Israel's Impending Tradgedy for Rejecting Their Messiah - Part 1
Once again, we return to the book of Zechariah. If you will, take your Bibles and turn there, we are going to be looking at Zechariah 11, verses one through six. But I'm going to read verses one through 14, because they go as a unit. And this is really part one, under the heading "Israel's Impending Tragedy for Rejecting Their Messiah." Let me read the text to you, and then we will unpack it and apply it to our lives. Zechariah 11, beginning in verse one,
Open your doors, Lebanon,
So that a fire may feed on your cedars.
2 Wail, juniper, because the cedar has fallen,
For the magnificent trees have been destroyed;
Wail, oaks of Bashan,
Because the impenetrable forest has come down.
3 There is a sound of the shepherds’ wail,
For their splendor is ruined;
There is a sound of the young lions’ roar,
For the pride of the Jordan is ruined.
4 This is what the Lord my God says: “Pasture the flock doomed to slaughter. 5 Those who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished, and each of those who sell them says, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I have become rich!’ And their own shepherds have no compassion for them. 6 For I will no longer have compassion for the inhabitants of the land,” declares the Lord; “but behold, I will let the people fall, each into another’s power and into the power of his king; and they will crush the land, and I will not rescue them from their power.”
7 So I pastured the flock doomed to slaughter, therefore also the afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two staffs: the one I called Favor, and the other I called Union; so I pastured the flock. 8 Then I did away with the three shepherds in one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also was tired of me. 9 Then I said, “I will not pasture you. What is to die, let it die, and what is to perish, let it perish; and let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.” 10 And I took my staff Favor and cut it in pieces, to break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples. 11 So it was broken on that day, and so the afflicted of the flock who were watching me realized that it was the word of the Lord. 12 And I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind!” So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages. 13 Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord. 14 Then I cut in pieces my second staff Union, to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
Having drawn a sharp distinction between Israel's false shepherds in chapter 10, verses two and three, and the Good Shepherd in verses four through 12, the inspired prophet now predicts the horrific consequences that will befall Israel because of their future rejection of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. A picture of what will happen, frankly, to every nation and to every individual who disregards the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and who denies his lordship over his or her life.
I might add just as a footnote, verses one through 14 in this chapter speaks of the rejection of the Good Shepherd; and verses 15 through 17 speaks of the acceptance of the worthless shepherd. Now this section will expose the treachery and the corruption of false shepherds then and now; how they deceive people, how they exploited the naive, the ignorant, the immoral and the greedy, those that would willfully follow their lies, as many people do today. We witness this today in religious circles, political circles, the liberal media educators from kindergarten through the university, post graduate level, brainwashing people and with stunning accuracy. So this text predicted the destruction of Israel in the hands of the Romans in AD 70 and again later on, in AD 135 as we will see. The land would be invaded, it predicts how Jerusalem and the temple will be destroyed, how the people will be tortured, butchered, sold into slavery, scattered across the globe. And it also reveals the compassionate ministry of Jesus, their Messiah, the Good Shepherd, and how he would be despised and forsaken, not esteemed, rejected by men, as Isaiah 53 describes it. And how he would be betrayed for 30 shekels of silver, the exact amount that was given to Judas for his treachery, as we read in Matthew 26.
But one thread of commonality can be seen throughout the tapestry of all of these prophecies, and that thread is God's faithfulness to his covenant promises to his chosen people, ethnic Israel: not the church, but to Israel. These prophecies were written for the church, but not about the church. Theologian David Baron, who was a 19th century Russian Jew who converted to Christianity, put it this way, a good warning. Don’t…
“use a method of interpretation (that) turns the great prophetic
utterances in the Bible into mere hyperbole, and substitutes an unnatural
and shadowy meaning for what is plain and obvious, thereby throwing a
vagueness and uncertainty over all Scripture. No, no; just as the
scattering of Israel was literal, so the gathering also will be literal; and it
is not in the absorption of a remnant of the Jewish people into the
Church, and in the gradual spread of “Christianity” that “these
prophecies find a most glorious and real fulfilment,” but in a yet future
nationally restored and converted Israel, which shall yet be the centre of
the Kingdom of God and of His Christ, and the channel of blessing to all
the nations of the earth.”
