God's Just Resentments Of The Slights Put Upon Him By A Professing People

Adapted From A Sermon

By Philip Doddridge

Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. Then the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter.

(Zechariah 11:12-13)

In an age when many claim to follow God yet live as if He scarcely matters, we face a sobering reality: the living God is not indifferent to being ignored, undervalued, or treated with casual disrespect. Though His patience is great and His mercy astonishing, He is justly grieved—and even angered—when those who bear His name persistently slight His authority, neglect His Son, and disregard His care.

This morning, drawing from the timeless insights of Philip Doddridge, we will examine why such conduct provokes the righteous resentment of a holy God, what consequences it invites, and how we may yet return to Him with reverence and gratitude before it is too late.

To help us wrestle with this uncomfortable truth, let us to look together at a short but shocking passage in Zechariah, chapter 11, verses 12 and 13: Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. Then the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter.

As the sense of this context is very difficult and very important, and as the appropriateness of the exposition of these verses will depend upon fixing their meaning correctly, let us first take a overview of the setting.

Now the prophet Zechariah wrote after the children of Israel had returned from the Babylonian captivity. He was one of the last inspired writers of the Old Testament. The blessed God was pleased to show him some visionary representations of the present state of Israel at that time and of the manner in which He intended to deal with His people, whether in mercy or in judgment.

Most consider this portion of the prophecy before us is an account not of a real event but merely of a vision presented to the prophet's mind. Such visions appear in several other sections of the prophetic books. This includes the vision in which Jeremiah hid his linen garment beside the Euphrates, the one in which Isaiah{Isaiah 20:2} walked naked for several days, and the one in which Hosea took a harlot as wife and had children by her.

It is generally accepted as a very good rule of interpretation that when we read of something done by the prophet which seems morally impossible in reality, we should suppose that it occurred in vision only and not in actual fact. and when we examine this paragraph, it become clear and most natural, though not absolutely necessary, to interpret it in this way.

In the fourth verse, God commanded Zechariah to Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. This means a flock that represented a people who had already suffered great slaughters and destruction and who were to expect even more. Concerning this flock, God declares that their owners had sold and killed them.

This may refer to what they had suffered under their own princes before the captivity, whose wickedness had been so great a snare and plague to the people. Or, since Scripture often uses the past tense to express the future, it may refer to the destructive wars later caused by the ambition of some of their princes. Princes that clearly aimed to enrich and elevate themselves, even at the expense of the public, which suffered greatly in their civil conflicts. Those conflicts also brought in the Roman power, into whose hands the whole country was later delivered. This is expressed in the remarkable words of verses 5 and 6.

Yet for the sake of a small remnant among them who had a better character God declared His purpose to continue His pastoral care over them. Verse 7 states, So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered.

Accordingly, says the prophet, I took two staves, that is, two shepherd's staffs or crooks. The staff was a tool used by shepherds. As in that beautiful psalm, Psalm 23, David says, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

He called one staff Favor and the other Union. These names signified the gracious favor and the firm union, and therefore the strength, in which the people would be kept if they submitted to the divine government and behaved as the sheep of God's pasture should.

Thus the servant, who in this respect represented the blessed God, seemed to feed the flock for a while. In a short time, the term of one month, he removed three under-shepherds. This signifies the changes that would occur in their government during the period while God remained their God, that is, from the present time until the appearance of Christ. As is well known, their civil government changed greatly during that period, and many strange revolutions took place in their state.

But the result was a mutual loss of affection between them and their shepherd. My soul loathed them, and their soul abhorred me. We grew weary of one another. They were restless under my government, and I grew tired of caring for so ungrateful a people.

Upon that, says the prophet, I broke one of my staffs, even Favor. This was a sign that God would largely withdraw His care from them and allow their glory to be greatly diminished. It was broken on that day. The poor of the flock who waited upon me knew that it was the word of the Lord. That is, the remnant of good men, observing the events that thus weakened and divided them, recognized the hand of God in it and its agreement with prophetic declarations.

Then come the words of the text. And I said unto them, that is, to the people, If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them. In this prophetic vision, I seemed to ask the people, probably their governors and representatives, what they thought I deserved for the service I had done them as their shepherd. They weighed out, that is, they paid—for it was usual among the Jews to weigh money when paying it—thirty pieces of silver as my price.

Now this amount was insulting and demeaning as it was the exact fine paid if an ox known to gore killed a slave.{Exodus 21:32} This was the value they seemed in vision to place on the prophet's pastoral care.

