Zechariah 11:5
“whose owners slaughter them and feel no guilt; those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich’; and their shepherds do not pity them.” (NKJV)
Today’s Reading: Zechariah 11:4-6
Yesterday we were introduced to this prophecy as God tells Zechariah to “feed the flock for slaughter.” Zechariah is going to act out what will happen when the Messiah comes. The first act was to feed the flock which was symbolic of the Messiah preaching to the people of Israel. However, they are marked for slaughter because they would not accept Jesus’s message.
Today we look at the owners of the sheep who are marked for slaughter. These owners slaughter the sheep and feel no guilt. They sell the sheep for their personal profit and have no remorse about it. They do not pity the sheep as they should.
When Jesus arrived, his number one target were these “owners” who we can easily identify as the Pharisees and teachers of the law. Jesus told us what he thought of these leaders:
“Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, ‘The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden.
“Everything they do is for show. On their arms they wear extra wide prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside, and they wear robes with extra long tassels. And they love to sit at the head table at banquets and in the seats of honor in the synagogues. They love to receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi’” (Matt 23:1-7, NLT).
Jesus nails it here. The Pharisees were in a powerful position as the owners of the sheep. But they didn’t truly care for them. They used them for personal gain. They liked being owners and being treated like they were owners. Their own personal gain was their only concern.
In the same setting, right after Jesus said these words, he went into a fairly lengthy list of accusations against the Pharisees – seven to be exact. The first accusation fits right into our prophecy from Zechariah. Jesus said to the Pharisees:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to” (Matt 23:13).
The sheep are being slaughtered by their owners for personal gain. They show no pity. However, they will also be slaughtered. God sees what they are doing and will punish them accordingly. Mark recorded a similar warning from Jesus:
“As he taught, Jesus said, ‘Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely’” (Mark 12:38-40).
Jesus uses the same symbology of the sheep that God uses for Zechariah in trying to explain to the Pharisees that they are not the rightful owners. They think they are the owners of the sheep but they don’t act like owners. When trouble comes, they will abandon the sheep to save themselves:
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep” (John 10:11-13).
Jesus spent a considerable amount of time telling the people not to listen to the Pharisees. He exposed them for the frauds that they were time and time again. But even Jesus could only do so much. He couldn’t make people listen to him instead of the Pharisees. Unlike sheep, people have a choice of who to follow. It’s up to us to determine who is acting like an owner and who is truly the owner. We must be discerning to follow the right leaders:
“‘But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’ Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matt 16:11-12).
We must be sure we are following Jesus and not these false teachers. The world says there are lots of roads that lead to God. Depending on the religion that you follow, heaven can be attained in a variety of ways. But all of those roads lead to destruction. Jesus told us how to reach God the Father. There is only one way. We are not sheep without the ability to think. We have free will and we must choose who we follow.
“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well’” (John 14:6-7).
Christ in the Old Testament 
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