Prophecy – Zechariah 8-14

As I typed these words, it is at the end of a wonderful Sunday where by the grace of God, 16 souls were added to the fold of the Great Shepherd.  And it was also a wonderful day for the Pre-Teens camp where many teacher-shepherds mixed with the tweenies for an afternoon of fun at the Botanical Gardens and role plays in the evening.

I am feeling extremely tired but happy.

Happy in the knowledge that God continues to bless us with His grace.  Happy that there are a number of faithful young teachers who are willing to make the time and effort to spend it with the young flock.

But I do not think I am as tired as Zechariah or as happy as him as he prophesised about the new Jerusalem and coming reign of the Good Shepherd King!

Bible Passage:  Zechariah 8-14

As I was reading through the various prophecies concerning Israel and her enemy nations, Christ second coming and the establishment of His kingdom, a couple of passages left a deep impression upon me and I hope that you may also learn from them as I have.

Woe To The Worthless Shepherd

This is taken from Zech 11:4-17.

Zechariah is commanded to be the shepherd of a flock which is doomed for slaughter.

Despite God’s long suffering patience, Israel continued to test God by not separating themselvces from the influence of their neighbours.  God ‘gave up’ on them and allowed them to fall into the hands of their enemies.

What follows in an interesting illustration where Zechariah takes up two staffs – one named Beauty and the other Bonds.

The staff Favour is symbolic of God’s grace towards Israel and the staff Bonds is symbolic of the promised bond of unity of the divided nations.  However, because of the rebellious nature of the flock, the shepherd breaks the first staff and so – God’s favour and beauty is removed from Israel and they are vulnerable to trials and afflictions.

It is interesting to read that the amount that the Jewish officials deemed the shepherd to be worthy of was thirty pieces of silver.  Zechariah is commanded by God to throw the thirty pieces of silver to the potter.  At this point, the second staff is broken and this signifies that the orginal brotherhood between Judah and Israel is now over.

And one cannot help noticing that the prophetic fulfillment of this part of the Scripture was played out in the details of the Good Shepherd’s betrayal where Judas also threw down thirty pieces of silver.

The final verses of the chapter talks about the final rejection of the shepherd.  With hindsight now, we know that this is prophetic of the Jewish nation following the rejection of Jesus.

The worthless leaders who have rebelled against the Good Shepherd and did not want Jesus to be the leader that the people sought in fact did suffer from the “loss of arm” and “right eye”.  They were left weak and without and spiritaul insight and later led the Jewish nation into a catastrophic rebellion against Rome – which ultimately resulted in the destruction of the temple and themselves.

But what about today?

We are all called to be shepherds today.  Remember when Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him?  And to Peter’s response each time, Jesus told him to care for His sheep and lambs.

We are also asked the same question today by Jesus, “Do you love me?”

Each time we will answer to the affirmative but have we thought about whether we are good shepherds or worthless shepherds who leaves the flock? (Zech 11:17)

Having enjoyed the blessings of the Lord, do we cling closely to the loving hands of the Good Shepherd or do we let the influence of the world cause us to reject Christ and oppose Him?

What kind of shepherds are we?

Faithful shepherds?  Careless shepherds?  Caring shepherds?  Self-centred shepherds?

There is much for me to reflect today as I see all the preteens in the camp.  Am I a good shepherd that will lead them to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd and follow Him?

For as Jesus Himself said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” and also, “My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”

For in the nail pierced hands of this Good Shepherd the staffs of Beauty and Bonds have been eternally mended.  Let us strive to avoid the woes of a worthless shepherd!

Keep the Feast of the Tabernacles

Our year end spiritual meeting is just a few days away!  Have you prepared yourself to attend?  Are you attending?

If not, perhaps after reading this, you may change your mind….

And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. ¹⁷ And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, on them there will be no rain. ¹⁸ If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the LORD strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. ¹⁹ This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

Zechariah 14:16-19

Did you read that passage carefully?

The Feast of the Tabernacles equivalent today is our Spiritual Meeting where we gather together away from the world and devote ourselves wholly to the worship of God.

In verse 17 it says that if we do not keep the Feast of the Tabernacles, there will be no rain.

No rain!  No Holy Spirit!  No showers of blessing!

That is a scary thought!

And it gets worse!

No only shall they receive no rain, they shall receive the plague with which the Lord will strike on the nations that do not keep the Feast of the Tabernacles.

Now this is not meant to scare you into attending the full Spiritual Meeting.  But when I read these verses, I could not fail to see the warning from the Lord if we fail to keep the feasts of the Lord.

There is still time for us to make our plans and resolve to attend the full 3 day Spiritual Meeting.  After all, Friday is a public holiday.

See you during the Spiritual Meeting!