God’s Word for You
Zechariah 9:16-17 The Lord will save them
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, August 15, 2022
16 On that day
the LORD their God will save them,
as the flock of his people.
In this chapter, Zechariah has shown us God’s fury over sin, his surprising and amazing grace over sinners, the arrival of Christ to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on the back of a donkey, and his spiritual rule over the hearts of believers. Now the prophet takes us to the cross.
We see the cross. We don’t so much notice other things: Was there a breeze that afternoon? Was there a scent of spring flowers? We’re unaware of the rumble of an approaching spring storm. We don’t always remember the black darkness under which Jesus died. Perhaps this is because modern artists prefer beauty to truth, and the scene of the cross is prettier with a sunset, with rolling green hills stretching into, what? The serene distance of Iowa wheatfields instead of the stony reality of the Judean foothills? But like the Eastern Christian Church, sin for most artists today and perhaps many theologians today is only a sickness to be healed, and not a crime to be paid for. But the Bible only preaches the latter. Sin had to be atoned for, paid for, bled for. And this is the cross upon which Jesus our Lord and our God, died. And this is how he saved us, with pain, shame, insults, whipping, suffering and then the lingering, gasping, agonizing, lonely, death.
But the lonely death of Jesus was even worse, far worse, than the loneliest death of any human being. While on the cross, Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). He had not turned away from God, but the Father had turned away from him. Jesus cried out, but he did not say, “Father.” He had been abandoned. They were Father and Son in eternity, before the world began. With their Spirit, they had made and formed the universe, paying special attention to the Earth and its seas, lands, air, plants, and animals. They had given the most careful attention to angels and man, and the Son had become a man when man fell into sin. But now, in the critical moment, the hinge upon which all salvation turned, the Father had to abandon him, to give him over to death, and the Son died. The Maker died. God died.
The prophet sees this as the selfless, heroic act of a shepherd fighting off an attack on his flock of sheep. An outsider, an unbeliever, might think it’s a waste—you can always get more sheep. But the shepherd sees the sheep differently. They are his sheep, it is his flock, and they are entrusted into his care. “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). The wolf attacks, and the shepherd stands his ground, even while the terrified sheep scatter. In a moment of snarl, teeth, terrible biting and rending and tearing, it is over. While the animal makes its kill, the knife of the shepherd is thrust home, and they both fall dead. French swordsmen called it “la coupe qui fait deux veuves,” the cut that makes two widows. The wolf wasn’t expecting this at all: the shepherd is dead, but so is the wolf and his power to terrorize the sheep. They can go back to grazing, for their shepherd has won the day with his life.
They will shine like the jewels of a crown on his land.
17 How good! How beautiful!
New wine will make the virgins flourish,
and grain for the young men.
After the salvation won for the flock by the good shepherd, the people flourish. If they are wise and keep trusting in him (and do not forget his sacrifice), they will be “like diamonds sitting about his crown” like the stars that are the brightness of the heavens (Daniel 12:3; Philippians 2:15).
The “crown” of verse 16 is a different sort of crown than any we usually hear about. This is a crown of a consecrated savior who has taken a vow, that is, a Nazirite. It can mean the sheaf of long hair that a Nazirite grows (Jeremiah 7:29), or, if he is not actually a Nazirite, it shows his anointing to some office such as high priest (Leviticus 21:12) and the symbols of that office, such as the special crown of a king (2 Kings 11:12). Perhaps this is what is behind the wordplay, “He will be called a Nazarene” in Matthew 2:23, for Christ had the Nazirite-like anointing and crown, but was not himself a Nazirite, yet he was from Nazareth, and therefore a Nazarene.
Could there be jewels, even diamonds, on an ancient crown? The turban of a priest was evidently made the way our tennis shoes are made, with holes for lacing and attaching something like the “sacred diadem” (Exodus 29:6). So the crown of a king might well have diamonds and other jewels tied to his crown even in a culture where soldering and welding were unknown skills.
Verse 17 begins with an exclamation: “How good! How beautiful!” The church is his good and beautiful flock, although he himself, the Lord, can also be described as the one who is “good and beautiful” (the Hebrew text can be understood either way). Finally, the blessings of the flourishing church are given in terms of a big, breathtaking harvest: new wine for the virgin girls, and overflowing grain for the joy of the young men. This was the blessing Isaac gave to Jacob (Genesis 27:28). It is only possible through God’s grace, and we remain his diamonds only when we remain in his crown, that is, in the pure teaching and preaching of the gospel. Our true salvation, won on the cross, has healed us of the burden of sin and paid for our guilt, so that we are restored to the happy state God intended for us from the beginning. In Paradise, all men will be like young men bringing in a bumper crop, happy, well-supplied, content, and singing God’s praises. All women will be like beautiful virgin girls in the bloom of youth, delighted by God’s blessings, never aging, never subject to the troubles of an old body or the worries of an aging mind. Ours will be the Paradise of the eternal and everlasting “now” of heaven, with all the joy of children on a playground, never to be called inside except for meals, where midnight never comes, where lightning never strikes, where the storms and tornadoes of sin stay away, forever stilled, as quiet and silent as a frozen lake in the winter.
To suffer spiritual separation from God is to suffer hell. This is what Jesus endured for our sakes. Eternal life in heaven means the end of every kind of separation from God. We will be with him, spiritually, physically, and eternally. No sin or temptation will harass us, no imperfection will keep us away from him. We will have rest, and peace, and life, all through our Savior Jesus.
How good! How beautiful!
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.