If you brought your Bibles with you tonight, would you turn to the Old Testament, to the prophet Zechariah and to the 11th chapter of his prophecy? We've been looking if you're just joining us tonight at the story of the Restoration of Israel from the Old Testament. So we've gone through half of the book of Ezra. We're a Halfway through the book of Esther and we're studying the prophets who alongside of these historical figures preached in their day people like hey guy and Zechariah. We're to the point in the story of Esther where a decree has gone out from King Zerke's that on a specific date, about 11 months in the future, all the people in the Empire of Persia may kill any any Jew that they can find and sees his property and take his possessions and they will have immunity if they do so. And of course this decree according to the book of Esther went out to all the Provinces, including the Provinces beyond the River where Jerusalem was and where an old man named Zechariah was still preaching. And you can imagine the great distress that came over Jerusalem at the time. The temple had been rebuilt by this day, but the wall around the city was not finished. Nehemiah was yet to show up. And so all these enemies that discouraged Zerubabal and Joshua and Ezra as they sought to build the wall and hey guys he preached and all the men and women who would oppose Nehemiah when he got to this was a golden opportunity. They could do exactly what they wanted to do. Eliminate these Jews, take on their property and take possession of their lands and farms and houses and get by with it. And so it was at that time that the Lord would give to the old prophet Zechariah in the midst of this another message. He calls it an oracle, literally in Hebrew a burden, a burden of the word of the Lord. And it begins if you look in Zechariah chapter 9 with these words. The oracle of the word of the Lord is against the land of hotdruck and Damascus is a trusting place. For the Lord has an eye on mankind and on all the tribes of Israel. This oracle or burden is a heavy message. It's one that the word gives indication that it's something that would be unpleasant. Something that would weigh back a ride down in his soul and something that he would want to unburden himself of as he proclaimed it. And the oracle concerns the city of Damascus, which is where the governor of the province beyond the river, the governor who was over Jerusalem where he lived. It's a message God says where he has an eye on mankind and all the tribes of Israel. So this message that comes in three parts, chapter 9 is point one about how Israel's enemies will be destroyed. Chapter two is encouragement how Israel would be restored and then point three tonight in chapter 11 is about all the leaders who persecuted Israel will be ruined. So this chapter is 9, 10, 11, although we've taken in three parts is one sermon with three points. If you think that I'm a long-winded preacher, then you should listen to Zechariah. Takes you three weeks to cover one of his sermons. And he talks about tonight an oracle about what I feel noticed the little heading that the English standard version has in there is about a flock doomed to slaughter. Because he says in chapter 11 and verse 7, so I became a shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. Now I'm going to tell you something this is considered and I think it is one of the two most difficult prophecies in the Old Testament. It's just as difficult as the 70 weeks of Daniel. And it covers the same period of time. There are more than 40 different interpretations of some of the points of Zechariah's message. And I don't want to pretend tonight that I have come to a rock-solid conclusion because I haven't. But I think if you put this message in the historical context of what was going on in the life of Esther, what Xerxes was doing among the peoples of his empire, Hamens' plan to destroy the Jewish people, and what was going on in the ministry of Zechariah over Jerusalem, it makes a little bit more sense. It has three points. This third point has three points. It has a poem that is kind of a prelude to this part of the message and has a parable and finally a prophecy. So we turn to this oracle and we need to remember that it has a lot more applications than we think. It talks about things that have already happened in history. Although it looks forward to perhaps some things that are yet going to happen. But it reminds us how difficult leadership is. When I was a young man, my wife and my mother and my sisters can tell you that I would be very critical of leaders, especially our presidents, because I always knew the right answer. But as I've gotten older, I am less critical of our presidents. If I was only in this with all sincerity, I would never take that job. If you paid me a million dollars an hour. Well, I might take it for three or four hours and then ask you to impeach me. But I really wouldn't want the job because you just can't win at that job. The young man at seminary, I teach some leadership classes out there. One of them asked this pastor, he said, pastor, you've been in ministry a long time. What's