

time with him we we neglect sometimes

worship or we neglect his holy spirit's

call to be still and be with him we

neglect his word that says these are the

words of life These are far better than

CNN Fox News Oprah or YouTube or Tik Tok

or anything else but yet over and over

again we may choose Hollywood instead of

the Holy Land

and so we see that a good shepherd is

promised that we'll be the

full Lord Jesus Christ that will save us

from our sins notice this God promised

to give them a home of great blessings

prosperity and peace that's how chapter

10 is ending he's saying I will I will

restore your land I will give bring

blessings upon you and then look at this

most important of all God promised to

give them

a heart of faith and obedience the way

it says it there in chapter 10 and verse

12 he's saying I will give you a heart

for me and you will walk in

obedience now that's that's a gift from

God and so as you hear his voice calling

you to obey him we want to do it now I'm

not going to lie to you chapter 11 is a

tough chapter we're going to read it in

just a moment and you're going to see

what I mean it's a tough chapter but you

know what listen to this remember with

me every single word in the holy book on

your lap or in your hands is from Heaven

God's word from Genesis 1 all the way to

the end of Revelation is it it is his

holy and Eternal Word Isaiah says it and

Peter repeats it that the word of the

Lord will stand for

forever in Psalm 119 says the word of

God God's word will revive your heart it

will bring life to you and so we are

called to remember that all of his word

is what we need we don't it's not like

going to pickadils or a big buffet and

getting just the stuff we like a mature

Christian is going to begin to read

God's word and and receive God's word

all of it and know that all of it has

meaning and so this morning I trust that

the holy spirit is going to help us as

we read this great word now when you

come to passages like Zechariah 11121 13

when we come to Chapters like these we

need to remember the big picture because

there may be a bunch of details that

seem distracting there may be a bunch of

things that we say what does that mean

how does that work how does that fit

that seems counter in intive when we do

that we need to we need to back up a

little bit we need to go up to our

10,000 foot View and remember the big

picture and that will help you

immensely with the more obscure passages

of the Bible and so here are some things

I want you to see and I want you to

remember as we read chapter 11 number

one fill it in God rules Supreme Over

The Wicked and the righteous in every

age we see that in chapter 11 we see it

throughout the Bible but we really see

it in chapter 11 God is on his throne

and he's ruling in the Affairs of men

he's ruling in the Affairs of Nations

he's ruling among the wicked and he's

ruling among the righteous it's not like

he just controls the righteous no he

controls the wicked too he is he is in

charge over all things notice number two

God Reveals His will and fulf fills his

purpose to his true people now we don't

see his will and his purpose being

revealed to the wicked all the time but

we do see that God is going after his

true people so God has a Remnant we've

already mentioned these are his true

people and he's working with them he's

working listen to this even through

their Rebellion even through their sin

bringing them back to him do you

remember with me that the scripture

tells us whom whom the Lord loves he

what he he chastens or he

disciplines and so we see that here that

chapter 11 is a big part of discipline

of the Lord for God's people so they may

learn to obey notice number three with

me everyone is responsible for their own

actions in response to God's word

everyone is responsible for their own

actions

that is that is true we live in a day

and time when being responsible for your

actions seems to be out the window I

mean we just you know oh well it was you

know my mother made me do it or it was

because my father or it was because my

friend or it was because this drug or

because of this bad advice I was given

or it was because I was you know we we

can go through our long list and we can

exonerate everybody from the

responsibility of the way they're living

their lives and that is not what we see

in God's word it's not this

victimization

mentality what we're called to do is to

look at God and His holy standard and

what he says and come to him in faith

and allow him to deal with our

deficiencies allowed him to deal with

our Brokenness allow him listen to heal

our

Brokenness so that we might live and be

his people and he's he's willing to do

that

he's calling you to his healing that's

what he's calling you to but he's

calling us to be responsible before him

to own it notice here with me number

four whenever people persist in

Rebellion they pay a very heavy price

