Our Father , Our Shepherd - Looking
at God as our Shepherd through the eyes of
Ezekiel, David and Jesus
I love how
God never says anything just once. David proclaims in Psalm 62:11 “God
has spoken once, twice I have heard this…..”
And Hebrews 6:17 is speaks of God confirming His word with an ‘oath’ so
that by “two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we
might have strong consolation.” Meaning that everything God says He
will confirm or say more than once.
A Shepherd. How beloved and familiar is Psalm 23, and we speak often of Jesus as our
Shepherd.
But maybe we have not followed the theme or thread throughout the Bible showing
us again how God does not change. He
truly is the same, yesterday, today and forever. And in speaking of Himself as a Shepherd
there is more to be gleaned than just the familiar, warm analogy!
EARLY REFERENCES
The theme of Shepherd and sheep is found throughout our Bibles
. The first reference is found in Gen.
49:24 …. By
the hands of the Mighty God
of Jacob (From there is
the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel). This is Jacob’s prophecy over
Joseph. It is noteworthy because Joseph
is a type of Jesus, and we know the ‘Rock’ of Israel was pointing to Jesus, and
here it first refers to Him as the Shepherd.
The second
reference is in Num. 27:17 “….that the congregation of the Lord may not
be like sheep which have no shepherd.”
Also in I Chron.
11:2 Samuel quotes God having said to Saul…” You shall shepherd My people Israel,
and be ruler over My people Israel. "
EZEKIEL 34, PSALM 23, JOHN 10
My lesson today
focuses on three passages, Ezekiel 34, Psalm 23 and John 10 and how we will see that both David and Jesus’ drew
from the words of this Ezekiel chapter.
DAVID
David was
obviously familiar with the words of the scroll of Ezekiel and sitting alone in
a field watching his sheep it must have run through his mind and he penned the
beloved words of Psalm 23 as his heart-response to Ezekiel 34.
I paralleled Ezekiel’s words to David’s response.
Ezekiel 34:11 “Thus says the Lord God, Indeed I
Myself will search for My sheep….I will deliver them from all the places where
they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day…”
Psalm 23:1 “The
Lord is my Shepherd , I shall not want …. “
Ezekiel 11:14,15 - “I will feed them in good pasture … there
they shall lie down in a good fold and feed in rich pastures…. I will make them lie down. “
Psalm 23:2… He makes me to lie down in [b]green
pastures;
Ezekiel 34:18 ..”to have drunk of
clear waters … “
Psalm 23:4 He leadeth me beside the still waters
Ezekiel 34:16, I will bind up the
broken and strengthen what was sick ..
Psalm 23: 3 He restores my soul
Ezekiel 34:23, And I will
establish one shepherd over and the shall feed them .. and be their Shepherd.
Psalm 23: 3, He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
Ezekiel 34:28 “And they shall
no longer be a prey… nor shall beasts of the land devour them, but they shall
dwell safely and no one shall make them afraid. “
Psalm 23:4… Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
Ezekiel 34:30 “Thus
they shall know that I, the Lord their God am with them …”
Psalm 23:4
for You are with me ..
Ezekiel 34:17,18 As for you O My flock,
thus says the Lord God, Behold I shall judge between sheep and sheep , between
rams and goats… …Behold I Myself will judge between the fat and the lean
sheep..”
Psalm 23:4 Your rod and your staff they comfort me.
Ezekiel 34: 26 And I
will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing and I will cause
showers to come down in their season , there shall be showers of blessing..
Psalm 23:4,5,6 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
M cup runs over.
Surely goodness and
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
Ezekiel 34:30, 31 They ,
the house of Israel are My people says the Lord God, You are my flock and I am
your God …
Psalm 23:6 And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever !
Comparing Jesus words
in John 10 we also see parallels to Ezekiel 34.
Jesus
uses an illustration in John 10. In His illustration He uses several ‘pieces’
that fit together in the analogy He is teaching. .
To understand an illustration or parable that is speaking of
one thing but meaning another, we need to rightly assign the meaning intended
to each piece of the parable.
In Jesus’ illustration we have …
The sheep -- you and me
- “God’s own”
The door – by which the good
Shepherd enters
The good shepherd, who loves his sheep - Jesus
The wolf – Satan
The hireling shepherd - leaders of
God’s people who are false shepherds and do not love the sheep.
Who kills, steals and Destroys?
There is a phrase in this passage that is often taken out of
context - “who comes to kill, steal and destroy” and these words are applied to Satan. But that cannot be the intended meaning because the ‘hireling’ who ‘kills, steals and destroys’ flees from
the ‘wolf’ . The wolf cannot flee from
himself, therefore the ‘hireling’ that ‘steals, kills and destroys’ cannot be
the wolf - or Satan.
The ‘kill, steal, destroy’ is a strong condemnation directed
to ‘false teachers/leaders/shepherds” As I noted above, we cannot establish
truth from just one scripture. We must
have confirmation. In this example we need to find confirming scripture that
gives the same message as we have defined it here – that the ‘hireling’ is
false teachers/leaders’.
