If you were lost and were missing, wouldn’t you want someone to notice and be concerned? Most people would want someone to start searching for where you were, and bring you back to safety. Maybe some of you can remember back to when you were lost as a child, and your parents had to search for you. Perhaps as a parent one of your children wandered off, and you were now the one doing the searching. In our passage today from the prophet Ezekiel we read of how God, as a shepherd, is searching for His sheep, His people.
The shepherd is a familiar image all throughout Scripture. David was a shepherd in his youth, and then was a type of shepherd as the king of Israel. The prophets frequently compared the priests and religious leaders of the country to shepherds for the people. Some were compared as being good shepherds for the people, but the prophets called many more of them bad shepherds for leading the people astray rather than properly instructing them in the true ways of the Lord. In the New Testament the apostles, when writing the Epistles, calls the pastors and leaders of the church shepherds, and like the prophets of the past, instructs them to lead the people faithfully in the ways of the Lord.
As Ezekiel opens his message, he lets us know that God is our true Shepherd (vs. 11). He will search out and find His sheep, all true believers. Like sheep out in the field which have wandered away from the safety of the flock, God will search them out and bring them back into His fold. This passage of Ezekiel is very reminiscent of Psalm 23, where the Lord is portrayed as our Shepherd.
Just as in the past when there were false religious shepherds leading the people astray, there are these same false shepherds today. These self-indulgent religious leaders seek only their own good and profit, and not the care of the sheep. We even have a term taken from the image of a shepherd, “fleecing the flock”, when pastors or other religious leaders take advantage of the people, especially when they become rich at the expense of the people they are to be spiritually leading. God has promised He will judge these false shepherds. He will meet the needs of His people, His sheep.
The ultimate fulfillment of these verses can be found in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is called the Good Shepherd (John 10:11-14). The Lord acts for our benefit and His glory. He feeds us what will give us health and carries us in His arms (Isaiah 40:10-11). Jesus is the Great Shepherd who gave His life, shed His Blood, to establish an everlasting covenant for us with God (Hebrews 13:20). He is the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, leading those sheep who have gone astray back to the Father (I Peter 2:25). Today’s pastors and other religious leaders, who are in a sense under-shepherds, are to follow the example of the Chief Shepherd in caring for God’s sheep (I Peter 5:1-4).
For a brief while our wandering from God may bring some kind of thrill, but not for long, just as a wandering sheep may find some seeming pleasure away from the flock, but it ultimately is dangerous. We need to repent and ask forgiveness, and instead focus on God’s directions in the Bible so we are better able to walk the right path. When we stray, God will guide us back to safety.
The Good Shepherd is watching over the sheep of His flock. Just as sheep don’t always see the shepherd, we cannot see Him, but He sees us. We can trust in God’s watchful care. The Lamb who died to save us is the Shepherd who lives to care for us.
I close with the words of a much loved mid-19th century hymn by Henry Baker:
The King of love my Shepherd is,
Whose goodness faileth never,
I nothing lack if I am His,
And He is mine forever.
I read about Henry Baker abd read many of the words to his hymns on Hymnory.org. That song is so much like the 23rd Psalm, Oh Christ My Shepherd Thou art Mine (or close to that title!) thank you!
ReplyDelete