and we're going to see this this is a

message we need to hear this is not you

know there's yes it's true there's a lot

of churches that only want to preach the

really positive stuff in the Bible the

you know you can do everything and you

know God is with you and you know the

all of these things that you know that

that are Grace oriented that are just at

the cream at the top of all that is

there but listen Grace listen Grace is

in the Judgment

too God's grace is all about his grand

plan of bringing salvation as we'll see

and it's through chastisement it's

through the standard of God that we

learn that he is Holy we learn that we

are sinful that we learn that he is the

Healer we learn that we can be healed if

we will come to him and let him but when

we persist in Rebellion against

God we pay a very heavy price you've

often heard me say and other pastors say

sin will take you further further than

you want to go it'll cost you more than

you want to pay and it will keep you

longer than you want to

stay that's what sin will

do we see a heavy price we're going to

see that in chapter 11 notice this with

me number five generally speaking a

nation's leaders reflect a nation's

people so we can't just blame this all

on the nation leaders we can't just

blame this on the fact that chapter 9

and chapter 10 talked about bad leaders

chapter 11 talks about bad leaders but

what we see is that the people are a

reflection of that Thomas Jefferson said

something similarly he said the populace

of a Nation the

nation deserves the leaders that it

elects and so they they deserve the

leaders that they elect this is a

reflection of their own Hearts very

often um that they experience this so

we're we're saying that it is the Jewish

people in this state God's people that

were supposed to be different from the

rest of the earth God had a plan to

reveal his grace through them but they

kept saying no to

him their hearts were hardened and all

but a few would ever turn back to him or

excuse me would not turn back to him so

only a few would turn back to him him

what we see here is that their hearts

were far from God but yet God continues

with his grace notice this for sure this

is a passage so chapter 11 is a passage

of what we call

multi-layered prophecy multi-layered

prophecy and what this means is some is

interpretive of their past so the Jewish

people and some of it was interpretive

of their present so some things that are

mentioned were going on with them at

that time five 00 years before Christ

but notice this some of this is relating

to the messiah's first coming and some

of this as we'll see is even relating to

the messiah's second coming so there's

all these different layers of the

prophecy where different parts that we

can see fit in now we have to issue a

warning here when we talk about

multi-layered prophecy there are some

people on television

or now we would say on YouTube or

whatever that will work through passages

of Prophecy and they will tell you down

to the finest nuance and the finest

detail

emphatically they will tell you

emphatically what everything

means I want to say to you be careful

about watching

that because this Council of God's word

is great and glorious and the vast

majority of it is is very very

understandable to the average person

there is no question about that but

there are things still being revealed

from God's word that don't yet

necessarily even we can we know exactly

what that's speaking of because the end

hasn't come yet and so we have to be

careful as we look at that there's some

things no doubt that refer very

specifically to events in the past and

there are some things that are seem to

be pointing to the Future future but we

have to be careful to remember what do

we call these the big picture principles

that are there and not always run to an

elaborate emphatic interpretive detail

of every aspect of Prophecy so we'll

still gain very much um from God's word

as we allow God's word to be the the

Beauty and the uh tremendous complexity

um that his work throughout Humanity uh

reveals along with the Simplicity of

what we call here at the very end we

must keep in mind God's Grand Plan of

Salvation for his people we must keep in

mind God's Grand Plan of Salvation for

his people so with that I want us to

read this passage and uh it'll be on two

pages here and then we'll work through

it very quickly um and do the best we

can just to so you know this sermon

could be 5 or 6 hours long and

thankfully it will only be three and so

um uh what I mean by that is

this uh the multi-layered prophecy that

is here could have so many things that

we could say about it but we're not

going to try to address every single

possibility I want you to see the big

picture um In this passage and we can

gain much our hearts can be brought near

to Christ Our Hearts can see the gospel

our hearts can see our need for God see

our need and what we need to do as we

