We were reading Ezekiel 34 this week. The chapter addresses the self-seeking Jewish leaders who did not care for the flock. God promises to rectify it by sending a new shepherd, His Son. In this time of out of control, self-seeking politicians, it was encouraging. Enjoy the excerpts.
“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost . . .”
“For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness . . . I will pasture them . . . I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down . . . I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice. . .”
“See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away. I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them and be their shepherd. I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the Lord have spoken.”
“I will make a covenant of peace and with them and rid the land of savage beasts so that thy may live in the wilderness and sleep in the forests in safety. I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. . . . Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them and that they, the Israelites, are my people, declares the Sovereign Lord. You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your Lord your God, declares the Sovereign Lord.”
John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”
John 10:14-17 “I am the good shepherd; and I know My own, and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they shall hear My voice; and they shall become one flock with one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.
What a comfort to now that despite what happens politically, we have a Shepherd looking out for our needs. One that laid His life down that each of us would be saved.