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Zechariah
Chapter Eleven
Zechariah 11
Chapter Contents
Destruction to come upon the Jews. (1-3) The Lord's
dealing with the Jews. (4-14) The emblem and curse of a foolish shepherd.
(15-17)
Commentary on Zechariah 11:1-3
(Read Zechariah 11:1-3)
In figurative expressions, that destruction of Jerusalem,
and of the Jewish church and nation, is foretold, which our Lord Jesus, when
the time was at hand, prophesied plainly and expressly. How can the fir trees
stand, if the cedars fall? The falls of the wise and good into sin, and the
falls of the rich and great into trouble, are loud alarms to those every way
their inferiors. It is sad with a people, when those who should be as shepherds
to them, are as young lions. The pride of Jordan was the thickets on the banks;
and when the river overflowed the banks, the lions came up from them roaring.
Thus the doom of Jerusalem may alarm other churches.
Commentary on Zechariah 11:4-14
(Read Zechariah 11:4-14)
Christ came into this world for judgment to the Jewish
church and nation, which were wretchedly corrupt and degenerate. Those have
their minds wofully blinded, who do ill, and justify themselves in it; but God
will not hold those guiltless who hold themselves so. How can we go to God to
beg a blessing on unlawful methods of getting wealth, or to return thanks for
success in them? There was a general decay of religion among them, and they
regarded it not. The Good Shepherd would feed his flock, but his attention
would chiefly be directed to the poor. As an emblem, the prophet seems to have
taken two staves; Beauty, denoted the privileges of the Jewish nation, in their
national covenant; the other he called Bands, denoting the harmony which
hitherto united them as the flock of God. But they chose to cleave to false teachers.
The carnal mind and the friendship of the world are enmity to God; and God
hates all the workers of iniquity: it is easy to foresee what this will end in.
The prophet demanded wages, or a reward, and received thirty pieces of silver.
By Divine direction he cast it to the potter, as in disdain for the smallness
of the sum. This shadowed forth the bargain of Judas to betray Christ, and the
final method of applying it. Nothing ruins a people so certainly, as weakening
the brotherhood among them. This follows the dissolving of the covenant between
God and them: when sin abounds, love waxes cold, and civil contests follow. No
wonder if those fall out among themselves, who have provoked God to fall out
with them. Wilful contempt of Christ is the great cause of men's ruin. And if
professors rightly valued Christ, they would not contend about little matters.
Commentary on Zechariah 11:15-17
(Read Zechariah 11:15-17)
God, having showed the misery of this people in their
being justly left by the Good Shepherd, shows their further misery in being
abused by foolish shepherds. The description suits the character Christ gives
of the scribes and Pharisees. They never do any thing to support the weak, or
comfort the feeble-minded; but seek their own ease, while they are barbarous to
the flock. The idol shepherd has the garb and appearance of a shepherd,
receives submission, and is supported at much expense; but he leaves the flock
to perish through neglect, or leads them to ruin by his example. This suits
many in different churches and nations, but the warning had an awful fulfilment
in the Jewish teachers. And while such deceive others to their ruin, they will
themselves have the deepest condemnation.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Zechariah》
Zechariah 11
Verse 1
[1] Open
thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars.
Open thy doors —
That destruction of the Jewish church and nation, is here foretold in dark and
figurative expressions, which our Lord, when the time was at hand, prophesied
of very plainly.
Lebanon —
Lebanon, a great mountain boundary between Judea and its neighbours on the
north, is here commanded to open its gates, its fortifications raised to secure
the passages, which lead into Judea.
That the fire —
Fire kindled by the enemy in the houses and buildings in Judea, and in Lebanon
itself.
The cedars —
Palaces built with cedars.
Verse 2
[2] Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled:
howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down.
Fir-tree —
Houses and towns built with firs.
The cedar —
Much less shall ye escape.
Ye Oaks —
Used in that country for building palaces, cities, towns, and fortresses.
The forest —
Jerusalem, compared to a forest, in regard of the many and tall houses in it.
In short, all are called to cry, for the miseries that will come upon all.
Come down — Is
laid desolate.
Verse 3
[3]
There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds; for their glory is spoiled: a
voice of the roaring of young lions; for the pride of Jordan is spoiled.
Of the shepherds —
The enemy having driven away their flocks and herds.
Their glory —
What was their honour.
Of Jordan —
The great forests on the banks of Jordan, where the young lions were wont to
range.
Verse 4
[4] Thus
saith the LORD my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter;
My God —
God the father speaks to Christ.
Of the slaughter —
Appointed to the slaughter. The Jews, during four hundred and fifty years, were
a flock of slaughter to the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and afterwards the Romans.
Verse 5
[5] Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that
sell them say, Blessed be the LORD; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity
them not.
Whose possessors —
Governors.
Not guilty —
Think they do no ill.
That sell them —
For slaves.
For l am rich —
Profanely give God thanks, that they thrive by cruelty and oppression.
Verse 6
[6] For
I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD: but, lo, I
will deliver the men every one into his neighbour's hand, and into the hand of
his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not
deliver them.
I will deliver — To
rob, imprison, banish, or kill each other.
Of his king —
The Roman Caesar, whom the Jews had chosen to be so.
The land —
Their king and his armies shall destroy the land.
Verse 7
[7] And
I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took
unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and
I fed the flock.
Bands —
The beauty of grace and glory, the bands of love and peace.
Verse 9
[9] Then
said I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to
be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of
another.
Then —
After that time of his patient feeding the flock, and cutting off the
unfaithful shepherds.
Cut off — By
the sword or famine.
The flesh —
Either live to be besieged, 'till hunger makes the living eat the dead, or by
seditions and bloody intestine quarrels, destroy each other.
Verse 10
[10] And
I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my
covenant which I had made with all the people.
Even beauty —
Which was the beauty and glory of them, the covenant of God, with all the
blessings of it.
That I might break —
Declare it null. Christ calls it his covenant, for he was the mediator of it.
Verse 11
[11] And
it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me
knew that it was the word of the LORD.
Broken —
The covenant was disannulled.
That waited —
Believed in him, and obeyed him.
Knew —
Saw, and owned God in all this.
Verse 12
[12] And
I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So
they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.
And I said —
Upon parting, Christ seems after the manner of men, to mind them of his claims
for them, and desire them to reckon with him.
