Zechariah 10

Scripture Reading:  Read Zechariah Chapter 10. 

Don’t be a Goat: 

Zechariah 10:2b-3 – “Therefore the people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd. “My anger burns against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the Lord Almighty will care for his flock, the people of Judah, and make them like a proud horse in battle.”  (NIV)

In 2021, Tom Brady made history by becoming the only quarterback in the NFL to win seven Super Bowls.  For that reason, people have called him a GOAT, a silly acronym for Greatest Of All Time.  You may be wondering what the goat has to do with this passage of scripture.  Believe it or not, the Lord calls the leaders of Israel “goats” in this passage.

God calls the leaders of Israel goats only in certain translations: “My anger is kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the male goats” (NASB). Newer translations simply translate the word as “leaders” because that is precisely who God is referring to. God calls them goats because they are leading the people to the slaughter; they have led the people away from God. 

What kind of leader are you?  Everyone is leading someone because everyone has some degree of influence on the people around them.  Are you leading people to the Lord?  I don’t just mean in the sense of evangelism but does your behavior model for the people around you what it means to follow Jesus?  So often, we tell people around us only what they want to hear because we want to be liked.  The shepherds of Israel were condemned for not leading people to the truth of God, which is sometimes difficult to hear. 

Prayer: Lord, help me to lead my family and the people around me to you. Please help me to lead out of a desire for people to know you and have a good relationship with you.