the one thing you would tell us at the end of your pastoral time? And I'd say about leadership. And here's when I told him, I said leadership gets more difficult all the time. Because our world is dying. We are under the judgment of Genesis chapter three and it's unfolding almost by the hour. And to imagine that human beings can solve the problems that are around us. It's falling on our part. I think a president, Trump, or Mr. Obama pick the one you like the better. They face the same issues. Healthcare. It's easy to say that you're going to bring universal healthcare or you're going to repeal universal healthcare. And then we find out that both congresses have run into the same problems and it's not an easy issue. Immigration. It's one thing to say you're going to build a wall or that you're going to let everybody in and give them amnesty. Until you begin to look at all that involves divided families and terrorists coming in and what it does positively or negatively to our economy. And you realize that it's an extremely complex issue, climate control. There are people who say, well, if we allow the great aid to pass all these rules and regulations, it will really hamper our economy and cause us to be less competitive in the world market, which is probably what some nations would like to see happen. But you have to realize also that with all the issues around climate change, there are people who are experiencing drought and famine and poverty. And it's not an easy issue. And we could say the same thing about gun control. We could say the same thing about our relationship with Russia. We could say it about most of the issues that divide our nation and are stopping on the president's desk. And I suggest to you that rather than present anxies as an inherently evil person, we have to realize how complicated it was to run this massive empire. An empire much larger than the United States in terms of its surface and its people groups. And to realize that the decisions he makes without the proper information. All these issues that I just mentioned, Obamacare and climate control and starving people and immigrants and Russians and people who own guns or don't want you to own. And they all seem to take on a different meaning when you're talking to someone face-to-face who's been affected by these things. Imagine what Zerksy's decree would have been like, had Haven Simply inserted this piece of information at the end of his speech. And by the way, one of the people that I'm asking to destroy is your beautiful wife Esther. But he wasn't given that information. And he made a bad decision. A decision about a flock doomed to slaughter. It will be surprised to find out the flock that was doomed to slaughter is not Israel but Persia. That in addition to the decree of Zerksy's a higher decree, just like we say, a higher throne issued a decree that day that Zerksy's would fall. And then a new king, one named Alexander of Greece would arise and that he would fall. And that all these different kingdoms that saw the undoing of Israel would never succeed. That all their rulers would be ruined. But the people of God would continue. Here's the first point. It's a poetic prelude about deposing the shepherds. Chapter 11, verse 1.
The first point here about the judgment of pagan leaders with a poem about cedars of Lebanon. Lebanon, as you know, exists today where it did in the ancient times, northwest of Jerusalem. Right on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, it was famous for its huge cedar trees. Not quite as big, but just as famous as the Redwood trees of Northern California. And it was the cities of Tyre and Sidon that got rich, cutting down these huge forests and selling the timber Solomon, used massive amounts of it to build both his royal palace and the temple of the Lord. And in the prophetic literature, the cedars of Lebanon becomes a symbol of prideful leadership. Listen to what Isaiah says. Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of his majesty. The haughty look of man shall be brought low. And the lofty pride of men shall be humbled. And the Lord alone will be exalted in that day for the Lord of Host has a day against that which is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up. It shall be brought low against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up against all the oaks of Boschian, against all the lofty mountains and the uplifted hills, every high tower, every fortified wall, all the ships of Tarshis, against all the beautiful craft. And the haughty dust of man shall be humbled and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low. And the Lord alone will be exalted in that day and the idol shall utterly pass away. Here it's obvious that these cedars of Lebanon are people, the proud people, their leaders, and Boschian, if Lebanon lay to the northwest of Jerusalem, then Boschian was up to the northeast. It was a broad fertile plain that had excessive rains and great soil, and it raised trees and shrubs, and it became a synonymous with opulence. If the cedars of Lebanon became a symbol of pride, then Boschian became a symbol of opulence, so that one