come to this and the other thing that I

love about this is there's two or three

other things I want us to see we're

going to see this morning that that

God's word fits together like lock and

key we say that over and over again but

you're going to see some beautiful

things here that do refer to some

specific prophecy that uh seems to be

just just extremely extremely clear and

I love that nature of God's word Old

Testament and New Testament it fits

together um but uh as well that his

grace is through it all the the Bible is

honest the Bible is honest the Bible

isn't hiding anything other pieces of

history and other sources of History

whitewash their history but the Bible

does not do that God's people even after

being showed all these blessings and all

of these things they fail over and over

and over again and God has a purpose in

letting us see that so he can see we

need him and so I love the fact that the

Bible is so honest and we will see that

In this passage so uh chapter uh 11:1

open your doors o

Lebanon that the fire may devour your

Cedars whail oh Cyprus for the Cedars

have fallen en for the Glorious trees

are ruined whale Oaks of Bashan for the

thick forest has been felled that means

cut

down the sound of the whale of the

Shepherds so this is the Cry The Wailing

of them for their glory is what

ruined the sound of the Roar of lions

for the thicket of the Jordan is what

ruined so here is the prophet

describing the Judgment that is coming

upon them now these doors these Cyprus

there's trees that are mentioned here

we're going to see the the the the

picture of these leaders that have

failed them and this Destruction has

come upon them we're going to see some

various aspects of that look at verse

four thus says the Lord my God become

Shepherd of the flock doomed to

slaughter so uh in verse four we see

right above that Zachariah thus says the

Lord my God right above that right above

verse four Zachariah Zachariah is being

called to play in the place of God as

their Shepherd so the thus says the Lord

become Shepherd of the flock doomed to

slaughter those who buy them slaughter

them and go unpunished and those who

sell them say blessed be the Lord I've

become rich and their own Shepherds have

no pity on them for I will no longer

have pity on the inhabitants of this

land declares the Lord behold I will

cause each of them to fall into the hand

of his neighbor in each into his hand of

his King and they shall crush the land

and I will deliver none from their

hand verse 7 so I became the shepher of

the flock doomed to be slaughtered by

the Sheep

traitors I took two staffs one I named

what favor favor and the other I named

what union union and I tended the sheep

in one month I destroyed the three

Shepherds so these are evil leaders that

Zachariah would destroy that we're that

we're continuing all this is because of

evil leaders that the destruction is

coming verse 8 in one month I destroyed

the three Shepherds but I became

impatient with them and they also

detested me so the people came to detest

God's

representative

Zachariah verse 9 so I said I will not

be your Shepherd what is to die let it

die what is to be destroyed let it be

destroyed and those who are left devour

Devour the Flesh of one

another and I took my staff favor and I

broke it annulling the Covenant that I

had made with all the peoples verse 11

so it was an olded on that day and the

Sheep traders who were watching me knew

that it was the word of the Lord flip

the page verse

12 then I said to them if it seems good

to you give me my wages but if not keep

them and they weighed out as my wages

what 30 pieces of silver then the Lord

said to me throw it to the Potter the

lordly price at which I was PRI priced

by them so I took the 30 pieces of

silver and threw them into the house of

the Lord to the Potter then I broke my

second staff Union annulling the

Brotherhood between Judah and

Israel then the Lord said to me take

once more the equipment of a foolish

Shepherd for behold verse 16 for behold

I am raising up in the land a Shepherd

who does not care for those being

destroyed or seek the young or heal the

M nor nourish the healthy but devours

the Flesh of the fat ones tearing off

even their Hooves verse 17 woe to my

worthless Shepherd who deserts the flock

May the sword strike his arm and his

right eye let his AR arm be wholly

withered his right eye utterly

blinded isn't that just so

encouraging can you flip back to the

front

page flip back to the front page let's

remember the big principles number one

God rules Supreme Over The Wicked and

over the righteous of every age number

two God Reveals His will and fulfills

his purposes to his true people number

three everyone is responsible for their

own actions in response to God's words

number four whenever people persist in

Rebellion they pay what a very heavy

price number five generally speaking a

