Apr 17, 2007 - The Shepherd

Apr 17, 2007

Eze 34:23-24 KJVR
(23) And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.
(24) And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it.

The Old Testament is full of prophecies of Jesus. In fact there are so many of them, the chances of them all coming true are high. You would have a better chance of winning the lottery than all of them happening. And yet they did.

One of the most clear prophetic utterances comes from the book of Ezekiel. In it, the savior is referred to as a shepherd. This was a common image that the people would know and understand. Shepherds are not that clear of an image today, so we need to understand what the people knew.

A shepherd was usually a unmarried man. His whole emphasis was on tending to the sheep and that could not be done if he was married. Sometimes several shepherds would come together for one large heard, but this was not the usual case. He would be the one to guide them and make sure they had food to eat. Since valleys were places that grain could grow for people consumption so the shepherd was usually on the more mountain areas. This is where the more wild animals would live, so he was constantly having to watch that they did not get to the sheep. He was a hired hand but a trusted one. He could be a family member He would be responsible for any lost sheep. His job was to return them back to owner, all of them.

This is a clear picture of Jesus that the religious leaders should have seen. He was a single man with a single purpose. He was to deliver us to the heavenly Father, as a son of the owner. He did not wish that any of the sheep would be lost. He nourishes us and watches out for the beast Satan.

Clearly a picture of what Jesus was. Clearly a fact that the religious leaders ignored. Clearly, if we wish to understand what is meant, we need to look at the times they were written in. Take some time to research the shepherd today.