It’s been a while since I searched the Topical Guide looking for unusual scriptures. Can anyone explain this to me?
Zech 11:7 – And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.
Beauty and Bands–what’s that all about?
Wheat & Tares 
“What’s that all about?” Feeling apocalyptic? Going in for a little subversive political commentary? Zechariah as a piquant criticism of current events? It could work, but it would be a challenge to work into a sacrament meeting talk. I’d actually pay good money to see someone do it, instead of the regular stringing-together-of-quotes-from-the-Church-website. (“For those of you who don’t know me, my name is … when the bishopric member called … so I visited lds dot org …”)
Although it’s best to read multiple commentaries and translations, from Matthew Henry’s Messianic commentary by way of Bible Hub:
“As an emblem, the prophet seems to have taken two staves; Beauty, denoted the privileges of the Jewish nation, in their national covenant; the other he called Bands, denoting the harmony which hitherto united them as the flock of God. But they chose to cleave to false teachers…. Nothing ruins a people so certainly, as weakening the brotherhood among them. This follows the dissolving of the covenant between God and them: when sin abounds, love waxes cold, and civil contests follow. No wonder if those fall out among themselves, who have provoked God to fall out with them.”
A once-beautiful and united people is fracturing under unwise leadership. From vs. 17: Woe to the worthless shepherd who abandons the flock. Thus back to the possibility for political commentary, and what could be more subversive than appropriate if obscure scripture?
Some good study resources at these sites: http://biblehub.com/kjv/zechariah/11-7.htm and https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/zec/11/7/t_conc_922007; I particularly like the translation as “favor” and “union.”
Jewish Study Bible has “Favor” and “Unity”. It makes a bit more sense later when the staffs are broken. God commands the prophet to go take care of sheep meant for slaughter (they’ve already been sold to the sheep dealers, and the shepherd is glad to be rid of them). While tending the prophet has those two staffs which he calls Favor and Unity. The Jewish Study Bible indicates that within a month the prophet lost a third of the flock (rather than 3 shepherds in the KJV). He was frustrated with the sheep and they were frustrated with him, so he informs them he won’t take care of them anymore – he doesn’t care anymore if they die, get lost, or eat each other. (Kind of like how God says he’s frustrated and fed up with his people in verse 6). That’s when he breaks his staff “Favor” to show the Lord was annuling his covenant with the people. The sheep dealers recognized it as a sign from God. The prophet says that if the sheep dealers were satisfied with his labor they should pay him, so they pay him 30 shekels (“the noble sum that I was worth in their estimation”) which he deposits in the temple treasury. He then breaks the staff “Unity” to signify the annulment of the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
You can see the worthless shepherds God will subsequently give to the people as scheming political leaders or false prophets. Either way, leaders who don’t have the best interests of the common people at heart.
It’d be easy to work this into a sacrament talk – if you continue to reject God, you will suffer needlessly. God is trying to reach out to us, and he gets frustrated when we continually rebuff him. Anyone with a judgmental bent would say, “If you aren’t following the person I think you should be following, you are a sinner and deserve to be punished.”