nation's leaders reflect the nation's

people and these are multi-layered

Prophecies of past present coming of the

Messiah the second coming of the Messiah

and all of this is ultimately about

God's salvation so go back to page two

let's see what some of this means but we

need to keep those big pictures in mind

in order to get a lot out of this

passage number verses 1 through3 this

poetry at the top and by the way do you

notice the parts that are poetry and the

parts that are not poetry do you see

verses 1 2 and 3 what do you notice

about the format of it it's indented

right that means that this is Hebrew

poetry do you see verses four down to

the bottom of the box

that is a narrative form it's not

indented that means it's just part of

the narrative so it's not poetry but the

first part is poetry and it's a poetry

that is describing the destruction of

evil Shepherds this is the destruction

of the evil Shepherds and not only is it

describing the destruction of the evil

Shepherds but notice this the next part

it's the destruction of the rebellious

nation and what we see in this is it's

describing the destruction of the temple

which is their Center of life it's the

destruction of their land and it's the

destruction of their

River um their River of Life that flows

down through the nation what's the name

of that River the Jordan River it flows

from the north all the way to the South

and I want you to see this in verse one

it says open your doors o Lebanon so

this is in the north and what grows in

the Lebanon in Lebanon these vast there

was a vast Cedar Forest there it was

known it wasn't a very highly populated

place but it was a beautiful huge forest

in fact very important the lumber that

would build the temple of God in

Jerusalem would come from

Lebanon so this part is

describing not only the source of what

God had provided for the temple but the

temple itself is going to be

destroyed and this is pointing perhaps

to right out there to the side

ad70 in the year .70 what happened to

Jerusalem it was utterly destroyed this

is after the Life of Christ the work of

Christ The Gospel is gone out churches

are being planted around the

Mediterranean world but there was a

tremendous rebellion of the Jewish

Nation after Jesus's time against the

Romans and what did the Romans do they

sent a general whose name was

Titus and Titus came with Roman army and

he destroys he wipes out Jerusalem in

fact he knocks the temple down and

prophecy after prophecy this was God's

holy place with God's holy people but

because of their persistent Rebellion

God allowed them to be destroyed whom

the Lord loved

he

chastens in in fact the tremendous gold

that was all around the top of the

Portico around the temple it would come

and the fire was so great of these

Cedars and these Oaks these Cypress

burning the fire was so great it melted

the gold and the gold flowed down

between all the stones that built the

building and it fell into the gold

flowed down into all the crevices so

that Jesus's own prophecy would be

fulfilled that said not one stone will

be left upon

another why was not one stone left upon

another because of the

gold they were going after the Gold and

so Jesus's own prophecy that this Temple

will be completely destroyed would come

to be and we want to see here open your

doors o Lebanon that the fire may devour

your Cedars we know jop Josephus says

that when the Romans came to destroy the

temple the doors of the temple these

massive bronze Gates were were thrown

open and when the doors were thrown open

the temple was consumed whail oh Cyprus

for the cedar Has Fallen for the

Glorious trees are ruined so this is the

idea of it's not only the temple and

what was built there but the source of

it all was the door was

destroyed whail oh Oaks of Bashan for

the thick forest has been F so the land

has been

destroyed and then look with me at the

end of verse or verse three it says the

sound of the whale of the Shepherds for

their glory is ruined the sound of the

Roar of lions for the thicket of the

Jordan is ruined the thicket of the

Jordan what does that mean when you have

water flowing what is usually around a

stream or around a

river reads

why because there's water there right so

a lot grows around water right and it

can grow up high and they would have to

cut through it to get to the river but

they would even sometimes devel it more

and they would make it agricultural land

near to the

river but here we see that this River of

Life that is flowing through the

land of Israel is destroyed it's even

inhabited by lions now who wants to go

hang out where there's

lions and lions were certainly all

around this area um we see that through

ancient history we see that through the

history of the Bible but we we see that

d David is defending sheep against Bears

and against Lions we see that Samson

deals with lions in the Old Testament

here we see that the Lions multiply and