If ye think good — He
puts it to them, whether they thought he deserved ought at their hands? So they
- The rulers of the Jews, the high priest, chief priests, and pharisees.
Weighed —
Which was the manner of paying money in those days.
Thirty pieces —
Which amounts to thirty-seven shillings and six-pence, the value of the life of
a slave, Exodus 21:32. This was fulfilled when they paid
Judas Iscariot so much to betray Christ.
Verse 13
[13] And
the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was
prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the
potter in the house of the LORD.
The Lord —
God the Father.
Cast it — As
being so little, it would hardly purchase any thing but what was the cheapest
among them.
A goodly price —
God upbraids the shepherds of his people, who prized the great Shepherd no
higher.
Cast them to the potter — Or rather, cast them into the house of the Lord for the potter; all
which the Jewish rulers acted over.
Verse 14
[14] Then
I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood
between Judah and Israel.
Then — So
soon as I saw what value they put upon me.
I cut asunder —
Christ did it really, the prophet did it in the type.
Break —
Declare it broken.
The brother-hood —
That friendship which had been among them.
Judah —
The two tribes, and the remnant of the ten tribes.
Verse 15
[15] And
the LORD said unto me, Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish
shepherd.
Take unto thee — O
Zechariah, personate a shepherd quite different from him thou hast represented.
Verse 16
[16] For,
lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit those that be
cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor
feed that that standeth still: but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear
their claws in pieces.
Who shall not visit —
Who seeks not out those that are lost.
The young one —
Which are aptest to perish through weakness.
Nor heal —
But leaves it to die of its wounds.
That stand still — Not
able to go forward.
Will eat —
Feast on the fattest of the flock.
Tear their claws —
Tear off their skin unto the very nails; in brief, a sluggish, negligent,
covetous, riotous, oppressive, and cruel government, is shadowed out by a
foolish shepherd.
Verse 17
[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.
The idol shepherd — To
them that are but the images of shepherds.
That leaveth —
Casts off the care of the flock.
The sword — Of
the enemy, shall break his strength and be-fool his counsels.
Dried up —
They that have gifts which qualify them to do good, if they do it not, they
will be taken away. They that should have been workmen, but were slothful, and
would do nothing, will justly have their arm dried up. And they that should
have been watchmen, but were drowsy, will justly have their eye blinded.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Zechariah》
11 Chapter 11
Introduction
Verses 1-17
Verse 1-2
That the fire may devour thy cedars, etc.
The fallen cedar
In this chapter there is an announcement of the judgment that was
to come on the Jewish State and nation because of their ungodliness, and
especially their contemptuous rejection of Him whom God sent to be their
shepherd. The prophecy here is not in any way connected with that in the
preceding chapters, except as it may be regarded as continuing the account of
God’s dealings with Israel, and their behaviour towards Him consequent on the
events predicted in these chapters. Hitherto the prophet has been a bearer of
good tidings to Zion, tidings of deliverance from oppressors, and restoration
to former privilege and felicity. But there was a dark side to the picture as
well as a bright one. All trouble and conflict had not ceased with their
restoration to their own land: nor was their tendency to rebellion and apostasy
from Jehovah, their Shepherd and King, finally subdued. Treating Him with
contempt, His favour should be withdrawn from them, and the bonds that united
them should be broken. The iron hand of foreign oppression should again be laid
heavily upon them, and the ruin of their State and desolation of their land
should mark the greatness of their sin by the severity of the penalty it had
entailed. The prophecy begins with a picture of ruin and desolation
overspreading the land, and then the process is detailed by which this was
brought about and the cause of it indicated. The description of the judgment
commences dramatically. Lebanon is summoned to open her doors, that the fire
may enter to consume her cedars; the cypress is admonished to howl or wail
because the cedar is fallen, because the noble and glorious trees are
destroyed; the oaks of Bashan are called upon to join in the wail, for the
inaccessible forest is laid low. The cypress is here called to lament for the
fall of the cedar of Lebanon, the glory of the forest, not as deploring that
calamity so much as anticipating for itself a like fate. That this description
is to be taken literally cannot be supposed; the language is too forcible, and
the picture too vivid to be understood merely of the destruction by fire of a
few trees, even though these were the finest of their kind. On the other hand,
there seems no sufficient reason for regarding this description as symbolical
and wholly figurative. The more simple and tenable view is that which Calvin
suggested, namely, that by the places here mentioned is intended the whole land
of Judea, the desolation of which is predicted by the prophet. The catastrophe
thus depicted was brought about by the misconduct of the people, and especially
their shepherds and rulers, towards the Great Shepherd of Israel, whom God sent
forth to feed and tend the flock. This is described in what follows, where the
prophet is represented as acting as the representative of another, and as such
is addressed. It cannot be supposed that the person addressed is the Angel of
Jehovah, or the Messiah, for the person addressed in Zechariah 11:4 is evidently the same as
the person addressed in Zechariah 11:15, and what is there said
does not in any way apply to the Angel of Jehovah, or the Messiah. Nor can it
be supposed that the prophet is here addressed in his own person, for as it was
no part of the prophetic office to act as a shepherd of Israel, it could not be
to the prophet as such that the command here given was addressed. The only
supposition that can tenably be made is that what is here narrated passed as a
vision before the inner sense of the prophet, in which he saw himself as the
representative of another, first of the good shepherd who is sent to feed the
flock, and then of the evil shepherd by whom the flock was neglected, and who
should be destroyed for his iniquity. (W. L. Alexander, D. D.)
The cedars, fir trees, and oaks of society
This chapter, it has been said, divides itself into three
sections.
1. The threat of judgment (Zechariah 11:1-3).
2. The description of the Good Shepherd (verse. 4-14).
3. The sketch of the foolish shepherd (Zechariah 11:15-17).
Lebanon, here, may be regarded as a symbol of the kingdom of
Judah, its cedars as denoting the chief men of the kingdom.
I. A variety of
distinction. The “cedar” here, the “fir tree,” or cypress, and the “oaks,” are
employed to set forth some of the distinctions that prevailed amongst the
Hebrew people. Now, whilst all men have a common origin, a common nature, and
common moral obligations and responsibilities, yet in every generation there
prevails a large variety of striking distinctions. There are not only the
cedars and fir trees, but even briars and thistles. There is almost as great a
distinction between the highest type of man and the lowest, as there is between
the lowest and the highest type of brute. There are intellectual giants and
intellectual dwarfs, moral monarchs and spiritual serfs. This variety of
distinction in the human family serves at least two important purposes.