These pieces of silver seemed to be paid in the house of the Lord, where their senate met, consisting partly of leading priests and partly of the most prominent nobles from other families.

God is represented as justly resenting this as an insult to Himself. His servant, who as we shall later see was a remarkable type of His Son and of Himself, was valued at the price of a poor slave. Therefore He says, cast it to the potter, throw it to the first poor worker you find, the potter working at the temple gate. This is a fitter reward for him than for me, this goodly price that I was prized at of them, this worthy return they make to my servant, my under-shepherd.

Accordingly, says the prophet, I took my other staff, even Union, and broke it in two. This was to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. That is, I then destroyed all their mutual union and gave them up to quarrels and divisions. Divisions which at last led to their complete ruin by the Romans, when they fell under leaders whom God had allowed to become senseless to their own destruction.

To represent these leaders, the prophet was directed to take the instruments of a foolish shepherd, that is, tools poorly made, unfit for use, such as only a senseless person would choose.

The chapter ends with a declaration of divine judgments against these shepherds and their flock. Those judgments were carried out in the complete destruction of their princes, priests, and people by the Romans. Their city was captured, their government utterly shattered, their temple burned, and several surviving priests put to death by the direct order of Titus, though he was one of the most merciful leaders in the world.

This was surely a clear fulfillment of the closing words. Woe to my worthless shepherd, the wretch who is no more than the image of a shepherd. While he pretends to hold the office, he abandons the flock and casts off all care for them. May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! Let his arm be wholly withered, his right eye utterly blinded.

God shall strike the arm that was folded when it should have been extended to guide the flock, and the eye that was closed in sleep or wandering when it should have been watching over them, or rather the eye that was fixed on the flock for evil, as described in the preceding verses.

This appears to be the general sense of this remarkable passage: God would for a while continue to act as the shepherd of Israel. However, because of the repeated insults and contempt that he foresaw they would show toward him, he would in righteous anger eventually abandon them to the leadership of wicked men, both in religious and civil affairs, until rulers and ruled alike faced destruction.

With this general understanding of the passage, one can readily see how remarkably this prediction came true in the shameful treatment that our Lord Jesus Christ received from them. To this event, the evangelist Matthew applies these words of Zechariah (though our text attributes them to Jeremiah): And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me.

The main reason for applying these words was perfectly clear. When the Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of Israel, was valued at the price of an ordinary slave—precisely thirty pieces of silver—there occurred the most exact fulfillment of this prophecy that one could imagine. Any price set upon Christ in this manner would have fulfilled the prophecy to some degree, whether it had been three hundred or three thousand pieces of silver. The fulfillment became far more striking when the amount was exactly thirty.

It was also noteworthy that, just as the prophet had by divine command thrown this money toward the potter in the temple, so that same money, returned by the traitor who had received it, was used to buy the field known as the potter's field. This field received its name probably because it had been the place where the potter worked to whom Zechariah, in his vision, believed he gave the money, or possibly because it had belonged to a potter.

Having thus attempted to clarify the true meaning of this passage and to demonstrate with what justification the evangelist applies it to that great event in which it found its fullest fulfillment, we now go on to examine it from the practical perspective mentioned at the start of this sermon.

One observes that the blessed God here describes the insults that his professing people would direct toward him. He then expresses rightful indignation at these insults, viewing them as highly provocative. Because of them, he would remove his protection from the people and abandon them to internal conflict and ruin. The Lord said, throw it, &c: and accordingly consider how the blessed God notices, with just displeasure, the insults that his professing people offer him and that those for whom he performs the role of a watchful and kind shepherd direct toward him. Here I will,

I. Consider some of the notable ways in which the blessed God is treated with contempt by a professing people.

II. We will consider how certain it is that he must regard such conduct with rightful resentment.

III. Third, will consider what we may reasonably expect as the consequence of that displeasure.

IV. Finally, we will close by considering one or two reflections.

I. Let us consider some of the most notable ways in which the blessed God is treated with contempt by a professing people. He is clearly treated with contempt and despised whenever scorn is shown toward his ordinances, his servants, his laws, and his Son.

1. The blessed God is treated with contempt and insulted whenever scorn is shown toward his ordinances. He grants us a very great favor by establishing these ordinances. Our souls should feel deeply humbled that he has appointed set times and solemn gatherings. In these gatherings, sinners as unworthy as we know ourselves to be may approach him, present our requests, and listen to the teaching of his word.

