The Lord Is My Shepherd

TEXT: , TITLE: The Lord Is My Shepherd

Jerome the early church father said: “As for Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, who can fully understand or adequately explain them?... The beginning and ending of Ezekiel is involved in such great obscurity that it is not studied by the Hebrews until they are thirty years old.”

So what is the book of Ezekiel primarily about?

The prophet Ezekiel was called by God to explain to the people of God their exile into Babylon. Because of Israel’s covenant faithlessness they have abandoned YHWH and now can only expect His coming judgement. Ezekiel is unrelenting in his pronouncements of Israel’s sin for forsaking the God who has rescued them from the hands of their enemies. The prophet through many stories and metaphors shows why God is now against Jerusalem and why God has sent Israel into exile.

For example, is a shocking picture of Israel’s sin. Ezekiel declare this story for the purpose of showing how Israel has broken covenant with God and also to show just how foolish and incredible stupid sin is.

For the nation of Israel is declared to be nothing more than a child who was aborted and left alone in the wilderness. Israel was nothing and no one took pity upon her.

Yet YHWH in mercy rescues Israel. He comes to her and gives her life. Not only that but He pours out His love upon her. He blesses her, adorns her with beauty, and cleanses her from all her filth and shame.

And what does Israel do in response? Israel, just like you and me played the part of the whore. I would hesitate to use such language if our God Himself did not bring this charge upon us. Just like Israel we have all forsaken YHWH to pursue other gods. We have sought out other lovers.

How sick is our heart. Just like an adulterous wife, we have forsaken time and time again our heavenly Husband.

And even worse still we find that Israel's leaders, those who were to represent God, men who were to call Israel to repentance, had themselves rejected the Lord. They used their position of authority to abuse and take advantage of God’s people.

These leaders are exactly what our Lord through Ezekiel addresses in our passage this morning.

In verses 1 and 2 we read The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep?

What a terrifying thought that the Word of our Lord would be against us. Think about this in contrast to the the words of greeting that we find throughout the Bible. When we read the letters of the Apostle Paul we usually find an opening greeting to the churches that go something like, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Yet what we find this morning is a greeting of great anger against the shepherds. This word of judgement is against Israel’s Kings. And the Lord is against them because they have used their high calling as Kings to feed themselves rather than the people who they were called to serve.

For the Kings of Israel, just like a shepherd was to feed, tend to, and protect the flock from all harm. A shepherd was to guide the sheep to safe pastures and if one would stray they were to be sought after.

But this is not what our Lord finds the Kings doing. Instead of serving the sheep they are found feeding themselves. And in every accusation against these cruel shepherd we can hear the LORD’s anger increasing.

Charge after charge is brought against them. These charges make up God’s covenant lawsuit against these Kings. The sinful Kings have broken covenant and they have injured those who belong to YHWH. As one author points out, “The continual problem with kingship was the tendency to forget who the people belonged to.” The people of Israel belonged to the God of Israel and their suffering did not go unnoticed.

God points out the sin of commissions (those actions which should not be preformed) in verse

3 You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep.

The Kings are accused of eating the fat, clothing themselves, and slaughtering the sheep. Because God uses metaphors to describe these charges they do not hit us as it should. For these actions were against the people of God, people very similar to us. People with family and jobs that are being ruined.

Eating the fat speaks of theft practiced by the Kings. The fruit of Israel's labor was taken from them by force. The thought of these Kings clothing themselves with Israel’s wool is meant to show how the abuse has left Israel exposed naked , without covering from her enemies. And again, instead of providing and feeding Israel, the Kings have actually slaughtered them. This idea conveys judicial murder without cause.

Not only are the shepherds guilty of the sins of commissions but also for sins of omission. In verse 4 we see the list of sins that the Kings committed through neglecting the flock.

4 The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them.

What is so striking though is that when God accuses the Kings of ruling with harshness the word that is used is “parek” and this word is only used in a few places in the Old Testament. In we do find this word used to describe how the Egyptians treated the Hebrew slaves. And now God is charging the Kings with the same type of brutality that they as a nation once faced. These Kings should have known better to treat others this way.

But is it not true that our own hearts know how easy it is to abuse others when we ourselves are in a position of authority.

**Husbands**

**Parents** **Employers**

And we find in verses 5 & 6 what this abuse has led to.

5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. 6 My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.

The people of God have become slaves to foreign Kings and are now scattered.