1. To check pride in the highest and despondency in the lowest. The
cedar has no cause for boasting over the fir tree, or over the humblest plant
it owes its existence to the same God, and is sustained by the same common
elements. And what have the greatest men--the Shakespeares, the Schillers, the
Miltons, the Goethes--to be proud of? What have they that they have not received?
And why should the weakest man despond? He is what God made him, and his
responsibilities are limited by his capacities. This variety serves--
2. To strengthen the ties of human brotherhood. Were all men of equal
capacity, it is manifest that there would be no scope for that mutual ministry
of interdependence which tends to unite society together. The strong rejoices
in bearing the infirmities of the weak, and the weak rejoices in gratitude and
hope on account of the succour received.
II. A common calamity.
“Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen.” An expression which implies that the
same fate awaits the fir tree. There is one event that awaits men of every type
and class and grade, the tallest cedar and the most stunted shrub, that is
death.
1. This common calamity levels all distinctions. “Though his
excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds, yet he
shall perish forever.”
2. This common calamity should dematerialise all souls. Since we are
only here on this earth for a few short years at most, why should we live to
the flesh, and thus materialise our souls?
III. A natural
alarm. “Howl, fir tree.” The howl, not of rage, not of sympathy, but of alarm.
When the higher falls, the lower may well take the alarm. If the cedar gives
way, let the cypress look out. This principle may apply to--
1. Communities. Amongst the kingdoms of the earth there are the
“cedar” and the “fir tree.” The same may be said of markets. There are the
cedars of the commercial world; great houses regulating almost the merchandise
of the world.
2. Individuals. When men who are physically strong fall, let weaker
men beware. When men who are moral cedars--majestic in character, and mighty in
beneficent influences--fall, let the less useful take the alarm, and still more
the useless. (Homilist.)
Howl, fir tree; for the
cedar is fallen--
The cedar and the fir
The prophecy, of which these words are a part, had its fulfilment
in the destruction of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the Jews by the Romans.
The text would become applicable at a time of great national calamity. By the
cedar tree the chief men of a country are represented, those who occupy the
more prominent positions, and are, conspicuous by station and influence. When
the cedar tree falls, when the princes of a land are brought down by disaster
and death, men of inferior rank who, in comparison with these princes, are but
as the fir tree compared with the cedar, may well tremble and fear, as knowing
that their own day of trial must be rapidly approaching. These words, then, are
universally applicable whenever calamity falls on those better or more exalted
than ourselves, and such calamity may serve as a warning, teaching us to expect
our own share of trouble. “Howl, fir tree”--tremble, and be afraid, ye sinful
and careless ones, who, though planted in the garden of the Lord, bring not
forth the fruits of righteousness. “The cedar is fallen,”--shall, then, the fir
tree escape? “If judgment first begin at the house of God, what shall the end
be of them that obey not the Gospel of Christ?” Take the text as setting forth
the sufferings of the righteous as an evidence or token of the far greater
which, in due time, must be the portion of the wicked. If the wicked were to
ponder God’s dealings with the righteous, if the fir tree would observe what
was done to the cedar, it could hardly be that future and everlasting
punishment would be denied by any, or by any be practically disregarded. Let
our blessed Saviour Himself be the first cedar tree on which we gaze. “Smitten
of God and afflicted.” “A Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” His
sufferings only then assume their most striking character when they are seen as
demonstrations of the evil of sin. The atonement alone shows me what sin is in
God’s sight. The Captain of our salvation was “made perfect through
sufferings,” but the same discipline has been employed, from the first, in
regard of all those whom God has conducted to glory. Under all dispensations
affliction is an instrument of purification. The nearer we approach the times
of the Gospel, the intenser becomes the discipline of suffering; as though God
has designed to prepare men for an increase in tribulation, with an increase of
privilege. The fact is undisputed, that, through much tribulation, men enter
the kingdom of heaven. No fact should be more startling to those who are living
without God, and perhaps secretly hoping for impunity at the last. They cannot
deny that the cedar has been bent and blighted by the hurricane, whilst,
comparatively, sunshine and calm have been around the fir. And from this they
are bound to conclude the great fact of a judgment to come. Suppose it to be
for purposes of discipline that God employs suffering--what does this prove but
that human nature is thoroughly corrupt, requiring to be purged so as by fire,
ere it can be fitted for happiness? And if there must be this fiery
purification, what is the inference which ungodly men should draw, if not that
they will be given up hereafter to the unquenchable flame, given up to it when
that flame can neither annihilate their being, nor eradicate their corruption?
It is probable enough that the wicked may be disposed to congratulate
themselves on their superior prosperity, and to look with pity, if not with
contempt, on the righteous, as the God whom they serve seems to reward them
with nothing but trouble. But this can only be through want of consideration.
It may certainly be inferred from these words, when applied in the modes
indicated, that the present afflictions of the righteous shall be vastly
exceeded by the future of the wicked. The “cedar is fallen,” and the fir tree
is called upon to “howl,” as though it were about to be rent and shivered, as
by the tempest and the thunder. The sufferings of the righteous might save the wicked
from future torments, and that which prepares a good man for heaven might
snatch a bad one from hell. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Fallen greatness
This word “cedar” applies to Jerusalem, to the temple, to Lebanon.
It is a general and symbolic term. It applies to all great characters, to all
noble institutions, all sublime purposes. There was an abundance of cedar wood
in the temple, so the temple was often called The Cedar, and what the temple
was Jerusalem was. One element sometimes gives its character to everything into
which it enters. The eternal doctrine of the text is that when the strong go
down the weak should lay that significant circumstance to heart. How can the
fir tree stand when the cedar is blown down? How can the weak defend the city
when the mighty men have failed? What can the poor do after the kings of
wealth? And if God can smite the mighty, can He not overwhelm the weak and the
little? if He can rend the stars, and hurl the constellations out of their
places, what about our clay walls and huts of dust?--surely He could sweep them
away as with the tempestuous wind. And yet the weak have a place of their own.
