We have been singing beautiful songs and we read the text from the New Covenant, the New Testament about the Messiah had been rejected at His first coming. When Zechariah is teaching Israel, the remnant of Judah who came to restore the temple and to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, he was really ministering to them concerning the Messiah's first coming, second coming. Chapter 9, 10, 10 and 11 deal with the first coming. And they are rejected with the Messiah, and they are rejected with the Messiah, and they are rejected with the Messiah's first coming, and they are rejected with the Messiah. And they are rejected with the Messiah's first coming, and they are rejected with the Messiah's first coming, and they are rejected with the Messiah's first coming.

And they are rejected with the Messiah, and they are rejected with the Messiah's first coming, and they are rejected with the Messiah, and they are rejected at His first coming. When Zechariah is teaching Israel, the remnant of Judah who came to restore the temple and to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, he was really ministering to them concerning the Messiah's first coming, second coming. Chapter 9, 10 and 11 deal with the Messiah, and the rejection of the Messiah. The 11th chapter really deals with the rejection of the Good Shepherd of Israel, who was not accepted in His first coming. We read already in the first 11 verses in our previous meeting, and I would like to read from verse 12 to verse 17 for this ministry meeting, Then draw back from the past message and go forward to the rest of the chapter.

So, verse 12 of Zechariah chapter 11. And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price, and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter, a goodly prize, that I was prized at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord. Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. And the Lord said unto me, Take unto thee yet the instrument of a foolish shepherd. For lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit those that be cut off.

Neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that standeth still. But he shall eat of the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces. Woe to the idle shepherd that leavers 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. This is the remaining portion of Zechariah chapter 11. Amazing when we study such a portion. Every time when I read it, and reread it, and see how amazing the Bible is. No wonder Peter said that the holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

In other words, the same Ruach HaKodesh that is instructing us today is the same Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit of God, that have instructed these holy men of God. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Yechezkel, Daniel, and on and on, including Zechariah. It was a divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God that moved these holy men of God to give us what we have here some years ago, long before the Messiah came to this world. And here is Zechariah speaking to the remnant of Israel who returned from Babylon. In the midst of finishing already the temple now, he is giving them additional ministry concerning the coming of the Messiah.

And he takes them to a future day when the Messiah will come. And some of the events that will occur when Israel will not accept the Messiah. Now, this is very important. Sometimes people talk about the people of Israel, the Jewish people who refuse to accept the Messiah at his first coming. And I would like to suggest to you, beloved brothers and sisters, by reading such a text, it was not an accident that our forefathers in the land of Israel rejected Yeshua at his first coming. It was predicted. Zechariah predicted the rejection of the Messiah some years before he came. In this case, of course, we are talking about 500 years before he came.

Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 53, predicted the rejection of the Messiah at his first coming. And he wrote some 700 years before the Messiah came. So it's not an accident where Yeshua was rejected. In fact, Paul said it in Romans chapter 11. If the casting away of them be for the benefit of the Gentile world, what will be when Israel will accept the Messiah but life from the dead? So the prediction of the rejection of the Messiah was already predicted by the Hebrew Scriptures long before the Messiah had come. Well, in the previous 11 verses, we saw how God promised judgment, verses 1, 2, and 3. The cedar trees are going to be burned.

And that cedar trees that we have in verses 1, 2, and 3. They will be devoured. They will be fallen down. They will be spoiled. They will come down. All these cedar trees really represented to us the temple in Jerusalem. The temple will be destroyed. The prophet is saying to the remnant of Israel that in one period of time in the history of Israel, the temple will be destroyed. And now he's not speaking about the first temple because they had just finished the second temple to build. He's talking about the second temple which will be destroyed by the Romans. Then in verses 4 to 11, he gave them the reason.

Why will the temple be destroyed? He gave them the reason. And if you remember, we read that Israel had chosen not Yeshua as a king, but Caesar as a king. And especially we read in verse 6, if you remember, I will no more have pity upon the inhabitants of the land, sayeth the Lord. But lo, I will deliver the man, everyone into his own neighbor's hand and unto the hand of his king. And we made a reference that now Israel as a nation led by the leaders of Israel, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians, all the scribes, they have chosen Caesar over Yeshua. And you remember we read in the Gospel of John in chapter 19, verses 14 to 16, that the leaders of Israel said, we have no king but Caesar, the Caesar, the Roman Caesar.

They have chosen the king that was leading Rome rather than the one Yeshua, the Messiah, that was truly the king of Israel, the king of the Jews. And if you remember, there was the superscription above his cross. This is Yeshua, the king of the Jews. And so we have the rejection of the Messiah presented before us in verses 4 to 11. And it is amazing to see that because of the rejection of the Messiah, God said in those later verses, 7 to 11, that he is going to break the covenant that he made with the nations of the world. This covenant was not an ordinary covenant. You notice that?

And I'm reading the next verse. Listen to this. In verse 10, I took my stuff, beauty and kataseth thunder, that I might break my covenant, which I had made with all the peoples, with all the amim. In Hebrew, the word is amim. God made a covenant of protection over the people of Israel. And I gave the illustration of Cain, how God mocked Cain. And Cain was the one who killed his brother Hebel, Abel. And God mocked Cain that whoever touched Cain, he will be sevenfold judged. And Cain is a picture of the nation of Israel, of our own Jewish people, who are scattered in this world, who are being dispersed among the nations of the world.

