Zechariah 8 – 14

Verse 8:16 is a simple command which people have a difficult time following:

 Here are the things you must do: Speak truth to each other. Pursue justice in your courts. Render decisions that reflect truth and bring peace to the community.

Simple but once envy creeps in things change. The all for one and one for all drops the second part when self-ambition pollutes one purpose for community. I know this sounds like a fluffy socialist mantra, but having ambition, working hard and being rewarded is different from doing “whatever it takes.”

Verse 9:9 is the “Donkey Prophecy”:

 Cry out with joy, O daughter of Zion!
        Shout jubilantly, O daughter of Jerusalem!
    Look—your King is coming;
        He is righteous and able to save.
    He comes seated humbly on a donkey,
        on a colt, a foal of a donkey.

Those who do not believe Jesus is the Messiah will claim this was “orchestrated” to fulfill prophecy. Jesus knew scriptures and knew of this so the claim he set this up could have been partially true, but he could not have “set up” the crowd. Also, have you ever tried to ride a young donkey? I watched a friends son do it and get kicked off, so to ride an unbroken beast is not “normal” or easy to do.

When you think about how kings entered the conquered cities, it was always with pageantry on their trusty steed. A donkey shows how humble Jesus was and how He came to serve, not destroy.

Verses like 11:16 make me wonder how much of this has happened and how much is in our future:

 because I am going to raise up in this land a new breed of shepherd: one who does not care for the perishing, search for the young, heal the injured, or feed the hungry. This new shepherd will feast on the fat from his own flock, tearing their hoofs from their flesh.

This is like an “anti-Christ” or opposite of what the king who road in on a donkey would do. In this time the analogy of the “shepherd” is used and easily understood. If it wasn’t for TV I believe this analogy would be lost today since I can’t name a time I actually saw a shepherd. Now the flocks are fenced in and dogs round the livestock up. If we were to do this today the analogy of a “coach” may be used. The coach is there to train and lead their team into victory. His job is to ensure the wellbeing of his team so they can be healthy to win. We don’t get the shepherd thing since our society is so distant from agriculture.

Now we may not experience shepherds ever but can understand the requirement to tend to the flock. The shepherd described in this verse is opposite what most shepherds would do. Hence this is the “anti-shepherd” and since Jesus is the ultimate shepherd, this one described in the “anti-Christ”.

Want to touch on verse 14:4 before ending:

When that day comes, His feet will stand securely on the Mount of Olives, which sits east of Jerusalem. The mountain will quake under His weight and split in two, divided by a wide valley that runs east to west. Half of the mountain will retreat to the north, the other half to the south.

I like looking at the OT and pulling prophecies of Jesus. I wonder if there is a connection to this verse and Jesus’ ascending into heaven there.