Monday Meditation
September 19, 2016
From the desk of A.J. Higgins
The Sword
“Awake O sword against My Shepherd,
and against the Man that is My Fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts.
Smite the Shepherd”
Zechariah 13:7
Zechariah and Isaiah are the two great Old Testament prophets who present more of Christ to us, perhaps, than any others. Zechariah speaks of Him as the Sprout, the Stone, the Sovereign, and the Shepherd. This verse under consideration is so central to our appreciation of the Lord Jesus, that scarcely a Lord’s Day Remembrance meeting goes by without it being quoted. Its truths are rich and provide scope and substance for worship. Consider first of all:
The Identity of the Shepherd
“My Shepherd . My Fellow:” Here is One Who is uniquely the Fellow of God; the New Testament will identify Him as the Son of God, the Son of His love. But here the equality and fellowship known between divine persons is revealed in the expression, “My Fellow.” The sword is called to awake against One Who is none less than God the Son. But the expressions suggest something more than merely His identity, they suggest:
An Intimacy
Eternally He has been His Fellow. It is a word found elsewhere only in Leviticus and there it is eight times translated as “neighbor.” It carries the thought of someone who is a companion, an associate, or someone next to you. In Zechariah, it conveys all the above: He as God’s eternal companion, associate, dwelling in fellowship next to Him. In Johannine language, He is “the Only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father.” An eternal, unbroken, mutually enjoyed fellowship was His with His Son; it was a fellowship relationship which, unlike ours, was not based on mercy and grace but on merit. Here was the only One Who could return His love both in kind and in measure.
The Instrument
Graphically, the instrument for judgment is depicted as a sword. It tells us something of its piercing, penetrating power, and of its painful entry into the soul that was made an offering for sin. It was not merely an external suffering He endured. Beyond the sneers and spittle of men, far greater than the stripes and smiting they inflicted, there was a penetrating grief felt deep within His person as the sword was called upon to awake and to “smite” the Shepherd. Nothing could halt the advance of the sword; nothing could stay its piercing of His soul.
The Intensity and Immensity
The sword descended with unerring accuracy and with immeasurable intensity. The hand that wielded the sword was the omnipotent hand of Jehovah. His mighty hand held the sword that pierced the Savior. Who can measure the might of that arm? Who can begin to calculate the intensity of the blow and the immensity of the suffering as the arm holding the sword descended upon its mark at the cross? Fittingly we sing the words of Anne Cousin’s lovely hymn:
“Jehovah bade His sword awake,
O Christ it woke on Thee .”
Consider:
1. The literal rendering of 1 Peter 2:24 is “by Whose stripe (singular), ye were healed.” How would that link with the verse we have been considering?
2. The first mention of a sword is in Genesis 3:24. Is there a link of some kind with this sword? Is there a contrast?
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