Zechariah 13:7-8 is a fascinating prophecy because in two verses it speaks both of Jesus first advent (suffering, rejection) and second advent (glory, salvation of Israel). In v7 we read, “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, against the Man who is My Companion”, says the LORD of hosts. The LORD is speaking. It is the Shepherd which He established, His Son. Remember that Zech. 11 is a prophecy concerning the shepherds who did not pity God’s people. The sword is against the worthless shepherd. Now the sword is against the LORD’s Shepherd, Messiah. In that context are the words Jesus quotes at the Passover Seder with His disciples in Matthew 26.
Zechariah 13:8 goes on to predict that there will be a remnant of one third of the nations that will be refined in the fire. To them the LORD says, This is My people; and each one will say, The LORD is my God. The OT prophets, and indeed the OT nation of Israel, could not miss the fact of the Messiah’s suffering followed by His glory. They could not miss it. They also could not understand how it would play out.
Read Matt. 26:24,51-56, It Must Happen Thus!
They could not understand God’s plan. But nevertheless, everything that was prophesied concerning Messiah would have to be fulfilled. It must! Why? Because the writings of the prophets were Scripture. What they wrote was the word of God. As Peter said, the OT prophets inquired and searched carefully the salvation the Holy Spirit laid on their hearts, the Holy Spirit who testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow (1 Peter 1:10-12).
If the prophets could not explain it, we are not surprised the shepherds (leaders) of the people also could not put it together. What this leads us to conclude is that, like the prophets, the leaders needed to trust God to work it out in His way and His time. The fact that, at times, there are Messianic prophecies that were not properly explained by some rabbi and not understood by the people does not mean the prophecy is not true. We have the same issue today. There are things about the future, many things, that we do not understand. How will these things play out? But this question must not become an excuse for rejecting the things we do know about the future. We may not understand why it is taking so long for Christ to return. But we cannot allow that to cause us to dismiss His return (2 Peter 3:3-6).
In addition, from Mt. 26:24 note that the fact that God says something is going to happen does not mean we are not held responsible for our part in the prophesied event. Even though Judas’ betrayal was predicted, he was still judged guilty for what he did. We see the same in 26:51-56. Jesus says the Scripture must be completely fulfilled. At the same time, He rebukes those who have come to arrest Him for fearfully coming at night to get Him rather than on one of the occasions when He taught in the temple.
In
the end we see that Jesus was guided by the prophesies that concerned Him. The Scriptures must be fulfilled. He subjected Himself to the prophesies. The same way:
·
Jacob, after a struggle, subjected himself to
God’s word given to him at Bethel.
·
Joseph subjected himself to the dreams God gave
him as a young boy.
·
Moses, after an argument, subjected himself to
God’s call at the burning bush.
·
Isaiah subjected himself to God’s call when he
saw the LORD high and lifted up.
·
We must subject ourselves to God’s word in the
gospel and the New Testament.
No comments:
Post a Comment