Good Shepherd

The Great Shepherd

Lois Tverberg

When we hear the term “the Good Shepherd,” many of us immediately think of Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want…” But there are actually several messianic passages about “the Shepherd” in the Old Testament, and we can learn a lot about Jesus’ mission and message by what these passages say about him. Let’s look at a few:

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” … He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And He will be their peace. (Micah 5:2, 4-5)

We can see many truths about Jesus as our shepherd even in this passage. It says that he will be born in Bethlehem, like his ancestor David, who was a shepherd. His origins are from many ages ago, suggesting that he was co-eternal with his Father. It says he would have a kingdom that would expand to the ends of the world, and that he himself would be the source of the peace of his people. What powerful words!

Another passage about the shepherd describes his suffering too. Jesus quotes Zechariah 13 which says,

“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man, my Associate (one who is close to me),” declares the LORD of hosts. “Strike the shepherd that the sheep may be scattered; and I will turn my hand against the little ones. (Zech. 13:7)

This passage suggests that the messiah would have an especially close relationship with God, but yet God would allow him to be attacked and harmed by others. Jesus quotes this passage to tell his disciples that he expects to suffer, and that they as his “sheep” would be scattered: they would abandon him at his death (Matt 26:31, Mark 14:27).

Another passage where the shepherd is mentioned is in Isaiah 40. There, we hear about a person who would come before him who would be a voice crying out, “In the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord.” We recognize this as the passage referring to John the Baptist (Jn 1:23). The rest of the passage talks about the shepherd who is coming after him:

A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. …You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, “Here is your God!” See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power, and his arm rules for him. See, His reward is with him, and His recompense accompanies Him. He tends His flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; He gently leads those that have young. (Isaiah 40:3, 9-11)

Here, the amazing thing is that the shepherd who comes after the one who calls out is actually the Lord God himself! If this passage is about John the Baptist and Jesus, the implications are quite clear — the Messiah that John was proclaiming would be God incarnate.

Many messianic prophecies describe the coming of a great king, but do not explicitly say that he would be divine. This one, however, seems to imply that the LORD himself will come as the shepherd.

One of the most important passages about the Good Shepherd is in Ezekiel 34. It also has some very powerful things to say about the Shepherd:

For thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day.” “I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest,” declares the Lord GOD. “I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with judgment. “As for you, My flock, thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Behold, I will judge between one sheep and another, between the rams and the male goats. …“ (Ezek. 34:11-12,15-17)

This passage contains several rich things that are in the background of Jesus’ statements about himself. We can hear the background of Jesus’ parable about the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to look for the one lost sheep (Luke 15:4-7), or when he said he will judge between the sheep and the goats when he returns (Matt. 25:31-34). We even find a reference to this passage in his words to Zacchaeus: “…the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:9-10).

The Ezekiel passage clearly says it would be God himself who would come to seek out his lost sheep, and Jesus repeatedly says he is the fulfillment of these words. Through this, his listeners would have heard his very bold claim that not only is he the Messiah, he is God incarnate, coming to earth to rescue his people.

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Photos: Patrick Schneider on Unsplash, FOYN on Unsplash

The Fat and Lean Sheep

Lois Tverberg

by Lois Tverberg

“I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest,” declares the Lord GOD. “I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with judgment. Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD to them, “Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. “Because you push with side and with shoulder, and thrust at all the weak with your horns until you have scattered them abroad, therefore, I will deliver My flock, and they will no longer be a prey; and I will judge between one sheep and another. Ezekiel 34:15-16, 20-22

Jesus calls himself the “good shepherd,” alluding to the rich imagery of the 34th chapter of Ezekiel, which is all about the “shepherd,” God himself, who was going to come to save his people. It is interesting that in that passage, it talks about the shepherd as judge of his sheep – the fat and the lean sheep. It reminds us of Jesus words about judging the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25:32.

SheepThe idea of shepherd as judge uses imagery that needs the context of real life shepherding. Like chickens who have a “pecking order,” sheep establish a dominance order with the strongest claiming the best feeding ground and fighting the weaker ones to establish their position. The constant competition can become a great stress in the flock, with the strongest butting the weakest and driving them from areas to graze. The strong get stronger as they have access to the best grass, and the weak get weaker by being constantly harried. Any shepherd who sees this has great compassion for the weaker sheep that are abused by this process. Good shepherds will even discipline the most abusive sheep in their flock.

It’s fascinating how closely sheep parallel human nature. In almost every social environment there is competition for dominance and a desire to push to the top at the expense of others. Gossip, snobbery, elitism and social class structure are facts of life for us, and we all know who is popular and who is unpopular.

This prophecy says that God himself is on the side of the “thin sheep,” those who are excluded, pushed out and ostracized. He gets angry when a teenage girl is the butt of cruel jokes because she isn’t cool enough. Or when a young man gets passed over for a promotion because of dirty office politics. One day he will set everything right, and he cares about the least as much as the greatest. He is the true shepherd, and the final judge.