And God removed his protection from over the nation of Israel, which he made an unknown to the nations covenant, but he knew this covenant of protection over Israel. And he removed the protection over the people of Israel. And when indeed 70 AD came, he removed his protection from Israel. And what was promised in verses 1, 2, and 3, that the temple will be destroyed. Indeed, it was destroyed by the Roman army, who destroyed the city of Jerusalem and burned the whole temple there, the place where once God stood in the midst of his people. Where Yeshua, the Messiah, said to the people, to the Pharisees and the Son of Jesus, "You made my Father's house a house of merchants." It was a house of prayer, where they ought to have prayed and communicated with God.

And God, in judgment, came upon his people. Now, I want you to understand that since 70 AD, the Jewish, our own people are scattered everywhere in the world. And we made a reference to this in our previous ministry meeting. But now he gives us, he zeroes in, Zechariah, 487 BC approximately. He's telling them what is going to happen even before the destruction of the temple. He zeroes in and he directs their attention to the rejection of the Messiah himself. And what the leaders of Israel really thought of this shepherd. What did they value him? What did they think about the true shepherd of Israel? This is a very sad passage, beloved brothers and sisters.

It was so unfortunate because Israel didn't think much of Yeshua, the Messiah. They didn't look at him and they had value in him. And we're going to see this in a moment. I'll just read this verse in Isaiah chapter 53 where it says, "He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrow which had been acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from him and he was despised and we esteemed him not." They didn't esteem him at all. He was not esteemed by the nation of Israel. And we can see some details about how much they esteemed Yeshua, how much they esteemed the good shepherd in those verses 12 to 14.

So let's look zero in on those verses. Now, Zechariah is called by the Lord to, again, enact, to play a parable like Isaiah had to do, like Ezekiel had to do, like Hosea. If you remember, Hosea was called to marry a prostitute. God would never tell somebody to go marry a prostitute. Why did he have to do it? Hosea depicted the marriage of God with the nation of Israel, how unfaithful Israel had been to him, and yet he loved Israel. And even though Israel were in a sense of spiritual prostitution, he loved Israel and wanted to restore Israel to himself. And Hosea, in his action and his life, became a parable of the relationship of God with Israel.

Now, look at this, what Zechariah is called to do here in the next verses. Verse 12, we see the price that the leaders have given, have valued the Messiah which Zechariah is representing here. He says in verse 12, He says in verse 12, And I said unto them, If ye think good of me, give me my price. And if not, forbear. So they weighed for him, for my price, thirty pieces of silver. Now, notice how Zechariah make it very personally. He's making it very much his own. He's asking them as if he is acting as if he is the Messiah. When the Messiah came, the Messiah would speak in the same voice, you might say, through what Zechariah is saying.

He's saying, I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price. Zechariah is speaking. But really it is Yeshua who is speaking. Give me my price. What is my value to you? He's really saying. Who is speaking, the word them, in verse 12, are none else but those people whom earlier, notice that as we have read in verse 8, it says, The three shepherds also I cut off in one month, and my soul loathes them, and their soul also abhorred me. Those three shepherds, those are the shepherds of Israel, the spiritual leaders of Israel. And we concluded from our previous ministry meeting that it's really speaking about the spiritual leaders, the priests, the scribes, the elders, or we can say the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Herodians.

These are the leading elements of our nation, Israel, at the time when the Messiah came. So he's asking them. He says, give me my price. What am I worth to you? I, the good shepherd. I, Yeshua, represented here by Zechariah. So notice what he's saying to them. He says, if not, he says forbear. In other words, if I have no value for you, just forbear. In other words, don't worry about it. So look what it says here. So they weighed for my price 30 pieces of silver. Extremely interesting, this number. 30 pieces of silver that the leaders of our nation have given evaluation to Yeshua, the Messiah.

Now, this number, 30 pieces of silver, is a very important number. If you just turn to Exodus chapter 21. Here is the reference to the value that the leaders have placed upon the Messiah, who was going to come. Zechariah is speaking as he is representing him. And look what it says to us about the 30 pieces of silver. And I'm reading Exodus chapter 21. The instruction that God had given our people of old Israel about a slave, a servant. It says in verse one. Now, these are the judgment which you shall set before them. If you will buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve. And in the seventh, he shall go out free for nothing.

If he came by himself, he shall also go out by himself. If he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master shall give him a wife, and she have borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters, and he shall go out by himself. But listen to this, verse five. If the servant will plainly say, I love my master, I love my wife, I love my children, I will not go out free. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges, and shall also bring him unto the door, or the door post. And his master shall bore his ill through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.

Now, the first six verses, the Hebrew servant, is really a picture of the Messiah who was going to come. He is the true Hebrew servant who said, I love my master. I love my wife. I love my children. I'm not going to go out free. He could have gone out free and be totally delivered from slavery, from bondage. But he loved his master. He loved his wife. He loved his children. And he was willing to go to the door, as it says it, to the door post. And his ear was bore with an awl. And he became a servant forever. One of the most beautiful pictures of Yeshua, Jesus, our Lord and our Messiah, is the Hebrew servant that we find here in Exodus 21, verses one to six.