of the prophets, Amos, would cry out against the cows of Boschian, rich, well-fed, overweight people who had no sense of justice or mercy. And here these other trees, smaller trees, the Cyprus and the yolks of Boschian, they're told to weigh all, to weep, to mourn over the fact that they're great leaders, these cedars of Lebanon are about to be felled. Now the problem is, what leaders are these? And this is the first division among the commentators, half of them say it's Israel's leaders, and half of them say they're Gentalking's who are to be judged. And I take the latter view, because I think that this whole message, if you take it as one message, 9, 10, 11, is never in any part of it a message of the judgment of the people of God but against the nations. In the very heart of this message, chapter 10 is this great promise about the restoration and the prosperity and the blessing of Israel and the people of God. Joyce Baldwin and I agree with her, says the unifying theme of this message has been the coming triumph of the Lord which will be shared by his people in exultant joy. The climax is the arrival of the king to set up his universe of king, but first there is opposition to be overcome and hence the darker side of this picture. So here the prophet introduces a message that the people understand is going to be about world leaders. In the day of Zechariah in his contemporaries, if you mentioned the oaks of Bosch and the cedars of Lebanon, they would know that you were talking about world leaders. And so he has this poem, followed up by a parable, a parable about the rejection of a good shepherd, verse 4. Thus said the Lord my God, become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. Those who buy them slaughter them and go on punished and those who sell them say, blessed be the Lord I have become rich and their own shepherds have no pity on them. For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land declares the Lord. Behold, I will cause each of them to fall into the hands of his neighbor and each into the hand of his king and they shall crush the land and I will deliver none from their hands. Stop there and here's what God's telling Zechariah to do. He's commanding him to take part in what we call an enacted parable. He's to play a role. And this is not uncommon. Isaiah had to do this, Hosea had to do this, Jeremiah did this, Amos did this, where they were told to do things like strip off their clothes and bound their hands like someone going off to captivity, 300 years before it happened. Or to lay on one side for several weeks and then on the other side to show a divided kingdom. They were acting out in a dramatic way the truth of a parable. And so here God says, Zechariah, you act like one of these leaders and you take in your hand two staffs, one called favor, one called union and I'll tell you what to do with him. So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders and I took two staffs, one I named favor and the other I named union. And I tended the sheep and one month I destroyed the three shepherds but I became impatient with them and they also detested me so I said, I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die, what is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed and let those who are left devour the flesh of one another. And they took my staff favor and I broke it on knowing the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. So here Zechariah takes a staff, calls it favor. And he says that I reached out to the people but they rejected me as their king. And so I said, okay, I'm going to reject the covenant I made with all the peoples of the earth and I broke that staff as if to break the favor of the Lord. Now here's the first difficult thing in this passage. He says in one month, I destroyed three shepherds and I want to tell you in no uncertain terms that we have absolutely no idea what he's talking about, none whatsoever. There are postulations that these are three kings of Judah but there were no kings of Judah after this point. None or three governors but we know of no three governors of Jews that were disciplined by the Lord. And maybe it was the three offices of prophet priest and king. Maybe it was three Persian kings but it doesn't fit into the chronology of things. But there were six more kings of Persia following Syracuse before Alexander the Great conquered and decimated that kingdom. We simply don't know what these verses are but we do know the illusion to the next point. So it was an old on that day and the sheep traders who were watching me knew that it was the word of the Lord. And then I said to them, if it seems good to you, give me my wages but if not keep them and they weighed out as my wages 30 pieces of silver. Then the Lord said to me, throw it to the potter, the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord to the potter. Then I broke my second staff union annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. Now once again that's a troubling statement. I annulled the brotherhood between Judah and Israel and there's no time in which God told the Jews in Israel and the Jews in Judah that they