“And the LORD said to me, ‘“Throw it to the potter’”—the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD to the potter.”
~ Zechariah 11:13
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you like to fix jigsaw puzzles? Do you like to do anagrams? Do you like to figure out answers to mind games? Your grandmaa and grandpaa like to fix jigsaw puzzles. Your grandmaa and grandpaa will sometimes early in an evening begin putting together a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle and they will continue to work on the jigsaw puzzle until it is finished – even if it takes them until after midnight to have the jigsaw puzzle totally put together. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have a method for how they fix or put together a jigsaw puzzle. At the same time that your grandpaa is looking for a jigsaw puzzle’s edge pieces, your grandpaa will make small stacks of similar colored jigsaw puzzle pieces. As your grandpa finds the edge pieces to the jigsaw puzzle, your grandmaa will put together the jigsaw puzzle’s pieces that make up the edge of the jigsaw puzzle. Once your grandmaa finishes putting together the pieces that make up the edge of the jigsaw puzzle and once your grandpaa has all the jigsaw puzzle’s pieces in small stacks of similar colored jigsaw puzzle pieces, your grandpaa will begin to put together the pieces for the jigsaw puzzle’s sky – if the jigsaw puzzle has a sky in it, while your grandmaa will begin to put together the pieces for something else that is in the jigsaw puzzle. When your grandmaa has to fly in a large airplane, she likes to do and is very good at doing sudokus. Your grandmaa now likes to fix the daily jigsaw puzzle that is on the computer.
Do you like to do things that make you think? Do you like to make up stories that have double meanings? Do you like to talk in riddles? Zechariah wrote in riddles when he wrote Zechariah 11. Zechariah spent forty years being a spokesman for God to God’s specially chosen guys and gals who after having lived in exile in Babylonia for up to seventy years had returned to the city of Jerusalem. Zechariah got the call from God to be a prophet spokesman for Him about 520 or so years before Jesus was born. Zechariah was a contemporary of Haggai and Ezra. Zechariah’s name means Yahweh or Jehovah remembers. Zechariah was a type of Christ. God gave Zechariah the blessing of passing on some really good news to His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, about their future. God though also had Zechariah pass on some really awful news to His specially chosen guys and gals about their future and about the future of some of their neighboring countries. Zechariah begins this chapter by talking about cedars, pines and oaks plus shepherds and lions. The shepherds and lions represented leaders and rulers among the guys and gals who were called Jews. These guys and gals were Israelite people group’s guys and gals. The three different kinds of trees represented guys and gals who were living in the country of Lebanon, in the country which once had been Bashan and in the area of the Jordon River. The guys and gals who were living in the country of Lebanon, in the country which once had been Bashan and in the area of the Jordan River were given a very strong warning by God that they were going to be one day completely destroyed. These three land areas were part of a land area that was known as Syro-Palestinian. This land area included the land area where God’s specially chosen guys and gals – the Jews, had returned to to live after having been exiles in Babylonia. The city of Jerusalem would be invaded and overrun in 70 A.D. by the Roman army. The Roman army by 73 A.D. had overpowered, crushed and subjugated the entire Syro-Palestinian area.
God was very displeased with His specially chosen guys and gals when they opted to worship things that had been carved from wood, chiseled from stone and molded from metal instead of worshipping just Him. God the Spirit breathed on Zechariah to scribe an incident that would take place over 550 years later. This incident would take place in a city – which was the city of Jerusalem, where His specially chosen guys and gals were living. Verse 13 follows up on the thirty pieces of silver that is mentioned in the previous verse, “And the LORD said to me, ‘“Throw it to the potter’”—the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD to the potter.” Thirty pieces of silver was considered a trifling amount when Zechariah lived on planet Earth. Thirty pieces of silver was the amount that a slave was worth if an Israelite people group guy wanted to buy a slave. At this same time that God the Spirit had Zechariah scribe about the thirty pieces of silver, God the Spirit had Zechariah scribe about two staffs that God named Favor and Union. God the Spirit had Zechariah scribe that God would figuratively break the two staffs. God by breaking the two staffs – Favor and Union, revoked or broke the covenant that He had made with His specially chosen guys and gals. Around 550 years after Zechariah scribed what God the Spirit had told him to scribe in what is known today as the Zechariah Book, an incarnate guy whose name was Jesus was literally sold for thirty pieces of silver by Judas – who was one of Jesus’ disciples, to Jews who had come to really detest this incarnate guy – Who was God’s only Son. The thirty pieces of silver which were given to Judas would end up buying a potter’s field. The life of God’s only Son would ultimately have no more value than a field for burying indigents or very poor guys or gals. God’s expectation for leaders or shepherds of His specially chosen guys and gals and today for leaders or shepherds of His specially elected guys, gals and kids is that these guys just better take really care of His sheep or . . . God has given real life lessons over the years as to how He will make the lives of guys totally worthless who do not take seriously leading His flocks of sheep – sheep being God’s specially elected guys, gals and kids who have been prompted by God the Spirit to become Christ-followers.
Zechariah 11 (461)