It was before stated, that we should find in its proper place, due notice
taken of the pride and worldly-mindedness which led the Jews to reject the
Messiah, as he offered no temporal advantages; and of their forfeiting
thereby all claim to the blessings which his kingdom was calculated to
afford. We are now come to that place. The introduction to this chapter
announces the frustration of their hopes of worldly greatness built upon
the promised Messiah; and distinctly states what portion of their nation
would be blinded by such motives, and what portion would be exempt from
them. The rulers, the rich, and the great are declared to be those who
would mislead the flock; while the poor and the humble are stated to be
those who would recognise the hand of God in his works, and perceive that
this was the word of the Lord.
At the time of Christ’s coming, it is unquestionable, that a very general
expectation prevailed among the Jews, that the period for their Messiah’s
appearance was arrived; but so remote was the character of Jesus from what
they expected in their prince, and so different were the advantages he
offered from what they had hoped to obtain, that the majority of the
people willingly yielded to the persuasion of their interested rulers,
that he was not the promised Messiah; and thus the misguided flock for the
most part entered into the views of their priests and rulers, and rejected
Christ.
The motives for this rejection are manifest even to this day, in the
backwardness of Israel to relinquish the hopes of a temporal Messiah, and
in their blindness to the benefits offered them by a spiritual one;
although the consequence has hitherto been to them the loss of even the
temporal advantages they previously enjoyed, instead of the attainment of
others which they expected. Small, however, in the Christian’s estimation,
are these, in comparison with their loss, in a spiritual point of view, or
their loss of the especial favour of Heaven; which from that time has not
only withheld from them any further revelations, but, as we conceive, has
even blinded them to the true spiritual import of those previously
vouchsafed. Thus, in whatever light we view it, whether spiritually or
politically, the humiliation of Israel from that time to the present, has
been abundantly manifest; as declared in the prophecy, under the metaphor
of the fall of the loftiest trees, the pride of the forest.
_Open thy doors, O Lebanon! that the fire may devour thy cedars. Howl,
fir-tree, for the cedar is fallen, because the mighty is spoiled. Howl, O
ye oaks of Bashan, for the forest of the vintage is come down. There is a
voice of the howling of the shepherds, for their glory is spoiled. A voice
of the roaring of young lions, for the pride of Jordan is spoiled._
This language is highly figurative, no doubt; yet is it interspersed with
expressions, which almost preclude the possibility of its misapplication;
for _the cedars of Lebanon_, and _the oaks of Bashan_, are next, by a
change of metaphor, called, _the shepherds of the flock_; and soon after,
dropping the metaphor entirely, it appears that they are the rich and the
great, who sacrifice their flock to avarice and ambition. Their hopes,
however, were frustrated, in the appearance of a spiritual, instead of a
temporal prince, and an exultation over their disappointed ambition forms
the exordium to this chapter, which may be explained as follows:—
Literally, the shepherds are supposed to howl for the loss of their rich
pastures on mount Carmel, the forest of the vintage; and the lions to roar
for the loss of their covert, the thickets on the banks of Jordan, the
pride of the river, which, with other trees, are doomed to destruction;
but the figurative meaning is, that the priests and rulers of Israel
should be disappointed of their hopes of worldly greatness at the
Messiah’s coming, and be deprived, under the new dispensation, of their
power and influence.
The lamentation over their frustrated hopes, is next coupled with
expressions of compassion for their misguided flock, whom they had doomed
to the slaughter; that is, by depriving them of _the life which is in
Christ_. This flock, the prophet is commanded to feed.
_Thus saith the Lord my God. Feed the flock of the slaughter, whose
possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty. And they that sell
them say, Blessed be the Lord for I am rich. And their own shepherds pity
them not._
Avarice is thus foreshewn to be the vice which would lead the priests to
reject Christ; the sending of whom is next declared to be the last act of
Divine interposition in behalf of Israel; those who reject him being
thenceforward left to themselves.
_For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord, but,
lo! I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour’s hand, and into
the hand of his shepherd, and they shall smite the land, and out of their
hand I will not deliver them._
But while further interposition is thus denied to those who reject Christ,
being the rich and the great; spiritual food is expressly promised to
those who receive him, who were the poor and the meek.
_But I will feed the flock of the slaughter, even you, O poor of the
flock._
The food here promised to those who are willing to receive it, cannot be
any other than spiritual food; that is, the knowledge to discern truth
from falsehood, and the grace to make a proper election between right and
wrong. To the poor, this was given, of whom Christ declared that “_Theirs
was the kingdom of Heaven_:” to the rich it was not given, of whom he
declared, “_That it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a
needle_,” than for them to enter his kingdom.