everyone lives in fear they can't even

go near the river in part because of the

great curse and the danger and the

destruction that is here so what we're

seeing in this is that when a people

persist in rebelling against

God there is a great

judgment well so there's this first sign

act and it's in chapter uh 11: 4 and

through 14 and it's that Zachariah is

called to be God's Shepherd

agent and so this is Zachariah is

representing God he is God to the people

in a way the God's

messenger and we see in verse four thus

says the Lord my God become Shepherd of

the flock and it's a FL it's a flock

that is what doomed to slaughter you see

they're on their way to

destruction those who buy them slaughter

them and go unpunished so here's the

idea that there were bad leaders and

those bad leaders would buy them and

they would sell them they would use them

for their own gain and look what they

would say in verse 5 it says those who

buy them slaughter them and go

unpunished and those those who sell them

say blessed be the Lord I have become

rich you know what that is that is

outright mockery of God so these evil

people are saying look what God gave me

as he destroys God's people he profits

off of God's people you see it's not

only in that day and time but through

every age there have been leaders who

rise up in the name of God and exploit

God's people for their own gain you can

read the little letter of Jude in the in

the back of your new testament it

describes it in Jesus's day 500 years

later and it descri the letter of Jude

could be written in

2025 for things that are done in the

name of God by false

leaders so fill these in with me

Zachariah acts as God's Shepherd agent

God has great intention for them God has

the intention of favor that means

blessing that's God's grace upon them he

has a staff to bring his blessing upon

them we see that and he has Union his

purpos is that they would be United not

only with him but with one

another so you know it's amazing to me

right out there to the side

union

relationship starting point people

fellow what were we talking about this

morning yes Fellowship right on Q what

else the whole idea of

relationship we talk about relationship

not only with God but also with one

another God's plan is the he's the

uniter he's the reconciler he's the the

ultimate

unionist that's his design Satan is the

separator Satan is the isol Ator Satan

is the selfish one God is the selfless

one and so we see that God's design is

blessing or favor in Union and so notice

this in verse five those who buy them

slaughter them go unpunished they sell

them and say blessed be the Lord because

I have become rich and their own

Shepherds have no pity upon them that is

the horror of it look at verse six for I

will no longer have pity on the in AB

abits of the land declares the Lord

because be behold I will cause each of

them to fall into the hand of his

neighbor and each into the hand of his

King and they shall crush the land and I

will deliver none in their land and then

look down in verse 7 so I became The

Shepherd of the flock doomed to be

slaughtered by sheep Traders and I took

two

staffs one I named favor and the other I

named Union

look at

verse seven at the end and I tended the

Sheep so even in the midst of our

Rebellion do you see what God does God

so often still brings blessing still

hope still opportunity tends them but

look what the response is in one month I

destroyed the three Shepherds but I

became impatient with them and they also

detested me so I said will not be your

Shepherd what is to die let it die what

is to be destroyed let it be destroyed

and those who are left Devour the Flesh

of one another so I want you to see this

back up there in the middle there the

people detest him that's what ultimately

has happens the shepherd allows their

destruction that's what is happening

verse four shows us their rebellious

verse 5 shows us The Wicked leaders mock

God they say look I made all this money

God must have blessed me as I ravage the

sheep in verse six we see that there is

great consequences because of the

Rebellion so verse 7even Zachariah acts

to protect and guide so he has a staff

favor and Union two staffs favor and

Union he Shepherds the people but the

wicked leaders are wiped out now which

Wicked leaders are these are the the

Kings the prophets and the priests

perhaps some with would suggest that

this was during Jesus's day the

Pharisees the Sadducees and the

herodians the Pharisees were the

legalists the Sadducees were the um were

the ones who did not believe in the

resurrection they were more Savvy with

the local government um they were more

the the upper intellectual Elite um and

then there were the herodians who were

certainly going to bring about uh change

and bring about uh Independence through

political power so in in League with

Herod or in League with some of his