Trees have been blown down whilst daisies have been left undisturbed. There is
a strength of littleness, there is a majesty of weakness, there is a charter of
immunity granted to things that are very frail. The whirlwind does not destroy
the flower that bends before its fury, but it often destroys the mighty tree
that dares it to wrestle. How much we depend upon the cedar in all life, in all
society, in all institutions! What is done by one man may be comparatively
insignificant and may never be heard of, and that self-same thing done by
another quality of man fills the world with amazement. How is that? Simply
because of the quality. There are people who burrow in the earth, and what they
do no man cares for, no man inquires; there are persons who have lived
themselves down to the vanishing point of influence, that it is of no
consequence whatsoever what they think or do. Other men can hardly breathe
without the fact being noted and commented upon; the pulse cannot be unsteady
without the whole journalism of the empire being filled with the tidings. The
difference is the difference between the cedar and the fir tree. What is
impossible in nature is possible in humanity: the fir tree can become the
cedar, and the cedar can become the fir tree, and these continual changes
constitute the very tragedy of human experience. Let it be known that some
person has committed a theft in the city, and the theft will be reported in
very small type, it is really of no consequence to cruel society what that
person has done; but let a man of another sort do that very self-same thing,
and there is no type large enough in which to announce the fact. It is not always
so with the good deeds--“the good is oft interred with men’s bones.” There is
no printer that cares to report charity, nobleness, meekness, forgiveness,
great exercises of patience and forbearance. The printer was not made to
intermeddle with that sacred fame. Such reputation is registered in heaven, is
watched and guarded by the angels, and carries with itself its own guarantee of
immortality. Yet this doctrine might easily be abused. A man might be fool
enough to say that it is of no consequence what he does. But it is in reality
of consequence, according to the circle within which he moves. Every man can
make his home unhappy, every man can lay a burden upon the back of his child
which the child is unable to sustain. That is the consummation of cruelty. If
the man could but put a dagger into himself, and cause his own life continual
agony, he might be doing an act of justice, he might be trying to compensate
for the wrongs he has done to others: but when it is felt that everything that
man does tells upon the child to the third and fourth generation, so that the
child cannot get rid of the blood which the great-grandfather shed, then every
man becomes of importance in his own sphere and in relation to the line of life
which he touches. We apply this text personally and nationally, founding upon
it our lamentations over fallen greatness. The great statesman dies, and the
Church at once becomes filled with the eloquence of this text--“Howl, fir tree;
for the cedar is fallen,”--the lesson being, that the great man has gone, the
great strength has vanished, and now weakness is exposed to a thousand attacks;
weakness feels its defencelessness. Nor ought such eulogy be limited. Sentiment
has to play a very serious part and a very useful part in the education of
life. When men cease to revere greatness they cease to cultivate it. There is a
philistinism that is near akin to impiety and profanity. All men are not alike,
all men are not of one value; some men have the genius of insight and
foresight, and some have it not; and when men who can see the coming time, and
interpret the time that now is into its largest significances, are taken away
from us, then those of us who occupy positions of commonplace may well feel
that some tremendous bankruptcy has supervened in history, and the world is
made poor forever. Yet this is not the spirit of the Gospel, which is always a
spirit of good cheer and stimulus and hopefulness. We are not dependent now
upon men, except in a secondary sense; we are dependent upon God alone:--The
battle is not yours, but God’s; they that be for us are more than all that can
be against us; our cedar is the Cross, and the Cross has never failed. Rome
boasted that it had obliterated the Christian name but Rome boasted too soon.
Ten persecutions followed one another in rapid and devastating succession; yet
there were Christians still praying in secret, temples unknown and unnamed were
frequented by ardent and passionate worshippers. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
The death of great men
Mr. Jay was generally chaste and dignified in his
composition, but occasionally used a quaintness of expression which in our day
would be called “sensational.” The selection of his texts was sometimes
ingenious--e.g., on two occasions, after the death of Robert Hall and
Rowland Hill, his text was, “Howl, fir tree, for the cedar is fallen.” He
always took advantage of public events, and thus brought nature and providence
to his aid in instructing the people.
The cedar useful after it is fallen
The cedar is the most useful when dead. It is the most productive
when its place knows it no more. There is no timber like it. Firm in grain, and
capable of the finest polish, the tooth of no insect will touch it, and time
himself can hardly destroy it. Diffusing a perpetual fragrance through the
chamber which it ceils, the worm will not corrode the book which it protects,
nor the moth corrupt the garment which it guards--all but immortal itself, it
transfuses its amaranthine qualities into the objects around it. Every
Christian is useful in his fife, but the goodly cedars are the most useful
afterwards. Luther is dead, but the Reformation fives.
Verse 3
For their glory is spoiled
Bad men in high office
I.
The
men here reffered to called “shepherds,” which is a designation of men in
power, men who politically and ecclesiastically presided over the people, the
leaders. The “shepherds” have sometimes reached their positrons irrespective of
the will of the people. The “shepherds” referred to here had an ambitious
character. Likened to “young lions.”
1. That a man in high office who has a bad character is of all men
the most contemptible A bad character in a pauper makes him contemptible; but a
bad character in a king makes him ten times the more contemptible.
2. That it is the duty of all peoples to promote those alone to high
office who have a high moral character.
II. Bad men in high
office greatly distressed. “There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds,”
etc. “The glory of these shepherds being spoiled,” says Wardlaw, “signifies the
bringing down of all their honour and power and the wealth and luxury which, by
the abuse of their power, they had acquired, all becoming a prey to the sacking
and pillaging besiegers. The pride of Jordan lay in its evergreens and
brushwood with which its banks were enriched and adorned; and these being the
covert and habitation of the young lions, the two parts of the figure are
appropriate. As the lions howl and roar in dismay and fury when dislodged from
their refuges and dwelling places, whether by the swelling flood sweeping over
their lairs, or from the cutting down or the burning of their habitations, so
should the priests and rulers of Jerusalem be alarmed and struck with
desperation and rage, when they found their city, within whose walls they had
counted themselves secure from the very possibility of hostile entrance, laid
open to the outrage of an exasperated enemy, and all its resources given up to
plunder and destruction--country as well as city thrown into confusion and
desolation!” Such rulers may well be distressed--
1. Because all the keen-sighted and honest men over whom they preside
despise them.
2. Because the Righteous Governor of the world has denounced them. (Homilist.)
Verses 4-17
Verse 4-5
Feed the flock of the slaughter
Oppressed people and their opressors
I.