My friends, can there be any greater demonstration of the glory of God than to fulfill his covenant promises to his rebellious, stiff-necked people, and establish his kingdom on the earth as the second Adam, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ? And even now in our day, we see the diaspora returning to the land, we see them prospering, but still in unbelief. Yet most of them do not know what awaits them prior to the coming of Christ during the Great Tribulation, all because they still reject their Messiah.
Let me remind you of a couple of passages in Ezekiel 36 beginning in verse 23 God says,
"'I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD,' declares the Lord GOD, 'when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight.
"'For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land.'"
In similar fashion, the prophet Isaiah says, In Isaiah 11, beginning in verse 11, that,
"The Lord will again recover the second time with His hand the remnant of His people.... He will lift up a standard for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth."
And we continue to see this gathering from all over the globe, Jewish people coming back into their promised land; a foreshadowing of Messianic judgment that will be followed by blessing in the kingdom age when Christ returns. And it is absolutely amazing to see God's protection and provision for Israel today. I have contacts in Israel, some from very high levels, and it is fascinating to hear the miraculous things that God has done since October 7. I won't get into all of that, but we also see just this violent antisemitism that seeks their ruin.
I was reading an unbelieving Jewish young man, an entrepreneur. His name is Berel Solomon. I'm going to give you his words. It's a bit lengthy, but it's worth repeating. This is how he and so many of the Jewish people see what's happening here. He says this,
“There’s something about Israel that makes people
uncomfortable, and it’s not what they say it is. They’ll point to
politics, settlements, borders, and wars. But scratch beneath the
outrage, and you’ll find something deeper. A discomfort not with
what Israel does, but with what Israel is. A nation this small
should not be this strong. Period. Israel has no oil. No special
natural resources. A population barely the size of a mid-sized
American city. They are surrounded by enemies. Hated in the
United Nations. Targeted by terror. Condemned by celebrities.
Boycotted, slandered, and attacked. And still, they thrive like
there’s no tomorrow.
In military. In medicine. In security. In technology. In agriculture. In
intelligence. In morality. In sheer, unbreakable will. They turn
desert into farmland. They make water from air. They intercept
rockets in mid-air. They rescue hostages under the nose of the
world’s worst regimes. They survive wars that were supposed to
wipe them out, and win.
The world watches this and can’t make sense of it. So they do
what people do when they witness strength they can’t understand.
They assume it must be cheating. It must be American aid. It
must be foreign lobbying. It must be oppression. It must be theft.
It must be some dark trick that gave the Jews this kind of power. It
must be blackmail. Because heaven forbid it’s something else.
Heaven forbid it’s real. Heaven forbid it’s earned. Or worse,
destined.
The Jewish people were supposed to disappear a long, long time
ago. That’s how the story of exiled, enslaved, hated minorities is
supposed to end. But the Jews didn’t disappear. They actually
came home, rebuilt their land, revived their language, and brought
their dead back to life — in memory, in identity, and in strength.
That’s not normal. It’s not political. It’s biblical.
There’s no cheat code that explains how a group of people return
to their homeland after 2,000 years. There is no rational path from
gas chambers to global influence.
And there is no historical precedent for surviving the Babylonians,
the Romans, the Crusaders, the Inquisition, the pogroms, and the
Holocaust, and still showing up to work on Monday in Tel Aviv.
Israel doesn’t make sense. Unless you believe in something
beyond the math.
This is what drives the world crazy. Because if Israel is real, if this
improbable, ancient, hated nation is somehow still chosen,
protected, and thriving, then maybe God isn’t a myth after all.
Maybe He’s still in the story. Maybe history isn’t random. Maybe
evil doesn’t get the last word. Maybe the Jews are not just a
people… but a testimony. That’s what they can’t stand.
Because once you admit that Israel’s survival isn’t just impressive,
but divine, everything changes. Your moral compass has to reset.
Your assumptions about history, power, and justice collapse. You
realize you’re not watching the end of an empire. You’re
witnessing the beginning of something eternal. So they deny it.
They smear it. And rage against it. Because it’s easier to call a
miracle “cheating” than to face the possibility that God keeps His
promises. And He’s keeping them still!”