people the the idea is is that whether

it was Old Testament Prophet priests and

uh Kings or whether it was in Jesus's

day we see this all of them ultimately

were wiped

out nevertheless the people hate God

says that they detested

him in verse 9 the people are turned

over to

destruction and look in verse 9 with me

this is so graphic so I said I will not

be your Shepherd what is to die let it

die what is to be destroyed let it be

destroyed and let those who are left

Devour the Flesh of one another here's

part of the picture here we see in

Lamentations 2:20 in Deuteronomy and

Lamentations 2:20

jerem and Jeremiah that at different

sieges when the enemies of Israel came

against Israel and drove wove them into

their fortresses they were sieged you

know what that means to be under siege

that means you're in a safe place you're

in a high place you're in a tower you're

in a castle you're in a high city a

walled City but there's an enemy Army

all around you on the outside and what

they would seek to do is either cause

you to be um to be thirsted out they

would cut off water coming in but very

often those high places would either

have large sists where they could catch

rain water and store it for long periods

of time or there'd be a well there'd be

a well that would be very very deep and

they could have water but eventually if

you're in a walled City with hundreds or

thousands of people eventually you run

not out of water but you run out of what

food and so as time would go on as the

months would go on what begins to happen

there's less and less food and we see

this is common through human history in

different areas that can ISM winds up

being their

option so how bad can your Rebellion

get it can lead to

cannibalism that's about as bad as it

gets right for a

people you hear about the sports teams

that playing crashes in the Andes and

the only way for them to to

survive was

that you hear about other events

certainly these sieges we here we see in

the word of God

that desperation leads to this and this

is in part why the Apostle Paul would

later write to churches that were having

trouble getting along and he would say

would you stop being so unloving to one

another instead of loving one another

you devour one

another now they weren't literally

eating each other's flesh but they were

eating each one each other spiritually

they were behaving so badly as churches

they were such ranker we talked about

that that in starting point this morning

there are many people who have come to

us from other churches and they say well

when I was a kid growing up I just

remember that people acted very ungodly

at

church when you would have thought that

they would be good people that would

love one another and care for one

another I remember how my mother was

treated or I remember how my father was

treated or I watched my father treat

other people bad or I

myself was grossly treated through

gossip or slander or

attacks you see some of the people who

can be so hard on one another are the

people who claim the name of

God where there's disunity and hatred

and a lack of forgiveness and no

Grace and so we see

that this is what Israel's Rebellion

leads

to in verse 10 and 11 we see this notice

what it says in verse 10 and I took my

staff

favor and I broke it anuling the

Covenant I had made with all the peoples

so it was an on that day and the Sheep

Traders so that's the evil leaders

around were watching me knew that it was

the word of the Lord so they could see

that God's judgment now was on his

people notice this over there on the

right God does not break but anuls the

Covenant God never breaks his Covenant

he anuls it when we see and there are

some covenants that were as we will see

here there are some covenants that are

conditional covenants that this will

happen so long as you do this there will

be blessings on this and then there are

other covenants that we see are

unconditional covenants the

unconditional covenants are like genesis

chter 15 the Covenant with Abraham or

Sam 2 Samuel chapter 7 The Covenant with

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

David the davidic Covenant was a

covenant that is Everlasting it will

never end it will never be an olded it

will never be

broken but here we see that because of

Israel's

Disobedience they they are

experiencing God's hand of judgment and

God's hand of judgment comes in fact

through themselves turn over to the last

page notice in verse 12 we see a very

interesting thing pop up then I said to

them if it seems good to you give me my

wages so Zachariah says okay I've been

your Prophet if it seems good to you pay

me for my prophecy

um not saying as in propheter but that

was the that was the uh the way that it

worked that that as a prophet worked he

had to live on something and so uh the

prophet of God would be given a wage and

he says to them if it seems good to you

give me white wages but if not keep them