If a prince agreed to receive a petition directly from the poorest person in his kingdom, he would seem remarkably gracious. The poor, needy, and oppressed people would rejoice greatly at such an opportunity. We possess an infinitely greater opportunity every day, and especially on every Lord's Day. Shall we treat it with contempt? Shall we neither speak to the blessed God nor come to hear from him?

Such behavior amounts to declaring that we have nothing to say to him and that we do not wish to know what he has to say to us. Is this not an arrogant insult? "Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel."{Isaiah 43:22} This conduct in effect tells God to depart from us because we do not desire the knowledge of your ways. You know that the Scriptures describe this as a most bold insult and present it as the mark of some of the worst people. Job offers this vivid comment on such behavior: "Indeed their prosperity is not in their hand; The counsel of the wicked is far from me;"{Job 21:10 NKJV} far be it from me to commit such madness. Every proud sinner certainly possesses no good thing that he can truly claim as his own. At any moment, that sinner may lose everything he appears to have at the hand of the God whom he thus despises and neglects.

2. The blessed God is insulted by his professing people when his ministers are despised and treated as worthless. This occurred in a special way as shown in this prophetic vision. Therefore, it is very suitable to mention it here. You know that ministers are described as men of God and as ambassadors from him. For this reason, one might reasonably expect that, despite all their recognized and regretted flaws, they should still be treated kindly for the sake of the One whose name they carry, whose person they represent, and to whose service they are fully devoted.

Indeed, they should be respected with love because of their work. Those who truly belong to the flock of God do treat them this way. When ministers are harmed, the insult reaches far higher than its direct targets. Christ says, He that despises you, despises me. On this basis, the apostle dares to declare that whoever despises ministers despises not men, but God. Therefore, treating ministers with contempt simply because they are ministers shows very great irreverence.

A wicked minister certainly deserves contempt as a wicked man, especially since he has greater opportunities for goodness and stronger duties to pursue it. For this reason, the prophet who spoke lies is presented as the lowest of all sinful people in a very sinful nation. Yet if some ministers deceive themselves and make themselves worthless, those who live worthy of their office and character become all the more valuable.

They gain this value to the degree that they escape the traps of bad examples and boldly stand against a faithless and sinful generation. It is very noteworthy that when God lists the sins which completed the measure of Israel's guilt and brought his wrath upon them to the fullest extent, he includes this as one of the worst: "They kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy."{2 Chronicles 36:16}

3. The blessed God is offended when His laws are violated. What can constitute a greater offense than to trample upon the authority of the Supreme Legislator? When He has not only indicated His will but declared it, every instance of willful transgression amounts, in a sense, to treason against His crown and dignity. Scripture interprets it in this way: "Why does the wicked renounce God?"{Psalm 10:13}

Every act of sin represents a practical blasphemy. It blasphemes either His infinite knowledge, as if He did not see what the sinner does, or His unspotted holiness, as if He were not displeased even though He sees it, or His almighty power, as if He were not able to make His creatures experience the painful consequences of His displeasure.

All this occurs under a revelation in which His wrath is declared from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men. Therefore, it adds offense to His truthfulness and to His wisdom as well, as if He would not carry out His threats and had intended them only to create a false alarm.

Indeed, the persistent sinner's willful disobedience carries an even deeper insult. It suggests that God has foolishly placed His solemn threats and warnings entirely within the control and judgment of the very people to whom He directs them. By continuing in sin without fear, the sinner acts as if those divine declarations of wrath are subject to human evaluation rather than absolute divine authority. Through their own supposed insight, cleverness, and discernment, such people convince themselves that they can see through the threats and discover nothing genuinely dreadful or enforceable in them. In effect, they treat God's words as mere bluffs or exaggerations that a perceptive person can easily detect and dismiss as lacking real power or consequence. This attitude not only questions God's truthfulness, implying that He issues warnings He does not intend to fulfill, but also mocks His wisdom, as though He had carelessly crafted threats that intelligent humans could quickly recognize as empty and non-threatening.

Now is this not bold conduct, especially in a professing people, in a people who claim to believe in Him and to pay Him homage? He speaks of that homage with rightful contempt when obedience and a holy life do not confirm its sincerity: "This people draw near with their words...while their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me:"{Isaiah 29:13, Matthew 15:9} He indicates that "if one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination,"{Proverbs 28:9} rather than an acceptable homage. And, finally,

4. The blessed God is offended by a professing people when His Son is neglected and rejected. This is the offense which, if continued in, He will never forgive. Instead, He seals the offender in wrath and vengeance that cannot be recovered and that lasts forever. You know that the parable describes it as the final effort of the injured goodness of the landowner. Last of all, he sent his own son. He said, they will reverence my son.

