Zechariah 13:7-9. At the end of an oracle about making Jerusalem a blazing fire to the rest of his people and all other nations, God says that he will cleanse the land of idols and false prophets. He will awaken his sword against his shepherd - "the man who stands next to me," and he will "strike the shepherd, that the sheep may be scattered." He will then turn his hand against the little ones and in the end two-thirds will be cut off and perish whether remaining third will be put into the fire and refined like silver, tested like gold. They will call to him from the fire and he will answer "They are my people." They will say "The Lord is my God."

This has a very pre-Revelation or Revelation foreshadowing feel to me. Why would the Lord strike down his shepherd and scatter his flock? Perhaps the shepherd is a false one? Jesus does warn us that there will be many of them. Or perhaps the shepherd has become an idol to the people - they are looking to the shepherd as their ultimate good rather than as someone who is to lead them in God's ways. In any case, the shepherd is "standing next to" God, which clearly is wrong. God is always above all else, he has no equal in his shepherds until Jesus arrives on the scene (and even Jesus "did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped"). So the shepherd has then taken up a co-equal position with God and must be stricken.

The sheep will then scatter and God will actually turn his hand against the little ones. Why would he do that? I am not sure about this. Perhaps to save them? Perhaps they are being led astray by their elders and God has turned his hand "against" them to get them back on the right track, to bring them back to him. Sometimes our leaders, and even our parents, can lead us astray and correcting course can feel like we are wrongly going against their ways. But it does not mean we do not honor them, just that we have to realize that they, like us, are sinners and can be on the wrong path. If we see it, we must rectify our own lives first. As children, though, we cannot do this, but God can - he can change the course of "the little ones'" lives.

After this, two-thirds of his people will perish altogether and the remaining one-third will be put in the fire and tested and refined. In Revelation, one-third of mankind is killed early on by three plagues (Revelation 9:18). Here, the one-third are clearly the ones who are going to be God's people on earth, we haven't gotten to Revelation yet, but it does feel like a foreshadowing. So the one-third are are tested, and when they are ready to be his people they will call out to him and he will answer them. Then they will be beacons of his love to all people.

This is what we are called to be. We must endure our testings, and use them as a way to turn to him. Then we can be the people that he wants us to be, and we will be beacons to the rest of the world.