And oh, I pray that this young man will come to know who Christ really is. So with this, we come to Zechariah 11, where we see God's promise to judge as well as to restore. And the theme of the previous words at the end of chapter 10, you will recall, pertain to Israel's glorious deliverance and the final time of trouble. But here the theme concerns Israel's impending tragedy for rejecting their Messiah, which we all know they did in the first century. And I've divided this into three simple categories to help us hang some of these great truths on. We're only going to see the first two today, and we'll look at the third one the next time, but we're going to first look at the impending destruction of Israel, and then the impending devastation of false shepherds and those who embrace them, and then finally, the impending denial of the true shepherd and the slaughter of those who reject Him.
So let's look at verse one,
"Open your doors, O Lebanon, that a fire may feed on your cedars." Verse two, "Wail, O Cypress, for the cedar has fallen, because the glorious trees have been destroyed; Wail O oaks of Bashan, for the impenetrable forest has come down. There is a sound of the shepherds' wail, for their glory is ruined; there is a sound of the young lions' roar, for the pride of the Jordan is ruined."
This brings us to our first point, and that is the impending destruction of Israel. Now mind you, most of the time, people will read a passage like this and say, "I have no earthly idea what any of that means. It's totally irrelevant. And so let's go to Psalm 23 or something else," right? But you don't want to do that, because all scripture is inspired. All scripture is profitable. Now this prophecy describes again, the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70, as I will demonstrate to you during the first Jewish Roman war, followed by numerous other conflagrations and then, as well as the third Jewish war in AD 135 with the Romans, when the Roman Emperor Hadrian marched through this area and destroyed 985 towns and villages, bringing utter ruin to Israel and scattering the people all over the ancient world.
Now look closely, "Open your doors." This carries the idea of allow access, here, to these invaders, because it's futile for you to resist. "Open your doors. O Lebanon," Lebanon being the northern border of Israel. Why? "That a fire may feed on your cedars." Bear in mind these cedars were the very heart of their economy. Back up 200 years earlier, the Assyrians descended upon Israel through Lebanon and destroyed all of the forests and systematically defeated every city in their path. And so this is a warning that that same kind of destruction is going to come again. Now we can take this literally and we can take it figuratively. I think that there's probably elements of both here. If we look at this literally, we know that in 67 AD Vespasian was sent by Nero to quell the revolt of the Jews by marching south from Antioch in Syria with two legions of Roman soldiers. And he traversed through parts of southern Lebanon, which was at that time within the border of the Roman province of Syria. And his son, Titus, marched north from Egypt with another legion to meet at Ptolemais, and the numbers of the people that they had with them is really astounding. They had 1000s of Arab mercenaries, 1000s of additional slaves to serve the soldiers. You had to have slaves to help cook and clean and carry equipment, tend to the horses, tend to the livestock, cut wood and to build siege engines. And at the siege of Jerusalem, there were at least four legions - about 60,000 Roman troops - and they destroyed all of the forests in order to build their siege works; you don't carry them with you. You come to a place where you're going to do a siege, and then you take the wood from the area, and that's what happened literally.
But we can also take the verse figuratively. The term cedar is often used in Scripture in conjunction with the construction of Solomon's temple - the planks and the framework, the paneling, as well as the overlay of the altar, all came from that cedar. And so this may also point to the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, which was consumed by fire. I also found it interesting, there's a very ancient interpretation of this text that identifies Lebanon with the temple, which, quote, "was built with cedars from Lebanon towering aloft upon a strong summit the spiritual glory and imminence of Jerusalem as the Lebanon was of the whole country." And this also fits well with a rabbinic legend that I found in the Talmud -a symbolic interpretation of Isaiah's prophecy - it says, "And the Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one," referring to Vespasian's destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.
Well, whether it's literal or figurative, of this prophecy - which, by the way, was delivered 600 years before it happened - all of it points to impending judgment of a catastrophic nature, and one that indeed happened in 70 AD as a result of Israel's rejection of their Messiah. So this is what's being prophesied here. So, "Open your doors, O Lebanon that a fire may feed on your cedars."
