How does the history of human leadership contrast with that of the Good Shepherd? Let’s begin in Ezekiel 34.
What did God say against corrupt leaders, who exploited Israel for personal gain instead of caring for the people?
The Lord’s word came to me: Human one, prophesy against Israel’s shepherds. Prophesy and say to them, The Lord God proclaims to the shepherds: Doom to Israel’s shepherds who tended themselves! Shouldn’t shepherds tend the flock? You drink the milk, you wear the wool, and you slaughter the fat animals, but you don’t tend the flock. (Ezek 34:1-3 CEB)
Did God sharply condemn Israel’s national leaders as shepherds that cruelly neglect, exploit, and fail to protect the people?
You have never protected the weak ones or healed the sick ones or bandaged those that get hurt. You let them wander off and never look for those that get lost. You are cruel and mean to my sheep. They strayed in every direction, and because there was no shepherd to watch them, they were attacked and eaten by wild animals. So my sheep were scattered across the earth. They roamed on hills and mountains, without anyone even bothering to look for them. (Ezek 34:4-6 CEV)
Did God condemn national leaders for exploiting the people and leaving them neglected, abused, and scattered?
Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: As I live, declares the Lord God, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them. (Ezek 34:7-10 ESV)
Does God promise as the Good Shepherd to find, gather, and care for His scattered, neglected people?
For this is what the Lord God says: See, I Myself will search for My flock and look for them. As a shepherd looks for his sheep on the day he is among his scattered flock, so I will look for My flock. I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered on a cloudy and dark day.
I will bring them out from the peoples, gather them from the countries, and bring them into their own land. I will shepherd them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the land. I will tend them with good pasture, and their grazing place will be on Israel’s lofty mountains. There they will lie down in a good grazing place; they will feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. (Ezek 34:11-14 HCSB)
Did God promise to step in as the true Shepherd of Israel, remove evil leadership and provide justice, rest, and protection?
I will feed my sheep and give them rest,’ declares the Lord God. ‘I’m going to seek both the lost as well as the scattered, and bring them both back so their broken bones can be set and the sick can be healed. But in righteousness I’ll exterminate the fat and the stiff-necked.’
Now as for you, my flock, this is what the Lord God says: ‘Watch out! I’m going to judge between one sheep and another, and between the rams and the goats. Is it such an insignificant thing to you that you’re feeding in good pastures but trampling down the other pastures with your feet? Or that as you’re drinking from the clear streams you’re muddying the rest with your feet? My flock is grazing on what you’ve been treading down with your feet and they’re drinking what you’ve been making muddy with your feet!’ (Ezek 34:15-19 ISV)
Will God step in to judge self-serving, powerful people within the nation who mistreat and exploit the vulnerable?
Therefore thus saith the Lord God unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle. Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad; Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle. (Ezek 34:20-22 KJV)
Does God promise to replace corrupt, self-serving leaders with a righteous descendant of David to care for His people?
Then I will establish over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will shepherd them; he will shepherd them himself and be their shepherd. And I, Yahweh, will be their God, and My servant David will be prince among them; I, Yahweh, have spoken. (Ezek 34:23-24 LSB)
Does God promise ultimate peace, safety, and abundance after rebuking corrupt, self-serving leaders?
And I will make a covenant of peace with them and eliminate harmful animals from the land, so that they may live securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. I will make them and the places around My hill a blessing.
And I will make showers fall in their season; they will be showers of blessing. Also the tree of the field will yield its fruit and the earth will yield its produce, and they will be secure on their land. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bars of their yoke and have saved them from the hand of those who enslaved them. (Ezek 34:25-27 NASB)
Does God contrast abusive human leadership with His own tender care of His people as the Good Shepherd?
They will no longer be plundered by the nations, nor will wild animals devour them. They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid. I will provide for them a land renowned for its crops, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations. 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 God, declares the Sovereign Lord. (Ezek 34:28-31 NIV)
What makes Jesus stand apart from any human leadership?
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. (John 10:11-15 NKJV)
How does the history of human leadership contrast with that of the Good Shepherd? You decide!
