The Shepherds Of Israel

Hello! and happy good mid-week to all of us, GUYS.  Our "daily bread" this Wednesday:

THE GOOD NEWS (17 August 2016)

"The word of YAHWEH came to me in these terms, 'Son of man, speak on my behalf against the shepherds of Israel!  Say to the shepherds on my behalf: Woe to the shepherds of  Israel who feed themselves!  Should not the shepherds feed the flock?  But you feed on milk and are clothed in wool, and you slaughter the fattest sheep.  You have not taken care of the flock, you have not strengthened the weak, cared for the sick or bandaged the injured.  You have not gone after the sheep that strayed or searched for the one that was lost.  Instead you ruled them harshly and were their oppressors.  They have scattered for want of a shepherd and became prey of wild animals.  MY sheep wander over the mountains and high hills; and when they are scattered throughout the land, no one bothers about them or looks for them.

The Good Shepherd

Hear then shepherds, what YAHWEH says: As I live - word of YAHWEH, - because MY sheep have been the prey of wild animals and become their food for want of shepherds, because the shepherds have not cared for MY sheep, because you shepherds have not bothered about them but fed yourselves and not the flocks, because of that, hear the word of YAHWEH.  This is what YAHWEH says: I will ask an account of the shepherds and reclaim MY sheep from them.  No longer shall they tend MY flock; nor shall there be shepherds who feed themselves.  I shall save the flock from their mouths and no longer shall it be food for them.

Ezekiel 34:1-11Indeed YAHWEH says this: I MYSELF will care for my sheep and watch over them'." -

(The LORD YAHWEH gathers HIS scattered flock.

There are two parts to this long comparison in which YAHWEH promises to become the shepherd of HIS flock:

- a revolution,

- a judgment.

Speak on MY behalf against the shepherds of Israel.  Here YAHWEH announces a radical change in the social life of Israel: HE will replace all the shepherds.  The expression "shepherd" applies to all civil authorities, and thus includes the king, the magistrates and the judges.  It does not include the priests and the prophets.  This is contrary to modern usage, since for us the word "pastor" [shepherd] refers only to the spiritual leaders of a community.

Should not the shepherds feed the flock?  The flock does not belong to the shepherds.  YAHWEH condemns the leaders of HIS people who find it normal to enjoy power and wealth without first seeing themselves as the servants of the people.  We can easily imagine the misery of the Jewish people in the days about which Ezekiel writes, immediately after the catastrophe in Jerusalem:

- weak, hungry, sick sheep;

- stray sheep: wandering without home or work, isolated, alienated by the lies of their rulers;

- they became the prey of all the nations, they were taken into exile, or left their homeland looking for work.

I MYSELF will care for MY sheep.  Now YAHWEH has rejected Israel's leaders who have disappeared in the catastrophe and promises to become Israel's pastor.  YAHWEH will be the good shepherd and HE names the responsibilities of a shepherd: to gather, protect, and feed everyone, and to hold back the very powerful.)

On-Track