Secondly, it says, "Wail..." This is an imperative. This is a command here. It's also what is called an onomatopoetic word. And in Hebrew, it comes from a Greek word, "yālal." And here is "yālal" and it's the idea of it means to lament or to howl. And this type of a word sounds like what it represents. We have words like that like, meow, oink, clank. You know, we've got different words that we use, buzz, hiss, whatever. So, "Wail, O cypress." Cypress was used to build the temple flooring and the doors, according to Second Kings six, of the temple. "Wail, Ocypress, for the cedar has fallen because the glorious trees have been destroyed; wail, O oaks of Bashan, for the impenetrable forest has come down now." Bashan was on the northern border of Israel, across the Jordan, east of the of the Sea of Galilee, and encompassing what is now modern, the modern-day Golan Heights. Some of us have been on those heights, and it's a plateau that's contiguous with Lebanon. And if you look around in the distance, you can see snow packed mountains and highlands. Mount Hermon is on the northern boundary. Mount Haran is a mountainous area on the eastern boundary. In fact, this is depicted in Psalm 68:15, "A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan; a mountain of many peaks is the mountain of Bashan." Possibly a reference to Mount Hermon on the northern boundary, which, I might add, was considered by even the pagans, the dwelling place of the gods of Canaan. And in in biblical literature, the mountains of Bashan are often associated with strength and grandeur and divine power. So he's saying here, "Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the impenetrable forest has come down."
Now this inaccessible, and penetrable forest really served as a protective border of Northern Israel, a natural fortification on the northeastern border. And the densely wooded slopes and the heavy undergrowth would make it virtually impossible for an army to penetrate it without just cutting it all down. And also, we know that in that region, that forest is filled with, especially in that day, poisonous snakes, poisonous plants. In that era, they had the Syrian brown bear, now believed to be extinct in Israel. They had Asiatic lions, which is a smaller version of the African lions that we're familiar with. And they were absolutely ferocious. It was inhabited by wolves, by leopards, by cheetahs, crocodiles, hippopotamus, and they believe even elephants at that time. So this is a bad place to be. And 400 years before this prophecy, during the reign of David, you may recall the story when the men that were loyal to David fought against Absalom and his men. We read in Second Samuel 18, beginning at verse seven,
"The people of Israel were defeated there before the servants of David, and the slaughter there that day was great, 20,000 men.
"For the battle there was spread over the whole countryside, and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured."
Goes on to say,
"Now Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. For Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak. And his head caught fast in the oak, and he was left hanging between heaven and earth while the mule that was under him kept going."
You can visualize that in your mind. And you will recall how Joab then came, and I believe he took three spears and thrust it to his heart, and then the men that were with him made sure that he was dead. Now, how did the forest devour more people than the sword? Well, imagine you're being defeated, and the only place you have to go is in that forest, and you can't get through it basically. So you become easy targets for a pursuing enemy. And I've been in places, I know some of you have as well, I've been in places like that. And if you don't have a compass, you're lost, you're gone. There's no escape. But he's saying here, "Wal, O oaks of Bashan, for the impenetrable forest has come down." In other words, Israel, you're going to be left without defense here. The foreign invaders are going to destroy everything. They're going to burn everything in their path. Which they did. The nation is destined to defeat and desolation.
He goes on in verse three, "There is a sound of the shepherds' wail," and here the wail is "yālal" once again - the howl. Why? "For their glory..." which could be translated, "their might," "their splendor," even "their rich robe," "...is ruined." So I believe this describes the intense anguish of the arrogant false shepherds and false leaders of Israel as they anticipate their hideous demise; unfaithful, apostate, corrupt civil and religious leaders.
Then it says, as well, "There is a sound of the young lions' roar, for the pride of the Jordan is ruined." This could also be taken figuratively. We know in Ezekiel 19 young lions symbolized royalty. Young Lions, we know, will roar with aggression. They will also roar when they're in desperation to eat something. They're in search of prey. And perhaps this describes the desperation of the royal house when they realize the invading forces are going to come upon them and they can't be stopped. Can't be dogmatic on any of that, but we see again, there's this coming horde that is going to destroy everything in its path.
