A Gored Slave

Zechariah was a prophet in the Old Testament who was inspired by God to encourage the survivors of the Babylonian captivity to complete the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem.

In addition to encouraging them in the construction process he encouraged and warned them by revealing some things about the future… the coming of the Christ.

He reminded them of how they had rejected him as a Shepherd.

Zechariah 11:9-13,

“I will not pasture you. What is to die let it die… to break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples… and thus the afflicted of the flock who were watching me realized that it was the word of the Lord. And I said to them, if it is good in your sight, give me my wages but if not, never mind! So they weighed out 30 shekels of silver as my wages. The Lord said to me, throw it to the potter that magnificent price at which I was valued by them… “

Judah was the flock, Jehovah was the shepherd (ultimately). They rebelled against him and so he broke his covenant with them. Some of them realized their mistake and when the Shepherd allowed them to put a price on the value of his work they offered him 30 shekels of silver.

Exodus 21:32 says that if an ox gored a slave the owner of the ox was supposed to reimburse the owner of the gored slave 30 shekels of silver. The gored slave’s value was 30 shekels of silver.

That was the value Judah place on the shepherd work of Jehovah. Jehovah sneered with contempt at the value they placed upon him and threw the 30 shekels of silver to the potter.

In the future Jehovah would send them another shepherd… Jesus Christ. He too would be rejected and valued at the same level as a “gored slave”. Those 30 shekels of silver would go to buy the “Potter’s field”

In spite of Zechariah’s prophetic warning some things never change. Jesus Christ was valued at the same value as a gored slave.

Don’t let that happen today.