"Give me my price"
“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 price that I was prised at of them.
And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in
the house of the LORD.” Zechariah 11.12-13
We stagger at the blindness of Israel. Her utter contempt for the Lord Jesus Christ astounds us. Zechariah has shown us many wonderful scenes of the Messiah in His kingly glory and dignity, but now he predicts the time of His rejection. Zezhariah’s message is graphic. He takes on the role of the Messiah and asks, “If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver” (v. 12). Thirty pieces of silver! They knew the contempt of such a price (Ex. 21.32).
Only willful blindness could result in the wicked crime of Judas unknowingly fulfilling this prophecy. Matthew makes the connection obvious (Mt. 26.14-16). In full cooperation with the chief priests, who must have known Zechariah’s words, the awful deed of betrayal was done.
But in case the charge might be made that this was mere coincidence, linking Messiah’s rejection with thirty pieces of silver, the prophet records, “And the Lord said unto me…” (v. 13). Mocking their “goodly price”, the Lord instructs the prophet to dispose of the silver, the price He was valued at by the ungrateful nation, to the potter in the house of the Lord.
Matthew describes the hopeless despair of Judas who “cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself” (Mt. 27.5). Yet, still the rulers could not see their own literal fulfilment of Zechariah’s prophecy (Mt. 27.6-10).
No deed was as dark as this. Judas plunged himself into despair for all eternity. The nation was driven into darkness for over 2,000 years. How little they valued their Messiah.
Today is a day of grace, when we have the opportunity to value Him. Do you value Him today? Have you seen Him as the Lord and Savior? Do you hold Him in high esteem? Or have you been distracted by this world’s silver and gold? Has your life been given to things that effectively say, “I value Him little and the world more”? As this year soon draws to a close, this is the time to evaluate Him afresh and to give Him all He deserves.
Brian Gunning, Ontario, Canada.
reading for December 26th, Day by Day Christ Foreshadowed, Precious Seed Publications
