Zechariah 13:7
“Awake, sword, against my shepherd,
against the man who is close to me!”
declares the Lord Almighty.
“Strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered,
and I will turn my hand against the little ones.” (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Zechariah 13:7-9
Zechariah’s prophecy speaks of the one who is God’s shepherd. This shepherd is the same as the “man who is close” to God. We established yesterday that this shepherd can only be Jesus because it the man who is close to God means that he is equal to God. This was no mere mortal man. This was God in the flesh:
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isa 7:14).
Immanuel means “God with us.” Jesus came from heaven to live among us and show us what God is really like. He claimed to be God and thus fulfilled Zechariah’s prophecy:
“No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father” (John 6:46)
“I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).
“Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
Based on Jesus’s claims, he was either God in the flesh or a liar speaking blasphemy. The Jews who heard Jesus teach didn’t miss his message. He was sent by God, he has seen God, he was there at Creation and he is God. So either the Jews would believe his message or they would have to kill him. Some believed him but most didn’t and thus Zechariah’s prophecy was further fulfilled – a sword would be drawn against God’s shepherd and it would strike him.
As much as I speak of Jesus’s crucifixion at the hands of the Jews, there’s a tension that should be addressed. Yes the Jews and Romans both crucified Jesus. The Romans were merely the instrument that the Jewish leaders used to get the job done. The Jewish leaders relentlessly pursued Jesus until they accomplished their mission.
But the tension lies in the fact that Jesus didn’t come to earth with any other plan but to be crucified. He didn’t come to reign as an earthly king and the Jews foiled it and crucified him instead. That’s what Zechariah’s prophecy says. Zechariah’s prophecy is a quote from God. God is calling for the sword. Read it again:
“Awake, sword, against my shepherd,
against the man who is close to me!”
declares the Lord Almighty.
“Strike the shepherd.”
God is summoning the sword to wake up and strike Jesus. God gave us the image of what was happening here when he asked Abraham to raise his sword to kill his only son Isaac:
“When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son” (Gen 22:9-10).
God stopped Abraham from following through with executing his only son. But God didn’t spare Himself. He did follow through. It was the plan all along. He knew that the Jews would have no choice but to execute Jesus. Jesus left them no choice. But make no mistake, this was God’s plan and ultimately God is the one who struck His only son. And we know that God struck His only son for our sake:
“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14).
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17).
Jesus came for us. His sacrifice proves his love for us is greater than any other love we will ever experience. And his resurrection proves that he was who he said he was – God in the flesh. On this Christmas Eve, we worship Jesus for his gracious gift to us of eternal life. Immanuel – God with us – came to earth to sacrifice himself so that we could be saved.
“But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’
“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means “God with us”)” (Matt 1:20-23).
Christ in the Old Testament 
Leave a comment