Confirmation in Ezekiel 34
And we find that confirmation in Ezekiel 34. Here God calls the leaders of His people
“false Shepherds” (or hirelings) and He condemns them accusing them,
1.
of
‘stealing’ - Ez. 33:1,2 says that
instead of feeding the flocks, they ‘steal’ the food to consume on themselves.
2.
of ‘destroying’
the flock in verse 4 when He says that they have not strengthen the weak or
healed the sick nor bound up the broken, nor sought that which was lost, but
ruled with force and cruelty.
3.
Of ‘killing’
- the sheep ‘become
prey, and are killed by the beast of the field’
– because of the false
shepherds
So in both Ezekiel 34 and John 10 it is the ‘false
leaders/shepherds’ that are the ones accused of ‘stealing, killing and
destroying’. Just like in the Old
Testament we have God’s words condemning the leaders who did not Shepherd His
people, but destroyed them in leading them into worshipping false gods.
Jesus first condemns the ‘hirelings’ or false
Shepherds, and then compares Himself to
a Good Shepherd.
Just like David, Jesus repeats ore rephrases the thoughts in Ezekiel 34 about what a good
shepherd is and does and applies it to
Himself.
1.
He says He is the ONLY Good Shepherd. ( John 10: 14, Ezekiel 34:23)
2.
He speaks
of being the very ‘door’ of the sheepfold – He keeps them safe. (John 10:9,
Ezekiel 34:25, 27,28)
3.
He will not flee like the ‘hireling’. (John 10: 13, 14 Ezekiel 34:30)
4.
He will care for His sheep. He gives His very life to them, and they know
Him and trust Him and hear His voice. (John 10:9, 15 , Ezekiel 34:13, 14, 15, 26,
29)
5.
He gives them a secure home - ‘eternal life’. (John 10:28, Ezekiel 34:22, 30, 31)
Why is it so important to see
God/Jesus as our Shepherd?
God created ‘sheep’ so that we could clearly understand the
relationship God wants to have with His people – the Sheep of His pasture. (Psalm 100:3 “We are His people and the
sheep of His pasture”)
What does the
relationship between a shepherd and his sheep teach us ?
1.
A sheep is the most dependant of all
animals. It cannot care for itself. It cannot even clean itself, the Shepherd has
to do it. So we also – only our Shepherd can cleanse us of our
sins.
2.
The sheep needs the shepherd to lead it to
water, to the lush pastures, it doesn’t know the way by itself. And so
we too, need our Shepherd to lead us and
guide us and “direct our paths”.
3.
We tend to want to be independent – do things
our own way. We so quickly hear the insistent
words of a toddler .. “Me do it!!” Occasionally a sheep will wander from the
shepherd, and fall over. If he does he cannot get up by himself, he
needs the Shepherd to help him.
So with us -- when we wander from the
Lord, do we not ‘fall’ into diverse sins and situations and can’t get up on our
own?
Or the sheep gets caught in the bramble bushes … so like us going our own way get ‘caught’ in
habits, relationships and consequences of our actions and can’t free ourselves.
4.
A sheep will quickly get himself lost on his own
and can’t find his way back. The shepherd has to go find him and bring him
home. Does our Shepherd not continually
‘find us’ even as he went out to look for Adam and Eve, or Elijah saying, “What
are you doing here” And He lovingly invites us to come back to the
safety of His fold.
5.
A sheep wandering away from the Shepherd is
vulnerable and easy prey for the enemy.
As are we. Our enemy is ever on the watch to see if he can catch us in a weak moment
and tempt us to ‘sin’ in whatever way he can… in our deeds, our words, or our
choices or decisions.
Isn’t it amazing how God has made it so clear and simple in
His word, confirming His truth over and over so
that we need never fear or wonder who He is. We can rest in the assurance of who He is as
our Good and Faithful Shepherd!
I was wondering …. Do you think that much of our ‘trouble’ comes
into our life because we want to do things our way? We try to solve our own problems, find our
own answers and then when things go sideways, we wonder how we got there ! We even ask, “where
are you God?” All along, He has followed
us, calling for us , to bring us back to
the ‘good pastures’ and the safety in His presence.
Should we not
‘surrender’ our self-will, our desire to self-rule and just completely
trust our needs and cares and , yes, our
very life into the hands of our Good Shepherd who is the PERFECT Shepherd? There is a saying that many believe is in
the Bible – of course it isn’t – but the saying goes… “God helps those who help
themselves.” That is not how a Shepherd
relates to His sheep. If we ‘insist’ on
helping ourselves, God LETS US. He is
watching to help those who totally trust in Him !!! It is not weakness to
implore the Lord for help BEFORE we try our own way, it is a strength. Even Jesus said that He said nothing He did
not first hear the Father say, did nothing He did not see the Father do !” Jesus
did nothing in His own authority. (John
8:28, John 5:19) He set the example, we
as the ‘sheep of His pasture’ need to follow !!
