I am no PROPHET

Zec 13:5

But he shall say, I [am] no prophet, I [am] an husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.

This is a fascinating sequence. The long
awaited Messiah arrives and Zechariah
prophecies his relative ordinariness.

In this translation, he says, "I am a
husbandman" (loosely - a farmer or
herder).. and in the tradition of David,
who was a sheep herder, he is a keeper of
cattle.

This frames his identity with the common
man and King David. He did not descend
to Israel from a star or in a supernatural
way. He was born in a manger with cattle,
and raised in an ordinary way by working
people.

This King of KINGS and LORD of Lords,
who is preeminent over all this universe
and everything in it, came into life as
a mortal man, learning the ways of
mortals and assuming total humility
in all things.

This is not only startling, but, poignant.

This was not the Messiah King the nation
anticipated, but, here it is, written by
their Prophets, and that's how he came
to them.

When the religious authorities and civil
rulers accused him of being Elijah and
the Messiah, he repeated to them,
"That is what you say...." The descriptions
of Christ in the Gospels harmonizes with
Zechariah's cryptic introduction of
the King of the Universe to Israel.

He was not a Prophet. He was their
KING. As a shepherd, we are his
cattle.