And then it says also at the end of verse three, "For the pride or the splendor of the Jordan is ruined." And now this would probably be a poetic description of that region, which even now is very dense, but in those days, it was very dense with strong, long thorns as virtually impenetrable cane thickets; jungle like growth that adorned that narrow Jordan Valley south of the Sea of Galilee. And this area was a haven for wild and very dangerous animals - lions, leopards, wolves, bears, and we know that the thickets of the Jordan appears in the Bible, particularly in the book of Jeremiah. It's often used as a metaphor for danger, a metaphor for adversity and the challenges of life. For example, in Jeremiah 12 verse five, there, God challenges the prophet Jeremiah with a rhetorical question, exposing his weakness in handlingsome of the present challenges he was facing when, in fact, there's even greater ones that are coming. And he says in Jeremiah 12:5, "'If you have raced with men on foot and they have wearied you, how then, how are you going to contend with horses?'" Then he adds this, "'And if in a land of peace, you are secure, what will you do in the thicket of Jordan?'" Likewise, Jeremiah 49:19, Jeremiah, 50 verse 44, they speak of the of the thickets of of Jordan, where you will have the the image of a lion that's emerging from the thickets; it's used to symbolize the approach of an enemy, in the context of divine judgment.
Also, I'd like to give you some of the history, so that you begin to see how the Bible is just so accurate, and the way it all fits together. It's fascinating. After the Assyrians captured the northern kingdom and took the Israelites away - killed them, took them away - the king of Assyria populated that region with pagan people in place of the sons of Israel and a lot of those people became what's known as the Samaritans. And you remember the Jews hated the Samaritans and all this type of thing. In Second Kings 17, at the end of verse 24 and going into verse 25 we read this, "So they possessed Samaria and lived in its cities. At the beginning of their living there, they did not fear the LORD;" - which was an understatement - "...therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which killed some of them." And we know historically that lion problem continued even as late as the 12th century AD. So this gives you an idea of the geography and the landscape of the area and what is being depicted here in the horde of the Romans coming in.
And so, through the use of very powerful imagery, the first three verses of Zechariah 11 depict the severity of this judgment that would eventually come upon Israel. I want to digress for a moment with a very appropriate, very practical application. Folks think about this, if God would do this to his chosen people for their rebellion, don't you think he would do it to others as well, and perhaps even more so? And the answer is, absolutely. Do you realize that God has given all authority to the Lord Jesus Christ? He is the authority, the one that will judge the living and the dead. Jesus even said in John 5:22, "'For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son.'" And in verse 27 we read that he, "'gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.'" And I think of all of the godless people in the world, all of the haughty rulers of the world. And my goodness, all you have to do is turn on the television and you will hear it; people that the Bible calls fools. A fool is someone that has no fear of God. They're fools, but they're haughty. They're indifferent towards the Lord Jesus Christ. They're even hostile towards him. And think of all, for example, all of the immoral fools who believe that God's love annuls his holiness and cancels out his standards of righteousness; therefore, he approves of things that he says he abhors, like the whole LGBTQ perversions. But God, dear friends, does not compromise his holiness. In fact, Moses said in Deuteronomy 32, verse four, "'The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He.'" Beloved, bear in mind that he is the thrice Holy God praised by the seraphim in Isaiah six and verse three. In fact, as we look at Scripture, holiness is the all-encompassing attribute of who he is. It portrays his hidden glory. It portrays his infinite otherness. It portrays his incomprehensible transcendence. It portrays his consummate perfection and his moral purity, and he will leave no sin unpunished. So do not be deceived. A day of judgment is going to come upon this earth, even as he prophesied it would, even though, right now we're looking at the judgment that would come in AD 70. There are so many others that point to the final judgment that will come, and the Lord Jesus Christ will execute that judgment, first on Earth and then at the Great White Throne Judgment, and a judgment that will continue in hell.
And it's interesting, he promised this to disobedient Israel, and it was fulfilled in AD 70, and other, as I say, Roman advances upon them. And he has promised this to all of the peoples, all of the nations of the world ultimately. In fact, we read of this in Revelation 19, beginning in verse 11, "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war." Verse 15 goes on to say,
"From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.
"And on His robe and on His thigh, He has a name written,
"'KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.'"
In verses 19 through 21 we read,
"And I saw the beast, referring to the Antichrist and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army.
"And the Beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone.
"And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh."