and they weighed out as my wages 30

pieces of silver then the Lord said to

me throw it to the Potter so the Lord

says don't keep what they gave

you throw it to the Potter the lordly

price at which I was priced by them so I

took the 30 pieces of silver and threw

them into the house of the Lord to the

Potter then I broke my second staff

Union annulling the Brotherhood between

Judah and Israel so this is as if there

is now a curse that they will not stand

together they will be separated not only

from God but they're going to be

separated from one another and they will

come to utter ruin

which is exactly what

happened verse 12-4 this great symbolic

rejection of God's sa saving

intention message and Messiah that is

what happens God is saving them he's

saying I it's my intent to save you I

have a message of salvation for you I

have a messiah of salvation for

you but you're rejecting all of it which

is exactly what they did with

Jesus he came to his own and his own

received him not he did Miracle after

Miracle before their very eyes he

started his ministry from the book of

Isaiah quoting to them that God's plan

had come and then he showed them who he

was and before their very

eyes they would not

believe because their hearts Jesus said

did not want to

believe Solomon's kingdom is divided in

each

other Israel under jeroboam Judah under

rehoboam the kingdom is divided and then

eventually we see that God's people

separated from him in their Rebellion

cut

off this is a dark day for a nation who

has been selected

to have the blessings of

God all of this is revealing to us just

just so you know all of this is

revealing to us friends when you read

passages like this in the Old

Testament it should be to

you a

warning that our hearts can be so hard

against

God your heart can be so hard against

God my

heart and that is the condition of

Man Without God coming and working in

our hearts without him coming and

working in our spirit without him coming

and allowing us to hear his voice

calling us to himself we will rebel

against

him but his salvation comes and it does

what we could never

do notice with me in verse 15 then the

Lord said to me take once more the

equipment of a foolish Shepherd for

behold I am raising up in the land a

Shepherd who does not care for those

being destroyed you see a Shepherd

should care for those being destroyed

but the Lord is raising up a Shepherd in

the land a Shepherd who does not care

for those being destroyed or seek the

young or heal the maimed or nourish the

healthy isn't that what a Shepherd

should do a Shepherd should go and seek

out the young and say ooh this little

one needs me this little one needs

special protection okay sheep you guys

stay over there okay we got this one

he's brand new it's going to take him a

little while to get going I'll I'll stay

close to him we'll make sure that his

mom make sure he gets plenty to to to

eat he's going to he's going to make it

a good shepherd does that he nourishes

the healthy he brings them what does the

Good Shepherd do the Lord is my shepherd

I shall not want he causes me to what

lie down in Green Pastures that means he

leads me to such great pastures that I

eat and I'm

full and I lie down in Green Pastures he

leads me besides what still water so I'm

not being led by Rushing Water that

could hurt me and drown me I'm being led

to Still Water where I can go and drink

in peace he he does what he he restores

my

soul so these Shepherds this Shepherd

that's being raised up is the exact

opposite of the Good

Shepherd what does he do he devours the

Flesh of the fat ones tearing off even

their Hooves so like a ravenous

Beast he

consumes the

flock in verse 17 talks of this woe to

my worthless Shepherd so this is God's

judgment on that worthless Shepherd who

deserts the flock May the sword strike

his arm and his right eye let his arm be

wholly withered and his right eye

utterly

blinded you see this is the second sign

act that is here in verse 15-1 17 a

wicked Shepherd comes to Devour the

flock and this is perhaps a reference to

the

Antichrist this is perhaps in that

multi-layered

prophecy and there's some reasons if you

read Revelation 13 1-5 this afternoon

you may see some

correlation to this Shepherd who will

come to only

destroy and you may see some correlation

of this Shepherd who is

wounded and continues his ravenous

Rampage but look with me there

back up in verse 12 for just a

moment there's this 30 pieces of

silver there's this 30 pieces of silver

that seem to

represent God's

sacrifice and a holy inadequate price

that is paid for the deception of Judas

es scariot in his work look with me in

Matthew chapter 26 now down there at the

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

bottom of the

page then one of the 12 whose name was

Judas es scariot went to the chief

priests and said what will you give me

if I deliver him over to

