“Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd,
Against the Man who is My Companion,”
Says the LORD of hosts.
“Strike the Shepherd,
And the sheep will be scattered;
Then I will turn My hand against the little ones.” Zech. 13:7
This would not be so surprising if it was against the three false shepherds of Zech. 11:8 or the foolish shepherd of 11:15-17. But here we have God Himself giving the order to the sword of justice to awake against His Son, here called ‘My Shepherd’, and ‘the Man who is My Companion’, or equal. In this we see both the incarnation and the atonement.
We know this was His plan. “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief.” Isa. 53:10a “Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death.” Acts 2:23
Jesus was the Good Shepherd, who would lay down His life for the sheep. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” John 10:11
The second part of the verse was fulfilled the night before Jesus was crucified. Jesus told His disciples in advance that this would happen. Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: ‘I will strike the Shepherd, And the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ Matt. 26:31 They didn’t believe it, and instead boasted that they would die for Him. But Peter denied Him that night, as Jesus prophesied, and the rest forsook Him in fear for their own lives. “But all this was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled.” Matt. 26:56
The final portion of the verse, “Then I will turn My hand against the little ones.” This may refer to the persecution that would follow, or the destruction that would come upon Jerusalem for the rejection of the True Shepherd.
The Scarlet Thread 