He was the one that said, I'm not going to go free. I love mankind so much. I'm willing to go to the altar, to the cross, and lay down my life, and become a servant of mankind forever. Because I love my master, God. I love my wife. I love my children. I love mankind. I love mankind. I love the nation of Israel. I love the intended body of Messiah that he was going to bring to himself through redemption. The price must be paid. He is the one that is going to shed his life, to pay the price for sin. He is willing to lay down his life.

And so he did indeed, beloved brothers and sisters. I will not go out free. So now continuing instruction about the servant. Because in the whole 21st chapter, we have instruction concerning the servant. I want you to go in chapter 21 of the book of Exodus. And I want you to know what is the value of a servant that may have got hit by a certain animal and die. Look at this, what it says here in the next verses, a little bit below here in Exodus chapter 21. You notice that in verse 29, it says, If the ox were wont to push with his horn in a time past, And it has been testified to his owner, and he has not kept him in, but that he has killed a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death.

In other words, if a servant will be hit by an ox, and he die, then the ox shall be stoned, and even his owner. Now continue a little bit further down. If there be laid on him a sum of money, the value, then he shall give for a ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him. Whether he have gourd a son, another push with his horn, a son, or have gourd a daughter according to his judgment, shall it be done unto him. And if, verse 32, the ox shall push a man servant, or maid servant, he shall give unto the master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

What we really learn here, that as far as the law was concerned, the value of a servant that had been hit by an ox and died, is thirty pieces or shekels of silver. That is the value of the servant, really, it's not only a living servant, but a servant that died already. He doesn't have any more value because he's dead. He got hit by an ox, he died, so the owner of that ox will give to the one who owned that servant thirty pieces of silver. In other words, really, the value of a servant, dead servant, was really thirty pieces of silver. Now go back to Zechariah, chapter 11, in verse 12.

And though we read in verse 12, he said unto them, Zechariah is speaking unto the leaders, If you think good of me and give me my price, what is the value that I have to you? So what did they do? It says in verse 12 at the end, so they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. In other words, brothers and sisters, the leaders of our nation, historically, at the first coming of the Messiah, did not think much of the value of our Lord Yeshua, the Messiah. The price that they had been given in order to give a value to him, to give an approximate value for him, only thirty pieces of silver.

Now we read this text, and if we don't have New Testament passage, it's very hard to grasp it, to understand this. Thank God for the Brit HaChadasha, for the new covenant, that helped us to understand a little bit how these events took place in the time when Yeshua the Messiah came down to this earth. So let's turn to the New Testament for a moment, and go to John chapter 13 with me, please, in your Bibles. And this is very important to explain it. John chapter 13, you remember it was in the upper room, Yeshua just washed the feet of all the disciples. And everyone is sitting around him, and you notice what he said to the disciples as he was there in the upper room with them.

It says in verse 21, when Yeshua had thus said, he was troubled in his spirit. And he testified, and he said, verily, verily, I said to you that one of you is going to betray me. Imagine, he is sitting in the upper room anticipating to go to the cross. He is sitting with his disciples, and he is saying to his very own disciples who are sitting around him, he says he was really troubled. He was anticipating to die for sin, the sin of this world. The Lamb of God was going to take away the sin of this world. So he was troubled as he was anticipating this day.

And so he was sitting with his disciples. And then he is in the middle of the conversation as they were sitting together in the upper room in Jerusalem. He said unto them, look, he said, I'm telling you, verily, verily, I said to you that one that is sitting in your midst is going to betray me. And the disciples began to look at one another, and they were really doubting of whom does he speak. Then it says in verse 23, there was one leaning on Yeshua's bosom, one of his disciples, whom Yeshua loved. This is John, Yohanan. He was always leaning on the breast of Yeshua. He was the one who was the disciple that lived the longest.

He is the one who received the book of the Revelation. He is the one who gave us the Gospel of John, the epistles of John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John. He was the only one who didn't die as a martyr. He died natural death after he suffered so much. And he was the one who received the book of the Revelation. And he is the one that is called the one whom Yeshua loved. He never said, I love Yeshua, though he loved him dearly. But he says the one whom Yeshua loved, Jesus loved. And so Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him that he should ask him, who will the one will be that betray him?

He then laying on Jesus' breast. And he said unto him, Lord, who is it? Who is the one? Yeshua answered and he said unto him, to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it. And when he have dipped the sop, he gave it unto Judas. That word Judas, it's simply the Hebrew word Yudah. It's just to indicate him differently, the New Testament, the English put Judas. But in Hebrew, his name is Yehudah. He's Yehudah, the man of the suburbs. Ish Krayot. Ish means man. Krayot means suburbs. He was the Yehudah who lived in the suburbs. Notice that he gave it to Judah, Yudah Iskaryot, Yehudah Ish Krayot, the son of Simon.

He said then after the sop, Satan entered unto him. Then said Yeshua unto him, what you do, go and do quickly. Imagine here he's sitting with the disciples in the upper room. He just finished to wash their feet. They were all sitting together. Everyone out was against Yeshua. And he's sitting with his very own people. But he knew that there was someone in their midst that was going now to betray him. And so if you don't mind, please go to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 26. I think it's important for us to read it. Matthew chapter 26, verse 14, 15, and 16. We find out that one, the 12, verse 14. By the name of Yudah Ish Krayot.