were not brothers. In fact Israel doesn't exist anymore and never will again only Judah but we do know this. That Zechariah acts out what happened with Judas' carried in Jesus Christ. He says, what's the price of my wages and they say well it's the price of a slave which was set by the book of Exodus, 30 pieces of silver, 30 shekels of silver. So I said, give me my wages. And then the Lord said you go to the temple where the potter works and you throw it in there. Well we know the story of Judas' scarion. It says in Matthew chapter 27, when Judas' betrayer saw that Jesus was condemned he changed his mind and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priest and elder saying I have sinned betraying this man's innocent blood and they said what is that to us? See to it yourself and he threw down the pieces of silver into the temple and departed and went out and hung himself. This is a picture we think of Zechariah acting like Christ, promising to show the favor of God to all peoples and bring them together in spiritual union but they reject him. Because it was favor on all the people who is broken, his union is broken and the people suffer because of that. Jesus said I am the good shepherd and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. But if you reject that good shepherd, then the next time you encounter him he is the king of kings and lord of lords. He's writing back in the history on a white stallion and you know the ghastly and unpleasant picture this is in Revelation 19 where he throws into the pit three great leaders, the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. Perhaps those are the three shepherds, the three cedars of lemon, the three mighty leaders that this good shepherd brings down. It's a prophecy I think of the impending downfall of Xerxes because in just nine years, because of his idolatry, because of his immorality, because of his unjust rule and his abuse of his own people and his own family. The assassinated in his bed, his extravagant building projects, his failed military exploits, his excessive spending of money on himself had bankrupted his empire and his godless successors, six of them, would become worse and worse until over 150 years later. A young man who was just about 31 years old would conquer his kingdom. The boy named Alexander the great who in this passage is called a foolish shepherd, that's the prophecy, the rise of the foolish shepherd in verse 15. Then the Lord said to me, take once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd, for behold I am raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for those being destroyed or seek the young or heal the maimed or nourish the healthy, but devours the flesh of fat ones tearing off even their hoofs. Woe to my worthless shepherd who deserts the flock, may the sword strike his arm and his right eye that his arm be wholly withered, his right eye utterly blinded. Remember that in the start of this sermon, I want you to look back in chapter 9 for a minute, and look at verse 13. For I have bent my bow as my bow and I have made f from an arrow, I will stir up your son's ozine against your son's old grease and wield you like a warrior's sword. This is the first time that grease is introduced in this whole story. Grease has only mentioned four times in the Old Testament three times by Daniel and once by Zechariah. Daniel prophesies in chapter 8 about the fall of Persia, saying that the goat who comes out in this vision, a goat with two horns and a strong one a small one, is the king of grease and the great horn between his eyes is his first king, meaning Philip of Macedonia's son Alexander the Great. He then foretells the rise of Alexander the Greek's great empire. He says, again, one having the appearance of a man touched me and strengthened me and he said to me, oh man greatly beloved, fear not, peace be with you, be strong and a good courage and I spoke to him and he answered me and strengthened me. Let my Lord speak before you have strengthened me and then he said, do you know why I have come and now I will return to fight against the prince of Persia and when I go out behold the prince of grease will come. Alexander will come. Then he has that famous vision of four kingdoms arising and he tells us that these four kingdoms will follow a series of kings until it comes to King Zerxes. And King Zerxes will fight against grease but his kingdom shall be broken and divided into the four winds of heaven and so Zechariah picks up that message and he says, you know, this king is coming but he will be unlike all the other shepherds. He will be a shepherd who does not care for those being destroyed. He will not care for those being destroyed or seek the young or heal the maimed or nourish the healthy but devour the flesh of the fat ones tearing off even their hooves. Alexander was known to be one of the most brutal butchers of the people he conquered in all of ancient history. He sought revenge against Persia because of the wars that they had fought against his father Philip. He plundered the Persian capital cities of Babylon, Epitana and Susan Persepolis and his arrival in Persia in 323 