A
duty enjoined towards oppressed peoples. “Feed the flock (sheep) of the
slaughter.” These shepherds, these rulers of the Hebrew people, “slaughtered”
the people. Their rights, energies, liberties and independency are
“slaughtered,” their means of subsistence and advancement are “slaughtered.”
People “slaughtered” in these respects abound in every state and place in
Europe. “Feed” them--
1. With the knowledge of their rights as men.
2. With the knowledge of the true methods to obtain these rights. Not
by violence and spoliation but by moral means, by skilful industry, by
temperate habits, by economic management, by moral suasion.
3. With the knowledge of worthy motives by which to obtain these
rights.
II. Here is a
sketch of the authors of oppression.
1. They are cruel. “Whose possessors slay them.”
2. They are impious. In all their cruelties they “hold themselves not
guilty.” The greatest despots of the world have ever been ready to justify
themselves to their own consciences.
3. They are avaricious. “And they that sell them, say, Blessed be the
Lord; for I am rich.” A miserable greed was their inspiration. (Homilist.)
A good shepherd
I would give my life for these poor people of the Soudan. How can
I help feeling for them? All the time I was there, every night I used to pray
that God would lay upon me the burden of their sins, and crush me with it
instead of these poor sheep. I really wished it and longed for it. (General
Gordon.)
Verse 6-7
I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land
A terrible doom, and an invaluable privilege
I.
A
terrible doom. “For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land.” What is
the doom? The abandonment of God.
1. This abandonment came after great kindness. For long centuries He
had manifested the greatest kindness to the Hebrew people. From their rescue
from Egypt down to this hour He had been merciful to them. “My Spirit will not
always strive with man.”
2. This abandonment involved inexpressible ruin. They were given up
to the heathen cruelty of one another and to the violence of foreigners. If God
abandon us, what are we? This will be the doom of the finally impenitent.
“Depart from Me.”
II. An invaluable
privlege. “I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock.”
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” “When He saw the multitudes He
wast moved with compassion towards them, because, they fainted and were
scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. ”I am the Good Shepherd,” said
Christ. Conclusion--Thank God, we are not abandoned yet. God is with us as a
shepherd. He is seeking the lost and feeding those who are in His fold. (Homilist.)
Abandoned
The saddest spectacle earth can show is a shipwrecked
life--the terrible loss of all the possibilities humanity involves. If a man
quenches the light God gives him, and by self-indulgence and unfaithfulness so
debauches his spirit that at last he is deserted by every angel of purity and
goodness, and becomes unvisited by even the desire for any spiritual attainment,
then there is a lost soul in the most awful sense, whether here or in the world
to come. (Dr. Macleod.)
And I took unto Me two
staves--
Two shepherd’s staves
In the next place is represented Christ’s undertaking of this
charge, and His going diligently about it, signified by two shepherds’ staves
the first whereof, called Beauty, holds forth the sweet and beautiful order of
His Covenant, and the doctrine thereof, whereby the Church is directed in
faith, worship, and obedience of God. The second, called Bands, signifies that
policy in Church and State whereby they are kept one, and without schisms among
themselves.
1. Christ the Mediator became as obedient servant, and is willing,
and takes pleasure to be employed for His Church’s good; and will have a tender
consideration of their case.
2. Christ in His care over the visible Church, bath an especial eye
to His elect, and the regenerate in it, how abject-like soever they seem in the
eyes of men, or in their outward condition.
3. Christ is a faithful shepherd, singular and incomparable in His
care and diligence about His people for, saith He, “I took unto Me two staves,”
whereas other shepherds use but one.
4. The Covenant and doctrine revealed by Christ unto His Church, as
it sets forth the beauty and excellency of God, so it is beautiful and sweetly
ordered in itself, so as faith and obedience sweetly work to others’ hands, and
make the followers thereof to be beautiful and excellent above all people; for
“the one staff I called Beauty.”
5. As unity and concord in a Church is a fruit of Christ’s feeding
His flock, so policy and order, whereby unity is preserved, is a rich blessing.
“The other I called Bands.”
6. Christ’s performances are answerable to His undertakings: what He
saith He doth; and His practice will never give His promise the lie: for unto
His promise, “I will feed,” is subjoined, “And I fed the flock.” (George
Hutcheson.)
The staves of Beauty and Bands broken
I. Unity from
union with God is national beauty. It is the union of the members of the body
with the head which gives to the entire frame its dignity and beauty. A
headless trunk has no beauty, but when body and limbs are fitly framed
together, that symmetry is attained which God intended. The beauty of a tree
consists in the union of branches by union with the trunk. The unity of the
Hebrew nation was destroyed by their wilful severance of them selves from their
Divine Head. Lack of union with God brought discord into the nation and
destroyed their national beauty (Psalms 133:1-3.).
II. Men must have a
soul shepherd, and when God is rejected they must have a bad one. If a road is
known to one person only, any other man who offers to guide the traveller must
be his enemy. If a man is deeply wounded, he must have help from some one
outside himself, and the quack who undertakes to heal him, and is ignorant of
the proper way to treat him, will be likely to be his murderer. There is but
one Being who is acquainted with the soul’s needs; if He is rejected, any other
must harm the soul. God claims to be the only Saviour. “There is none beside
Me” (Isaiah 45:21). Christ warned Israel
against false shepherds, yet, as a nation, they chose them and rejected Him,
and as He only could really lead and feed them, their choice necessarily issued
in their ruin.
III. Sin disinherits
men and nations of their God-given portion. (Outlines by London Minister.)
Beauty and Bands the two staves of the Divine Shepherd
As long as sin will be in the world the oppressor and the
oppressed are sure to be here; for it is in the nature of sin to make men hard,
cruel, and oppressive. The exaltation of a man above his fellow men in wealth,
honour, authority, and power is no reason whatever why he should despise and
oppress them, but, on the contrary, it should be a reason for him to deal
kindly towards them. The wealth of the rich man should be an inducement to him
to remember the poor, and the strength of the strong should be an inducement to
him to help the weak. For a consolation to the oppressed in their sufferings
and a warning to the oppressor, the Bible teaches in a clear manner that God
will surely visit the one in mercy and the other in judgment; the same hand
that bestows favours graciously and tenderly upon the oppressed holds the sword
of vengeance above the oppressor. In this chapter God said that He was going to
visit the rulers of His people in judgment because they were oppressing them.
