Zechariah 11, James 5

(Zechariah 11)

Matthew Henry’s remarks on the closing verses of Chapter 11 speak so much to me: “God, having showed the misery of this people in their being justly left by the Good Shepherd, shows their further misery in being abused by foolish shepherds. The description suits the character Christ gives of the scribes and Pharisees. They never do any thing to support the weak, or comfort the feeble-minded; but seek their own ease, while they are barbarous to the flock. The idol shepherd has the garb and appearance of a shepherd, receives submission, and is supported at much expense; but he leaves the flock to perish through neglect, or leads them to ruin by his example. This suits many in different churches and nations, but the warning had an awful fulfillment in the Jewish teachers. And while such deceive others to their ruin, they will themselves have the deepest condemnation.”
God, as we shepherd your people, give us a holy passion for the ways of the Good Shepherd.
(James 5)

"Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much." (v16) This scripture presents some insightful truths about effective prayer, trust in relationship, and righteousness. One of the profound things that stand out to me is the power of confession. There is something that happens when we admit the reality of sin in our lives. When I think about the type of sins that destroy a person, a family, a relationship, or a church, they always seem to be private sins that have taken over. We must do all that we can to sharpen one another that the seed of sin does not come to full bloom in our private lives. So for us, to confess to one another has multiple values: admitting and healing. It’s the same with God, the only difference is, he already knows we’ve sinned.”

Last week, my youngest was feeding my dog goldfish crackers. He didn’t know I knew. I asked him, “Caleb, are you feeding the dog goldfish?” He replied, “No”. I asked him, “are you sure?”, he said, “yes”. So I walked him outside and we stood there as the dog was at an attentive “sit” position with orange crumbs all around his mouth. And I said, “Are you sure?”

Every time we confess to God, we aren’t just admitting to him what we did, we’ve got Goldfish crumbs on our face. He already knows. What we’re doing is actually admitting that what we are doing is sinful. We’re not just admitting we did it, we’re admitting that it’s wrong. Something amazing happens when we do that. It’s called, honesty, transparency, and authenticity. We need more of that in our lives. Why? Because through it, the journey begins to healing.