BC was a bloody affair. I won't read to you but just summarize what 80 Olmsted says in his book about the history of the Persian Empire. He says that Philip Alexander's father in 338 BC began a crusade to recapture Greek cities and islands from the Persians. Shortly thereafter in 336 Philip was assassinated and many people believed that Alexander and his mother had something to do with that. That's how ruthless this young man was. He was 21 years old. He had a lot of problems at home so he couldn't continue this crusade until he got things settled but then in 334 BC two years later he began what made me the most marvelous military campaign in all of history in ten years. When he was 33 years old he had conquered all of Macedonian Greece, then the Aegean islands, the coastlands of Asia Minor, Asia Minor Proper, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Babylon and finally Persia and in the process had declared himself the son of God. It was the first king we know among the Greeks, among the Western kings, to receive divine worship. He became in other words an anti-Christ, another Christ, a false shepherd, a fully shepherd here, a fake savior, just a Zechariah prophesied. We arrived in Susa, he plundered the palace of Susa which was Esther's one time home and he took out of there about a half of a billion dollars worth of gold and silver. He then went on to Persepolis, the city that was the pride and joy of his works. It was called the spiritual center of Persia. It had magnificent temples and monuments to their gods in a spectacular palace and there when he plundered that palace, are you ready? He took into his own pocket in one day 1.1 billion dollars, billion dollars of gold and silver and that formally ended his crusade. It wasn't the end of what he did. Ultiom's told said all the men were slaying without mercy, the excuse being the crowds of horribly mutilated Greek captors that Alexander had freed on his journey to Persia. All the women were enslaved and the Macedonians fought over them, one over another. He plundered the city ruthlessly, not just the temples and palaces but the private homes, every home was sacked and ruined and every citizen murdered. Alexander even boasted in his letters that he had ordered the Persian captors to be massacred. These barbarities at Persepolis were followed by an act of sheer vandalism. He burned the marvelous palace on the platform which Alexander had made his public intention to destroy in revenge for Xerxes burning of Greek temples and Athens. One of the soldiers, Parmenian, urged the young crusader to spare them. He said, oh God, it is not right that you should destroy what now has become yours through conquest but the young Alexander refused to listen and watched the city burn. This took place just as Daniel had said that there would come four different kingdoms, a winged lion which is Babylon's symbol and then a bear with ribs, three ribs in its seat, that is Persia in its conquest of Babylon and Lydian Egypt and then a leopard with four wings, leopard is a swift beast of prey. Alexander was swift, conquered the world in ten years and he had four wings which were his four generals and when he died the very year that he burnt Persepolis, God struck him down with, we believe, malaria. Then his four generals, Antipater, Lissimakis, Salegasus, Ptolemy divided the kingdom. Daniel says only for a short season until a fourth beast, unlike all the others, an iron beast with great teeth came and crushed them all which is Rome, Rome the Invincible Empire. And Zechariah adds the details of Alexander the Great's reign as God King. The remarkable thing about it is how accurate he is for telling the conquest of all of Alexander's mighty campaigns and all the things he did but also how swiftly this false shepherd was ruined by God. You notice at the end he says this in verse 13, for I have bent Judah as my bow, I have made F from its arrows, I will stir up your sons O Zion against your sons of Greece and wield you like a warrior sword. The only time we know where the sons of Israel fought the Greeks was in the war of the Maccabees which was yet another 370 some years into the future. And Zechariah says the vast empire of Alexander will remain broken to pieces until the sons of Israel rise up and cast off the burden of Greece that dominated over them for so many years. What is ironic is that you get to the end of this passage and you realize that the flock doomed to slaughter was not Esther inner people but Xerxes and his empire. And Alexander and his vast domain, God would save his church but destroy the church's enemies. It is easy for us my friends to live each day, just our common little lives, their own little worlds wondering why governments and presidents and empires make the foolish and brutal and evil decisions that they appear to make. Until we read Old Zechariah's sermon and remember its wonderful message that the eye of the Lord is on all the peoples. Where is the Persian empire now? Alexander's empire, where is mighty Rome, the invincible Rome to borrow a phrase from our own literature gone with the wind? Where is Xerxes? Alexander the great