Like a Foolish Shepherd (Zechariah 11:1-17) (October 26, 2025)

Like a Foolish Shepherd (Zechariah 11:1-17) Living Life 10/26/2025 Daily Devotional Bible Study

 

 

Like a Foolish Shepherd (Zechariah 11:1-17) Living Life 10/26/2025 Daily Devotional Bible Study

 

 

Introduction: Jesus, the Shepherd and Savior

Welcome to living life.

Throughout scripture Jesus refers to himself as our savior using different and beautiful analogies.
He refers to himself as a doctor who comes to say heal the sick.
He also refers to himself as a vine to which we are the branches to a shepherd door by which sheep enter through him into their pen.
Ah he he likens himself to the light of the world by which we can see everything.
But one of the most beautiful analogies, one of the most beautiful illustrations

of Jesus as our savior is that of a shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep.
True shepherds good shepherds love their sheep and care for them.
They love them so much that they willingly sacrificed themselves in order to save their sheep.
Here we see how Zecaria acts out his prophecy as a shepherd over a doomed flock and that points us then to the coming day when there will be a good shepherd who is doomed for his flock.

 

 

Like a Foolish Shepherd

 

 

Scripture Reading: Zechariah 11:1–17

Zachariah Chapter eleven verses one to seventeen

Open your doors Lebanon so that fire may devour your cedars whale you juniper for the cedar has fallen the stately trees are ruined Whale oaks of Bashan the dance forest has been cut down.
Listen to the whale of the shepherds their rich pastures are destroyed Listen to the rear of the lions the lush thicket of the Jordan is ruined.
This is what the Lord My God says Shepherd the flock marked for slaughter their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished.

Those who sell them say praise the Lord I am rich their own shepherds do not spare them for I will no longer have pity on the people of the land declares the Lord.
I will give everyone into the hands of their neighbors and their king They will devastate the land and I will not rescue anyone from their hands.
So I shepherded the flock marked for slaughter particularly the oppressed of the flock.
Then I took two staffs and called one favor and the other union and I shepherded the flock.

In one month I got rid of the three shepherds.
The flock detested me and I grew weary of them and said I will not be your shepherd.
Let the dying die and the perishing perish.
Let those who are left eat one another's flesh.
Then I took my staff called Favor and broke it revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations.
It was revoked on that day and so the oppressed of the flock who were watching me knew it was the word of the Lord.
I told them

if you think it best give me my pay but if not keep it.
So they paid me 30 pieces of silver and the lord said to me throw it to the potter the handsome price at which they valued me.
So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord.
Then I broke my second staff called Union breaking the family bond between Judah and Israel.
Then the Lord said to me take again the equipment of a foolish shepherd

for I am going to raise up a shepherd over the land who will not care for the lost or seek the young or heal the injured or feed the healthy but will eat the meat of the choice sheep tearing off their hooves woe to the worthless shepherd who deserts the flock.
May the sword strike his arm and his right eye may his arm be completely withered his right eye totally blinded

 

The Judgment of False Shepherds

So let's look at what Zc. Garay teaches us.
First God sends a shepherd to a doomed flock.
In verses one to three God's judgment is coming upon all of Israel because their shepherds have fallen.
Their shepherds were false teachers and leaders who led them astray and by which people the rebellious people of Israel willingly went astray.
And then in verse four God calls Zecaria to be a shepherd to these people who are going to be judged by God

for their sin and unbelief.
In other words he tells Ecaria to be a shepherd to a people who are doomed because of their sin.
The Lord says this in verse six 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 hands of his neighbor and each into the hand of his king and they shall crush the land and I will deliver none from their hand.
Secondly God's shepherd was rejected and betrayed by his very own people.

 

The Rejection and Betrayal of God’s Shepherd

After becoming their shepherd Zecaria is rejected by the flock.
He has two staffs each representing God's favor and union with his divided people and as he tends to them they come to reject and hate him.
In verse seven look at what he says he says I tended the sheep and then he later on goes to say I became impatient with them and they also detested me.
And so what does he do? He rejects them and they reject him

and so Zacarai refuses to shepherd them and leaves them to their doomed fate because they would not repent and follow the Lord.
And as a sign of their judgment Zecharia breaks the staff the staff signifying God's favor that shows their covenant love with God and God's covenant love with them and that's broken now.
And then when he asks for his wages they give him thirty pieces of silver which was the price in the old testament that was paid

for a pierced servant gored by a bull half the compensation for a full a healthy servant.
And this was considered an insult a rejection of Zacaria by God's people.
They are rejecting their shepherd and so God tells Ecaria to throw it into the potter ah the the potter of the temple which was where they kept money.
And then Zcari goes on to break the second staff to show the break between the two kingdoms and this is why they were a doomed flock because they broke covenant with God.

 

The Coming of the True Shepherd

And then lastly we see the coming of God's true shepherd the true good shepherd who dies for his doomed sheep.
Our passage shows us how a shepherd is betrayed and rejected by a people doomed in judgment.
And this points us to the coming day when Jesus comes as God's true shepherd God's good shepherd to shepherd a doomed people he came to shepherd a doomed people by saving them from their rebellion and sin.
He came to be betrayed and rejected by God's flock.
He came to be betrayed by Judas

for thirty pieces of silver the price of a pierced servant.
He is the fulfillment of Isaiah's suffering servant in Isaiah Chapter fifty three who was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities.
He was rejected by his own people who yelled out crucify him crucify him.
So how does he come then to shepherd his people?
He comes by laying down his life for them by taking their sins by taking the doom that they deserve so that they may be saved

from that doom. Do you see that when our sin broke our relationship to God Jesus was broken for us so that we might be one with God?
This is what a good shepherd does for his sheep.
He takes our doom so we might be saved from it.
Jesus said this I am the good shepherd.
The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.
I am the good shepherd I know my own and my own know me just as the father knows me and I know the father and I laid down my life for the sheep.

 

 

When have you seen sin and selfishness resulting in broken promises and relationships?

 

 

The Response: Faith and Gratitude

So let us remember what Jesus did for us as our good shepherd that when we rejected him he didn't reject us.
When we betrayed him he willingly was betrayed and was given over for thirty pieces of silver that he was pierced through as the suffering servant of God to save a doomed people.
In other words he was the good shepherd who was doomed for us so that we would not be doomed.
And so let us then put our faith in him let us trust in him let us follow him

 

Prayer

as we pray together Heavenly Father We're so humbled by this truth.
We confess that we have like laws sheep wandered away, followed after worthless things and not trusted in your son as we ought.
Would you forgive us of our unfaithfulness?
Thank you Jesus our good shepherd who willingly suffered betrayal for our sake was given over for thirty pieces of silver and suffered and died so that we might be saved.
May we always remember this wonderful gift of salvation

and we pray Lord for all of those who would hear his voice would they follow him and trust in him as their sheep as your sheep in Jesus name We pray Amen.