CRITICAL NOTES.] In this chapter we have a contrast to the former. It was necessary to promise blessings, to encourage, and to warn, lest many should presume by vain confidence in the promises. We have the destruction of the second temple and of the Jewish polity for the rejection of Christ. Lebanon] i.e. the temple, lofty and magnificent as the mountain. “The picture is a dramatic one. Instead of the devastation of Lebanon being announced, it is summoned to open its gates that the fire may be able to enter in and devour its cedars. The cypresses, which hold the second place among the celebrated woods of Lebanon, are then called upon to howl over the fall of the cedars, not so much from sympathy as because the same fate awaits them” [Keil].
Zechariah 11:2. Forest] Lit. the fortified or inaccessible forest, Jerusalem, with houses numerous, and built close together, and round which was a wall (cf. Micah 3:12).
Zechariah 11:3. Shepherds] In reference to office, and young lions] in disposition. Jordan] with its thickets and decorated banks, which furnished lairs for lions. Jewish leaders are represented as despairing at the destruction of their polity.
HOMILETICS
NATIONAL FUEL FOR DIVINE FIRE.—Zechariah 11:1-3
Applied to the temple, the city, or the people, these words indicate the destruction of everything great in the Jewish nation. Formerly they had been visited and recovered; now there is a final judgment. All is ripe for destruction. God’s anger is kindled; the conflagration sweeps through the land, devours mountain, forests, and lowland pastures, and creates lamentation in man and beast.
I. The nation’s glory is spoiled. “Their glory is spoiled.” The temple and the city, the boast and excellency of the nation, were besieged and sacked. Their honour and power were brought low; the wealth and luxury acquired by the abuse of power became a prey to the enemy. God can take away the results of our labour, and the monuments of our skill. We may think our resources to be secure, and our fortifications impregnable, but the doors will open to the Divinely-appointed agency.
II. The nation’s nobility are out down. “The mighty are spoiled.” The leaders of the people—men of superior and inferior ranks—are taken away. “The cedars,” the pre-eminent in rank and office; the fir-trees, rulers of lower grade; the “oaks of Bashan,” men of strength and sturdy power—the highest and the lowest are involved in fearful destruction, and howl in agony together. Whatever be the estimation in which nobility are held, Divine wrath may consume them like fire. “Worship your heroes from afar; contact withers them” [Madame Necker].
III. The nation is filled with despair. “Howl, fir-tree.” If doors open of their own accord, what use are defences? If the highest fall, what can the lowest do? When chief men, in civil or religious position, are fallen from their station, horror and anguish may well fill the community.
1. Despair most sad. “Howl.” The cedar, the fir-tree, the oak, alike suffer, “for the forest of vintage is come down.”
2. Despair universal. All have cause for alarm and lamentation. The fire sweeps through Lebanon and Bashan, the entire land is seized, mountain and plain, forests and fields, are laid waste; men and beasts cry out in terror, and universal despair indicates the awful ruin. If God’s favoured nation were thus punished, let the wicked beware and the godly be warned. “Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed (rewarded or chastened) in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner (shall not go unpunished)” (Proverbs 11:31).
CHRISTIAN SORROW FOR FALLEN GREATNESS.—Zechariah 11:2
The Bible abounds with comparison, is an ancient book, and in proportion as you go back in history, you will find the language poetic. The warm imagination of the Easterns never suffered them to speak without figures. Men are called trees. Three things in the text—
I. The differences there are among men. Where are sameness and equality to be found? God is always producing variety. All flesh is not the same flesh (1 Corinthians 15:39). What wonder, then, that differences should exist among men? Some are superior to others in family, rank, and station; in corporeal qualities, in stature, in beauty, in strength, gracefulness, and speed; in mental qualities, in acquired knowledge, in usefulness. Think of the Luthers, the Whitfields, and the Hills. Some cedars and others fir-trees.
II. Their fall, however, distinguished.
1. There is a moral fall to which we are exposed while in flesh and blood; indeed a man is never secure as long as he is in the world.
2. There is a mortal fall by death, accident, disease, infirmity, or age. Great men die often—not always—before others. Here the cedar falls, while the fir-tree survives.
III. The sorrow caused by their removal.
1. Sympathetic sorrow. Sympathy, a word the more we consider the less we can explain. We only know the fact that God has put something within us which reciprocates the feeling which we find in another. A mother hears her child cry, and darts to its relief. You see a man drowning in water; you sink as he sinks, rise as he rises, and are equally glad when he comes to shore.
2. Rational sorrow. All men die. Princes and soldiers that defend us, merchants that supply us, and husbandmen that till our ground and fill our barns. Can we see the nation stript of these, like a tree dropping its leaves in autumn, and not feel? Can we see the country robbed of its members, its ornaments, and not sorrow?
3. Pious sorrow. We are told of St. Ambrose that when he heard of the death of a minister of Christ he burst into tears. (a) The death of a good man is a public loss. We lose their examples, which are important and beneficial. (b) As benefactors, they are the salt of the earth, the light of the world. (c) As intercessors, they pray for others as well as themselves. (d) As the defence of the earth, they are better than navies and armies. Ten righteous men would have saved Sodom.
4. Unlawful sorrow. We sorrow, not as those without hope. (a) Your mourning would not be proper if accompanied with murmuring; (b) if ungrateful; (c) if it called you away from present things. Every day has its duties [The Preacher’s Treasury].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 11
Zechariah 11:1-3. Open. Josephus relates, that “at the passover, the eastern gate of the inner temple, being of brass, and very firm, and with difficulty shut at eventide by twenty men; moreover with bars strengthened with iron, and having very deep bolts, which went down into the threshold, itself of one stone; was seen at six o’clock at night to open of its own accord. The guards of the temple running told it to the officer, and he going up with difficulty closed it. This the uninstructed thought a very favourable sign, that God opened to them the gate of all goods. But those taught in the Divine words, understood that the safety of the temple was removed of itself, and that the gate opened.”
Zechariah 11:2. Fir-tree. The world cannot do without great men, but great men are very troublesome to the world [Goethe]. The highest and most lofty trees have the most reason to dread the thunder [Rollin].