Wounds in Thine Hands
In the manual: Come, Follow Me lesson 50, “Holiness unto the Lord,” on Gospel Library
Start
In the law of Moses, thirty pieces of silver was the price set on a servant’s life (Exodus 21:32). Zechariah saw a shepherd valued at that price (Zechariah 11:12).
Read Together
In Zechariah 11, the prophet acts out the part of a shepherd rejected by the flock he cared for. When he asks for his wages, they weigh out thirty pieces of silver, and the Lord calls the insult “a goodly price” (Zechariah 11:13).
12And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. 13And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord.
6And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.
What It Teaches
Judas agreed to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver (Matthew 26:14–15). Later he threw the silver down in the temple, and the priests used it to buy a potter’s field (Matthew 27:3–7). Zechariah had written of silver cast “to the potter in the house of the Lord.”
“They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son” (Zechariah 12:10). John watched a soldier pierce the Savior’s side after he died, and he wrote that this scripture was fulfilled (John 19:34–37).
In Zechariah 13:6, someone asks, “What are these wounds in thine hands?” The answer is, “Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.” When the Savior comes again, he will show his wounds to the Jews, and they will know him (Doctrine and Covenants 45:51–53).
The risen Lord kept those wounds. He invited the Nephites to come and feel them, and they came forward one by one until everyone had (3 Nephi 11:14–15). His wounds show how much he loves us.
Talk About It
Zechariah wrote about the Savior’s suffering about five hundred years before it happened. Why do you think the Lord let his prophets see it so far ahead?
Take to Church
Zechariah saw the thirty pieces of silver, the piercing, and the wounds in the Savior’s hands. By those wounds his people will know him when he comes again.