Zechariah Is To Feed The Flock Doomed For Slaughter (Zechariah 11:4-6).
There is an interesting contrast here between the false shepherds of Zechariah and the true shepherd of Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 34 YHWH Himself will save the sheep, here He hands them over to the false shepherds. In Ezekiel 34:23 YHWH promises to raise up a shepherd who will feed them, here He says that he will raise up shepherds who are not concerned for the welfare of the sheep. In Ezekiel 34:25 YHWH promises to establish a covenant of peace with His people, here in Zechariah 11:10; Zechariah 11:14 He breaks His covenant of peace and union with them. In Ezekiel 34:26-31 great blessings are promised for His people, here in Zechariah 11:16 doom and desolation is threatened. In Ezekiel the new age is in mind, here there is simply a grim period ahead. In Ezekiel 37:19 the two sticks of Israel and Judah are brought together, here the two staffs representing the covenant and the union between Israel and Judah are broken. It is difficult not to see this as deliberate. It is Zechariah's sad warning that the refusal of the people to respond to God's true shepherd can only delay the blessing that He has been promising.
‘Thus says YHWH my God, “Feed the flock doomed to slaughter, whose owners slay them and hold themselves not guilty, and those who sell them say, ‘I am rich', and their own shepherds do not spare them. For I will no more spare the inhabitants of the land,” says YHWH, “but lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour's hand and into the hand of his king, and they will smite the land and out of their hand I will not deliver them.”.'
The situation as portrayed in the early Chapter s has changed. Zechariah is no longer listened to with reverence and now he describes a power struggle that is taking place between himself and other members of the prophetic guild (Zechariah 11:4-14). And it is one that in the end he loses because the people choose to follow the false prophets. It was a foretaste of what will happen to theGreater Shepherd Who was to come.
Because there has not been a final proper response to God Zechariah is now told that he must act as shepherd to the people while he may, for the future is gloomy and the people are doomed to slaughter because they are following the false shepherds. Apart from Zechariah there is no other who shepherds them properly. Their own rulers, priests and prophets, pictured as owners of the flock, have betrayed them. They are acting in such a way as will only bring about their deaths and slavery. Their own shepherds have no pity on them. And yet they follow them and refuse to listen to the lone voice of Zechariah as he pleads with them.
The result is that God Himself will not act on their behalf. He also will no more have pity on them. They will be beset by their neighbours and their neighbour's governors, and the land will be smitten and God will not deliver them.
Yet His mercy is shown in that He continues to send to them a true prophet, Zechariah, if only they will listen. Had they responded there would have been mercy.
‘The flock doomed to slaughter.' Literally ‘the flock of slaughter.' A vivid picture of a flock set aside for the butcher's knife because they have been selected as the next to fill the butchers' shops.
So the hopes that had been previously raised have been quenched. The leaders have failed. The people have not responded. The result is that further reversals must take place before the final triumph is achieved. This is the story of history. God will only act when men respond. Although paradoxically that response itself is the result of God's action.