Zechariah 11:8 Commentary and Bible Study

‘Three shepherds also I cut off in one month’ – this is either saying that when Christ comes he will cut off the three shepherds – the chief priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees – or else it is about the three offices of Christ. There were always three orders of leaders in Old Testament times: prophet, priest, and king. All three orders had become apostate, so when Christ came to combine in himself all three offices, he struck off the unworthy forms of ministry. In either case the hatred between Christ and the leaders of the nation was intense – on his part a righteous hatred of their hypocrisy; on their part a wicked hatred of him without cause.Christ was to abandon that generation. Their final act of rebellion against God was to reject their Messiah and to call for his crucifixion, which they did in such definite terms before Pilate. Although there was always a remnant, the response of the majority to the message of the gospel is captured by Christ again and again in his parables: ‘³⁷ But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. ³⁸ But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. ³⁹ And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him’ (Matthew 21:37-39); ‘And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. ⁷ But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city’ (Matthew 22:6-7); ‘But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours. ¹⁵ So they cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do unto them? ¹⁶ He shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others’ (Luke 20:14-16); ‘But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me; (Luke 19:27). The time is coming, Zechariah is led to say, when the Jews will have no more chances. That is their savage end.