“Thus said the Lord my God: Feed the flock of slaughter; whose possessors slay
them, and hold themselves not guilty; and they that sell them say, Blessed be
the Lord, for I am rich and their own shepherds pity them not.” How abominable this
must have been in the sight of God! After accumulating wealth through cruelty
and oppression they sanctimoniously praised God for prospering them. But while
these unjust and oppressive rulers were thus justifying themselves, destruction
overtook them. “For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the
Lord,” etc. But when God visits the oppressor in judgment He does not forget
the oppressed in their poverty, sufferings, and misery, for He said, “So I fed
the flock of slaughter, verily the poor of the flock.” So in the text we have a
striking and beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus as the Great Shepherd of
souls. It has been truly observed by an able commentator, that no image of
Christ has so deeply impressed itself upon the mind of the Church as that of a
shepherd, as is shown by Christian literature and art, and our hymns and
prayers. The Eastern shepherd would never be seen without his staff or crook.
But reference is made here to two staves, and David says of the Lord as his
Shepherd, “Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.” In our text there are names
given to the two staves; one is called “Beauty,” and the other “Bands,” which
are to be taken emblematically to show that the Lord Jesus Christ the Divine
Shepherd will lead, protect, beautify, and unite His people as one great and
glorious flock.
I. The Lord Jesus
Christ feeding His people, “Lo, I fed the flock of the slaughter, verily the
poor of the flock.” When their own shepherds pity them not, the Divine Shepherd
makes them to lie down in peace and security in the green pastures of spiritual
blessings, and leads them beside the still waters of heavenly influences. He
lives for the sake of His sheep, and so they find in Him their true Shepherd.
Naturally the objects of our greatest care and anxiety will have the largest
place in our affections, and it is not easy for us to conceive the tender
affection and close attachment that would gradually grow between the Eastern
shepherd and his sheep.
II. The Lord Jesus
Christ protecting and guiding His people. With the staves the shepherd rules,
protects, and guides his sheep. He uses the crook to prevent them from going
astray, and to pull them back from dangerous places. God’s people, like sheep,
are very prone to go astray. He very often draws them by His crook from
temptations and dangers which they are not in the least aware of. Think of a
promising young man, who has been brought up in a religious family, enticed by
bad companions into the forbidden paths of sinful pleasures; but before he falls
over the precipice of destruction, the Good Shepherd, through sickness, or the
death of a companion or a near relation, mercifully draws him back by His
crook. The apostle Peter wandered far astray, but Christ followed him
faithfully, and gently brought him back. The Divine Shepherd dealt in a similar
manner with Thomas, who had wandered far into the wilderness of doubt and
unbelief. And we do not know from how many dangers and temptations we have been
rescued by the Divine Shepherd with His crook.
III. The Lord Jesus
Christ beautifying His people. He will bring out to its highest perfection the
beautiful individuality of each one of His followers. This is taught by the
symbolic name of one of the two staves, which is called “Beauty.” God, under
the old dispensation, through various means and ministrations, aimed at
ennobling and beautifying His people; and notwithstanding all their faults,
they looked beautiful compared to the idolatrous nations by which they were
surrounded. In the Book of the prophet Jeremiah they are called a “beautiful
flock.” Their God, who is called the Shepherd of Israel, had made them
beautiful by saving, protecting, and guiding them, and richly bestowing His
blessings upon them. So does the Lord Jesus Christ in a similar way sanctify
and beautify His people; from His love, gentleness, care, faithfulness, and
self-sacrificing Spirit there goes forth a mighty influence silently to purify
their nature and ennoble and beautify their character. He washes them in His
own blood, and beautifies and adorns them with His own heavenly Spirit. This is
the beauty of holiness, “And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us.”
They are changed into the image of Christ from glory to glory by the influence
of His Spirit dwelling in them. We can say that the Great Shepherd is perfectly
impartial in the bestowal of His sanctifying and beautifying influences upon
all God’s erring children, whom He strives to gather together into one
beautiful flock. The sun is perfectly impartial in the distribution of its heat
and light, which bring out the beauty of the flowers and the trees. One flower
cannot say to another, The sun has taken more trouble to beautify and adorn you
than me, for it shines equally the same for all. So Christ the Sun of
Righteousness distributes its purifying and beautifying influences equally
impartially to all
IV. The Lord Jesus
Christ uniting His people. In the union of the human and the Divine in the
person of the Good Shepherd all men are virtually united in Him, and He will
not rest satisfied until all are actually made one in Him. This blessed truth
is implied by the name of the other staff, which is called “Bands,” which
teaches that the Divine Shepherd not only sanctifies and beautifies His people
individually, but also unites them socially into one great and glorious
company. As the shepherd carefully gathers his sheep together into the fold, so
Goes Christ gather all men together. Moses, Socrates, Plato, Gautama,
Zoroaster, John, Peter, Paul, Mohammed, Luther, Wesley, and others are all His
under-shepherds, and ultimately He will bring all their flocks together. He has
died for all, seeks all, and will save all. “And I, if I be lifted up from the
earth, will draw an men unto Myself.” The shepherd feels restless and uneasy if
one sheep is waning, in the fold. So Christ the Good Shepherd will not feel
satisfied until the last erring sheep has been safely brought into the heavenly
fold, and He will not leave the wilderness as long as there is one wandering
sheep to be brought home. (Z. Mather.)
Verse 8
My soul lothed them, and their soul also abhorred Me
A mutual dislike between God and man
I.
This
mutual moral antagonism is manifestly abnormal. It is not conceivable that the
all-wise and all-loving Maker of the universe would create beings whom He would
loathe and who would abhor Him. Such an idea is opposed at once to our
intuitions and our conclusions. In the pristine state of humanity, God loved
man, and man loved God.
II. This mutual
moral antagonism implies wrong on man’s part. For Infinite Purity and
Righteousness to loathe the corrupt and the wrong is not only right, but a
necessity of the Divine character. He abhorreth sin; it is the “abominable
thing” which He hates. This is His glory. But for man to abhor Him, this is the
great sin, the fontal sin, the source of all other sins.
III. This mutual
moral antagonism explains the sin and wretchedness of the world. Why does the
world abound with falsehoods, dishonesties and oppressions, unchastities,
cruelties, and impieties? Because human souls are not in supreme sympathy with
the supremely good, because they are at enmity with God, because God loathes
sin.
