SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/7/2015
10:10 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Exploiting
and Abusing the Sheep
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
34:1-10
Message of the
verses: “1 Then the word of the LORD
came to me saying, 2 "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds
of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, ’Thus says the Lord GOD,
"Woe,
shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed
the flock? 3 “You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool, you
slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock. 4 "Those who are sickly you have not
strengthened, the diseased you
have not healed, the broken you have not bound up, the scattered you have not brought back, nor have you sought for
the lost; but with force and with severity you have dominated them. 5 “They
were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every beast of
the field and were scattered. 6 “My flock wandered through all the mountains
and on every high hill; My flock was scattered over all the surface of the
earth, and there was no one to search or seek for them."’" 7 Therefore, you
shepherds, hear the
word of the LORD: 8 "As I
live," declares the Lord GOD, "surely because My flock has become a
prey, My flock has even become food for all the beasts of the field for lack of
a shepherd, and My shepherds did not search for My flock, but rather the
shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock; 9 therefore, you
shepherds, hear the
word of the LORD: 10 ’Thus says
the Lord GOD, "Behold, I
am against the shepherds, and I will demand My sheep from them and make them
cease from feeding sheep. So the shepherds will not feed themselves anymore,
but I will deliver My flock from their mouth, so that they will not be food for
them."’"”
Who exactly is Ezekiel talking about when he is talking
about Israel’s shepherds? Let us take a
look at several OT verses to see if they can help us find out the answer to
that question. “7 “Wherever I have gone
with all the sons of Israel, did I speak a word with one of the tribes of
Israel, which I commanded
to shepherd My people Israel, saying, ’Why have you not built Me a house
of cedar?’"’ 8 “Now therefore,
thus you shall say to My
servant David, ’Thus says the LORD of hosts, "I took you from the
pasture, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people Israel (2 Sam.
7:7-8).” God is calling King David a
shepherd so these verses teach us that the kings of Israel were their
shepherds. The leaders of Israel were
suppose to shepherd Israel, but all they were doing is taking care of
themselves.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “Whenever leaders take from their people
but don’t give them something in return, they are exploiting them. But true leaders don’t exploit their people—they
sacrifice for them. Jesus the Shepherd
set the example by laying down His life for His flock (John 10:10).”
In my prayers for our pastors I have
a section in which there is a comparison between the Apostle Paul and our Lord
Jesus Christ. The reason it is there is
because Paul imitated the Lord and now Pastors are to imitate both the Lord and
Paul in their ministry for the Lord to His church. Unfortunately as in the case with Israel’s
shepherds we see something similar going on in the church today. I will quote that section here to show how
Jesus fulfilled being a shepherd while on earth and desires His pastors to do
the same as Him. ““If Paul is the ideal
human model of one with a pastor’s heart, that is only because he carefully
patterned his pastoral ministry after that of Jesus Christ, who perfectly
modeled the pastor’s heart during His earthly ministry. He was the ultimate example of affection for
His sheep (John 10:11-16, 27-28), unselfishness for His disciples (John
13:3-17), compassion for His people (John 11:33-44; cf. Matt. 23:37-39),
protectiveness toward His lambs (John 10:2-5), delight for His church (Matt.
16:18-19), gratitude for His followers (Matt. 11:25-30), and intercession for
His beloved children (John 17:6-26).
That model of the shepherd’s heart is the divine standard for all
pastors today.”
Now back to Israel’s Shepherds. As we see in our verses today the leaders of
Israel not only exploited the sheep but they also abused them by neglecting to
meet their needs. As I mentioned in our
last SD sheep require much attention and a good shepherd has to do a lot of
work to make sure his sheep do not get into trouble. Sheep will even follow a led sheep and if
that led sheep leads them in the wrong direction then they will all be in
trouble. I have read about how the
places where they kill the sheep for meat gets them to go into where they are
killed. They get a led sheep to get the
flock to follow them and then that led sheep is taken out of the way after he
leads the sheep to the slaughter. They
name that led sheep “the Judas sheep.”
Israel had a lot of them and so does the church today.
Ezekiel accuses the leaders of
Israel of causing the sheep to be scattered, something that a good shepherd
will not allow to happen. When sheep are
frightened they will run and not stay with the flock so a good leader will not
allow this to happen. Because Israel’s
leaders did not do a good job in taking care of their people they were finally
destroyed by the Babylonians and now many of them were killed and a few of them
went into exile and it is those in exile who are hearing this message from Ezekiel.
4/7/2015
10:41 PM
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