Oh, dear friends, I pray that you know the Lord Jesus. I pray that you bow your knee before him in obedience, that you truly love Him. Because one day, according to Philippians 2:10, and following, every knee is going to bow before Jesus, "of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father."
So we've seen the impending destruction of Israel. Secondly, I want you to notice the impending devastation of false shepherds and those who embrace them. Now it's important for you to understand here that this section begins with the Lord commanding Zechariah to act out a parable in effort to underscore the reality of the prophetic truths that are being given. It says in verse four, "Thus says the LORD my God, 'Pasture the flock doomed to slaughter.'" And this represents the covenant people doomed to divine judgment. In other words, I want you to act this out before the people of Israel, on my behalf. I want them to see the horror that awaits them as a result of their future rejection of the Lord Jesus - of the Messiah.
Now, it's interesting that we see God commissioning others to do this kind of role playing. Let me give you a couple of examples. Earlier in Zechariah six verses nine through 15, you will recall how God instructed his prophet, Zechariah to participate in a scene in which Joshua, the high priest, was coronated, depicting the Messiah's future coronation. We have another example in Isaiah eight, and this is in the context of the Assyrian invasion that would come upon them. It says in verse one, "Then the Lord said to me, 'Take for yourself a large tablet and write on it in ordinary letters: swift is the booty, speedy is the prey.'" And then we see in verse three that God asks Isaiah, the prophet, to name his newborn son, "Maher-shalal-hash-baz." "Maher-shalal" means "swift is the booty," and "hash-baz" means "speedy is the prey." And so this would communicate, in a living illustration, the certainty of the Assyrians that would come and conquer them.
One other example in Ezekiel four, God commanded Ezekiel to use a soft tile to create a miniature city layout of Jerusalem with walls and siege items, all as an object lesson to illustrate Babylon's final siege of Jerusalem, which happened in 588 through 586 BC. And so now here, the Lord instructs Zechariah to play the role of a shepherd that would prefigure the singular true Shepherd, the Messiah, whom they would desperately need, but would not want, in contrast to the multiple shepherds that exploited the people with their lies. And yet most of the people loved those lies, and they followed them; they embraced them. And my how we see that to this day.
So according to verse four, the flock is "doomed to slaughter." And he now goes on to describe two evils associated with that slaughter, especially as it relates to the depraved nature of the killers that are both within amongst the people and without. And the first thing that we see is the invaders will be characterized by what I would call unrestrained human depravity and demonic influence. It says in verse five, "'Those who buy them slay them and go unpunished.'" It could be translated, "are not held guilty." In fact, among ancient versions, the Septuagint and the Vulgate both seem to understand these words to mean, "and they suffered no remorse." In other words, they don't feel guilty. They do not feel guilty. They do not hold themselves guilty. So they felt no compunction in torturing and murdering people and the false teachers. Felt no compunction, no guilt, that somehow what they were doing was not only dishonoring to God, but was going to destroy the people for their own self-interest. In our secular culture, we call these people sociopaths. You're familiar with that term. I wanted to look it up because that's not a biblical concept. There's a different way of describing it biblically, as I will say in a moment. Mayo Clinic described a sociopath this way, "anti-social personality disorder, sometimes called sociopathy, is a mental health condition in which a person consistently shows no regard for right and wrong and ignores the rights and feelings of others." It gives you the idea that this is some kind of genetic thing, or some type of brain dysfunction, that the etiology is not from a depraved human heart, but it's something biological. But, you know, we've seen this in every war. We've seen it with Hamas on October 7. If you look at what the Assyrians and the Babylonians and the Medes and the Persians and the Greeks and the Romans did - no difference. Nazi Germany, on and on it goes. But what man calls a mental health condition is what God calls unrestrained human depravity and demonic influence. Ecclesiastes nine, verse three, Solomon says, "...the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead." Jesus said in Matthew 15:19, "'For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.'" And speaking to apostate Jews who had murder in their heart, Jesus said in John 8:44, "'You are of your father, the devil and the desires of your father, you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.'" We could go to Ephesians two and verse two, speaking of the wicked who, "...walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." And the only remedy for any of this is the gospel - the transforming power of Christ.
