Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/419



REJECTION OF THE TRUE SHEPHERD 403

Me," or, " those that observed Me " that is, " kept their eyes constantly fixed on Me, ready to act according to My direction and will " a beautiful designation not only of the believing remnant of Israel, but of those from all nations who have learned in truth that what was spoken by prophets and apostles, and Christ Himself, was indeed the Word of the living God, and whose eyes are fixed upon Him with ready obedience to do His will.

We come now to vers. 12 and 13, which form perhaps the most difficult passage in the whole prophecy :

"And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my hire ; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my hire thirty pieces of silver.

" And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter, the goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them unto the potter, in the j house of the Lord"

As an indication that his service as shepherd was coming is to an end, he asks his wages. I need not again remind the reader that we have to do here with symbols and figures, ) and that the symbolical transaction in the vision in which ^ i the prophet was himself the chief actor was designed to set ie ! forth great spiritual truths.

That the prophet only represented Jehovah, the true is, Shepherd of Israel, who in fulness of time was especially to s: manifest Himself in this character in His only-begotten ns Son, the Messiah, comes out very clearly in these verses, he for the contemptible wages which they did offer, Jehovah on says (in ver. 1 3), ironically, is " the goodly price that I was prised at of them"

The wages ("9^, sakhar, " hire," or " reward "), which He actually sought from them for all His Shepherd care, was, as the commentators rightly understand, the spiritual fruit of His labours repentance, faith, true heart piety, humble obedience and grateful love. This is brought out clearly in the Lord s parable of the Vineyard, which is Israel, to whom He first sent His servants, and then His own Son, " that He might receive the fruits of it."