{"id":7810,"date":"2021-09-21T06:37:14","date_gmt":"2021-09-21T11:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/?p=7810"},"modified":"2021-08-25T18:45:43","modified_gmt":"2021-08-25T23:45:43","slug":"devotional-on-zechariah-32","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-zechariah-32\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Zechariah"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_15577\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15577\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/P4309217.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/P4309217-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" class=\"size-large wp-image-15577\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/P4309217-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/P4309217-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/P4309217-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/P4309217-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/P4309217.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15577\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Mesa Verde National Park, CO<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nThirty silver coins<br \/>\nZechariah 11: They paid me an insulting sum, counting out thirty silver coins.<br \/>\nI confess I\u2019m lost as I read this passage.  Up till now, Zechariah has been the encouraging prophet, cheering the people on as they rebuild the Temple.  With its negative tone, this prophecy seems out of place and sounds more like something Ezekiel or Jeremiah might have said and done.  Indeed, there are no time markers in the text and it doesn\u2019t necessarily have to chronologically follow what comes before.  I don\u2019t know whether or not this message is intended to have great meaning to Zechariah\u2019s contemporaries.  However, the thirty pieces of silver really gets our attention.  This sum is the amount that\u2019s paid for the betrayal of Jesus.  Without making a serious attempt at dealing with this passage as a scholar, here\u2019s the picture as I see it.  Zechariah\u2019s directed to take a job as the shepherd for a flock that\u2019s marked for slaughter.  Apparently, he has some authority and soon fires the other shepherds who are care nothing for the sheep.  However, even though he leads the sheep with their best interests in mind, they rebel against him.  Zechariah quits his job and demands his salary and is paid what he thinks of as an insulting wage of thirty silver coins &#8212; about three month\u2019s wages.  He then throws the money into the poor box.  As a reader who can simply turn the pages of the Bible to the story of Jesus, this passage makes all kinds of sense.  Here\u2019s the Good Shepherd who comes to lovingly care for a people doomed for destruction.  Jesus longs to gather the people of Israel to himself and to lovingly care for them.  However, they rebel against him and he\u2019s betrayed for thirty silver coins.  Here we have a remarkable statement of prophecy given over 500 years before its fulfillment.<br \/>\nTake Away: The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thirty silver coins Zechariah 11: They paid me an insulting sum, counting out thirty silver coins. I confess I\u2019m lost as I read this passage. Up till now, Zechariah has been the encouraging prophet, cheering the people on as they rebuild the Temple. With its negative tone, this prophecy seems out of place and sounds [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1532,6,7],"tags":[151,871],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7810"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7810"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15579,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7810\/revisions\/15579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}