Shepherds & Sheep 🐑 🐑🐏🐑🐑🐏🐑🐑
The shepherds of Israel were only in it for what they could get.
I bet many of us reading this chapter thought of the stereotypical tv evangelist with the tailored suit and Colgate smile. They don’t all look that way. Not anymore. But the motives are the same- make a name for themselves, get an fat paycheck, live comfortably, enjoy prestige and influence and a vacation home.
😒 Or two. And a private plane.
I just saw a post from YouTuber Adam Lane Smith, a Catholic man who teaches on attachment theory. He shared a quote from Jonah Paffhausen (a retired Eastern Orthodox bishop) on the meaning of the word “chastity.”
😐 Uh…Wait. Did I miss something? I thought we were talking about sheep and shepherds.
Stay with me.
The word “chastity” is hardly even used anymore and when it is, we typically apply it to teens abstaining from sex before marriage. But, that’s a narrow application of the word’s broader connotations. Based on Paffhausen’s definition, Adam Lane Smith described chastity as “refusing to use another person as a means to your own gratification.”
And it struck me that “using other persons as a means to your own gratification” was exactly what the greedy, entitled shepherds were doing.
“You drink the milk, wear the wool, and butcher the best animals, but you let your flocks starve. You have not taken care of the weak. You have not tended the sick or bound up the injured. You have not gone looking for those who have wandered away and are lost. Instead, you have ruled them with harshness and cruelty.”
Ezekiel 34:3-4 NLT
Instead of feeding the sheep and caring for them, the shepherds of Israel have USED the flock for their own benefit.
“As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, you abandoned my flock and left them to be attacked by every wild animal. And though you were my shepherds, you didn’t search for my sheep when they were lost. You took care of yourselves and left the sheep to starve.” Ezekiel 34:8 NLT
If there’s one thing I CANNOT STAND it’s entitled selfishness. Seriously. I can smell it a mile away and I have ZERO patience for it.
☝🏼🤓 The actual number isn’t zero. It’s more like -15.
😏 And all the entitled selfish people who use and manipulate others should be glad she isn’t God.
☝🏼🤓 Cuz they’d all be dead. 🔥
😏 Yesterday.
Well these shepherds have found themselves in the unenviable position of being God’s enemies.
😐 Oooo not good.
🤓 Yup. No bueno.
“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I now consider these shepherds my enemies, and I will hold them responsible for what has happened to my flock…”
Ezekiel 34:10 NLT
Then, it’s as if Yahweh says, “If ya want somethin’ done right ya gotta do it yourself.”
😐 I’m pretty sure God doesn’t talk like that.
🤓 Yeah. Doesn’t He speak in King James?
I’m making a point.
“For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.”
“I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.”
Ezekiel 34:11, 15-16 ESV
So when Jesus identifies Himself as “the Good Shepherd” He is revealing Himself as the One Who spoke to Ezekiel. The text has said numerous times, “The Word of the LORD came to me saying…” Jesus is the Word made flesh.
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”
John 10:11-16 ESV
🐏🐑🐑🐑🐏🐑🐏🐑🐑🐏🐏🐏🐑🐑🐏🐏
After promising to personally rebuild the flock and punish the big pushy sheep who have trampled the food and butted the weak ones away, then the Lord promises a couple of rather unusual things:
- David will be the shepherd
- There will be a “Covenant of Peace” that affects Creation.
My perspective is that these are yet to come. David can only function as a shepherd if he is raised from the dead. And the resurrection is still to come.
I think the “Covenant of Peace” is the 7th and final covenant God will make with man. Covenant Review:
- Adam
- Noah
- Abraham
- Moses/Israel
- David
- New Covenant (you are here)
God doesn’t do things in sixes.
I think the “Covenant of Peace” is the 7th covenant that God will make at the inauguration of the Reign of Christ. Ezekiel 34:25-31 outlines the terms of the covenant and I am super excited for it.
“I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.”
Ezekiel 34:25 ESV
🤔 The Covenant of Peace involves…camping?
☝🏼🤓 It DOES say they will sleep in the woods. 🏕️
I think it’s getting at the same idea as Isaiah; with the wolf lying down with the lamb and such. We’ll be able to go walking in the forest and when we get tired, we can just lay down and take a nap with a bunny or two with no worries about mosquitos, ticks, chiggers, or snakes. I’m SO excited for that!
🤨 I thought you weren’t a fan of camping.
Well, if you removed the mean beasties 🦟🕷️🐍 and the whole world was like Paradise, I think it might be pleasant.
I don’t know if you, dear reader, think about things like this and know that they are REALLY coming and you will get to experience them. But I do. And it’s like anticipating the vacation of a lifetime.
To The Reader 