But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.
Zechariah's ministry was one of restoration, in which he encouraged Zerubbabel and Ezra in building the temple and restoring Jerusalem. His prophecy here is the latest Old Testament prophecy about the return to the literal land of Canaan, dated to 487 B.C., with Israel fully restored to the land by 445 B.C., forty-two years later. It stands together with chapters 13-14 in the sequence from Haggai to Malachi, assigned as the morning reading for December 30.
The verse depicts a false prophet denying that he is a prophet and claiming instead that he is a husbandman or farmer who has kept cattle and tilled the soil from youth or childhood. That denial comes from shame over deceptive visions, because God has caused those visions to fail, and from turning away from evil manifestations. The denial is part of the removal of false prophets from the land God gives His people, as the result of the cleansing opened for sin and uncleanness. When the deception is exposed, the deceived people turn against Satan as their king and god and curse him, and they also hate his agents. In the period of unfaithfulness from Malachi until Jesus there were no true prophets, so anyone appearing as a prophet then was inevitably false and was opposed even by his own father and mother.
The prophecy was fulfilled in measure when Israel returned from Babylonian captivity and is to be fulfilled more fully under different conditions in the great final restoration, for that restoration reformation movement is a type of the last reformation. The passage concerns the time of the first advent and foretells His death and burial. It shows what end-time false prophets will do when their deceptions are laid bare.
Zechariah's ministry was one of restoration, in which he encouraged Zerubbabel and Ezra in building the temple and restoring Jerusalem. His prophecy here is the latest Old Testament prophecy about the return to the literal land of Canaan, dated to 487 B.C., with Israel fully restored to the land by 445 B.C., forty-two years later. It stands together with chapters 13-14 in the sequence from Haggai to Malachi, assigned as the morning reading for December 30.
The verse depicts a false prophet denying that he is a prophet and claiming instead that he is a husbandman or farmer who has kept cattle and tilled the soil from youth or childhood. That denial comes from shame over deceptive visions, because God has caused those visions to fail, and from turning away from evil manifestations. The denial is part of the removal of false prophets from the land God gives His people, as the result of the cleansing opened for sin and uncleanness. When the deception is exposed, the deceived people turn against Satan as their king and god and curse him, and they also hate his agents. In the period of unfaithfulness from Malachi until Jesus there were no true prophets, so anyone appearing as a prophet then was inevitably false and was opposed even by his own father and mother.
The prophecy was fulfilled in measure when Israel returned from Babylonian captivity and is to be fulfilled more fully under different conditions in the great final restoration, for that restoration reformation movement is a type of the last reformation. The passage concerns the time of the first advent and foretells His death and burial. It shows what end-time false prophets will do when their deceptions are laid bare.