Thursday, August 14, 2008

Faithless Shepherds in the Old Testament

This is a complaint God had against so-called "shepherds" in the Old Testament who weren't doing what they were supposed to do, and the dire implications it had for God's sheep:
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds,

Thus says the Lord
God:

Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves!
Should not shepherds feed the sheep?
You eat the fat,
you clothe yourselves with the wool,
you slaughter the fat ones,
but you do not feed the sheep.

The weak you have not strengthened,
the sick you have not healed,
the injured you have not bound up,
the strayed you have not brought back,
the lost you have not sought, and
with force and harshness you have ruled them.

So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts.

My sheep were scattered;
they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill.

My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth,
with none to search or seek for them.


Ezekiel 34:1-6

All quotes from The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

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