p. 7 | Out of Babylon to Zion by Prof. Lucas A. Reed

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 20, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 37.

"Out of Babylon to Zion"

By Prof. Lucas A. Reed

XXIV. The Closing Work — The True Shepherd

IN the tenth chapter of Zechariah we have words that, while they may have had some bearing in those olden times, refer more particularly to the closing scenes of this world's history. It is the time of the great rain when God's people are to ask for showers of the Spirit. Verse 1. It is a time of false prophets and false teachings. Verse 2. It is a time when God is about to destroy the wicked, when the mighty conquering Christ shall come forth to finish the great controversy between sin and righteousness. Verses 3-5. Then it is that God will gather His people; gathering them in the resurrection from the grave as in a lesser way He had gathered them as captives out of every nation. They pass through a more than Egyptian affliction. Passing down through the scenes of the last days is likened to the Israelites' passing through the great sea of affliction when they came out from Egypt. But the pride of all the nations shall be brought down (verse 11), and God will strengthen His people, and they shall walk up and down in His name, saith the Lord (verse 12).

There were those in Israel who attempted to lead God's people, but who were untrue to their work. These were said to sell and to slay their sheep. In the midst of this prophecy comes one concerning the true Shepherd. It is not only a prophecy of Christ and His work, but also a prophecy that involves the destiny of the Jews.

"And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock. Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me." Zech. 11: 7, 8.

A month in prophetic time covers thirty years; and from the first miraculous manifestation of Christ to the Jews by His wonderful birth in the manger, announced to the shepherds by the angels and to the wise men by the guiding star — from this first supernatural revelation of Christ until His second miraculous manifestation as Messiah when at the river Jordan He was baptized and by the Holy Spirit anointed, we have thirty years, or one prophetic month. At this time He began at once as a prophet. He became Priest after His ascension to heaven, and He will become King at the second advent. But at the anointing the touch was given that involved all of these, and that eventually cut them all off from Israel.

The last prophet of Israel already had spoken; the last king had disappeared years before; only the priest remained, the last one of the three shepherds. But when Christ was anointed it meant as well the cutting off of this order for the Jews; and so in the life of Christ, within the short period of thirty years, came the events which removed the three human shepherds of the Jews, their prophets, their priests, and their kings.

Just as David was king in reality from the time of his anointing even tho he did not take the throne till later, so Christ was Prophet, Priest, and King when by the river Jordan the Holy Spirit descended upon Him like a dove, and God from heaven acknowledged Him as His Son and as the newly appointed ruler of His people.

If the Jews had accepted the Messiah, they would have had prophets, priests, and kings, just as now Christians have all three of these in Him. Rev. 1: 5, 6. 1 Cor. 12: 28; Eph. 4: 11.

"Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another." Verse 9.

All the terrible calamities prophesied in this ninth verse were fulfilled by the Jews when Titus took the city, and the terrible trouble has been perpetuated through the ages since then. In many nations of Europe the Jews have repeated the fate which they met in A.D. 70, and even yet in far-off Russia they experience still something of the bitterness of their evil fruits.

"And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people. And it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the Lord." Verses 10, 11.

Here we have the crucifixion of Christ foretold. The covenant of God with the children of Israel was now to terminate because of their failure to fulfil its conditions; but there were to be those among the Israelites who would understand the termination of this covenant, and who would understand it to be a fulfilment of the prophetic Word.

These rejoice in a new covenant and find that what terminated with Israel as a nation is continued in grander form in Jesus Christ.

Already we have seen the reference to the expressions "two staves," "Beauty and Bands." In the Bible a staff, when spoken of in connection with nations, has reference to their support or strength. See Jer. 48: 17; Isa. 14: 4, 5. Therefore when the two staves are broken the support hitherto enjoyed by the nation is to be withdrawn. In Ps. 90: 17 the beauty of God upon us establishes the work of our hands; and these should always go together. In fact they do go together. God's favor gives prosperity, just as in Prov. 3: 17 pleasantness and peace are mentioned together. But this path of pleasantness and peace was about to fail them. God's favor was to be withdrawn when they rejected Christ; and the prosperity which had been theirs for ages as a direct result of that favor, was to fail. See how wonderfully the nations had spared the Jews under Nebuchadnezzar, under Cyrus, Darius, Alexander, Antiochus, and Pompey; and when Christ came, had He been received, the favor and the prosperity would have been still greater. So God had promised that Jerusalem would stand forever; it would have become the capital of the world.

Think, too, how marvelously God's favor was manifested to this nation, how wonderfully they were preserved through the years with all their records, their usages, and their institutions, until the Son of David came; but when Christ had come and been rejected, not even Titus could prevent the destruction of the temple. Christ had foretold that one stone should not be left upon another; and the great general of the Romans, when he once had surrounded the city, had given word to his soldiers to spare that wonderful structure, but true to the Word of the Son of God its ruin was complete. One of the staves of Israel was "the beauty of holiness," or the favor of God which rested upon them.

Consequences of Apostasy

"And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prized at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord." Verses 12, 13.

It is hardly necessary to utter any comment upon this verse. It was fulfilled by Judas, who sold his Master for the thirty pieces of silver, the price of an ordinary slave. And when he was appalled at his evil deed, and cast the money back to those who had bribed him, they used this money in purchasing a potter's field.

We have already seen that the first band to be destroyed was Beauty. Verse 10. When the Jews once had forfeited the favor of God which was their real source of strength, the other staff also must fail. Verse 14. That band of brotherhood which existed between Judah and Israel, in other words, the Jews as a nation, were to cease to exist. Their national bond was to be severed. Their brotherhood was to be broken, and so the two staves were cut in sunder. But all of this was due to the Israelites themselves. They first of all forfeited the favor of God by rejecting the beauty of holiness; and remember above all things that Christ is that Beauty of Holiness. He is the Lily of the Valley, the one altogether lovely, chiefest among ten thousand; and the only Beauty of Holiness that can rest upon any one is the beautiful character of Christ. This staff of beauty God's people rejected. It was cut in sunder. Then when once Christ, the Beauty of Holiness, has been rejected, the national bond is also forfeited. So the staff "Bands" is also broken in sunder. Then follows in verses 15-17 a prophecy of the apostasy, the papal supremacy, and the judgment under the seven last plagues upon the false shepherds.