Zechariah 11:17

Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.

Woe to the idol shepherd. The Hebrew [ haa'ªliyl (H457)] expresses both vanity and an idol. Compare Isaiah 14:13; Daniel 11:36; 2 Thessalonians 2:4; Revelation 13:5, as to the idolatrous and blasphemous claims of Antichrist.

That leaveth the flock! The "idol shepherd that leaveth the flock" cannot apply to Rome, but to some ruler among the Jews themselves, at first cajoling, then "leaving" them, nay, destroying them (Daniel 9:27; Daniel 11:30-27).

The sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye - God's sword shall descend on his "arm," the instrument of his tyranny toward the sheep (2 Thessalonians 2:8); and on his "right eye," wherewith he ought to have watched the sheep (John 10:12). However, Antichrist shall destroy, rather than "leave the flock." Perhaps, therefore, the reference is to the shepherds who left the flock to Antichrist's rapacity, identifying themselves with Antichrist's blasphemous claims, and so becoming "idol shepherds," and who, in just retribution, shall feel Antichrist's "sword" on their "arm," which ought to have protected the flock, but did not, and on their "eye," which had failed duly to watch the sheep from hurt. The blinding of "the right eye" has attached to it the notion of especial ignominy (1 Samuel 11:2).

Remarks:

(1) Where the fuel of sin unrepented of is, there "the fire" of the divine retribution shall devour (Zechariah 11:1). If even the stately "cedars" (Zechariah 11:1) cannot escape, much less shall the low and comparatively worthless "fir trees" avert the judgment of God. Alike the heights of "Lebanon" and the depressed valley of "the Jordan" witnessed the destruction of the once highly favoured Israelites, when they had hardened themselves against all the long-suffering and loving-kindness of their God. When they had turned the temple, which was once their glory, into shame, in just retribution, "their glory was spoiled" (Zechariah 11:3).

(2) Messiah was commissioned to "feed the flock" (Zechariah 11:4): and He did feed all who were willing to be fed by Him. But those whom He would have made "His own," if they had submitted to His tending care-namely, the great body of His nation Israel - "received Him not" (John 1:11).

Therefore, by their own wicked obstinacy, instead of being "the sheep of His pasture" (Psalms 100:3), they became "the flock of the slaughter" (Zechariah 11:4). So, still, the Lord Jesus fulfils this double function of saving believers and condemning Unbelievers. His Gospel offer of salvation is a "savour of life unto life" to the former, "the savour of death unto death" to the latter (2 Corinthians 2:15). "The word" of grace which He now speaks, and which so many reject, shall be their heaviest condemnation "in the last day" (John 12:48).

(3) The unfaithfulness of God's professing people puts a sword into the hands of their enemies. The latter would be powerless to hurt the professors of the truth, if it were not for the sad inconsistencies which alienate God from His nominal people. Judah's sin took away Judah's defense; so that the Romans, in "slaying" her people, were not "held," either by themselves or by God, "guilty" of an assault on Yahweh in the person of His people: for the Jews were no longer His people. Their own rulers had really "sold" the nation when they sold "the King of the Jews," the true "Israel," and Representative of the covenant-people, to the Gentile Romans, for "thirty pieces of silver" (Zechariah 11:5; Zechariah 11:10; Zechariah 11:12).

(4) It is rank and loathsome hypocrisy to "bless the Lord" because of "riches," gained by sin. The rulers, pastors, and masters, who have no "pity" on those committed to their care (Zechariah 11:5), shall find no "pity" from the Lord (Zechariah 11:6). Sinful gains are short-lived gains; and they who, like the Jews, sell their Lord for some fancied earthly object, shall find in the end they have made an awfully dear bargain: for "what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26.)

(5) While the Roman king, whom Judah had made "his king" (Zechariah 11:6), assailed the Jews from without, and mutual discord within (Zechariah 11:9, end) set everyone's "hand" against his neighbour, so that the whole nation was smitten with "slaughter" (Zechariah 11:7), "the poor of the flock" were fed by the good Shepherd (Zechariah 11:7). Christ is the poor man's King. "The poor in spirit" are "chosen" by Him to be "rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him" (James 2:5).

(6) The "beauty" and union of a nation go together (Zechariah 11:7). The grace, glory, and excellency of a people continue so long as they are joined by the "bands" of a common faith and common laws. Messiah would have given the elect nation their truest "beauty" in Himself, who is "altogether lovely" (Song of Solomon 5:16), and "the glory of His people Israel" (Luke 2:32). He, too, is the only true "band" to unite as one in Himself all Judah and Israel (cf. Ephesians 2:14). But they would not. "Their soul abhorred him" (Zechariah 11:8).

Therefore no room or scope was left by them for the grace of God to show itself toward them. He, whose bowels of compassion are infinitely large, "was straitened" by their narrowness of soul, which caused them to reject Him (note, Zechariah 11:8). Messiah would "feed" them no more. They were given over to their own willful blindness and consequent doom, since they would not come to Him who would have saved them (Zechariah 11:9). The tokens of the covenant between God and the elect nation were then set aside (Zechariah 11:10).

(7) So, by the event, the humble and believing few among the people knew the truth of "the word of the Lord" and of Messiah's divine mission (Zechariah 11:11). "They that wait upon the Lord" are always made to understand His ways, however perplexing they seem to the world. He waits to be gracious to all who wait upon Him. However low the state of religion in the world may fall, God has always a "remnant according to the election of grace;" and He will be "with them alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20).

(8) The paltry price at which the good Shepherd was valued by, the Jewish nation was "cast unto the potter." This action was, without the consciousness of the actors, awfully significant of the doom awaiting the nation at the hands of God. For God hath absolute power over all men, as the potter hath over the clay which he fashioneth: and Yahweh-Messiah will "dash" His impenitent adversaries "in pieces, like a potter's vessel" (Psalms 2:9). They are His most guilty adversaries who, like the Jews in Jesus' days on earth, and like apostate Christians in our days, are so "in the house of the Lord."

(9) They who will not have the good Shepherd shall, in just retribution, be given over to a bad shepherd. The Jews, who rejected Jesus for Caesar, found Caesar to be the "instrument" of their severe punishment. Those who in the last days apostatize from Christ shall experience Antichrist's yoke to be very different from the light and easy yoke of the Saviour. But "woe to the idol shepherd" (Zechariah 11:17) "that leaveth the flock." The chief weight of God's vengeance shall fall on the rulers and pastors who have abused and neglected their high trust. Let us all be on our guard against the various dangers which threaten the visible Church in these latter times, and which shall reach their climax just before the manifestation of the Lord in glory. So shall we "be counted worthy to escape" the coming judgments, "and to stand before the Son of man."