October 2, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“’So, I shepherded the flock marked for slaughter, particularly the oppressed of the flock. Then I took two staffs and called one Favor and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock. In one month, I got rid of the three shepherds.‘” (Zechariah 11.7-8a)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

What is the purpose of the two staves, or staffs? Within the context of the prophecy given to Zechariah we are not told which is which. We are told there are two: one named Favor and the other named Union. What is known by the practice of shepherding in the Middle East is that the two staffs were not identical. One staff, usually with a crook on the end of it, was long as the shepherd was tall or taller. The purpose of this crook was to rescue sheep from danger. Examples of such “danger” were entanglement in brambles or a thicket, caught over the edge of a ridge or cliff and in the presence of a strong predator such as a lion or a bear. The idea of this long staff was to reach out and snatch them from danger. The other staff was shorter. It may have been as short as a club or as long as a bat which the shepherd would use to attack and defend themselves or the flock. As its purpose was for defense, it had to be easily wielded but long enough to not put the shepherd at risk against an enemy. Zechariah gave names to these staffs. We do not hear the Word of God direct him to do so. It would seem that Zechariah may have had some experience with shepherding as well as a familiar function of their use as an elder leader of people. As to which staff was named Favor and which was named Union, there is no discernment offered. But the names themselves would represent the purpose of God for His people, the sheep of His hand.

Putting them into context of confronting those in the flock marked for destruction, those abused by those who were thus marked for destruction and those who stood at a distance allows us to see the function of the staffs and the power of their names. I have two staffs in my possession. Their names are rough and smooth. They are pine poles which I came across while teaching in a nearby city in east Texas. We have suffered a severe winter storm which had brought down a number of trees. (This would have meant power poles and transmission lines and such, too.) The two trees which jutted out of the edge of the forest alongside the road caught my attention because they were nearly identical and close together. I had been looking for “walking sticks” and decided that if they were still there on my way home, I would harvest them. Arriving home that evening, my daughters were surprised to see two 7 foot pine poles in the living room. I would spend time removing the bark totally from one (along with small branches) and sanding it down to let it dry. The other I only removed some of the bark to give me a smooth handhold. Thus, the names of the two staffs: rough and smooth. Not intentionally in that moment, but later I was able to use them to communicate some boundaries to some people based on the exacting of “justice” with the phrase “you can have it rough or you can have it smooth.” I will allow your imagination to fill in the gap of how that “justice” would have been meted out.

Of course, I would not think that Zechariah’s staffs were intended for such communication, but the words favor and union definitely spoke of God’s purpose for the two staffs as they were. Protection would have shown favor by keeping evil at a distance and blessing close at hand. I have in mind James’ words “rebuke the devil and he will flee.” We certainly would love to believe (in light of yesterday’s reflection on the word “love” and the action or consequence of “love” as it was wielded by God) that just saying the word should suffice. In the story of the Temptations of Jesus in the Wilderness we hear how Jesus wielded the word of God to stand against the word of Satan. Three times Jesus responded with quotes from the ancient text “man shall not live by bread alone but by the very word of God,” “do not tempt the Lord your God” and “you should worship God alone and him only should you serve.” These verses were an anathema to the Tempter and drove him away. Jesus did not have to resort to “sticking it” to Satan at that time. In fact, He may have used the word of God like the shepherd would have used the longer/taller staff to keep the enemy at bay. Whether it was an effort to show favor or declare union doesn’t matter as a case for either could be made (but that isn’t the purpose of this reflection). What is key in my understanding of these tools of the messianic-king model which Zechariah was now the precursor for is to see the cross of Calvary which itself shows the “roughness and smoothness” of the moment leading to the crucifixion and the “favor and union” which were the results of the message of crucifixion.

Yes, it is the cross by which Jesus shepherded those marked for slaughter and those who had been abused by them. Those marked for slaughter were any who would deny the place of God in their lives brought to light by Jesus himself. The Chief Priests, the adversarial Pharisees, the supporting elders who would cherish sitting at the city gates passing judgment on those who passed by them and the teachers of the Law who perverted the pure word of God by interpreting it to suit their good pleasure and supply their means of living. They were supposed to be the good shepherds of Israel and provide for the care and welfare of the nation of Israel. They were also supposed to lead the nation of Israel in shepherding the world at large so that the mercy, grace, goodness, kindness and provision of God would be seen and sought out. This they did not do. They sat as judge, jury and executioner of the nation of Israel according to their understanding and promotion of their place as God instead of before God. They stood in contradiction to the very “law” itself which said “There is but One God of Heaven and Earth and Him alone should you serve; there shall be no other gods before Me. Hear this, O Israel!” And what of the people? Well, we hear Jesus say as much as recorded in Matthew (9.36) “They are lost and scattered like sheep without a shepherd.” Without leadership, guidance, nurture and protection, the people of Israel (the sheep of God’s hand as David would call them) were left wanting, vulnerable and outcast. They more represented goats driven into the wilderness than sheep rescued from harm and brought into the safety of the sheep pen. We hear Jesus’ teaching about the sheep pen, the door of the sheep pen and the good shepherd in the gospel of John. It would be significant that at the end of John’s gospel we would see how Jesus wielded the word of God to “rescue,” show favor, and “recommission,” provide union, with Peter in reinstating him to his first calling to be a “fisher of men,” as a leader in faith.

And it is the cross itself which presents the testimony of Zechariah 11. Before God put the world on notice in the days of Noah, He repented that He had ever made humanity because of its desire for corruption. Even being made in the image of God (that is, the Christ) and being inspired (resuscitated) by the indwelling/breathing into of God’s Holy Spirit does not diffuse the “dust of the earth” which so easily clings to the body of humanity and confuses the ability to make right and good choices. How it must have challenged God as He watched His creation from Heaven on high (Lucifer and 1/3 of Heaven’s angels) to earth (as humanity failed to trust in God alone) enter into the state of sin. Even with the opportunities of redemption and reconciliation from the Garden to the Flood to the building of the Temple to the very conception of Jesus of Nazareth who was, is and will always be the Christ who lived, died and was resurrected so that all believers would have live eternal and abundant has not proven convincing enough for the majority of the world to follow God and live into their godliness. It was, is and will be the Messianic King who is the redemption of those believers transforming them into life from death and light from darkness. It is at the cross, two staves bound together, on Calvary that we see God’s final declaration of “favor and union.” One staff stretching from Heaven to Earth upon which Jesus the Christ was suspended to be the link of Immanuel, God with us. The other stretching from horizon to horizon to include everyone in the promise of salvation for which Jesus the Christ gave His life, physically and spiritually. Let us bear that in mind as we imagine Jesus bearing that cross from court to Calvary in fulfilling Isaiah’s given prophecy “…and the weight of the government was upon His shoulders.” (Isaiah 9.6) He is carrying it even now far superior to the Greek god Atlas who as a god of war bore the weight of the world. What cannot be done in war of the flesh is accomplished in the war of the Spirit. “What is impossible with humankind is fully possible with God.“

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit in order that others be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind so we would know we are Your people and You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.