Yudah Iskaryot. Yudah Iskaryot. He went unto the chief priest and he said unto them, what will you give me? And I will deliver him unto you. And they covenanted with him for 30 pieces of silver. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him, Yeshua the Messiah. In other words, again, you notice beloved brothers and sisters. One of his own had betrayed him. And he went to the leaders and he asked them, what will you give me? And I'm going to hand him over to you. And look at the value that they valued this Yeshua from Natseret, the promised Messiah. They gave to Yudah Ish Krayot, 30 pieces of silver.

And from there on, Yudah, Judah sought an opportunity to give over, to betray Yeshua the Messiah. All this was a prediction that had been given to us already long before, 500 years earlier, by Zechariah in chapter 11 and verse 12, where he said, give me the price that you value me. And they weighed for him 30 pieces of silver. Now continue in chapter 26, a little bit further there. In Matthew chapter 26, and you will notice how eventually it happened where Yudah successfully succeeded to betray the Messiah Yeshua. Chapter 26, verse 47. And it says, while yet he speak. Now remember, where did he speak? He was in the garden of Gethsemane, Gatshmanim.

He was there saying, Father, if it is possible, take this cup away from me. That cup was the cup of God's righteous indignation against sin. And Yeshua, the holy man, this righteous man was now anticipating to be rejected by a holy and righteous God. And that's why he three times said, Father, if it is possible, take away this cup from me. This cup was full of God's righteous indignation against sin. It was all the way to the rim. And God now was going to judge men. And he's going to judge the human race in the person of the Messiah himself. So as he finished to cry, oh, my father, if it's possible, let this cup pass away from me.

He did it three times. Now he is finally in the garden waiting for Yudah to come and betray him. He knows everything from the beginning to the end. And so in verse 47, as we read, while he had spake. Lord Judah, one of the twelve came and with him great multitude with swords and staves from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now he that betray him gave them a sign. And he said, Whomsoever I shall kiss. That same is he, hold him fast. And forthwith he came unto Yeshua and he said, Hail, Master. And he kissed him. But can you imagine to be betrayed with a kiss?

Someone come assuming that, giving the impression that he loves you and he gives you a kiss. Kiss speaks of affection and love and care. But here's a kiss that led someone else to come and take Yeshua and lead him to the cross. And Yeshua said to him, Listen, friend, why are you coming? Then came they and laid hand on Yeshua, Jesus, and they took him. Very sad story. And beloved brothers and sisters, as we think about what happened to Yeshua, we know that he knew this ahead of time. Long before the psalmists of Israel have spoken about this. Zechariah has spoken about this. One of the interesting psalms that we have in scripture about the familiar friend.

Psalm 41 and verse 9, the psalmist said, Yea, mine unfamiliar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. Psalm 41 and verse 9. Can you imagine a friend that sits with you and walks with you and blessed by you and then later on he sells you for 30 pieces of silver the value of a servant that has died. That's how much he was valued, Yeshua, by the leaders. And that's how eventually Judah have sold our beloved Messiah to the leaders of Israel. And so if you go back with me to Zechariah, you see that he asked them, If you think good, give me my price.

And if not forbear, so they weighed for my price 30 pieces of silver. This is a price of a servant that died and very little value they found in him. And beloved brothers and sisters, we already saw in this chapter in verse 8 that they really abhorred the Messiah. Notice again, read with me verse 8. Though three shepherds also I cut off in one month, my soul loathed them because of how they behaved. And they also abhorred me because they simply did not find any uniqueness in Yeshua the Messiah. So you can see why they valued him 30 pieces of silver, the price of a servant that just have died and have no more value in himself.

So in verse 13 now, we find out the commandments of the Lord for Zechariah to cast those 30 pieces of silver. It says here in verse 13, the Lord said unto me, cast it unto the potter a goodly prize that I was prize it of them. Now, pause here for a moment. You can see when the Lord is now Jehovah is speaking to Zechariah. And he says to cast this money to the potter. And he says, this is the goodly, like a mockery. This is the goodly prize that I was prized of them. That I does not now apply to Zechariah. That I is applied to Jehovah. In other words, he says, look at the way that they have placed a value upon me.

This Jehovah is the son, God the son, in the person of Yeshua the Messiah. He was valued 30 pieces of silver. And he's saying now to Zechariah, Zechariah says, you take it and you will cast it now to the potter. This is the prize that they valued me, the prize that they have given to me. And I took, Zechariah says in verse 13b, I took the 30 pieces of silver. And I cast them into the potter in the house of the Lord. Now, Zechariah again, in acting here as if he is the Messiah. And he is the one that he's showing to us here in this text.

That is the value that the Messiah was valued by the nation, by the leaders. And now he cast this money into the potter. So now please go again back to the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament, chapter 27. And you can see, and that's why it is so important to see the link that we have between the Old Testament, the Tanakh, and the New Testament, the Brit Hadashah. That there is a link between them. Because what was prophesied by the Hebrew prophets have actually happened in the fullness of the time when the Messiah came. And so now notice that Jehovah was valued 30 pieces of silver.

And he commanded Zechariah to cast them into the potter. And so look what happened, chapter 27, before Yeshua went to the cross. It says in verse 1 of Matthew chapter 27, when the morning was come. All the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Yeshua to put him to death. And when they had bound him, they led him away and they delivered him unto Pontius Pilate the governor. And look at Judas now. It says in verse 3, "Judah, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, he repented himself, and he brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders.