Photo: Hans

Bursting Out of the Pen

Lois Tverberg

by Lois Tverberg

I will bring them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in its pasture; the place will throng with people. One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate and go out. Their king will pass through before them, the LORD at their head. – Micah 2:12-13

In Micah, we find a passage about a “shepherd” that was considered very messianic in the time of Jesus. His listeners understood that the “one who breaks open the way” was the messenger, who would cause people to repent and be ready for the Messiah, and that the Messiah was the shepherd king going out with the sheep. Interestingly, the passage says that the Shepherd is the LORD – hinting that the Messiah is God himself! (We have the benefit of being able to look back and can see how this passage was prophecy about John the Baptist and Jesus.)

This passage is much more meaningful if we understand the imagery behind it, that of shepherding. It tells us that the flock will be gathered together like many sheep in a pen, and “one who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate and go out.”

Pen in pasture

In biblical times, the shepherd would lead the sheep around open land to graze all day. As they sun was going down, he would herd them into a pen made with boulders or into a cave closed with boulders. He himself would sleep in the gate or “be” the gate. In the morning, the sheep would be restless, hungry, bursting with energy and eager to get out to pasture.

Suddenly, one of the shepherd’s helpers would “break open the way” by pushing aside a boulder in the fence. The sheep wouldn’t just leave calmly – they would burst out in a stampede, breaking through the other boulders in their way. The shepherd would exit along with them and then they would follow the him out to pasture.

The picture is really one of a people who are full of joy at the coming of their Messiah – like sheep that are stampeding out of their pen after a night of being confined. The “sheep” of the messianic shepherd will be exuberant at his coming, and eager to follow where ever he leads. He heals us from our diseases and releases us from the bondage and guilt of sin. Our Shepherd, the LORD Himself, has come to save us now and forever!

This passage in Micah was probably alluded to by Jesus in Matthew 11:12. For more about that reference, read the article “The Kingdom Breaks Forth” at this link.

Photo: Bob Jones

The Great Shepherd

Lois Tverberg

by Lois Tverberg

I am the good shepherd, and I know my own and my own know me, even as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. – John 10:14

ShepherdJesus says “I am the good shepherd” in John’s gospel, and we may not realize that the image of the “shepherd” as the Messiah is all over the Old Testament, in Micah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah and other books. In the next few devotionals we will look at what these Messianic prophecies said about Jesus.

What is a “good shepherd”? In his classic book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, (1) Phillip Keller describes the difference between the good and bad shepherd, and the lesson he learned:

In memory I can still see one of the sheep ranches in our district which was operated by a tenant sheepman. He ought never to have been allowed to keep sheep. He gave little or no time to his flock. Every year these poor creatures were forced to gnaw away at bare brown fields and impoverished pastures. Shelter to safeguard and protect the suffering sheep from storms and blizzards was scanty and inadequate. In their thin, weak and diseased condition these poor sheep were a pathetic sight. To all their distress, the heartless, selfish owner seemed utterly callous and indifferent.

I never looked at those sheep without an acute awareness that this was a precise picture of those wretched old taskmasters, Sin and Satan, on their derelict ranch — scoffing at the plight of those within their power. It is a picture of the pathetic people of the world over who have not known what it is to belong to the Good Shepherd, who suffer instead under sin and Satan. How amazing it is that individual men and women vehemently refuse and reject the claims of Christ on their lives. He came to set men free of their own sins, their own selves, their own fears. Those so liberated loved Him with fierce loyalty. It is this One who insists that He was the Good Shepherd, the understanding Shepherd, the concerned Shepherd who cares enough to seek out and save and restore lost men and women.

(1) Phillip Keller, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, 1996, Zondervan, ISBN 0-310-21435-1. The passages above are from Chapter 1, “The Lord is My Shepherd.”

Photo: http://www.artnet.de/artist/16406/henry-ossawa-tanner.html

Ro’eh – Shepherd

Lois Tverberg

by Lois Tverberg

As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them… Ezekiel 34:12

The picture of the shepherd was often used in the Bible for kings and leaders, in particular about God as shepherd of his people, as in Psalm 23. Interestingly, many passages in the Old Testament use images of shepherds to refer to the coming Messiah. One of the most important passages about the “Good Shepherd” is in Ezekiel 34:

For thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day.” “I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest,” declares the Lord GOD. “I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick;…“As for you, My flock, thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Behold, I will judge between one sheep and another, between the rams and the male goats. …“ (Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15 -17)

This passage contains several rich things that are in the background of Jesus’ statements about himself. We can hear the background of Jesus’ parable about the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to look for the one lost sheep (Luke 15:4-7). We also hear Jesus words about how when he comes again, he will judge between the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31 – 34). Jesus was also probably referring to this passage in his words to Zacchaeus: “…the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19:9-10).

What is most interesting is that the Ezekiel passage clearly says that it would be God Himself who would come to seek out his lost sheep, and Jesus repeatedly says that he is the fulfillment of these words. Through this, his listeners would have heard his very bold claim that not only is he the Messiah, he is God incarnate, coming to earth to rescue his people.

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Further reading:

See Listening to the Language of the Bible, by Lois Tverberg and Bruce Okkema, En-Gedi Resource Center, 2004. This is a collection of devotional essays that mediate on the meaning of biblical words and phrases in their original setting.

For a friendly, bite-sized Bible study of five flavorful Hebrew words, see 5 Hebrew Words that Every Christian Should Know, by Lois Tverberg, OurRabbiJesus.com, 2014 (ebook).