We now come to the events to which this introductory matter is intended to
lead us; and to render the prophetic annunciation the more impressive, it
is typically represented by actions, as well as expressed by words. This
is the most important part of the prophecy; that on which it may be said
that the whole interpretation hinges. And yet it is here that the
Christian is at fault, and that the Jew expects a certain triumph: nor
without reason, when our ablest commentators disagree, or even acknowledge
the difficulties to be insurmountable. Whether they are removed by the
proposed exposition, the reader must decide; and to enable him to do so,
we shall state them as briefly as possible.
The events alluded to will, with the Christian, scarcely admit of doubt,
for the passage before us is cited in the Gospel of Matthew, though by
some error, it is there ascribed to Jeremiah instead of Zechariah. But
were the citation in question even supposed to be a marginal note, which
had found its way into the text in transcribing, still the purport of the
prophecy would be not the less manifest, for the connection of this with
the context, and the unity of the whole, sufficiently declare the subject.
The events foreshewn, are the death of Christ; the dissolution of the old,
and the founding of the new covenant; the rejection of this latter by the
great body of the Jewish nation, and their immediate forfeiture of the
benefits it affords; with other circumstances attending these events, such
as the betrayal of Christ for thirty pieces of silver; the employment of
this money in the purchase of the potter’s field; the separation of the
Jews, who rejected Christ, from those who received him; and the evils
entailed upon those who, having rejected the true, followed after false
Messiahs. These are the circumstances shadowed forth in the prophecy; but
to give a consistent explanation of every part of it, and to shew the
exact adaptation of the events to the prediction, constitute the
difficulty.
The typical actions of the prophet, consist in his taking two staves, or
crooks; first affixing to each of them a significant denomination, and
then breaking them in succession; accompanying this action with
explanations, declaratory of the purport of his doing so. Yet is the whole
highly mystical, and in parts so obscure, that Dr. Blayney acknowledges he
cannot solve these difficulties; an avowal that would have been rendered
unnecessary, had his predecessor Lowth been more successful. Their failure
seems chiefly to have arisen from their misconceiving, in the first place,
whom the prophet here personates in the character of the shepherd; and, in
the next, what the staves are intended to represent; for the general
purport of the whole, is rightly understood by both to be an allusion to
the death of Christ, and the completion of his mission. Accordingly, Lowth
supposes the shepherd to personate the Messiah, as the shepherd of his
flock. But the Messiah is throughout the person spoken of, rather than the
speaker, as will presently appear. Blayney also considers the prophet as a
type of the Messiah; but supposes him sometimes to speak in his own name,
as being himself the shepherd. Not to dwell on the want of consistency in
this change of character, its avowed inadequacy to furnish the solution
required, is alone a sufficient refutation of it.
That the prophet is the actual speaker is clear, but he speaks in the name
of the Almighty, as is distinctly declared three times at least in the
present chapter. The great Shepherd is then no other than God himself; and
all mankind are his flock. Who are the staves, or crooks, we have next to
inquire.
The staff, or crook, is the shepherd’s implement, with which he tends his
flock, protecting them on the one hand, or correcting them on the other.
Hence the two names adapted to the two-fold office, which might be
rendered Pleasure and Pain, instead of Beauty and Bands; but there is no
occasion to alter the translation, which is equally literal, and equally
appropriate as it stands. It is, perhaps, worthy of note, that two staves
were once in use for these different purposes. What are these staves then
intended to represent? In a word, God being the Shepherd, and all mankind
his flock, the staves appear to be typical of _Christ_ and _Israel_; these
being the agents employed, the great instruments in the hands of God, in
accomplishing the work of man’s redemption, from the darkness of idolatry
to the light of true religion. One staff being _Israel_, with whom was
founded the Old Covenant, the express object of which was the abolition of
idolatry; a covenant which is continually called the “_bondage of the
law_;” and the other staff, _Christ_, the founder of the New Covenant,
called “_the beauty of holiness_” who declared that his yoke was easy, or
pleasant; thus the name will be equally appropriate, whichever translation
is adopted.
_And I took unto me two staves, the one I called __ Beauty, and the other
I called Bands, and I fed the flock._
The parallelism between these two staves strikingly appears in the
circumstance that the most remarkable prophecies, as the liiid. chapter of
Isaiah, which the Christian conceives to be exactly fulfilled in the
person and character of Christ, the Jew imagines to accord as perfectly
with the circumstances and condition of the house of Israel. May we not
suppose them to be designedly applicable to both? instrumental alike to
the same great purpose, man’s redemption from idolatry.
