The Good Shepherd

God takes the responsibility for our whole salvation. He will never leave us nor forsake us. Rom 8:30 says that those whom He justified He also glorified. This speaks of the resurrection of the body, but it also shows that God has a programme for our life which He is working out. As Paul said, He will finish that which He started (Phil 1:6). He is the author and the finisher of our faith (Heb 12:2).

Christ is the shepherd of our souls (1 Pet 2:25). He is the one who guides us. David showed this in the 23rd Psalm, “The Lord is my Shepherd.”. He leads me. He corrects me. He causes me to lie down and to drink. All these things are too big for us to handle. Our need is beyond our own knowledge. We are “His workmanship.” (Eph 2:10). God matures us. We do not do it by applying a list of devotional rules.

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. And I the Lord will be their God and My Servant David a prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it. (Ezek 34:23-24).

The prophet used metaphorical language to represent the New Covenant: David His chosen, Israel His flock, the land His redemption and the temple His body. In John 10 Jesus said this was fulfilled, “And when He puts forth His own sheep, He goes before them and the sheep follow Him…I am the good shepherd.” (John 10:4).

Hear the word of the Lord, O you nations and declare it in the isles afar off and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him and keep him, as a shepherd gathers his flock. (Jer 31:10).

Here we see also the false shepherds. They do not serve the body, but make the people serve them:

Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, Thus says the Lord God to the shepherds; Woe to the shepherds of Israel that feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? (Ezek 34:2).

God pastors our life:

As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out My sheep and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. (Ezek 34:12).

The union of the Gentiles with Israel, not in the Second Coming of Christ, but in the church today:

And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold...(John 10:16).

The Shepherd heals us body, soul and spirit. Healing here is for the whole man, including everything in Psalm 23, full maturity in Christ:

Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes you were healed. For you were as sheep going astray; but are now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. (1 Pet 2:24-25).

He is our chief Shepherd. Peter’s theme is that he and the other apostles were Christ’s under-shepherds. There is one teacher, one shepherd, one mediator between man and God, Christ:

Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fades not away. (1 Pet 5:3-4).

Those shepherds today who eat of the flock will not receive a reward, but will receive judgement when He comes. 2nd Peter and Jude show this very clearly. Those who put fear and superstition on people and keep back the keys of the kingdom (the free redemption in Christ) and then exact offerings are thieves and robbers and will be judged for it.

It is plain that maturity is not of us, but it is through the Shepherd whom the Father appointed for this very task. This is why it is a better Covenant with better promises, for we have a reliable Shepherd who cannot fail. “He makes intercession for us, that we might be saved to the uttermost.” (Heb 7:25).