He said to them, 'I have sinned, in that I have betrayed an innocent blood.' And they said, 'What is that to us?' 'See thou to that.'" Judas all of a sudden realized that he made a mistake. It says here that he repented. Actually, he was remorsed. He was not truly repented. He had a chance to repent before the Lord and to turn to him and to tell him, "Lord, I am repenting, I am confessing my sins." But he didn't when the time was appropriate. He didn't. Satan had entered unto Judas, as we read it earlier in the previous chapter. He sold the Lord for 30 pieces of silver.

And now when he saw that Yeshua was captured by the leaders, he said, "I have sinned, for I have betrayed an innocent blood." Well, he knew very well that Yeshua was innocent. There was no sin in Yeshua. He knew that there was nothing wrong that he had done. There was no reason in the world to sell him to the leaders. He had been so blessed in the presence of the Lord that he sold him for 30 pieces of silver. So now it's too late. You kissed him. The betrayal kiss. You led others to come to capture him. Now he's captured. Now he's on the way to Pilate, ready to go to the cross to be judged.

Now you say, "I betrayed an innocent blood." So when he came to give back the money, they said to him, "No, no, whatever happened, happened. Go you see it to yourself." And so we read here in these verses that he, this is Judas, he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple and he departed. And you know what we read? That he went and he hung himself. He went and he said, notice this verse 5. He went and he hung himself. If you read in the book of Acts in chapter 1, he must have hanged himself on a tree and then he fell and he was burst asunder.

If you read in Acts chapter 1 in verse 18 that ultimately he was destroyed, his body fell to the deep and he was burst asunder. But now it's too late. You sold your master, your Lord, the one that was going to give his life for you. He sold him. And now he went and he hung himself. And so the chief priest did in verse 6. Look how religion is so sad, whether it is among our own people, the Jewish people, or whether it is in Christendom or in any other religion. Look what they did. The chief priest took the silver pieces and they said, "It's not lawful for us to put them into the treasury because it is the price of the blood." So what did they do?

They went, they took counsel, and they bought with these 30 pieces of silver the potter's field to bury the strangers in. Now you see, what happened is they really did what the Lord had already anticipated when he said in Zechariah chapter 11 that Zechariah is to cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord. The prophetic word already indicated that that is exactly what was going to happen. They will purchase in the house of the Lord. They have went and they purchased the place that is called, as it says here, the potter's field. And you notice what they say, "Oh, it's not good. We're not going to use this money.

It's not lawful for us to put it into the treasury." In other words, you just gave this money to buy an innocent man that you can take him and drive him to Pilate and ultimately be led to the cross. And now in your religiosity, you all of a sudden say, "Oh, it's not valuable enough. We shouldn't use this money in order to put it into the treasury." You see how religion, in many ways, is so wrong. And here we see what religion does. And it can happen not only, as I mentioned before, to our own people. Judaism is in Christendom just the same and elsewhere.

Religion is a system of men that really have not the heart of God. No grace, no truth, is man-made. And you can see what happened here. And notice, brothers and sisters, what it says here in Matthew chapter 27, in verse 8, "Wherefore that field was called the field of blood unto this day, then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value, and gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord have appointed me." Notice now how interesting. Now, I know it is very confusing because it says here in verse 9, "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet." Now, you turn in your whole Bible, open the book of Jeremiah, and you will try to find this text mentioned in Jeremiah, Yirmiyahu, you will not find it.

And that's why some of those who are opposing faith in the Messiah said here is the Bible's contradiction. Actually, it was not mentioned in Jeremiah, it was mentioned in Zechariah. It was not in Jeremiah, but in the prophet Zechariah. Though Jeremiah was speaking about the potter, chapter 18, but here, direct quotation from Zechariah, chapter 11, verses 12 and 13, not Jeremiah. Now, why? Well, there are many answers that some give, but I would like just to suggest what I understand from others who take this position, that because Yirmiyahu, Jeremiah, major prophet among our people Israel, much of what had been said from other prophets, the minor prophets of our people Israel, was attributed to Jeremiah.

It was not Jeremiah who spoke about it. It was Zechariah who spoke about it. But because he was a major prophet, much of what had been said by other prophets were attributed to Jeremiah, that his prophecy was standing as head before the other prophecies. So I would like to suggest, beloved brothers and sisters, that really this is spoken concerning what had been prophesied by Zechariah in chapter 11, verses 12 and 13, not by what Jeremiah have mentioned. Even though in Jeremiah 18 and 19, he's speaking about the potter and how he's going and he's working at the wheel and he's making a vessel and then he throw that vessel and he take another and make another one.

And he's speaking how the Lord is typifying Israel and how God is going to ultimately refine and make a fresh vessel of honor of the people of Israel for himself. Go back now to the prophet Zechariah now. We read verse 12. We read verse 13. We saw that the price was 30 pieces of silver. The command of the Lord to cast those 30 pieces of silver. And indeed it happened when Judas have cast it. And then ultimately the field was purchased by the elders of Israel. And now in verse 14, we can see that God is now cutting asunder the second staff which Zechariah was called to take. It says in verse 14, then I cut asunder mine other staff, the word is makkel, even bends that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

Now, if you haven't been with us in a previous message on Zechariah chapter 11, God asked Zechariah to take two sticks or staves and he gave name to each one of those staves. And those staves were called beauty. You read it in verse 7. And bends. Again in verse 7. And those two staves representing a good shepherd who lead the flock in the field. Now those two staves represented God's leading the people of Israel. And now when he judged his own people, he broke those staves. The first one in verse 10. The beauty. Noam. He broke it. The second one in verse 14. And that's one called bends. The word for bends means tovlim.

