Day 430: The shepherd from God – Jeremiah 23 vs 1 – 8
1-2 ‘Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!’ declares the Lord. Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: ‘Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,’ declares the Lord.
3-4 ‘I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number. I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,’ declares the Lord. 5-6 ‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Saviour.
7-8 ‘So then, the days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when people will no longer say, “As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,” but they will say, “As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.” Then they will live in their own land.’ Jeremiah 23:1-8 New International Version
People in leadership positions, whether Kings, Presidents, Prime Ministers, or even Bishops and Popes, carry a great responsibility because of the influence they have on the lives of so many others. That's why God was angry with the leaders in Jerusalem. Instead of caring for His people they had caused them great harm. (vs 1-2) God was going to punish those who had so failed to shepherd his people. Some would perish when the Babylonians destroyed the city and others would be sent into exile. Fortunately the story doesn't end there. What else did God say through Jeremiah? (vs 3-6)
He speaks of a time when He would bring the exiles back to the land of Israel and raise up people who would be shepherds who took care of the sheep. Even more than that, He speaks of giving them a King who would rule wisely and with justice. What marvellous mercy this is that God would still deal so kindly with a people who had let Him down so continually. So who would that King be?
The most likely answer is that it referred initially to a man named Zerubbabel. He was a grandson of King Jehoiachin and a descendant of King David. He was also an ancestor of Jesus. He became Governor of the Jews who returned from exile in Babylon and was used in a big way by God for rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem which the Babylonians had destroyed. But the reference to him being 'a righteous branch' and the title of 'The Lord our Righteous Saviour' (vs 5-6) seems to take us beyond Zerubbabel to the ultimate King that God would send to be the perfect Shepherd of His people.
What was the promise God gave that Zerubbabel would've seen coming true in his day? (vs7-8)
It was the promise that, just as God had once brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, so people would speak one day of how the Lord brought the Israelites back from all the places where they had been scattered to through the exile. Zerubbabel was himself one of those people who God brought back from Babylon. This act of bringing people from the North is more greatly fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. He told the apostles to go into all the world with the gospel. And in the last book of the Bible we read: “I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10) The true Shepherd brings God's sheep safely home.