One would think that such a son, sent in such a way and for such purposes, should immediately fill every heart with awe and melt it with love. Lord, did You send Your only begotten and beloved Son, the brightness of Your glory, to come into this world, to live, and to die for such poor sinners as I am? Did He come by His authority to bind me and by His love to constrain me to obey? And shall I reject Him? It is, as you know, called trampling under foot the blood of the Son of God. Will that be a small matter? Of how much greater vengeance, says the apostle, do you suppose such people shall be thought worthy?

Think of the vengeance due to the violation of the law of Moses. Compare it with this. You will find no proportion. He that despises me, says our Lord, despises him who sent me. Be careful that you do not despise him that spoke from heaven.

For a sinner to say in practice, I will not have the righteousness of Christ to justify me. I will appear before God in my own righteousness. I will not have the grace of Christ to renew and sanctify me. I will go on as I am. I will not have the Son of God to rule over me. I will do my own pleasure. Is this not a most daring offense? Is this not worthy of the most severe punishment? But we must move on to consider the second point,

II. And that is how certain it is that the blessed God will take notice of all these offenses with just resentment. Here only observe that God cannot fail to see every instance of this kind. He has a full view of all its aggravations.

1. He cannot fail to see every instance of this kind. For you well know that His eyes are in every place. They behold the evil and the good. All the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord. He ponders all his paths. He takes as exact a view of every man's conduct, of his character, of his words, and of his thoughts, as if that one creature were the only one He had to observe.

The eye of a minister is soon lost in a large congregation. This person or that person may neglect divine worship, and the minister may not even know it. Or, if he notices, he may not be able to judge the reason for it. But God sees and knows all. He marks the absence and the cause of the absence. His eye also penetrates our secret places of retreat. He sees the dishonor we put upon Him there by neglecting duty or by performing it in a careless and irreverent manner.

He hears every disrespectful word spoken of His servants, even if spoken in the greatest secrecy. As He expresses it elsewhere, He hears what is said behind the wall and in the doors of the house. He is witness to every violation of His laws in thought and word as well as in deed. He knows the secret contempt of Christ that rises in the heart of the sinner, even though the sinner dares not express it in words. He sees the secret disgust, perhaps even at the very name of a Savior, though the mere mention of “Jesus” or “Christ” or “Savior”—ought to be wonderfully attractive, comforting, and precious to every hearer. Thus God sees every instance. He knows how long these things have continued. And consider also this second point, that,

2. He has a full view of all the aggravating circumstances which attend the dishonors that we have put upon Him. You know that any offense offered to a superior is to be measured by the dignity of the person and by the opportunity which we have had of knowing him. Now God, and indeed God alone, sees and knows His own infinite dignity and majesty, perfection and glory. He alone also sees and knows all the opportunities which we have had of becoming acquainted with this glory and of fixing it upon our own minds. He not only sees what we do know of Him but what we might have known.

He knows all the messengers whom He has sent to us. He knows every message that each of them delivered through succeeding Sunday and succeeding years. And carefully consider that He also most clearly knows for what trifle it is that He is dishonored. He knows how much less the consideration often is than thirty pieces of silver for which His worship is neglected, His laws violated, and His gospel despised.

And it is worth noting that He mentions this with just resentment and indignation. He declares that He had been offended on such trifling grounds: "My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns, and they have made me jealous with what is no god; they have provoked me to anger with their idols" {Jeremiah 3:13, Deuteronomy 32:21}

No words can express and no thoughts can imagine the mean and contemptible view in which such conduct as this must appear in the eyes of the blessed God. He sees this paltry price at which He is valued when in hundreds and thousands of instances His professing people sacrifice His favor for something for which they would hardly displease a stranger and much less any valuable friend.

They act as if His friendship were of all things in the world the least to be valued and His displeasure the least to be feared. And He knows that sometimes the very knowledge which they have of His great goodness, which ought to produce the greatest reverence and the tenderest care to avoid everything offensive, is made the reason to embolden them to offend Him. Of all this He has a clear view. Therefore He must be highly displeased with it. Now, in the third place,

III. Consider what may reasonably be expected as the effect of this righteous displeasure. And what indeed may we not expect, when we consider his almighty power, in connection with that perfect view of the case which has been set before us, and with that strict holiness which must render all these offenders abominable to him; what are such to expect but that he should withdraw the tokens of his despised care, and leave us to utter rejection and reprobation?

