Zechariah 11

So I fed the flock for slaughter, in particular the poor of the flock. I took for myself two staffs: the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bonds; and I fed the flock. v.7

Read chapter 11
This was a difficult chapter for me to understand.  I read it over and over again probably twenty times just try to grasp what's going on as well as reading some commentaries on it. We have an image here of bad shepherds of their flock.  They're said to be bad because they feed the flock to slaughter them and feel no guilt.  I thought that was what all farmers had to be like, to not get attached to the animals because they're raising them for food for people?   But of course this is imagery of God's people who are not just created on this earth to be slaughtered but for God's glory.  Zechariah becomes the good shepherd to the flock and doing away with the bad shepherds.  He still feeds the flock for slaughter like the bad shepherds but he also pays particular attention to the poor of the flock.  We can see Zechariah as a type of Christ, the Good Shepherd.  
Typically a shepherd only has one staff yet in older times many had two (one staff with a hook for pulling straying sheep close and one rod for counting and separating them). Zechariah has two staffs that he names Beauty and Bonds.  Beauty to represent the covenant the Lord made with all the peoples (v.10 ) and Bonds to represent the special union and brotherhood between Judah and Israel (v.14).  Yet both these rods were broken by the people as Zechariah portrays in breaking both staffs.  There will be another bad shepherd that will raise up to torture and destroy the flock, which could be referring to the antichrist in the tribulation.
Nothing destroys relationships more than breaking a brotherhood among friends and family, as we seek the brotherhood of Israel causing a ruined relationship with one another and ultimately with God.  So also we see broken brotherhoods or sisterhoods that have had ripple effects on relationship with so many other peoples, groups, and with Jesus Christ.  How have you seen a broken brotherhood cause destruction in various ways?  How have you seen a unified brotherhood flourish?