It speaks of unity. Unity. And what we really hear, beloved brothers and sisters, in this verse, that God was going to disperse the people of Israel. And he's going to take away the unity from among the nation of Israel. And he will scatter them over the nations of this world, which actually have happened in 70 AD. When the judgment came upon the people of Israel, the unity of the nation of Israel was cut off. And God removed the unity from among the people of Israel. As it says here in verse 14. I will break the brotherhood between Judah and between Israel. That means that there will be a scattering of the nation.

There will be lack of harmony among the nation of Israel. And indeed, beloved brothers and sisters, these nearly 2,000 years. Since 70 AD destruction of Jerusalem and the burning of the temple. The Jewish people are scattered throughout the nations of the world. 2,000 years. Our Jewish people are scattered and they are divided. Only now, since 1948, Israel as a nation have gathered together. And even now, it's still the vast majority of the people of Israel are still scattered. And there is very little lack of unity. Now, let me read to you the song that we call the hope, Hatikva. You know, Israel, now the national anthem of Israel is called Hatikva.

And in the English, listen to this. It says, so long as still within our breasts, the Jewish heart beat true. So long as still towards the east, to Zion, look, the Jew. So long our hopes are not yet lost. 2,000 years, we cherish them to live in freedom in the land of Zion and Jerusalem. 2,000 years. The Jewish people, since what's happening in 70 AD. Our Jewish people are scattered throughout the nations of the world. This unity, not united together, scattered and dispersed among the nations of the world. It is only recently as God began to revive the Jewish heart with a desire to be restored to the land.

That we have today nearly 7 million of our own Jewish people in the land of Israel. The Jewish heart is always beating towards Zion, Zion, and Jerusalem. To be freed from all the bondage and the experiences that they have experienced over the generation. And so we can see that God beginning to revive the nation now in anticipation of full restoration. We're going to study this in the next chapters, 12, 13, and 14. But here in these verses, in these chapters, 9, 10, and 11, we are speaking about the rejection of the Messiah at his first coming. And so, beloved brothers and sisters, we see verses 12, 13, 14, how little value the leaders of Israel found in the person of Yeshua the Messiah.

30 pieces of silver, which really represent a dead slave. And no wonder today, as we share the gospel with our own people, the vast majority of our own people do not want to accept Yeshua the Messiah. You sometimes ask the question, and I will ask the question, how is it possible that the people who gave us the Bible, the people who gave us the prophets, the people who gave us the covenants, and all what we have in the Word of God, in Scripture, how is it possible they haven't accepted the Messiah? Well, the Bible predicted it. The Bible already spoken about it years before the Messiah had come.

Here we see that God predicted it through Zechariah that Israel will not accept the Messiah at his first coming. And by the way, by not accepting the Messiah at his first coming, the Gentile world had benefited. The gospel had gone to the nations of the world. And those of us here who are not Jewish benefited from the fact that Israel had not accepted the Messiah in his own coming. And the book of Romans tells us this much about the benefit that the nations have benefited. And Paul warned the Christians not to boast against the natural branches because God is able to restore the natural branches to himself.

So now listen, to conclude this chapter, we find out that verses 15, 16, and 17, not only that Israel rejected the good shepherd at his first coming, now we find in verse 15, 16, and 17 that Israel will accept the foolish and an evil shepherd who would come in the coming days. Instead of accepting the good shepherd, Yeshua, the Messiah, they will ultimately will end up adhering to the false Messiah, what you and I might call today in English, the Antichrist, the counterfeit Messiah, who will give the assumption as if he is the Messiah, but actually he will be a foolish shepherd who will really not care for the flock, for the people of Israel.

So, look at this, verse 15, Zechariah is now called by God to act out again, to play out a role again, but this time not the role of the good shepherd, this time the role of a foolish and evil shepherd. And so here, Zechariah, notice verse 15, the Lord said unto me, take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd. That word foolish in Hebrew is ro'e avli. It's more than just foolish, it's really almost like an evil shepherd. Now he says, take the instrument, you know, again, thy rod and thy staff, those two instruments that the shepherd would have. So Zechariah is now acting out a second role.

He's acting out the role of an evil and a foolish shepherd. So he takes these two instruments. We might call them in the same name, beauty and bends. As it's mentioned here in Noam and Chovlim, as we have it in verse 7. He takes those two instruments and now he's going to act out as if he is not the Messiah, but the counterfeit Messiah. Not the Mashiach, but the Mashiach Sheker, the false Messiah. And so look at this false Messiah. This is important, beloved brothers and sisters, to see this. And I will connect it with some New Testament verses. Look at what it says in verse 16 now about this role that Zechariah is going to act, which is really described to us the counterfeit Messiah who will come in the later days in Israel's history.

It says here in verse 16, For lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that standeth still. But he shall eat the flesh of the fat and tear their claws in pieces. Here now, God is saying, listen, I'm going to allow another one to rise up. You have rejected the good shepherd, the one who loved you and cared for you. And you remember how in John chapter 10, the Lord Yeshua says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd laid down his life for the sheep.