and all of the ten Caesars, well as far as we know they're all in hell and they're no longer masquerading as a human God. Where is Echariah? And Esther and Mordecai, they're in heaven and in glory. God is watching us. And amidst the ruins of Babylon and Susa and Athens and Rome, there has arisen another kingdom, the church, the Kingdom of God. God is watching us and even watching over us. That's what he says in this passage, he's watching the nations but he's watching over Israel. For some of us, that's a frightening realities for others like believers, it's a comfort. The Lord is in His holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes see, behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. The Lord looks down from the heavens on the children of man to see if any understand, if any do good and seek after God. He rules by His might forever. His eyes keep watch on the mountains, let not the rebellious exalt themselves there. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and His ears are toward their cry. For the eyes of the Lord run too and fro throughout the whole earth to give strong support to those whose heart is vainless toward Him. You have done foolishly in this. For for now on, you will be destroyed. For I will instruct you and teach you in the ways that you should go, I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Remember how your mother when you were little used to say, now Michael, I want you to go up to school and do this at church and come back and remember, God is watching you. Was I the only child who grew up thinking that God was watching me all the time? Now my mother said that to intimidate me and make me behave and it worked most of the time. But the truth is God is watching the hearts of men all the time. Just as one old prophet said, the Lord sees not as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart. God sees the heart of Donald Trump. He sees the hearts of those aliens crossing our borders, those seeking universal health care, that crying mother with a starving child in the arms, he sees our hearts as we discuss these issues and vote the way we do for the positions that we believe in. He sees it all. He sees and he cares and he will act. Old Job said this, for his eyes are on the ways of a man and he sees all his steps. There is no gloom or deep darkness where evil doers may hide themselves. For God has no need to consider a man further, that he should go before God in judgment. He shatters the mighty without investigation and sets others in their places. Thus knowing their works, he overturns them in the night and they are crushed. He strikes them for their wickedness in a place for all to see because they turned aside from following him and had no regard for any of his ways so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him but he heard the cry of the afflicted and he saved them. I'm not sure that I've got all the interpretations of all of the specifics, the passage right but I do know this. Zechariah says there is a good shepherd who looks over the world and he will sit on the judgment seat someday and he will ask us one question and only one because he's already made with his mind about his judgments. Did you bow to the King of kings and the Lord of lords or did you set up your own empire? Did you become your own God and before we answer the judgment will be rendered. There is a flock doomed to slaughter billions of people who renounce the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We have prophecies like this to make sure that we are not in that number but we are among those of the afflicted whose cry God has heard and who are saved by him. Let's pray. We come upon these passages with this vast and sweeping panorama of human history and we get lost sometimes and the details of this passage but we know the great story. We know how it ends that the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ will be established and he will reign forever and ever. We have an opportunity the book of Revelation says to sit on throes with him and judge the nations but only first if we have surrendered our individual kingdoms, the kingdoms of our heart, the Lordship of our own lives, our own sovereignty and independence and pride to Jesus Christ. It is easy to become big and important in our own sight and to forget to compare us to the greatness and glory of Jesus Christ, your favorite and blessed son and we pray this night that you would help us to bring all of our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. That we would bow the knee before him and confess now while we want to and can do so willingly that he is Lord to the glory of God before the rest world has to confess it unwillingly upon their judgment day. Thank you for giving us the word of God and these prophets of old and these apostles of new to teach us about the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Save us from ourselves before we destroy ourselves before your judgment seat. Give us mercy and not judgment for mercy triumphs over judgment through those who believe in Jesus Christ and we would ask this favor for his sake and his name amen.