Here’s What a Shepherd-King Provides for You!

Last Sunday of End Time, Christ the King, 11/20/11
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 23-24


Here’s What a Shepherd-King Provides for You!
I. A passionate rescue
II. A rich pasture
III. A gracious rule


Proverbs 11:14 proclaims, “For lack of guidance a nation falls.” Even if you don’t consider yourself to be a student of history, you know how true those words are. Every nation needs good leadership and when that doesn’t occur, the people suffer.

I’ll let you make your own applications regarding the truth of that statement for us as citizens of our country. That’s not my place to do so for you.

But I will help you see how true that was for God’s Old Testament people, the nation of Judah. Today’s text is from the pen of God’s prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel was called by the Lord to proclaim God’s word to the exiles in Babylon after the first deportation of exiles in 605 BC. In the opening words of Ezekiel 34 the Lord tells Ezekiel to make this scathing indictment, “Prophecy against the shepherds of Israel…Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves.” God used the title “shepherds” here to mean Israel’s leaders. That meant their kings who were ultimately responsible for the welfare of God’s people but it also included the false prophets who lied to the people, telling them only what they and their kings wanted to hear. Israel’s kings and false prophets had led God’s people away from him through idolatry and now there were no leaders of Israel at all.

So God promised to lead them. He promised to shepherd them. In verse after verse of our text he made one promise after another of what he would do for his people.

And that’s what a king should do. That’s what our God does for us. As we celebrate Christ as our King on this final Sunday of the church year, we look not only at what Jesus did as our King when he died on the cross for us and what he will do for us once we live with him eternally, but also what he does for us now. Here’s what a Shepherd-King provides for you! May our hearts be filled with trust in him and appreciation for him as our Shepherd-King!

Part I.

I mentioned a minute ago that the Babylonians exiled God’s people. Eventually several thousand would live as exiles in Babylon. But the Babylonians also left some of the poorest Jews behind in Israel. The Jews were not gathered to one place as God’s people according to the plan God had for them. Instead, they were scattered.

But they couldn’t blame God for it. God had patiently and persistently sent them one prophet after another to call them to repentance and back to the Lord as their God. But, for the most part, their kings wouldn’t listen and neither would the people. They preferred to listen to the false prophets whom the Lord hadn’t sent to them.

In short, the Lord no longer had anyone to lead his people. So he promised to do it himself. The Lord uses the picture of a shepherd caring for his sheep to describe what he would do for his people. “I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land.” To people living in exile these words promised them exactly what they were looking for. They longed to return to Jerusalem and here the Lord was promising it. He would gather up those who were scattered and he would give them a place of their own to live. Their exile would end.

What’s more he would strengthen and defend them. He refers to binding up the injured and strengthening the weak. He would rebuild them as a nation. He would act on his plan to send the world’s Savior through them. In order to do so, he would also defend them. Those who were filled with sinful pride and resisted the Lord’s will and plans would be destroyed. Sounds grand, doesn’t it?

But if you know the history of the Jews from the return from exile until the time when Jesus was born, you’d know it wasn’t grand at all. His people continued to face hardships, many of them severe. So what is the Shepherd-King really promising to provide here?

He’s promising a far greater blessing than simply an earthly home for a small nation of people. He’s promising an eternal home with all of God’s people in heaven. Before his crucifixion Jesus declared to Pilate that his kingdom was not of this world. Indeed, he was a King, but not as the world thought. He came to redeem for himself a people who would belong to him and live with him forever. That redemption cost him his perfect life and his innocent death. That was his plan all along. It flowed from a heart full of love for sinners. He would rescue sinners from eternal hell and give them life with him in heaven.

Here’s what a Shepherd-King provides for you—a passionate rescue!

Life’s not easy. There are troubles every day to deal with, and some of them are disasters. It’s no wonder why we simply want the strength to make it through the next day. I imagine God’s Old Testament people felt much the same way. But the Lord has much bigger plans in mind for his people and that surely includes you and me. As our eternal Shepherd-King Jesus didn’t suffer and die so that you and I could enjoy all our days on earth. He did so in order to win eternal life for us and so that we could enjoy his loving rule over us forever. So there’s our reason to place our personal pity parties at the foot of the cross and rejoice in the truth that Jesus has rescued us for eternity. That’s what a Shepherd-King provides for you!

Part II.

We all know that our basic earthly needs in life are food, clothing and shelter. This week we’ll give thanks to our God for meeting those needs sufficiently, often abundantly even in these difficult economic times. As our faithful God he provides for us.

God promised that very thing to his Old Testament people. He vowed, “I will pasture [my people] on the mountains of Israel. I will tend them in a good pasture.” Living in a pasture isn’t our idea of having our basic needs met. Far from it. But recall the setting of these words. The Lord is speaking as a Shepherd to his sheep. The only thing a sheep wants each and every day is a safe pasture to live in. Plenty of food and constant protection makes for a very contented sheep.

So what, exactly, was the Lord promising his people here? Surely these words meant the return of the exiles to Israel. The Lord would bless their efforts to re-establish their homes and their way of life in Israel.

But his deepest concern was for the spiritual life of his people. Recall that a neglect of their spiritual life had led to this crisis in the first place. The way to avoid another spiritual crisis was to stay connected with their God through his word. Our Shepherd-King’s greatest concern is that our souls are nourished with the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ. What do we gain if we die fat and happy in unbelief? All would then be lost. So our Shepherd-King leads us into the rich pasture of his word where he feeds our souls on his truth, chiefly on the truth that he is the God who saves us through the life and death of his Son.

Here’s what our Shepherd-King provides you—a rich pasture, food for your soul.

With our national holiday of thanks on everyone’s calendar this week, this makes a good time for us to ponder what we really need in life. Just a few minutes thinking about it will lead you to realize we have far more than we truly need and for that we ought to thank our gracious, generous God. But what do we truly need? What is our greatest need? As daily sinners, isn’t it forgiveness from our God? As sinners deserving of hell, isn’t it the gift of eternal life? And if you agree with me, then ponder how those greatest gifts come to you and me. Solely through the gospel—the good news of Jesus—in his word and sacrament. Our Shepherd-King provides us with that soul food richly. Lord, forgive us for taking that nourishment for granted! Lead us to appreciate your grace and lead us daily into that grace!

Part III.

There’s an unwritten rule that we save the best for last. In a way, that’s what our God does for us in this text from Ezekiel.

The Lord ends with these words, “I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the LORD have spoken.”

When the Lord spoke these words to Ezekiel, David had been dead for about 400 years. Obviously, he wasn’t talking about King David. Instead, he was speaking about King David’s descendant—his greatest descendant, Jesus Christ.

The reason Jesus came to this earth was to rescue us from Satan’s kingdom and bring us into his kingdom. That work was accomplished when the Shepherd sacrificed his life for the sheep. And now he has brought us into his kingdom by faith in him as that Savior. He did that not so that he could tax and abuse us, but so that he could bless us. His deepest desire is that we remain in his kingdom forever so that he can bless us with his presence forever. In order to accomplish that eternal goal, he now rules over all things, making sure things go according to his gracious plan for us.

At times that may be hard for us to comprehend, especially when the times are tough. I imagine it was hard for these Jewish exiles in Babylon to comprehend it as well. But it turned out just as the Shepherd-King had promised. It will certainly happen for us as well. He provides you with his gracious rule. May the peace of that rule fill your hearts and minds! Amen.