One of the earliest acts of Christ, who, however, did every thing in the
name of the Father, was his exposing the unfitness of the Jewish leaders,
who were the priests, the scribes, and the elders, to be the spiritual
guides of the flock. Their selfishness and hypocrisy he unsparingly
denounced, as rendering them unfit for such an office; of which they were
consequently deprived under the new dispensation. Such appears to be the
purport of the following verse, as ably expounded by Lowth.
_Three shepherds also I cut off in one month, and my soul loathed them,
and their soul also abhorred me._
_One month_, is an indefinite expression for a short time, as if the
prophet had said, _at once_. When the people had been duly warned against
these treacherous guides; those who chose to disregard that warning, had
no reason to complain, if it pleased Heaven to leave them to their fate,
as is next declared.
_Then said I, I will not feed you; that that dieth, let it die, and that
that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one
the flesh of another._
The prophet next foreshews, by typical actions, accompanied by
explanations declaratory of their purport, the death of Christ, and the
dissolution of the Old Covenant.
_And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder; that I might break
my Covenant, which I made with all the people._
The Covenant with Moses promised protection against all nations, while
Israel remained obedient. Israel disobeyed and the Covenant was broken.
The Covenant with Abraham promised blessing to all nations through his
seed. The Gospel of Christ was that blessing; refused by the Jews, and
consequently given to the Gentiles; for a remnant only of Israel received
the Gospel, and those were the poor of the flock.
_And it was broken in that day, and so the poor of the flock that waited
upon me, knew that it was the word of the Lord._
“The poor had the Gospel preached unto them,” and received it with
gratitude; but the ingratitude of their leaders towards the Great
Shepherd, for the care he had so long taken of them; and the small
estimation in which they held a spiritual Messiah, are aptly foreshewn by
the prophet, in the name of the Great Shepherd, claiming his reward at
their hands, and their offering the precise sum which was given for
Christ, thirty pieces of silver.
_And I said, If ye think good give me my wages, and if not, forbear; so
they weighed me for my reward, thirty pieces of silver._
The way in which this money was actually bestowed, is next foreshewn, by
the Shepherd’s rejecting it scornfully, and desiring it may be given to
the potter.
_And the Lord said unto me, cast it to the potter; a goodly price that I
was valued at by them: so I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast
them to the potter in the house of the Lord._
The price they actually gave for Christ, aptly denotes the value they put
upon God’s goodness in sending him, the Great Shepherd’s proffered
remuneration. The house of the Lord, or the temple, is the supposed scene
of action, shewing the spiritual import of the transaction. The money
being given to the potter, foreshews how it would be actually employed, to
wit, in the purchase of the potter’s field; in fact, it was given to the
potter. If it be asked what the potter had to do in the temple? the answer
is, he went there, as others did, to pray. His being there does not, as
some suppose, imply that he was at work there.
Those who rejected and crucified Christ, are thenceforward rejected from
being God’s chosen people. As Christ was cut off from natural life, so
Israel was cut off from _the life in Christ_ as next intimated.
_Then I cut asunder my other staff, even Bands, __ that I might break the
brotherhood between Judah and Israel._
The house of Jacob was from this time divided into Christians and Jews,
who appear to be distinguished in the prophecy under the types of Judah
and Israel; the former denoting those who received, and the latter those
who rejected Christ. This distinction appears to be maintained till their
promised re-union in the New Jerusalem.
The spiritual evils entailed on those who reject the true Messiah, to
follow after false teachers, are next foreshewn.
_And the Lord said unto me, Take unto thee yet the instruments of a
foolish shepherd, for I will raise up a Shepherd in the land, which shall
not visit those that be cut of, neither shall seek the young, nor heal
that that is broken, nor feed that that standeth still, but he shall eat
the flesh of the fat, and tear their hoofs asunder._
Israel is thus left to the mercy of these false shepherds, while spiritual
blindness, infatuation, and utter helplessness, are the awful judgments
denounced against the selfish and worldly-minded priesthood, who thus
mislead and sacrifice their flock.
_Woe to the idol shepherd, that leaveth the flock! the sword shall be upon
his arm, and upon his right eye; his arm shall be clean dried up, and his
right eye shall be utterly darkened._
The spiritual blindness which has since darkened the mental vision of
Israel, appears to the Christian to be here distinctly foretold.