1. Sinners may expect that He will withdraw the abused signs of His despised care. Where this is the case with any considerable number of men, He may disown the pastoral relationship in which He has stood to them. He may say to them, you are not my people, neither am I your God. I will take no further notice of you. You have neglected my ordinances, and my ordinances shall be withdrawn from you. You have despised my ministers, and your teachers will be driven away from you. You have trampled on my law, and you will hear no more of it. You have slighted the grace of my Son, and you will be urged no longer with it.

How much reason have we to fear that it should come to this with a nation that has so clearly made light of God as we have done! The gospel is almost lost and stripped of all its power and purity. Nothing but a dead and disguised carcass of Christianity seems to remain, hardly distinguishable from heathen superstition.

This is clearly the case in the Roman Catholic church. And it is becoming the case of the Protestant church also. The Lord Jesus Christ might send us to see what He did to Ephesus when He removed the candlestick from its place. He might point to Pergamos where He fought against them with the sword of His mouth. He might remind us of Laodicea whom He rejected with loathing after He had long stood at the door and knocked for admission. He might break the pastoral staffs, Favor and Union. He might destroy all the beautiful order of His sanctuary and all the bonds that join us together, whether civil or sacred. He might give us up to a discord that would end in ruin and in the dissolution of the house and kingdom divided against itself. Yes, it is certainly to be expected by everyone who continues to despise Him,

2. That He will finally leave such people in a state of rejection and reprobation. It is undeniably certain that without holiness no man will see the Lord. It is equally certain that a supreme love to God is an essential part of holiness. This love rests on the highest esteem for Him and on the most earnest desire for His favor. And if, after all that you have heard of your obligations to God and all the signs of His care that you have enjoyed here, you continue finally to dishonor and despise Him, the wrath of the Lord will arise. There will be no remedy. He will disown you. He will have no more to do with you. You will be left on your dying beds without any support. You will be either terrified, as many are, with the view of approaching damnation or hardened even while you stand on the very edge of ruin.

When death has done its dreadful work, the blessed God will take no favorable notice of such souls. He will not command His angels to receive and guard them. Instead, He will leave them to be seized by the evil spirits of hell. They will be like helpless sheep attacked by many devouring lions. They will look in vain toward the fold from which they have wandered. They will wish in vain for the shepherd whom they have forsaken.

In the great day, when all nations are gathered before Him, such people will be separated from the flock of God. They will be placed among the goats on the left hand. In vain will they plead the privileges they once enjoyed. Even if they could say, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name as well as heard your teaching in our streets, He will declare, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. And that will be their final end.

God sometimes returns again to a nation and a church that He has for a while cast off and rejected. Yet this usually happens after a long interval. Two thousand years have now passed since He gave up Israel that was once His chosen people. But to the soul that finally dishonors and despises Him, He will never, never return. What would two thousand million ages matter compared with the miserable eternity to which such a soul will be condemned! Those who forget God should carefully consider this, all who continue to neglect Him.

To conclude with only hinting at the improvement which we have no time to consider further, let us bless God that this is not already our case. After having so long dishonored God and undervalued His favor and care, we are not yet completely given up as a people and a nation. God alone knows how soon it may become our case. And let us adore Him especially because we are not abandoned to the final despair and misery of those who know that He has cast them off forever and will be favorable to them no more.

Let us, this day and every day, humble ourselves deeply in His presence. Let us acknowledge our offenses. Let us earnestly plead that He would turn away His deserved displeasure. Let us survey with more careful attention the many benefits which we have enjoyed by His care. Let us consider the blessed consequences, both for time and eternity, which we may expect from His favor.

And, to conclude all, let us take great care that we do not strengthen each other's hands in dishonoring God and religion. It is a very contagious evil. Poor foolish creatures are ready to embolden one another. But let it be remembered that no association will mean anything against the blessed God. Though hand join in hand, the wicked will not go unpunished. All that they will gain by their alliance is to be partners in punishment. They may even become mutual instruments of the Divine justice in punishing one another.

If, therefore, we would show a real and lasting friendship to each other, let it be by doing all we can to promote a deep, powerful, and serious sense of practical religion among ourselves and those around us. Friendships of this kind are very helpful. Devout and serious believers especially strengthen one another’s hands in the Lord. Young people in particular should seek out such companions. To those who are growing in faith and longing to serve God more fully, these friends prove invaluable. God is most valued and reverenced in those families and communities where faithful believers abound and where their example shines brightly. On the other hand, the influence of those who remain careless and idle in spiritual matters is a sad sign of approaching divine judgment.

May God, in great mercy, revive His church once more and send times of refreshing from His presence, even in these dark days.