DAY 332

SHEEP, LAMBS & SHEPHERDS – 

NOT JUST FOR THANKSGIVING!

Ezekiel 33 & 34 and 1 Peter 5

I return to Ezekiel today and as happens every now and then, the New Testament lesson lines up with the Old.

In Ezekiel 33 we read a pretty basic message:

·         If I, God, tell you a message, and you tell that message to my people (my sheep), and they ignore the message, then it IS NOT on you, you were obedient and did what you should have done.

·         If I, God tell you a message, and you DO NOT tell that message to my people (my sheep), then whatever happens to them IS on you.

This seems like a pretty straightforward message: Ezekiel is the Watchman, he is watching for the Lord—in many ways he is a Shepherd. Shepherd is the theme of chapter 34. The Israelites would immediately understand this analogy for the image of Shepherd is planted deeply in their DNA. So deeply that it is used some 500 years later by Peter. This Jewish Disciple/Apostle of Jesus draws on this imagery as he writes to the persecuted church in Rome—shepherd the flock that is under your care…we read in 5:2.

It can be hard to shepherd a flock. First of all sheep are not the brightest animals in the world…and I wonder where the analogy breaks down…but the point is that it is hard and important work. The cares and concerns of being a shepherd can be high. It is why God instructs those in that position to cast all their anxieties on Him. We all should do that casting, but no one more so than the shepherds.

As I write this I cannot help but think of Jesus, He said, I am the Good Shepherd in John 10. He taught a parable in Luke 15 about how the shepherd, when his has lost one, leaves the 99 and goes and looks. In Ezekiel 33:11 we read, I myself will shepherd them and further in 33:16, I will seek the lost.

For centuries the people have been waiting for the good, trustworthy shepherd who puts the concerns of his flock before his own concerns…Jesus is this Good Shepherd.

Pretty straightforward…Happy Thanksgiving.