We read about this, for example, in the final stage of the wrath of divine abandonment that the apostle Paul gives us in Romans chapter one, beginning in verse 28, "And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper." Then he gives a list here,
"...being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips,
"slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
"without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;
"and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice these things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them."
In other words, without excuse, they know in their conscience that these things are wrong, and this would be the perfect description of the coming Romans upon Israel that would punish the people according to God's judgment.
So the invaders will be characterized by unrestrained human depravity and demonic influence, but secondly, I would submit to you that the invaders will be characterized by calloused, hypocritical greed and betrayal. Notice what it says, "...and each of those who sell them says, 'Blessed be the LORD, for I have become rich!' And their own shepherds have no pity on them." This speaks of the corrupt civil and religious leaders; the apostate priests and elders and scribes who would fleece the people. You know, Jesus reserved his most stinging rebukes for these people. They fleeced the people, control the people so that they can become rich and powerful. They abuse the people by telling them what they want to hear rather than telling them the truth that most people will find horribly offensive. They will use treachery for political and financial gain. By the way, we see this all the time in our culture, even in our religious culture: the prosperity gospel, the Word of Faith cult. You see it in the Neo Marxist social gospel, which is at the very heart of the Democratic Party. All of that stuff is just a satanic con job, and people buy into it.
He goes on to say, "...each of those who sell them says, 'Blessed be the LORD, for I have become rich!'" In other words, what he's saying here is that when this happens, those false shepherds of that day will attribute their illicit gains to the Lord's blessing. I mean, talk about a warped mind, a depraved heart. These people are greedy hypocrites with no conscience, no moral compass. We have them everywhere to this day. Speaking of the apostasy due primarily to false teachers that will finally reach its climax right before Christ returns, the Apostle Paul says this in First Timothy four, beginning in verse one,
"But the Spirit explicitly says that in latter times, some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,
"by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron."
In other words, those who live this way, and do these things, are so deceived by demons that it's as though their conscience has been cauterized so that they feel nothing. The scar tissue of habitual evil leaves them in such a state that nothing bothers them. This is the prediction of what would happen to the false shepherds in the first century. And we see the same thing applying throughout the ages. And the outside invaders, here again, are going to be characterized by this unrestrained human depravity and demonic influence, and the invaders within the spiritual religious leaders and civil authorities will be characterized by calloused, hypocritical greed and betrayal.
And then he closes this section by underscoring the reason for the coming slaughter. Why is all this going to happen? It is because of God's judgment on his covenant people for rejecting their Messiah. Despite all the signs and wonders, despite all of the prophecies, he says in verse six, "For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land,' declares the LORD;'" "Have pity," it can be translated, "show mercy." By the way, it's the same verb used in the previous verse, describing the heart attitude of the false shepherds driven by their self-interestrather than compassion, and it says, "...and their own shepherds have no pity on them." And here in verse six, the Lord is saying that he will, "no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land."
He goes on to say, "'...but behold, I will cause the men to fall, each into another's power and into the power of his king; and they will strike the land, and I will not deliver them from their power.'" Now, what's he talking about here? Israel had no king when the Romans came in the first century, it certainly wasn't Jesus. You will recall in Luke 19, in Jesus' parable of the nobleman and his kingdom - representing Jesus and his citizens; kingdom citizens - he described the rejection he would receive, saying, "We do not want this man to reign over us." Right, remember that? And what did the religious leaders say when Pilate presented Jesus to them as their king? John 19, verse, 15, "'Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!' Pilate said to them, 'Shall I crucify your King?' The chief priests answered, 'We have no king but Caesar.'" How ironic. They reject their true king that would deliver them - that would save them, that would show compassion upon them - and instead, they replaced him with a pagan king who ended up slaughtering them. It's amazing, isn't it?
And I also find it amazing that 600 years before all of this happened, we have a very precise prophecy; and what a tragedy it was when the Romans invaded. I want to close with a bit of history here. In 69 AD Titus Flavius took about 60,000 Roman soldiers. It could have been more than that when you add some of the other mercenaries, most of them Arabs. And siege warfare in those days was especially nefarious. It was especially heinous. It was terrifying. Because the first thing the enemy would do is spend months building a wall around you that communicates to you, psychologically, that there's no way out. The Romans built a wall five miles long, all around the stone wall of the city, and they cut off the water. They cut off this food supply. I might add that God was merciful. He spared the Christian community. We know that they slipped out earlier and escaped to Pella, across the Jordan, before the siege began. And when this happened, famine began to set in ss you run out of food. Disease comes along with that. You've got decaying bodies everywhere.
