Zechariah 13:7

"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."

Here we are on solid ground. Christ said to the apostles on the occasion of his Passion: "All ye shall be offended in me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad" (Matthew 26:31; Mark 14:27). It is the proximity of this certain prophecy of Christ to Zechariah 13:6, above, which lends some credibility to the understanding of a prophecy of our Lord there; also, there is the oft-repeated indication that this entire section is Messianic.

"Awake, O sword ..." Pre-eminently, the sword was a symbol of the Roman Empire, indicating that Christ would be put to death by that power. This also shows that it was by God's design, at his instigation, and with his full consent that the dark scenes of Calvary occurred. Peter spoke of it thus:

"Him (Christ), being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye by the hands of lawless men did crucify and slay" (Acts 2:23).

The fact that God indeed put Christ to death for all men, that they might be saved is clear throughout the Bible. It is inherent in John 3:16, in the declaration that God "set him forth" to be the propitiation (Romans 3:25), that the Almighty "Laid upon him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6), etc., etc. It is also plain in this verse, where the commandment of God is, "Smite the Shepherd." Such a profound truth, however, did not and could not absolve wicked participants in the crucifixion of their rightful blame.

"Against my Shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow ..." The word here rendered "man that is my fellow" "implies one united to another by the possession of common nature, rights, and privileges. God could speak only of One ... that is, of him who could say, `I and the Father are one.'"[16]

"My Shepherd ..." is a phrase added to forbid any confusion of this Person with the evil shepherd of Zechariah 11:16. "These additional words are given to distinguish `my shepherd' from `that shepherd.'"[17] Despite such a precaution, however, the critics have proceeded to move these verses under the passage about the false shepherd in Zechariah 11:16f, in their violent Scissors and Paste job on this prophecy, with the evident purpose of identifying Christ as a "false shepherd." Gailey, for example, wrote:

"This verse continues the theme of Zechariah 11:17! A sword is called to strike the shepherd. Is the victim the worthless shepherd of Zechariah 11:17? ... appropriately, Jesus applied the reference to himself![18]

Rarely does even the most violent criticism of the word of God reach the level of that seen in Gailey's statement above.

"My shepherd ..." Of course, "The shepherd of Jehovah whom the sword is to strike is no other than the Messiah, who is also identified with Jehovah in Zechariah 12:10."[19] "There is no stronger statement in the Old Testament regarding the unimpeachable deity of Israel's Messiah, the Son of God."[20]

"And I will turn my hand upon the little ones ..." "This indicated his gathering the little ones together and His protecting the weak."[21] This gathering of the "scattered" first took place when Christ gathered and regrouped the Twelve before assigning to them the Great Commission.

"And the sheep shall be scattered ..." The first application of this, as indicated by Jesus' quotation, regarded his immediate disciples, the apostles; but there was also a greater dimension of the same truth.

Christ was the Shepherd, the Good Shepherd of Israel; and the loss of Christ as their Shepherd condemned all the flock of Israel (secular) to the prolonged, worldwide scattering which took place soon after his crucifixion, and which is still visible in the separated families of the old Israel all over the world; nor has the state of Israel (1948) made much difference in this; there are still more Jews in New York than in Jerusalem.