Zechariah 11:7

"So, I fed the flock of slaughter, verily the poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands."

"I fed the flock, verily the poor ..." God is still the speaker here; and how did God feed the flock? by the appearance and ministry of the son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus' ministry was primarily concerned with the poor, upon whom he lavished the most marvelous compassion. He said, "Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God" (Luke 6:20).

"And I took unto me two staves ..." Zechariah is the speaker here; and the sudden transition without a break indicates that what Zechariah did was done specifically upon the Father's orders. This device of the prophet's symbolical action in which the divine message was conveyed to the people is seen also in the prophecies of Amos, Jonah, Jeremiah, Isaiah and others. Nobody but the critics has any problem understanding it.

What is the meaning of the two staves? Every shepherd carried a staff; although no distinction is made here with reference to the use of these, we assume that Matthew Henry was correct in the observation that:

Other shepherds had but one staff, but Christ had two, demoting the double care of his flock, and what he did both for the souls and for the bodies of men. David also speaks of God's "rod and his staff" (Psalms 23), a correcting rod and a supporting staff."[19]

That there was a different utility for each staff appears in their being given distinctive names; and in the light of Psalms 23, and from the fact of their endowment with separate symbolical meanings, we behold here a positive identification of Jesus Christ with the Good Shepherd of Psalms 23. Christ came both to support and to correct Israel, with his "rod and staff." Indeed Christ himself flatly declared to the evil shepherds themselves, "I am the Good Shepherd" (John 10:11).