The Two Rods and the One Shepherd

Him—how will He not also grant all things with Him to us? Sparing us, He did not withhold the Son; for He is impassible and the destroyer of all harm, but we are mortals and subject to passions. Therefore, if He had been sparing of the Son, not having given Him up to 'taste death for all' (Hebrews 2:9), we would have remained in the ruin that holds fast through the transgression of the divine commandment; but so that we might be set free, the guardian gave up His own Son, not to be harmed by dying, having been revealed as Savior, having been given up for them.

Having these things thus, if God says: 'I will no longer spare those dwelling on the earth,' He admonishes by the fear of threat, so that they might not fall by being executed, but might come out of the sin that holds fast, no longer being subject to execution. He makes manifest the manner of not sparing anymore, saying 'to deliver men into the hands of their neighbors and into the hands' of the 'evil king whom they chose, so that the earth might be cut off' (Isaiah 17:1), as they oppose one another as 'men who are dying.' These are those walking according to the flesh in strife and jealousy. Men who are such are delivered into the hands of those whom they had as neighbors, namely demons, through greed and material disposition. For then they are most able to be admonished, having been delivered to those whom they thought were friends and neighbors, having been tested by their coarseness and ferocity; and they will flee also from the one who rules tyrannically, having experienced his hardness. For even the people of the Hebrews desired in such a way to be set free from the insolence of the Egyptians, having known their turbulence and their lawless dominion.

When the earth is cut off, that is, when those upon it are revolting, God shepherds the sheep of the slaughter into Canaan, the prepared punishment. It was also said previously that the sheep of the slaughter are those ready to suffer and those already slaughtered, when we received that which was being reported by the afflicted to the Benefactor of all: 'You gave us as sheep for eating' (Psalm 50:5), and again: 'We were counted as sheep for slaughter' (Psalm 50:6). Understand whether the shepherding of the sheep of the slaughter into Canaan denotes something praiseworthy, being interpreted as the prepared place, perhaps of those being led in through being managed by harm.

Working out an unchangeable salvation through pains brought on pedagogically, about which the law-giving apostle Paul writes, marking these things: 'The godly sorrow works out unchangeable repentance unto salvation, bringing about the death of the sorrow of the world' (2 Cor 7:10). Therefore, this worldly sorrow must be rejected, but the godly one must be unchangeably opposed, bringing about salvation according to God.

4.71 Zechariah 11:7: 'And I will take for myself two rods—the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Union—and I will shepherd the sheep. And I will separate the three shepherds in one month, and my soul will be burdened by them, for their souls were pressing upon me. And I said, I will not shepherd you.' 4.72 From the person of the Savior, the prophet Zechariah 11:21 announces the things concerning the two rods which he had taken for himself.

4.73 Nothing else is signified in the passages concerning the rods except a scepter of rule, rather a symbol of kingship. 4.74 Since therefore the whole human race is divided into the people from the circumcision and into the Church called from the Gentiles, the God of the Jews and the Gentiles, being both Savior and King of them, took for himself the two scepters, so that from both he might work out one kingship.

4.75 And the prophecy will be understood from the evangelical utterance; for just as one kingship was shown under one king from those having believed among the Gentiles and the Jews, so also one flock is shown under one shepherd, the true one, who has set his soul down for the sheep. Thus the evangelical voice is announced by the Savior: 'And I have other sheep which are not of this fold; them also I must bring together, and they will hear my voice, so that there will become one flock and one shepherd' (John 10:16), saying that the other sheep are to be those from the Gentiles believing in the Gospel, not from the Jewish fold.

4.76 It is the same thing, the two flocks becoming under one shepherd, as it is the two scepters coming under the same king. But when will this be fulfilled? Perhaps when it happens: 'Rejoice, O nations, with his people' (Zech 9:7)? 4.77 And it is also said differently: 'And I have other sheep which are not of this fold,' the fold being called that of the sheep of this earthly world in which those bearing the body are wearing out their lives, being delivered...