And then the Romans built great earthen ramps, massive catapults. We can read how the noise alone caused the people to wail in terror. The Romans had 1000s of archers, enormous towers and siege engines covered with iron and wet skins to protect them from fire, huge battering rams. And the Roman historian Josephus tells us how there were various factions inside the city that fought for possession of certain quarters, and the savagery that the Jews committed against each other was as bloody as what the Romans did to those who captured them. Indeed, just as Jesus had predicted, the Romans will quote, "throw up a barricade against you and surround you and hem you in on every side." You can read Josephus and the account of the long siege. The savagery is just unbelievable, including cannibalism. Jesus said in Luke 19:44, "'...they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another.'" And here's why, "'because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.'"
We read that Josephus acted as a mediator for the Romans. He actually got up on the walls of Jerusalem and tried to tell the people: you need to surrender; there's no way you can defeat this army. But they wouldn't hear it. When the negotiations failed, Josephus witnessed the siege and the aftermath. Here's some of what he wrote concerning the aftermath.
“Now as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder,
because there remained none to be the objects of their fury (for they
would not have spared any, had there remained any other work to be
done), [Titus] Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the
entire city and Temple, but should leave as many of the towers standing
as were of the greatest eminence; that is, Phasaelus, and Hippicus, and
Mariamne; and so much of the wall as enclosed the city on the west side.
This wall was spared, in order to afford a camp for such as were to
lie in garrison [in the Upper City], as were the towers [the three forts]
also spared, in order to demonstrate to posterity what kind of city it was,
and how well fortified, which the Roman valor had subdued; but for all
the rest of the wall [surrounding Jerusalem], it was so thoroughly laid
even with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation, that
there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it
[Jerusalem] had ever been inhabited.”
He goes on to say,
This was the end which Jerusalem came to by the
madness of those that were for innovations; a
city otherwise of great magnificence, and of mighty fame among all
mankind.[2] And truly, the very view itself was a melancholy thing; for
those places which were adorned with trees and pleasant gardens, were
now become desolate country every way, and its trees were all cut down.
Nor could any foreigner that had formerly seen Judaea and the most
beautiful suburbs of the city, and now saw it as a desert, but lament
and mourn sadly at so great a change. For the war had laid all signs of
beauty quite waste. Nor had anyone who had known the place before,
had come on a sudden to it now, would he have known it again. But
though he [a foreigner] were at the city itself, yet would he have
inquired for it.”
Well, Josephus tells us that 1.1 million people were killed during the siege, majority of them were Jewish, and 97,000 were captured and enslaved. And what is interesting to me is Titus reportedly refused to accept a wreath of victory, and here's why he said there is, quote, "No merit in vanquishing people forsaken by their God." End quote.
Dear friends, don't trifle with a holy God. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. "Whatsoever a man sows that will he also reap." He is a God of infinite holiness, and he will judge your sin and mine. But here's the thing, either we trust in Christ to pay the penalty for our sin, or we will pay for it ourselves, but one way or the other, all sin will be punished.
And in light of all of this, let's also celebrate grace, right? My what would we do without Christ? And as we look at the wrath of God that displays his glory, we can also see the contrast in his grace that equally displays his glory; and to know that we are recipients of that grace is an unspeakable gift. I'm at a loss of words whenever I think of it, so let's remember this.
And for those of you that don't know Christ, I plead with you, as a minister of the gospel, that today you will get serious about your relationship with a holy God, and if you've never come to a place of genuine brokenness over your sin, may today be the day that you come in humble repentance and ask God to show his mercy on you, as you place your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, your only hope of salvation. Let's pray.
Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word. Thank you for your prophetic word that gives us such a clear sense of your sovereignty; that you have a plan, and you are working that plan with precision. But Lord, also to demonstrate your faithfulness to all of your promises. Lord, we celebrate this as your people, we thank you. We give you praise, even this day, for every expression of grace that you have lavished upon us, for it's in Christ's name that I pray. Amen.