IV. This mutual
moral antagonism argues the necessity for a reconciliation. The great want of
the world is the reconciliation of man to the character and the friendship of
God. Such a reconciliation requires no change on God’s part. His loathing is
the loathing of love, love loathing the wrong and the miserable. The change
must be on man’s part. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. (Homilist.)
Divine rejection
A time comes in the history of incorrigible nations and
incorrigible individuals when they are rejected of heaven.
I. The cause of
this lamentable event. “My soul loatheth them.”
II. The result. The
results here are threefold.
1. The cessation of Divine mercy. “I will not feed you.”
2. Abandonment to self-ruin. “That that dieth, let it die; and that
that is to be cut off, let it be cut off.” “The wages of sin is death.” “Sin,
when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
3. Deliverance to mutual tormentors. “And let the rest eat everyone
the flesh of another.” All these results were realised in a material sense in
the rejection of the Jewish people. Josephus tells us that in the destruction
of Jerusalem, pestilence, famine, and intestine discord ran riot amongst the
God-rejected people. These material evils are but faint emblems of the
spiritual evils that must be realised by every God-rejected soul.
III. The sign. “And
I took My staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break My
convenant which I had made with all the people.” The Divine Shepherd is
represented as having two staves, or crooks; ordinary shepherds have only one.
Expositors in their interpretation of these staves differ here as in most
places elsewhere in this book. Some say they indicate the double care that the
Divine Shepherd takes of his people; some, the different methods of treatment
pursued by the Almighty Shepherd towards His people; some, that they refer to
the house of of Judah and to the house of Israel, indicating that neither was
to be left out in the mission of the work of the Good Shepherd; and some, that
the one called “Beauty”--which means grace--represents the merciful
dispensation, under which the Hebrew people had been placed; and the other
staff called “Bands,” the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. One thing seems
clear, that the cutting of the staff called “Beauty” asunder was a symbol of
their rejection from all future grace and mercy. It may be stated as a general
truth, that all heaven-rejected souls have signs of their miserable condition.
What are the general signs?
1. Practical ignorance of God.
2. Utter subjection to the senses.
3. Complete devotion to selfish aims.
4. Insensibility of conscience. (Homilist.)
Abhorring the name of God
“For the last ten years I (Gambetta) have made a pledge with
myself to entirely avoid introducing the name of God into any speech of mine. You
can hardly believe how difficult it has been, but I have succeeded, thank God!”
(Dieu merci!) Thus the name so sternly tabooed rose unconsciously to his lips
at the very moment when he was congratulating himself on having overcome the
habit of using it. (E. D. Pressense.)
Verses 10-14
So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver
The goodly price of Jesus
Satan’s dealings with the human family may be truthfully described
as one gigantic system of bribery and corruption.
He has bribes of all sorts, and of different kinds and characters, and he knows
how to apply them. He takes care to suit his bribe to the person who is being
bribed. With some of us wealth is no particular object. But even while we spurn
that bribe we are open to others. Before one man Satan puts the possibility of
revelling in pleasure, before another a dream of ambition, before another
literary distinction, before another domestic happiness. This system of bribery
and corruption was fully shown when Satan entered the lists against the Saviour
of the world. When the Son of God, made man, stood before the tempter in the
wilderness, it was after this fashion that he dared to proceed. On that
occasion Satan presented to the view of our blessed Master the very highest
bribe that was ever offered. Of all the assaults which he made on our blessed
Lord, this seems to have been the least successful. On other occasions he was
very subtle; he approached our Lord very cautiously, but he made no headway; on
each occasion he was met with wisdom and firmness. Satan is very frugal with
his bribes. What is all his bribery and corruption for? How comes it to pass
that Satan thus exerts his malignant skill in endeavouring to gain an influence
over us? Satan’s prime object is, to carry out his rebellious purposes in the
very face of the everlasting purposes of Jehovah. We, Christians, believe that
in the end God will manifest His own wisdom by triumphing completely over
Satan’s malignant skill, but that for the time being appearances are otherwise.
There is no class of persons in human history for whom we feel a greater
contempt than for traitors. We all despise a traitor. Who is there that can
have any respect for a man like Judas Iscariot? And yet the sin that Judas
committed is the sin that is being committed by the slaves of Satan still. We
have not, indeed, the power of doing what Judas did. But as it is possible for
us to “crucify” our Lord afresh, so it is possible to betray Him afresh into
the hands of His enemies. How can this be done? This nature of ours, what is
it? It is a citadel of the living God; it should be an abode of the Eternal
Spirit. Every one of you belongs to God. If we refuse to recognise His right it
is simply because we are already in our own hearts traitors against His love.
The Lord is aware of his enticements. So He says to us: “If it seem good unto
you, give Me My price.” If you are going to barter My rights for that which
Satan offers you; if you are going to play the part of a base and perfidious
traitor, make up your mind what your bargain is to be; look your own act in the
face. If men and women were to sit down and ask themselves the question: “What
price have I accepted for Jesus; for how great a consideration have I agreed
with Satan to make over my soul to his influences, and to live the life that he
would have me lead?” they would soon repent of their bribe. Little do you think
that when you are selling the rights of Jesus you are actually selling your own
interests. The man that sells Jesus sells his own soul, and there is no man
that makes so bad a bargain as the man who accepts the devil’s bribes for the
betrayal of Jesus. Look at this miserable man Judas. Can you fancy how he crept
down that dark street? He felt already as if he were standing on the very verge
of hell. The bargain was struck. And what a bargain it was! It did not seem
much to get for Jesus--thirty pieces of silver. Then the end for Judas. It is
the way the devil’s bribe will always end. He makes you fair promises; he takes
you by the hand; he pleads with you; he lays all tempting things before you;
but behind them all he has got the hangman’s rope ready, and the scaffold is
prepared, and the awful moment of doom is drawing nearer and nearer. By and by
come the agonies of remorse, the terrors of despair, and the awful horrors of a
lost eternity. (W. Hay Aitken, M. A.)
A model spiritual teacher
Why these words should have been referred to by Matthew,
and applied to Christ and Judas, I cannot explain. They may fairly be employed
to illustrate a model spiritual teacher in relation to secular acknowledgments
of His teachings.
I. He leaves the
secular acknowledgment to the free choice of those to whom His services have
been rendered. “And I said unto them, If ye think good, give Me My price; and
if not, forbear.” He does not exact anything, nor does he even suggest any
amount.
