Sometimes, God calls us to things that do not make sense to us. These are the hard times, but these are also the times when our faith really comes alive and really grows. In Zechariah, he is called to shepherd a flock that will be slaughtered. This makes no sense; he isn’t even paid his correct wage. We see here we have no control over whether people receive our faithfulness and grace, all we have control over is whether we give or not. Our job is to be faithful. That’s all we control. We cannot control anyone’s response. Just give grace, even when it doesn’t make sense. The rest is out of our hands. That right there, releasing that, that takes true faith.

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Good morning. It’s good to be with you on this wonderful Tuesday morning as we continue our time together in the book of Zechariah. We’ll be together tomorrow, and then we’ll take a little break with a lot going on in the next few weeks. We’re going to finish chapter 11 today, and tomorrow we’ll look at chapter 12. We’re close to being done with Zechariah. We’ll finish it up in the middle of next month. We’ll be through with the minor prophets this month because Malachi has only four chapters. Then we’ll move to the New Testament. I’m not sure what we’re going to do in the New Testament after we finish the minor prophets, but I’d love any feedback you have on where you’d like to see us go in the New Testament following our time together in the Old Testament. It’s been fun to be in the minor prophets.

Today’s passage is one that I had to do some reading on. It didn’t really make a lot of sense to me at first. And I guess one reason why I’ve enjoyed Zechariah, especially, is I’m not, as you’ve heard me say, super familiar with it, so it’s been interesting for me to have to do a little bit of digging, a little bit of extra reading in Zechariah. So it’s been fun.

Let’s pick up today with Zechariah chapter 11.

Once again, we see the contrasting notion of the shepherds. Yesterday, we looked at the notion of the contrasting of the shepherds, the good shepherd. It says that my people wander like sheep, for they suffer for lack of a shepherd. Today, we see this passage, which feels a lot like Ezekiel or Jeremiah, where the Lord has the prophet doing some very unusual things that he ordinarily would not do. So we see Zechariah taking on the role of the shepherd.

It’s a very evocative phrase to me. Verse 4: “Thus says the Lord my God: Be a shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter.”That verse right there sounds a lot like the word of the Lord to the prophet where he said, “I’m going to send you to preach, and they’re not going to listen. I’m going to harden their hearts, and they are not going to hear.”

That’s always been one of the more frustrating, more interesting passages to me as a preacher. “Lord, if I’m going to go preach, and they’re not going to listen, what am I doing here?” Is that a good use of any of our time? But our job as Christians, as leaders, as teachers, is that we have no control over if people are going to accept what we do for them. That’s not something we have any control over. We can’t control what people are going to do. We have zero control over whether or not people will accept our ministry, accept our words, or accept our acts. We don’t control that. Our job is not to control the response of those whom we’re in ministry with. We can’t control the outcomes. All we can control is our faithfulness in that.

So Zechariah here says, “I will shepherd the flock doomed to slaughter.” Zechariah wasn’t going to save them. He was not going to save this herd. They were doomed to slaughter.

When I first read this passage where it said, “Pay me what you want to pay me. Pay me what I’m owed. If you want to pay me, great. If not, don’t worry about it,” and they weighed out my wages, thirty shekels of silver, I thought, “Oh, wait. That was what Judas got paid, right?” That’s correct, but for Zechariah, the greater point here isn’t so much linking to Judas, but rather that thirty shekels of silver in this context was a very small amount. This is like the waiter or waitress being tipped 50 cents. It’s almost worse not to tip them at that point. It was almost more of an insult to pay him this pittance of a wage than it was to not pay him at all. Not paying him at all may have even been more gracious than what they paid him.

This is symbolic of the fact that this flock didn’t want to be shepherded. They didn’t want to be shepherded. He breaks the staff symbolizing the unity of the two kingdoms, Israel and Judah. This was a very impractical, inefficient call that Zechariah fulfilled here.

Being faithful, doing what God wants you to do, doesn’t always make sense. Sometimes God calls us to things that just don’t make sense to us. We don’t understand them. We don’t understand why we’re walking that way or doing these things. We just don’t understand. That’s where faith comes in. If God’s plans always made sense from day one, then why do them? It wouldn’t take faith. But when they don’t make sense, when we feel that nudge from God, that impulse or that pull or push from God to do something that just doesn’t make sense, that’s when it takes faith, and that’s when we’re really stepping out in faith, and that’s when we’re truly being obedient.

I remember one time I was wrestling with God about something that God was calling me to do, and I didn’t want to do it. I told the Lord, “Lord, I don’t want to do this. This thing you’re calling me to, I don’t want to do it. It’s going to be hard.” I heard him telling me, “Andy, where in scripture do I call people to things that are easy?” He was right. When you look in scripture, God does not always call people to things that are easy. Sometimes he calls people to things that are very hard, that may not make sense because it’s in doing those things that it takes a leap of faith.

So today, what’s God calling you to? Who’s God calling you to maybe share the gospel with, share the good news that you don’t want to? What act of faithfulness is God calling you to that you just don’t want to do? That you may not feel like you can do, that you may not feel worthy to do or like you’re good enough or strong enough or smart enough? God may be calling you to something big right now that you simply don’t want to do. God calls us to big things, but not necessarily big things as we perceive them, but things that require faith. God calls us to things that are hard sometimes because in doing those hard things, it takes a leap of faith.

So today, God may very well be calling you to something that you don’t want to do, that doesn’t make any sense, and that might be shepherding a flock doomed to slaughter. It’s in those things when our faith becomes alive, when our faith becomes something bigger than we could ever think of, bigger than we could ever imagine. Because we’re not the ones doing it, but it’s God doing it through us.

So be faithful today, even when God’s calling you somewhere that you may not want to go. In those things, it’s when our faith grows. It’s when we try the hard things that may not even make sense that our faith truly grows.

Thanks for being with us today. We’re going to pick up tomorrow with chapter 12. Have a great rest of your day.