He said, therefore, John 10, 17, Therefore does my father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again. No one take away my life. I lay it down of myself that I might take it again. This is the good shepherd. But when the good shepherd, Yeshua, the Messiah, had been rejected, God now prophetically tells the nation, the leaders, he says, listen, you will see what is going to happen in a future day. I'm now going to raise up, as it says in verse 16, I will raise up a foolish shepherd. I will raise this shepherd in the land. And look what he's going to do.

He is not going to visit you. He is not going to seek the young one. He is not going to heal the broken one. He is not going to feed those that are hungry. He is not going to do the job that the good shepherd has done. The opposite, he says, he shall eat of the flesh and of the flesh and he will tear them apart. And so I would like you now to turn to the Gospel of John, to chapter 5. And I want you to see, beloved brothers and sisters, how it was not only predicted by Zechariah, but Yeshua, the Messiah, was speaking about it when he stood in the midst of our own nation some 2,000 years ago.

And he predicted what was going to happen in the future then. He says, listen to this, beloved brothers and sisters. We are in John chapter 5. Yeshua is in the midst of the leadership of Israel. And he said to them in verse 39, he said, Search the scripture, for in them you think that ye have eternal life. And they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me that ye might have life. Verse 42. I receive not honor from men, but I know you that ye have not the love of God in you. And now verse 43 of John chapter 5. I came in my father's name and ye receive me not.

If another will come in his own name, him you will receive. Look at it. Yeshua predicted this before he went to the cross, before he died. He said, I came in my father's name and you did not receive me. But another will come in his very own name. This one you are going to receive. Well, it is exactly what Zechariah said to us. In our chapter, Zechariah chapter 11. He said that I will raise a shepherd in the midst of the land. This is no longer the good shepherd. This is the evil shepherd, the foolish shepherd. Which Israel will allow him to come into their midst and will accept him.

And what we are really seeing here, beloved brothers and sisters, that prophetically there is coming a day. Now he takes us beyond 70 AD. Beyond the church age in which you and I live in today. All the way to the tribulation period. After the church will be raptured. And all of us who are believers in Yeshua the Messiah are going to be the Lord in the air. Then there will be seven years of tribulation. The prophet Jeremiah called it Sarat Yaakov, Jacob's trouble. Seven years when Israel and the world will experience terrible time in this world. And so he is predicting now that someone will come.

And he said another will come. Verse 43 of John 5. He is going to come in his own name. Him you are going to receive. You are going to receive the counterfeit Messiah. But you haven't accepted the real good shepherd. The real Messiah of Israel. And so Yeshua predicted that. And we know very well how the counterfeit Messiah will behave towards the nation of Israel. Go to John 10 now please. Verse 11. When Yeshua already said to them in verse 11. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. Then in verse 12 we read. But he that is a hireling. And not the shepherd. Whose own the sheep are not.

He sees the wolf coming. And he leaves the sheep. And he fleeth away. And the wolf catches them. And he scatters the sheep. The hireling fleeth because he is an hireling. And he does not care for the sheep. He is really speaking about here the counterfeit Messiah. Who is going to come in a future day. And he is really not the true shepherd of Israel. And he is not going to care for the sheep at all. Not at all. Not at all for the nation of Israel. In fact he will allow them to be betrayed by him. Giving them an assumption that he is the promised Messiah.

But actually he is not the true Messiah of Israel. Now I am not going to go through other verses. But if you will have a chance. Read Daniel chapter 7 and verse 8. Daniel chapter 9. The 70 weeks that God have allotted the people of Israel. But there will be a covenant that is made between the Antichrist. And their leaders. The many of the nation of Israel. Which Israel will agree with. And he will allow Israel to build the temple. And to begin the sacrificial system. To be allowed during the tribulation. But what he is going to do. In the middle of the seven year tribulation. He is going to break the covenant with Israel.

With the Jewish people. And he is going to claim. That he is God. And he will sit in the temple. And there he will demand worship. From the people of Israel. And the nations of the world. He twisted their minds. He tricked them into agreeing. To make a covenant with him. Giving the assumption. That he was the promised Messiah. And as Yeshua said in John chapter 5. Another will come in his own name. Him you will receive. He said. And indeed when this false Messiah will come. In a future day Israel will accept him. Now turn to Revelation chapter 13. So we can give a true complete evaluation.

And complete understanding of what we are studying now. In Revelation chapter 13. We are in the middle of the tribulation period. And in chapter 13. You will notice that there are two beasts. In verse 1. We have the beast that rose out of the sea. And in verse 11. We have a beast that came out of the earth. Those are two beasts. That most Bible teachers say. The Antichrist and the false prophet. Are represented here in those two beasts. Both of them led by Satan himself. So we have the three. Count the ship Godhead. The false Godhead. Is seen here in this chapter. But notice this. Beloved brothers and sisters.

Look. Let me read just a couple of verses. Revelation 13 verse 1. Verse 1. And I stood upon the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rise out of the sea. Having seven heads and ten horns. And upon his horn ten crowns. And upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard. And his feet were as the feet of a bear. And his mouth as the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him this power. And his seat. And a great authority. This dragon is Satan himself. And I saw one of his heads. As it were wounded to death.