II. His spiritual
services are sometimes shamefully underrated. “So they weighed for My price
thirty pieces of silver.” Thirty shekels. An amount in our money of about £3,
2s. 6d. This was the price they put on His services, just the price paid to a
bond servant (Exodus 31:1-18).
1. Do not determine the real worth of a spiritual teacher by the
amount of his stipend.
2. Deplore the inappreciativeness of the world of the highest
services.
III. His independent
soul repudiates inadequate secular acknowledgments, “And the Lord said unto me,
Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I
took the thirty pieces of silver, and east them to the potter in the house of
the Lord.” He felt the insult of being offered such a miserable sum. “Cut it
unto the potter,” a proverbial expression, meaning, throw it to the temple
potter. “The most suitable person to whom to cast the despicable sum, plying
the trade, as he did, in the polluted valley of Hinnom, because it furnished
him with the most suitable clay.” A true teacher would starve rather than
accept such a miserable acknowledgment for his services. Your money perish with
you! (Homilist.)
Mean treatment of an old prophet by his people
Here is an old Jewish prophet honourably putting himself in the
hands of his congregation, who is dismissing himself with thirty pieces of
silver.
I. An old
prophet’s manly offer to his congregation. If you think good, give me my price.
If you are weary of me, pay me off and discharge me. If you be willing to
continue me longer in your service, I will continue; or turn me off without
wages--I am content. His spirit is
II. The Church’s
miserable acceptance of his offer. “So they weighed for my price thirty pieces
of silver.” They accepted the offer--
1. Immediately. They took no time for consideration. The money was
ready for dismissal.
2. Despicably. Thirty shekels.
3. Dishonourably. Dismissing an old pastor with such a paltry sum.
Parting with the man of God with a sham testimonial. An old prophet, after a
long service of usefulness, cast upon the world with thirty pieces of silver.
4. Studiously mean. “They weighed thirty pieces of silver.” They
shamefully put the lowest possible value on his ministry. See the extreme want
of appreciation of good pastoral service. Zechariah’s ministry was Divine. What
wretchedness of dealing with the prophetic shepherd of Israel. Salary is no
test of a good ministry. Some of the best are badly paid: The geniuses are
frequently unworthily recognised by their congregations. Jonathan Edwards was
too poor to get paper to pen down his superhuman thoughts in the ministry.
III. The prophet’s
manly disdain of his people’s meanness. “And the Lord said unto me, Cast it
unto the potter,” etc. The act was--
1. Divine. “And the Lord said unto me.”
2. Manfully done.
3. A proof of their meanness.
IV. An old prophet
robbed of his just claim.
1. Scriptural claim. “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth the
corn.”
2. Social. For the “workman is worthy of his hire.”
3. Equitable. Every class of, people have power to claim their due,
why not the ministry?
4. Divine. “Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the
Gospel should live of the Gospel.” “Who goeth a warfare any time at his own
charges? And who planteth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruit,” etc. It is
nothing but right for the ministry to get and have their due, for the credit of
the Church and the good of their successors. Honesty is virtue everywhere.
Conclusion--God frequently punishes publicly mean churches by presenting them
with shepherds of extreme barbarity and cruelty. Meanness will be punished. (J.
Morlais Jones.)
The price of our redemption
The exact agreement of this prophecy with the event it
predicts would be sufficient to render this chapter more than ordinarily
interesting. But it has a still greater claim on our regard, since it contains
the passage which I have chosen as the subject of this discourse, than which no
prophecy is more clear, no prediction more close and circumstantial. To
whichever prophet or to what particular book the passage before us may be
attributed, its circumstantial and prophetic description of an extraordinary
event connected with man’s redemption cannot be denied. How trifling was the
sum for which Judas sold his immortal soul. What could be his motive we at this
distant hour can scarcely conceive. It has been said to have been avarice. But
the sum of two or three pounds is surely too small a temptation even for the
most covetous of mankind to betray and deliver to certain death his kindest
friend and benefactor. The Gospel expressly tells us the crime originated at
the instigation of Satan. Man’s salvation was bought with a price. What that
price was, let the service of the Church at this season describe. Not even for
a moment can a sincere disciple of Christ forget the words of the Apostle: “Ye
are not your own, for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your
body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (John Nance, D. D.)
Verse 15-16
Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd
The instruments of a foolish shepherd
The command addressed to the prophet was, “to take unto him
yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd.
” “Yet” means “again,” “once more.” “Beauty” and “bands” were also instruments
of a foolish shepherd. He was to take other instruments so as to manifest more
visibly and strikingly what a foolish shepherd is. By “foolish” understand
ungodly, unregenerate, destitute of heavenly imparted wisdom, and therefore in
God’s account a fool. The “foolish shepherd” is therefore a natural man lifted
up by education, pride, covetousness, or presumption into a pulpit, and devoid
of spiritual illumination and heavenly wisdom. He has certain instruments which
the prophet was to take as emblems of his character. What they were the Holy
Ghost has not here informed us, but as we may gather them from other parts of
Scripture I shall take the liberty to put them into his hand.
1. A mask. The thing it represents, namely, deceit and imposture, is
as old as the times of Jannes and Jambres. To wear a mask is to play a false
part, to assume a fictitious character, to be a stage player; for in ancient
times the actors never appeared but in masks, the features of which imitated
the persons they represented. Thus the foolish shepherd makes the people his
stage, his holy countenance being his mask, and his false zeal loud speech, and
impassioned rant his wardrobe; and thus by craft and cunning he entangles the
simple in his net.
2. A sceptre. The badge of authority and power.
3. A pair of sharp shears; for we read that “they clothe themselves
with the wool,” and of course must have something to get the wool off with. To
receive what is voluntarily given is a different thing from clipping off as
much wool as possible, or cutting so close as to fetch blood, and take off a
bit of the skin.
4. A long whip that shall reach every corner of the pen, to flog all
that stir up the enmity of his carnal mind, by what he calls a discontented
mind.
5. A bow, and a quiver full of arrows; to reach those at a distance
who are beyond the lash of the whip. Come now to his character, which the Holy
Ghost has here drawn, and as we learn much from contraries, it will afford us
an opportunity of seeing from the contrast what the wise shepherd is.
──《The Biblical Illustrator》