Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, against the man who is My Companion, declares the LORD of Hosts. Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn My hand against the little ones.“Awake, sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who is close to me,” says Yahweh of Armies. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; and I will turn my hand against the little ones.Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith Jehovah of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered; and I will turn my hand upon the little ones.
6 sermons cite this verse
… not as the judge but as the one who is condemned because of their sin. Zechariah 13.7 says, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me, declares the Lord of hosts. Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. I will turn my hand against the little ones. This text from Zechariah 13 is quoted by the Lord Jesus when he says to them right before he dies, all of you are going to abandon me when this shepherd is struck. Isaiah 53, 5 says, He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. This rock is going to produce water, but not until it's struck with the rod of judgment. And God here stands before the rock to be judged. For a people that test him, quarrel against him with hostility and arrogance. There's another story later in the Pentateuch in Numbers chapter 20, very, very similar to this one, where in that occasion, Moses is told, when you come to the rock, speak to the rock, and the rock will pour out abundant waters for your people. …
It meant, first, that Christ's honor was clear Look at the inscription over the head of that thief who is hanging on the next cross. "Put to death for robbery in the mountains where he was taken red-handed, having stabbed one of the guards who attempted to arrest him." You quite understand that inscription and you pass on to Jesus. You want to know about the crime of which He has been guilty—you are quite sure that they will put over His head an account of the worst thing He has ever done. There are the chief priests and scribes and a multitude of the Jews watching to see what is written—and there is Pilate wanting to excuse his own conscience. If he can write anything that will exonerate him from the guilt of putting Christ to death, he will be sure to write it. So he takes his pen in his hand and he writes, "This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." "Well," you say, "is that all that can be brought against Him, that He is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews?" Yes, that is His only offense—they cannot sum up His guilt in any other words. His crime is that He is what He is, that He was a Savior, that He dwelt at Nazareth and that He was the King of the Jews. Now, no exoneration of His Character could be better than that of this official accusation against Him! And if this accusation brings nothing against Him, think how much may be said in His favor by His friends. When a man is brought before the judge, his accuser is quite sure to say all he can against him. And when Christ was about to be put to death, those who were responsible for that colossal crime had to make out as grave a charge against Him as they could. But this was all they could do—they could not bring anything else against Him except that He was Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. See, then, how absolutely without blemish and without spot was the Lamb of our Passover! See how He "knew no sin," though He was made a Sin-Offering for us, "that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Exult, Christians, in this public and official testimony to the spotless purity of His whole life and Character! …
"Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is My Fellow, says the LORD of Hosts: smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn My hand upon the little ones." Zechariah 13:7. WE are sure that we understand this passage, for we have our Lord Jesus Christ's application of it to Himself—"All you," He said to His disciples, "shall be offended because of Me this night: for it is written, I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." It is always well, when we are considering a text in the Old Testament which we think may refer to Christ, if we can be certified that it does so by some declaration of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, or by some testimony from the lips of the Master, Himself, as we have in this case. The passage seems to me to be best illustrated by a description I once heard from one of our Lord's servants who pictured a tempest as gathering in the heavens, the darkness deepening and, by-and-by, came the thunder and lightning, and the storm shook the earth. He saw before him a towering mountain, with its peak lifted high up towards Heaven. At the foot of it lay a sheltered hamlet. The storm seemed all concentrated around the mountain's brow that was the center of the battle of the elements. That lofty peak seemed to be split and broken to shivers by the dread artillery of God. The hamlet down below was in comparative peace—only some gentle drops of rain fell on it, fertilizing its fields. And he who gave the illustration said, "That peak was the Christ of God, Jesus the Substitute and Surety of His people, standing in our place, on whom burst the full tempest of Jehovah's wrath, that the soft drops of pity and of Grace might fall on the people for whom He suffered." …
The words, "in You do I put My trust," may be translated, "in You do I shelter." There is in them an allusion to running under something for shelter. In fact, the best figure I can use to give you the meaning of this sentence is that of the chicks running under the wings of the hen for shelter. Just so do we hide ourselves under the overshadowing wings of the Eternal. As a Man, Christ used this plea with God, that He was sheltering from all evil under the Divine Wings of power, and wisdom, and goodness, and truth. This is an accurate interpretation of the passage, and there are many instances recorded in Scripture in which Christ really did this. Take, for instance that remarkable declaration in Psalm 22:9—"You did make Me hope when I was upon My mother's breasts," as though very early in life, probably far earlier than any of us were brought to know the Lord, Jesus Christ was exercising hope in the Most High. Then again, in the 50th Chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah, we have these words, which must refer to the Lord Jesus Christ, "I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked out the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting." That verse is immediately followed by this one, "For the Lord God will help Me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed." These words were peculiarly appropriate from the lips of Christ, yet each one of His followers may also say, "The Lord God will help me." …
GIFT WAS GIVEN. The text says, "He that spared not His own Son." A mother may give up her tall strong son to fight in the army of her country and he may perish by an enemy's hand. But I cannot conceive of a mother slaughtering her own son for her country's good! We have wondered as we have read of Brutus, who, when his sons had entered into a conspiracy against the Republic, could say, "Lictors, do your duty." The father saw the corpses of his sons with the pangs of a father, but with the stern serenity of a judge they had offended—so they must die. Strong must be a man's sense of justice to be able to overcome his love so as to give up his own son to die. But our gracious God not only gave up His Son to die for us, but He was Himself, (if I may use such an expression), the executioner of Christ. Isaiah tells us in his wonderful 53rd Chapter, that "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all...It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He has put Him to grief...you shall make His soul an offering for sin...We did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." This, indeed, was the very sting of Christ's death, for He cried out in His worst agony, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Oh, what love God must have had to you and to me, for it overcame His love to His only-begotten Son! So we read in Zechariah 13:7, "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is My Fellow, says the Lord of Hosts: smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." My tongue cannot tell the story of this marvelous Grace of God to you and to me, but I again remind you that although God knew that His plan of salvation involved His smiting His own Son and deserting Him in His hour of deepest need so that you and I should not perish—the Father smites, and wounds, and slays His own Son! And there upon the accursed tree, in intense pangs, unutterable, unknown, the Son of God dies, "the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." …
"I am the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep."--John x. 11. Our Lord here appropriates to Himself the title under which He had been foretold by the Prophets. "David My servant shall be king over them," says Almighty God by the mouth of Ezekiel: "and they all shall have one Shepherd." And in the book of Zechariah, "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts; smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." And in like manner St. Peter speaks of our returning "to the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls." "The good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep." In those countries of the East where our Lord appeared, the office of a shepherd is not only a lowly and simple office, and an office of trust, as it is with us, but, moreover, an office of great hardship and of peril. Our flocks are exposed to no enemies, such as our Lord describes. The Shepherd here has no need to prove his fidelity to the sheep by encounters with fierce beasts of prey. The hireling shepherd is not tried. But where our Lord dwelt in the days of His flesh it was otherwise. There it was true that the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep--"but he that is an hireling, and whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the wolf catcheth them and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep." …