you and they paid him 30 pieces of

silver now this is very

interesting we we see that judas's

scariot does not argue about the price

he just says what is the price and they

go he'll take 30 pieces

which was not a large amount it's what

you would pay listen to this for a

slave and from that moment he sought an

opportunity to betray

him while he was still speaking Judas

came one of the 12 and with a crowd this

is in the Garden of Gethsemane while he

was still speaking Judas came one of the

TW and with him a great crowd with

swords and clubs from the chief priest

and the El ERS of the people verse 48

now the betrayer had given them a sign

saying the one I kiss is the man sees

him verse 49 and he came up to Jesus at

once and said greetings Rabbi and he

kissed him and Jesus said to him

friend do what you came to

do then they came up and laid hands on

Jesus and seized him

Jesus is taken to the

Cross lays down his

life look at Matthew 27:

1-10 when morning came all the chief

priests and the elders took counsel

against Jesus to put him to death and

they bound him and led him away and

delivered him over to pilate the

governor then when Jesus his betrayer

saw that Jesus was condemned underline

it he changed his

mind and brought back the 30 pieces of

silver to the chief priests elders and

saying I have sinned by betraying

innocent blood they said what is that to

us see to it

yourself and throwing down the pieces of

silver into the temple he departed and

went and hanged

himself but the chief priest taking the

pieces of silver said it is not lawful

to put them into the treasury since it

is blood money now how sanctimonious of

them oh we can't use this you know this

is the treasury is Holy money this is

this is blood

Money against the

Messiah so they took

counsel and brought with them and bought

with them The Potter's field as a burial

place for strangers do you know what a

Potter's field

was in that day they didn't have

Tupperware they didn't have plastic they

didn't have metal can they didn't have

all of that they had Pottery that's how

you carried water that's how you carried

oil that's how you carried flour it's

how you carried practically everything

everything was done with pots and it was

all done with ceramic pots and when a

piece of

pottery um The Potter's field he would

be making something very often in the

forming of it and then the the the uh

curing of it there would be an

imperfection there would be a problem

with it and so they would take that

piece of pottery and they would throw it

away and it would be thrown away and it

couldn't be thrown into an agricultural

field because that would ruin the soil

in the agricultural field so they had

places that were designated just for

broken

pottery that's what it was for

you couldn't use it for anything it

wouldn't grow anything but what could

you do there in The Potter's field well

if you had someone that someone had come

to Jerusalem either for a festival or

they had come for one of the religious

purposes they'd come for business

whatever and they died and there was no

family around what what did what did the

law call for it called for them to be

buried

immediately and so they would have to be

buried and no one would maybe know who

they were or where they were there was

no for them there was no place for

them there was no family taking care of

them and so a place for the worthless

who had

died was The Potter's field that the

money that had bought the slave of the

Lord Jesus Christ for our

sons bought that

field a burial place for

strangers verse 8 therefore that field

has been called the field of blood to

this

day then was fulfilled what had been

said by the Prophet Jeremiah saying and

they took the 30 pieces of silver the

price of him on whom a price had been

set by some of the sons of Israel you

see these were those

leaders the sons of Israel and they gave

them for the potterfield as the Lord

directed

me my friends God has such a Plan of

Salvation that even through all of our

Rebellion listen even through all of our

wristen our Diamond hard Hearts God is

saying I love you

still and if you'll come to me if you'll

come to me in belief if you'll come to

me in Repentance I will restore

you and the attitude is not that oh I'm

holy but the attitude must become

oh I am

sinful I have sinned against a holy

God but this holy God

says I will save

you notice the one response to all of

this it's by the Apostle Paul the

Apostle Paul says this in 1 Timothy chap

1 and verse1 15 Christ Jesus came into

the world to what save

Sinners of whom I am the

foremost this is the attitude Which

experiences the radical salvation of God

that the people of Isaiah so desperately

need so what is it it's bad

Shepherds it's hard

hearts that leads to cannibal

conditions but there is a

messiah who came to save us from Bad

Shepherds hard hearts and cannibal

conditions would you stand with me for

prayer