Zechariah 11:5-6 - Homilies By W. Forsyth

Oppressors and oppressed.

I. GOD 'S JUDGMENT ON OPPRESSORS . Power great thing. Test of character. Few able to use it rightly. Even the "wise man" ( Ecclesiastes 7:7 ) may have his head turned, and act as if "mad." The "shepherds" false to their awful trust. Hence the people became the prey of oppressors. Merciless, avaricious, godless, neither fearing God nor regarding man. Such oppressors are found in various forms. Landlords and other "possessors" have need to take warning. The people were not made for the land, but the land for the people. Property has its duties as well as its rights. "Unto whom much is given, of them shall much be required." "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

II. GOD 'S MERCY FOR THE OPPRESSED . The Bible is on the side of the weak, and not the strong; of the wronged, and not the wrong doer. Prophet after prophet has spoken on behalf of the poor and the needy, and carried their cause to the throne of the Most High. God acts by means. "Feed:"

1 . With the gospel of love .

2 . With the law of righteousness . Binding on all.

3 . With the hope of immortality .

"We were weary and we

Fearful, and we in our march

Fain to drop down and to die;

Still thou turnedst and still

Beckonedst the trembler and still

Gavest the weary thy hand. If, in the paths of the world,

Stones might have wounded thy feet,

Toil or dejection have tried

Thy spirit, of that we saw

Nothing; to us thou wast still

Cheerful and helpful and firm.

Therefore to thee it was given

Many to save with thyself.

And at the end of thy day,

O faithful Shepherd, to come,

Bringing thy sheep in thy hand."

(Matthew Arnold.)

F.