(Zechariah 11:16-17) “For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or sustain the one standing, but will devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs. “Woe to the worthless shepherd Who leaves the flock! A sword will be on his arm And on his right eye! His arm will be totally withered And his right eye will be blind.”
When you consider Israel’s history as a nation time and time again the LORD raised up prophets to call His people back to Himself when they had spiritually backslidden into idolatry and embraced the ways of the pagan world surrounding them. In His parable of the Tenants the Lord Jesus spoke about how God the landowner had planted His vineyard, being Israel, and had sent his servants the prophets to the nation to assess their spiritual status before the Lord and to pass on His word the people of Israel. God was looking for spiritual fruitfulness from His people. However, they killed and stoned the prophets God sent them.
The Lord Jesus also spoke about the son of the landowner whom they also killed. Of course He was referring to Himself as the Son of God and the ultimate prophet sent to Israel by God who would be killed by His own brethren. Consequently the Lord Jesus foretold the judgement that would come upon the Jewish nation for rejecting their own Messiah and that God’s blessings would be turned towards the Gentiles who would respond to Israel’s Messiah the Lord Jesus. In 70AD Mosaic Judaism ceased to exist with the destruction of the Temple and the ravaging and subjugation of Jerusalem to the Romans. Of course the Lord Jesus loved His Jewish brothers and sisters and grieved over their rejection of Him as their Passover Lamb and the only one who could bring them salvation.
At one time He lamented over them when He said; “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!” (Matthew 23:37-38)
Israel has suffered more than any other nation and their long and troubled history witnesses to this fact. In the Bible we see that God established kings to shepherd His people and to lead them into His ways but most of them did not do this. Of course there were good kings such as King David, King Josiah and King Hezekiah but for the most part the kings of Israel did not shepherd the people as they should have done. Of course the ultimate king and shepherd was the Messiah our Lord Jesus yet they rejected Him and even today they still reject Him but this is going to change.
Since its rebirth as a nation in 1948 Israel has had a line of Prime Ministers and their effectiveness varied according to their ability to lead the nation. When Israel was reborn as a nation it was David Ben-Gurion the first Prime Minster of Israel who acknowledged God’s promises made to His people in the Bible. He saw the national restoration as a fulfilment of Bible prophecy. Today Prime Minister Netanyahu also recognizes the Biblical mandate from God that the Land of Israel is their birthright and inheritance from the God of Israel. The down side of course is that the people of Israel for the most part do not want God’s true shepherd the Messiah our Lord Jesus to be their king. In Zechariah Chapter 11 the prophet mentions two shepherds and that the nation rejects the true shepherd for a false shepherd. The reference to the thirty pieces of silver applies to the betrayal of the Messiah our Lord Jesus by His follower Judas Iscariot. (Zechariah 11:12-13) (Matthew 26:15)
The second shepherd would come at the end of the age and would be the one who would bring about Israel’s devastation as a nation. Today Israel has a shepherd in Benjamin Netanyahu who, while not a Messianic believer in the Lord Jesus as far as we know, has sought to protect and govern Israel with justice and equity and who, like David Ben-Gurion, recognizes God’s promises in the Torah to give to the Jewish people the Land of Israel as their inheritance and that Jerusalem is the undivided capital of Israel. He has worked tirelessly for the welfare of the Jewish nation.
Since 1948 God has been watching over Israel. However, He has been doing this to give the nation time to turn back to Him through embracing His Chief Shepherd being His Son, the Messiah our Lord Jesus but tragically it is going to take the Time of Jacob’s Trouble to bring about the spiritual restoration of the nation. Today their national restoration is a partial restoration as foretold by the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 37:1-8) their spiritual restoration is will happen in the future. (Ezekiel 37:9-28) They still do not have the whole of the land mass promised to them stretching from the Wadi of Egypt to the River Euphrates including the Sinai Peninsula Gaza, the West bank, Jordan, the Golan heights, Lebanon, most of Syria and reaching into Iraq. (Genesis 15:18-19)
In the Messianic kingdom, after the Lord Jesus has come back, Israel will “possess their possession” and “possess the gates of their enemies.” However before this happens the nation will pass through the refining fire of God’s spiritual crucible and a surviving remnant will, through this fiery ordeal ordained by God, come forth believing in the Messiah our Lord Jesus to co-reign with Him from Jerusalem over the nations that have survived the Time of the Big Trouble. (Zechariah 13:8-9)
Now in Israel today there is political unrest as Prime minister Netanyahu has been dealing with so called ‘criminal’ charges that have been laid against him and now his co-regent Benny Gantz, in reality a political opponent to Prime Minster Netanyahu, is seeking to bring charges against him over an alleged receiving of financial kick- backs from a German Company that the Israeli government had contracted to build for them naval vessels, a charge that Prime Minister Netanyahu denies and one it seems cannot be substantiated. On 20 April 2020, Benny Gantz agreed to join a unity government with Prime Minister Netanyahu which would see Gantz serve as prime minister in a rotation deal in 18 months. Benny Gantz is scheduled to become prime minister on 17 November 2021.
As a prelude to the Time of Jacob’s Trouble a leader or a shepherd will arise in Israel who will lead the nation into the Abyss of an invasion by their enemies that will only be resolved by the Second coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus. Whether it will be Benny Gantz or another leader the prophet Zechariah tells us what he will do. It will be ordained by God because the nation of Israel still rejects their Messiah and the salvation He has purchased for them with his atoning blood as their Passover Lamb, sacrificed for their sin and rebellion against God. (1 Corinthians 5:7)
This “worthless” shepherd will abandon Israel forcing them into the hands of their enemies. As Zechariah writes; “For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or sustain the one standing, but will devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs.” Because Israel has rejected their only Shepherd the Messiah our Lord Jesus God will raise up this shepherd who will not care for the spiritual welfare of God’s people and will even betray and dethrone the standing current leader and bring about a disaster that will see Israel devastated politically, socially, economically, militarily and spiritually. This worthless shepherd will feed only his own desires and will compromise Israel’s security for his own political expediency. His betrayal of Israel’s’ sovereignty to exist as a nation will bring about the invasion of Israel and the occupation and division of Jerusalem by Israel’s enemies. (Zechariah 14:1-2)
Zechariah goes on to say about this worthless shepherd; “Woe to the worthless shepherd Who leaves the flock! A sword will be on his arm And on his right eye! His arm will be totally withered And his right eye will be blind.” In other words this ‘shepherd’ will abandon his people and his strength will be cut away as with a sword and his ability to perceive what is right taken from him. In all of these things God will still be in control. As we see Benny Gantz, a secular Jew, in reality vying for the top job in Israel will we see in him that worthless shepherd that will betray Israel into the hands of their implacable enemies? Time will tell in this matter. This will be a situation that will only be resolved at the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus the Anointed Messiah to establish His Messianic Kingdom on earth. (Zechariah 14:3-9)