With God’s people conquered and sent in Babylon we can see the hopeless that God’s people must have faced. It is so easy not to see this story in its historical context. The covenant people who were trusting in the promises of God are left in despair. They have been oppressed and abused by unfaithful Kings and leaders over Israel. And now having been conquered by foreign enemies they are exiled to Babylon. Having ungodly kings was a horrible thing but to be thrown out of the Promise Land would have been unthinkable. Surly at this point the people of God would have felt totally abandon by the Lord

Yet as I have already said, Ezekiel writes to the people of God to provide hope. God through His appointed prophet Ezekiel, comforts His people. Even though the Kings have been faithless time and time again, YHWH will remain faithful to His promises and save His people.

22 I will rescue my flock; they shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep.

After judging the false shepherds God now promises to rescue His flock. We see so clearly His love towards His people. All of His sheep that have been abused, taken advantaged of, scattered and are left as helpless prey, He will rescue.

Ezekiel is writing so that God’s people will not forget just how faithful their God is. Even after they and their leaders have proven to be unfaithful time and time again, God remains faithful.

And Our Lord promises to fulfill His promises by establishing a true King, a true Shepherd over the people of God once again.

23 And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. 24 And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken.

God declares that He will setup His servant David to be the shepherd who will save and protect His people. This shepherd unlike the Kings of Israel will feed the sheep. He will cloth them and strengthen them. He will heal the sick, bind up the wounded, seek and bring back the lost, and He will rule over them with mercy and grace.

But at this point in history King David has been dead for some time. What hope does a dead King bring to God’s people? But YHWH is not announcing that He will raise David up from the grave.

Instead YHWH will fulfill His covenant with David that through His line will come the true and everlasting King over Israel. In the Lord says to David “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” This offspring of David will be anointed to fulfill the work of God. He will be the one who rescues the lost sheep.

And as Christians we know exactly who this Shepherd- King is. Jesus is the offspring of David, who has been anointed by God to seek and to safe the lost sheep.

Jesus, our faithful Shepherd says in

11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 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. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 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.

Unlike a hired shepherd who runs when facing danger, unlike the Kings that the Lord is against in Ezekiel, Jesus is the good shepherd who has come to rescue the sheep.

He will stop at nothing to save them from their enemies. Even at the expense of His own life.

As our good Shepherd, Jesus continues to feed His flock. Remember this as we gather in worship as King Jesus speaks to us through His Word. Remember this as Jesus feed us with His sacraments. He has spread out a feast for us so we may be nourished and feed spiritual. Even as Jesus has ascended into Heaven and is now seated at the right hand of the Father, He does not stop being our Shepherd- King.

I love how the WSC speaks about Jesus as our King.

It says “Christ executes the office of a King by subduing us to Himself and ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all His and our enemies.”

This very night, Jesus Christ is ruling all things as our good Shepherd. He continues to feed us, to defended us, to rule all things so that His flock may be brought safely to a Heavenly pasture.

But Jesus as the good Shepherd continues to gather lost sheep. Redemption has been accomplish by the work of Christ and it is still being applied as He gathers lost sheep.

This is one of the reasons that I love the church so much. If we truly believe that the primary way the Lord converts sinners and builds up Christians is through the means of grace, through God’s Word being faithful preached, then we will be a people who pray for God’s blessing upon our churches. We will pray that He will keep our pastors faithful. We will long to come to worship each week knowing that here God feeds us in order that we may become more and more like Jesus.

The hymn “I Was a Wandering Sheep” captures this so well. Listen to the lyrics and think about how wonderful our Lord Jesus Christ is.

I was a wand'ring sheep,

I did not love the fold;

I did not love my Shepherd's voice,

I would not be controlled.

I was a wayward child,

I did not love my home;

I did not love my Father's voice,

I loved afar to roam.

Jesus my Shepherd is;

'Twas he that loved my soul,

'Twas he that washed me in his blood,

'Twas he that made me whole;

'Twas he that sought the lost,

That found the wand'ring sheep,

'Twas he that brought me to the fold,

'Tis he that still doth keep.

I was a wand'ring sheep,

I would not be controlled;

But now I love my Shepherd's voice,

I love, I love the fold.

I was a wayward child,

I once preferred to roam;

But now I love my Father's voice,

I love, I love his home

Is it not true that each and every one of us who are in Christ can testify to how Jesus the great shepherd has saved us. How we were lost, pursuing our own desires. We didn’t desire to be found, we didn’t even know we were lost. We were nothing more than a wondering sheep. But indeed He has saved us. This is the hope that gives to us today.

Jesus fulfills by rescuing us at the cost of His own life. AND Because of His work we can truly say, the Lord is My Shepherd. AMEN