Zechariah 11:1-6 says,...Bible reading week 38, day 3

Today's verses are Zechariah 11:1-6, which read,

1 Open your gates, Lebanon, and fire will consume your cedars.

2 Wail, cypress, for the cedar has fallen; the glorious trees are destroyed!  Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the stately forest has fallen!

3 Listen to the wail of the shepherds, for their glory is destroyed.  Listen to the roar of young lions, for the thickets of the Jordan are destroyed.

4 The Lord my God says this: “Shepherd the flock intended for slaughter. 

5 Those who buy them slaughter them but are not punished. Those who sell them say: Blessed be the Lord because I have become rich! Even their own shepherds have no compassion for them. 

6 Indeed, I will no longer have compassion on the inhabitants of the land”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “Instead, I will turn everyone over to his neighbor and his king. They will devastate the land, and I will not rescue it from their hand.”

The first three verses deal with a tragedy.  There is a fire.  The great cedars and oaks that would be used for other things have been destroyed.  Even the beauty that was once there is gone and the land is barren.  It has affected the shepherds and the lions.  The shepherds would seek the shade of the trees and the lions would seek the cover for ambush.  The trees had a purpose for their lives but fire has taken away something that was used for their benefit.  

Have you had something taken away that you once relied on?  Has a fire come through your life and burned off some things or someones who were stable cedars and oaks in your life?  You are wailing because of the loss.  What are you going to do?  How are you going to respond to this devastating loss?  

Cancer took some physical health from me.  Every once in a while a fire goes though my guts that stops me in my tracks.  I have to stop eating.  I have to endure internal pain usually through the night.  My mind has to adjust at how I will respond to this latest fire.  I would love to say that I always have a great attitude and say, "Well at least I'm alive even though my body has been altered." but that doesn't rise to the top.  What usually comes is in the second three verses.

The response is negative.  The response to the fire is to sell it all.  The flock is not seen as cherished for their wool but only as a commodity for their meat and to be done with.  Compassion is gone.  These actions that Lord will not stop.  He will allow these actions to also have an affect on us.  Instead of putting out the fire, the Lord will allow the fire to bring something out of us that needs to be dealt with.  Usually it is something ugly.  The shepherds have sold out to the circumstances and given up on the flock.

But there is different instruction for Zechariah.  Even though many of the shepherds have cut bait and ran from their responsibilities, Zechariah is to continue to shepherd the flock while other shepherds are not.  Zechariah is to continue to bring the people of God the Word of God even though the people of God are ignoring it and going to the slaughter of the invading nations.  He is not to participate in the "get rich quick" schemes the other shepherds are doing with no compassion for the sheep.  God is calling Zechariah to go against the flock of culture.

So the trees have burned in your life and you are at a low point because of a loss, do you continue to shepherd God's way with compassion or do you take up the world's way to shepherd with some other riches in your site?  Even the evil actions of the shepherds who are in it for profit are going to be used by God to get the sheep's attention.  He is calling us to go through the fire of life so that we can continue to show a following of Him no matter what.  The holiness of His people is seen when things go wrong and they continue to hold onto what is right.

So the wrong with my body can be an opportunity for me to keep pointing to Him as the old Andre Crouch song said, "Through it all, through it all.  I've learned to trust in Jesus.  I've learned to trust in God.  Through it all, through it all. I've learn to depend upon His Word."  Let us pray. 

"Lord, sometimes the fires of our cedars and oaks of life take us down a path to lose compassion and look for some other pleasure but help us to see Your path through the fire.  Help us to see how the fire can be used by You as we continue to shepherd like You.  Amen."

Pastor Adam