Way of The Warrior- A Daily Devotional

So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named Favor, the other I named Union. And I tended the sheep. In one month I destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. So I said, “I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. And let those who are left devour the flesh of one another.” And I took my staff Favor, and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep traders, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the LORD. Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. Then the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter. Then I broke my second staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. -Zechariah 11:7-14 ESV

Warrior;
This is the reason we should believe the Bible is the inerrant, inspired WORD OF GOD! This is prophecy. This was spoken 500 years before it happened, and this prophecy is about Israel and about our LORD. It is about when God’s covenant with Israel was broken, when they rejected Christ, and it is about details of what would happen 500 years from this vision and also beyond that, into the second coming of our LORD. It is often taught that “the Bible is one-third history, one-third poetry, and one-third prophecy. According to “The Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy” by J. Barton Payne, there are 1,239 prophecies in the Old Testament and 578 prophecies in the New Testament for a total of 1,817. The Bible itself tells us to judge a book by the accuracy of its prophecy: When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord and the thing does not happen or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him. (Deuteronomy 18:22)

Leader; There is no finer teacher on whether Jesus is to be found in the pages of the Old Testament than the teaching of our Lord Jesus himself: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me”. (John 5:39) From https://www.bible-studys.org/, we get the following understanding: When Israel was in God’s favor and under His gracious protection, then He caused even their enemies to be at peace with them. When the Gentile nations gathered against them to devour, the Shepherd of Israel soon broke the arm of their strength and prevented them from doing harm to His people. But when He ceased to be their defense, then they became a ready prey to the Gentile world powers, which are well symbolized in the bible as “Wild Beasts”. The prophet’s symbolic act called for him to take “two staffs.” Eastern shepherds often carried two sticks, a rod to ward off wild beasts and a staff to guide and retrieve wayward sheep (Psalm 23:4). “Three shepherds also I cut off”: This refers to the priests, elders and scribes of Israel. Jesus bestowed grace and unity upon the populace, but confronted the hypocrisy of these religious leaders, and because they rejected Him all 3 offices were obliterated in a short time. God ended the traditional offices of the mediators and in their place brought a new priesthood of believers (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 20:6)

Conduit, the most clearly defined part of this prophecy is that Judas Iscariot betrayed Christ for 30 pieces of silver. When Judas saw that they were going to crucify Jesus, he repented and went back and threw the silver coins at the feet of the religious leaders in the Temple. It was against their rules to allow ‘blood money’ into the coffers, so they used the money to buy the Potters field. If you were to study statistics and probability…: How many people in the history of the world were sold for 30 pieces of silver, then the money was thrown back in a temple and then that money was used to buy a Potters field? Answer is…ONE, JESUS. “Thirty pieces of silver,” According to (Exodus 21:32), was the price paid to the master whose slave had been gored by an ox. A sound slave was considered to be worth twice that amount. This insult would ultimately be ascribed to the Messiah Himself (Matt. 27:9-10). This is the supreme insult, the Messiah, God’s Son, worth only the price of an incapacitated, gored slave! What price do you place on knowing and following Jesus? What value do you place on our Lord? How much time; daily, weekly and monthly do you spend knowing Jesus, talking to Jesus and sharing Jesus- compared to other things you value in life? Things like your job, your kids, your spouse, your hobbies, your intake of food, sleep and physical activity? Based on this formula, WHO\WHAT is on your throne? REPENT, for the kingdom of God is at hand!