Zechariah 11:11

The Jews were not morally ready for the Messiah, and this made it impossible to gather the peoples. The sight of them was hateful to Him, and in fact He was not bearable to them. So there was no basis for gathering the peoples. It could not happen then and had to be postponed, but not abandoned except for the present. So the staff Beauty was broken, the picture of God's authority to carry this out now. But He will surely put it in force for all the peoples whom He will gather around Israel when they bow and bless their Messiah... His secret is with those who fear Him.

This happened formally at the destruction of Jerusalem. It happened in fact at the rejection or death of our Lord, when He refused the nation, or when the nation refused Him. It happened in principle when they rejected His word and His works... So when they rejected Him, He broke the covenant made with the peoples. The destruction and rejection of Jerusalem made the poor of the flock who waited on Him know that it was the word of the Lord. They knew by faith at His rejection.

The name given to the remnant is very beautiful. They are "the poor of the flock." It reminds us of the Lord's own words, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." (Luke 6:20) They were the poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3), though most of them were poor in this world as well. If they were poor, they were still rich (Revelation 2:9), because they had found their treasure in the Messiah. It was on Him they "waited" — they waited on Him to hear His word, and for all their need. By human thinking, their Messiah's rejection could have been a stumbling-block to His disciples. But they recognised in it, and in what followed, a fulfilment of the word of the Lord.

It was Christ's delight to feed this poor, oppressed flock. Not that the flock as a whole valued His gracious ministry, but there were some who did, and He fed their souls richly. It was these, the "poor of the flock," who waited on Him and acknowledged that the word of the Lord was in His mouth.

They discerned that the word of the Lord was at work in God giving Israel up to the painful consequences of their guilt. But most were hard and undiscerning, giving God no credit for being in control of things by the authority of His Word.

These poor ones were called "the wise ones," because they valued the person of the Lord. They understood that their Jewish hopes could not come true while the King stood rejected. They took the instruction from the One they had trusted, when He answered their question: "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6). Their Master had been rejected. A new order of things was about to begin. It was a thousand times higher than anything these poor creatures had dared to hope for while their Master was with them.

On the basis of Christ's sacrifice, these poor ones of the flock, whom He had already set apart and fed during His life (Zechariah 11:7, 11), become the objects of His special attention and care... From Israel's side all hope is gone. The flock of slaughter will meet their fate. The whole work of the smitten Shepherd seems destroyed, and it comes down to the salvation of the few poor ones of the flock. But could God limit the reward of the Man who is His Companion to this? Impossible! "Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession." (Psalm 2:8)