"Two Shepherds" (plus intro/last week's outro)
The intro is actually an outro from the last passage, my bad. should've included it yesterday. It basically goes to mention the destruction of Israel's enemies. particularly through the imagery of a burnt-down forest (in the case of Lebanon) and shepherds whose flocks have been eaten by lions (shepherds being the kings of the enemy nations and lions being other nations conquering the enemies).
This passage (the actual one, not the outro) is slightly confusing. It starts off with the Lord proclaiming that the sheep marked to be killed will instead be pastured (i.e. Israel will be spared destruction). for their current shepherds do not care for or spare them.
now, here comes the confusing parts. God then says that he will hand the people of the land [sheep or shepherds?/ israelites or captors?]. God then says that he will hand everyone over to his neighbor and king and they [neighbor] will oppress the land. in context this portion sounds like it's speaking about israel, but the tone is contrary with the tone of the rest of zechariah that is used for the israelites.
God then says that he will pasture this flock marked for slaughter - in particular those that are oppressed. He will then make two rods - Favor and Union - and will pasture the flock, driving off the 3 shepherds [who are these shepherds?]
Then God describes how the sheep became tired if Him and He, in turn, because off their unfaith, became tired of them. [sounds like pre-exilic israel]. Then the Lord declared that He will no longer be the shepherd, breaking the staff called favor, revoking the covenant He had made with all the nations [what covenant is this? the OT covenant was just to israel, the NT covenant is to all the earth. Is God predicting the revoking of His covenant in christ?]. When He did this, the oppressed of the flock shuddered [this could mean the christians in the end times, i don't know] realizing this to be the word of God.
God then said to [i presume]the flock "if you think it best, give me my pay. if not, keep it" to which the flock paid him 30 silver pieces (the amount needed to buy a slave in those times).
The Lord then spoke to Zechariah telling him to throw the "handsome sum of money" (yes, God can be sarcastic) to the potter [maybe some sort of idiom, i don't know]. so Zechariah then threw the 30 pieces "into the house of the Lord to the potter"
The Lord then broke Union, breaking the brotherhood between Israel and Judah. The Lord then tells Zechariah to gather the equipment of a foolish shepherd, because God is about to call up a completely corrupt shepherd who will not care for his flock in any way.
Zechariah then ends with a woe to the worthless shepherd.
This passage confuses me. at points I think it is referring to pre-exilic Israel, at others I think it might refer to the end times and at one point it sounds like it could refer to either the end of the exile or the role of christ as a shepherd. there are so many images that run into one another with changing tones that I have no clue what to think... I know this makes sense somehow - most probably in what would be hindsight after the fact - but I have no understanding of this. I do know, however, that God knows what He is talking about and, sense or none, it will ultimately work tot he Good of those who believe and trust in Him.
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