The Lord will care for Judah
Ask the LORD for rain in the springtime;
it is the LORD who makes the storm clouds. He gives showers of rain to men,
and plants of the field to everyone.
2 The idols speak deceit, diviners see visions that lie;
they tell dreams that are false, they give comfort in vain.
Therefore the people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd.
3 “My anger burns against the shepherds,
and I will punish the leaders; for the LORD Almighty will care
for his flock, the house of Judah, and make them like a proud horse in battle.
4 From Judah will come the cornerstone,
from him the tent peg, from him the battle bow, from him every ruler.
5 Together they will be like mighty men
trampling the muddy streets in battle. Because the LORD is with them,
they will fight and overthrow the horsemen.
When the rains do not come in southern Africa, some people head for special groves of trees, almost like shrines, where they pray to spirits to cause the rain to come. Many heathen people had this idea and still do. The American Indians and their rain dances are another example.
How many prayers have been offered by people because of the weather? This is an admission of man that, however smart he may be, he cannot make one drop of rain fall. The Lord is still in control of the weather. And for all of the sophisticated weather equipment and reporting, meteorologists still miss the mark widely sometimes.
In this age with food stacked rows deep on supermarket shelves and weather news coming comfortably into homes via color television sets, it is good for all people to be reminded with Zechariah’s people of what verse 1 says. “Ask the LORD for rain in the springtime; it is the LORD who makes the storm clouds. He gives showers of rain to men, and plants of the field to everyone.”
From the knowledge of where the weather comes from, it is no accident that the Lord leads into the next topic— idols and false shepherds. These were the ones who took credit for God’s action. They spoke their own brand of wisdom, but the Lord called it lies and deceit. It was not enough that the gods were unable to tell anything that was going to happen; they even had to lie too!
The Lord is truth; his Word is the truth; anything apart from him is a lie. As the text says, people who listen to these lies will wander away from the truth: “Therefore the people wander like sheep.” They will also experience spiritual wonder. They will ask with Pilate, “What is truth?” Their gods will lead them from one will-o’-the-wisp to another. The prophet Zechariah used the words deceit, lie, false, and vain in verse 2 for a reason. These are all words that describe the efforts of idols and diviners.
With the picture of sheep and the flock before us, verse 3 directs our attention to the shepherds. The Lord’s anger burned against the shepherds. The word here translated for shepherd can also be translated “leader.” In the context of sheep, this leader is, of course, a shepherd. In the context of people, it is anyone who is in a leading capacity.
The Lord tells us that he is going to be the one to care for the people. We know him from the New Testament as the Good Shepherd (John chapter 10). He wants every shepherd of his people to conform to his own style of shepherding. Verses 2 and 3 show us that the crime of the shepherds was that not only did they not lead their people but they gave them into the hands of their enemies. The Good Shepherd would not do this. But the words describe the hired hand: “When he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it” (John 10:12).
When the Lord leads his people, even though they are characterized as sheep, they become like a proud horse in battle, the cornerstone, the tent peg, the battle bow, like mighty men trampling the muddy streets in battle. The reason is found at the end of verse 5: “Because the LORD is with them, they will fight and overthrow the horsemen.”
Johann Altenburg’s hymn “O Little Flock, Fear Not the Foe,” sings this beautifully:
Amen, Lord Jesus, grant our prayer;
Great Captain, now your arm make bare,
Fight for us once again!
So shall your saints and martyrs raise
A mighty chorus to your praise,
Forevermore. Amen.