And his deadly wound was healed. And all the world. Listen to this. All the world wandered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon. Which gave power unto the beast. And they worshipped the beast. This is the counterfeit Messiah. Whom the whole world in the tribulation period will worship this beast. Go down to verse 8. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him. Whose name is not written in the book of life. Of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Now go down to verse 11. Here's the second beast. And I beheld another beast coming out of the earth. And he had two horns.

Like a lamb. And he spake as a dragon. And he exercises all the powers of the first beast before him. And listen what the second beast does. He causes the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast. Whose deadly wound was healed. And then verse 15. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast. And the image of the beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast. That they should be killed. Now I read these verses just to show you that in the tribulation period this counterfeit Messiah will demand men to worship him.

And men will follow him. And ultimately they will end up to see that they have chosen Israel specifically. They have chosen the false Messiah who is now demand worship from the nation. And there will be a persecution such as have never been before in this world. And specifically the persecution of our own nation. The nation of Israel during the tribulation. Now go to 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 for another verse or two. I must read it if I have to explain to you correctly. 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2. Here we can see this man that Israel will receive. And he will be the one that will be the counterfeit Messiah.

It says in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2. The Christians in the early church age were warned in verse 1. I beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus the Messiah and by our gathering together unto him. That ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by the spirit or by word or by letter as from us. As the day of Messiah is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any mean. For that day shall not come except there be a falling away first. And that the man of sin. Here is this man that will be accepted. The man of sin will be revealed.

The son of perdition. Who opposes and exaltes himself above all that is called God. Or that is worshipped. So that he as God. Sitteth in the temple of God. Showing himself that he is God. Now brothers and sisters. Again. Who is the one that claimed to be God? Yeshua in his first coming says I and my father are one. He claimed to be God the son. Here coming another. In the tribulation period. And he will claim to be God. But he is the false Messiah. He is not the true Messiah of Israel. He is the one that will be accepted at first. But later on.

Israel will realize the mistake that they have made. By allowing him to take the place that he have taken. And he is sitting in the temple. Can you imagine? Here again. There was a temple number one. Solomon built. Was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. Temple number two. The Jewish remnant built. Ezra. And all the remnant who came from. After 70 years from Babel. This temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. There will be a third temple will be built. And that will be the tribulation temple. And he is going to sit in this temple. In the tribulation period. Claiming to be God. Demanding for men to worship him.

And we can see it clearly from all the verses. That we have already read. Now back to Zechariah. For the concluding verse. And then we are going to stop. The 11th chapter of Zechariah. The nation of Israel will accept the foolish shepherd. After they have refused the true shepherd. That is going to be in the future day. And notice what we read here. In the last verse of chapter 11. Woe unto that idle shepherd. That levers 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. This is the conclusion of chapter 11.

And God said to Zechariah. Zechariah. You say to this foolish shepherd. And you notice it is called here. In verse 17. Woe unto the idle shepherd. What does that mean? The idle. In Hebrew. Roi ha'elil. He was like an idol. To the people. Remember that we just read. He claimed to be God. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. He claimed worshipped. Revelation chapter 13. He wanted. Demended worship from men. And God says. Woe unto this. Idle shepherd. That. Leave the flock. And the sword. As it says. Here is the judgment. That ultimately. Is going to come. Upon this. False. Messiah. False. Shepherd. Shepherd. He will ultimately. Going to be judged by God.

Notice. The Lord is using. These two expressions. His arm. And his eye. What does a shepherd. Use his eye. And his arm. For. His eye. The organ. These eyes. Is to watch. Over the welfare. Of the people. Of the sheep. That he cares for. His hand. To use the rod. And the staff. To draw back. The people. To himself. God says. The very arm. The very eye. That you should. Have used. For the benefit. Of the people. Of God. The people. Of Israel. These very arm. And these very hand. I will judge. As it says here. At the end. Of verse 17. His arm. Shall be cleaned.

Dried up. His right eye. Shall be. Utterly. Darkened. In other words. But he will be. Totally judged. By God. Because he really. Did not care. For the nation. Of Israel. And that is indeed. What is going to happen. When God. Is going to come. In judgment. Upon the. Antichrist. Who. Eventually. Going to be cast. Into the lake. Of fire. We read in Revelation. 19. 20. And the beast. Was taken. With him. And the false prophet. That wrought. Miracles. Before him. With which. They deceive. Them. That had been deceived. And the one. That took the mark. Of the beast. And them. That worshipped. His image. These both. Were cast.

Alive. Into the lake. Of fire. Burning. With brimstone. Ultimately. That. Counterfeit. Shepherd. The false. Shepherd. Will be cast. Into the lake. Of fire. In the judgment. That God. Will bring. Upon him. Well brothers. And sisters. This is the concluding. Portion. In Zechariah. 9. 10. And 11. That's speaking. About the Messiah. Who will come. In his first coming. And will be rejected. We're going to see now. What's going to happen. In the second coming. Of the Messiah. And how Israel. No longer. Going to reject him. Israel. Ultimately. Will accept. Yeshua. The Messiah. And what. A blessing. That will be. To this world. In which. We live. In today. No wonder.

Paul said. That if. The casting away. Of them. Was so much blessing. To this world. What will happen. To this world. When Israel. Will ultimately. Receive. The Messiah. Well we will wait. For this. In the remaining study. With Zechariah. May the Lord bless us. And encourage us. As we continue. In the study. Of God's word.