The Scattering of the Sheep

The Minor Prophets Speak To Today

Striking Down Jesus:

Zechariah 13:7-9 NLT

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The Scattering of the Sheep

7 “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
    the man who is my partner,”
    says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
“Strike down the shepherd,
    and the sheep will be scattered,
    and I will turn against the lambs.
8 Two-thirds of the people in the land
    will be cut off and die,” says the Lord.
    “But one-third will be left in the land.
9 I will bring that group through the fire
    and make them pure.
I will refine them like silver
    and purify them like gold.
They will call on my name,
    and I will answer them.
I will say, ‘These are my people,’
    and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”

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Who Is The Shepherd

First of all, the shepherd referred to here is not the false shepherds from Chapter 11. The Shepherd is not the False Prophet or the false prophets whom God has dealt with previously in this chapter.

In many cases, it is true that if God strikes down a false prophet, the prophet's followers scatter. It does not matter how long the false prophet has been followed. It does not matter if he is physically alive or dead, though they scatter more easily if he is struck down physically. People like to follow the living not the dead.

It does not matter how many millions follow a false prophet or how many millenniums they have done so. Striking down the prophet by demonstrating that the prophecies and writing of that man or woman are anti the One True God revealed in his words throughout the history of man  or that they have been proven false by their bogus predictions often takes divine intervention, so strong do the millions cling to their false beliefs. God has orchestrated that demise before. God, in the Last Days, will orchestrate it again. And it will be breathtaking in its swiftness.

For many of the followers of the false prophet, God will accomplish his purging by their extermination so that those who remain must chose to defy God in order to remain believers or, shaken to the core of their expectations, the remaining believers will abandon faith in the prophet and finally take an honest look at the virgin born Jesus. No matter which, that day will be a dreadful day. The who earth will mourn.

Jesus Is The Shepherd

People who will study the Scriptures, especially the Jewish scriptures and the Christian scriptures, will conclude that Jesus is the True Shepherd predicted by the prophets and proclaimed in the Law and Psalter.

People who have followed the True Shepherd and thus experienced a talking, walking relationship with him know experientially that Jesus is that shepherd. God provides many proofs and signs to them that demonstrated their walking and talking is not contrived, not mental illness (though the world tries to define it as such), and not some fantasy of the mind.

But we have a witness stronger that the prophets. A witness stronger than experience. We have the testimony of Jesus himself that Zechariah 13:7 refers to him.

Matthew 26:31: On the way, Jesus told them, “Tonight all of you will desert me. For the Scriptures say, ‘God will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’"

Matthew 26:55-56: Then Jesus said to the crowd, “Am I some dangerous revolutionary, that you come with swords and clubs to arrest me? Why didn’t you arrest me in the Temple? I was there teaching every day. 56 But this is all happening to fulfill the words of the prophets as recorded in the Scriptures.” At that point, all the disciples deserted him and fled.

Striking Down Jesus

When we strike down Jesus, his followers are scattered.

Fulfillment of this scripture is not limited to Jesus' political and physical death which were occurring when he was arrested to be crucified.

Many times since men, governments, academics, false prophets, and religions have struck down Jesus.

The Jewish religious establishment, when they found that striking down Jesus politically and physically did not work, aggressively spoke against him, stuck out through the Courts and Council to silence him, and pursued, punished, and put to death his followers. Indeed, they were aggressive enough that it scattered Jesus' followers and spread Christianity throughout the world reaching to all the attached land masses and many of the world's islands.

Rome next tried to strike down Jesus. Persecutions, prohibitions, pogroms, and attempts to intimidate and annihilate his sheep again scattered the sheep. Great numbers denied him and were cut off either physically from the kingdom of God on earth or spiritually - those who abandoned the faith.

The Muslim hordes tried to strike down Jesus as Lord. Again, many of his followers were exterminated or, intimidated, abandoned the Shepherd and were spiritually, culturally, and physically cut off from the community of faith - the Kingdom of God on earth.

The false teachers and false prophets have constantly tried to strike down belief in Jesus as the savior and only begotten son of God. Each has carried away many Christians. Cut off. They died to the Kingdom of God on earth.

Striking Down Jesus Today

Again, in this time and age, especially in the Western countries and throughout the countries dominated by Islam, great measures are being taken to strike down Jesus.

In Muslim controlled countries Christians are being martyred in increasing numbers. New believers take upon themselves a death sentence in many cases. The insistence that Jesus is no more than a prophet casts believers into the class of infidels to be opposed. This is nothing less that Islam stirring once again to strike down Jesus.

In Western academia, even many Christian seminaries, in many denominations and churches, and in the evolving Western cultures, Jesus is being struck down aggressively today. 

In arrogance, they believe that we have outgrown the need for Jesus, for at least the Christian religion. Movies, and classes, and articles, and books by the seemingly millions declare that he was just a man nothing more and sometimes less. They declare that he did not even exist but is a mere myth contrived by men who unlike themselves (or their own assessments of themselves) were power mongers with ulterior motives. The conspiracy theories abound.

Again There Is An Epochal Scattering Of The Sheep

Millions upon millions in the "Christian" west not only do not believe Jesus is the Son of God but don't even believe the overwhelming evidence in history that he existed and was who he said he was. 

The stampede to disassociate from the One True Shepherd permeates all age groups, especially among the young. Those in the stampede aggressively try to scatter anyone who has the audacity to stand against them. The stampede has taken on a power of its own to overwhelm the culture.

Scripture Speaks Truth

Strike The Shepherd, Strike Down Jesus

AND THE SHEEP WILL SCATTER!

Photo Credits:
Forlorn Hope by Jim Surcamp, some rights reserved @ flickr.com

Scattered Sheep by paidetres, all rights reserved @ flickr.com