Day 479: When shepherds fail – Jeremiah 25 vs 34 - 38
34-35 Weep and wail, you shepherds; roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock. For your time to be slaughtered has come; you will fall like the best of the rams. The shepherds will have nowhere to flee, the leaders of the flock no place to escape.
36-38 Hear the cry of the shepherds, the wailing of the leaders of the flock, for the Lord is destroying their pasture. The peaceful meadows will be laid waste because of the fierce anger of the Lord. Like a lion he will leave his lair, and their land will become desolate because of the anger of the oppressor and because of the Lord’s fierce anger. Jeremiah 25:34-38 New International Version
Throughout this Chapter Jeremiah was God's messenger to many nations in that part of the world to tell them of God's judgement that was coming upon them. Now, in vs 34-38, he cries out against the Shepherd's of God's people. That would include their kings, priests and even the prophets. What is the essence of his message to them? (vs 34-35)
They would not somehow escape the destruction that was coming on the nation. Verses 36-38 press home the point. Notice how God’s anger was expressed through the anger of their oppressors. God uses the rage of people as a rod of discipline on His disobedient people. How do you think the leaders ought to have responded to Jeremiah's warning of what was coming?
They ought surely to have done what the people of the great city of Nineveh did when the prophet Jonah warned them of coming destruction. We read that: “When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust.” He then gave orders that all his citizens should humble themselves before God, and he said: “Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” (Jonah 3:6-9) Sadly, the Shepherds of Jerusalem didn't respond that way. The next chapter tells us that: “As soon as Jeremiah finished telling all the people everything the Lord had commanded him to say, the priests, the prophets and all the people seized him and said, ‘You must die!’” (Jeremiah 26:8)
The Shepherds of Jerusalem turned out to be the sort of shepherds Jesus spoke about in John 10:12-13 where He said: “The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.” Those who think Shepherding is just a means of income and the perks it brings are nothing but hired hands. They care nothing for the sheep and don't protect them from danger. How sad it is when kings and priests have used their positions to increase wealth and live in comfort and splendour rather than do the work a shepherd is meant to do.
But in John 10 vs 15 Jesus went on to say of Himself: “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me - just as the Father knows me and I know the Father - and I lay down my life for the sheep.” Jesus wasn't boasting there. He wasn't 'blowing his own trumpet'. He was stating the truth that He was willing to lay down His life for the sake of the sheep. And that's exactly what He did on the cross. He goes on in vs 17-18 of that chapter to say: “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life - only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.”
The difference between a good shepherd and shepherds who were just hired hands is their relationship with the Father. Jesus knew the Father and was willing to be fully obedient, even to laying down His life. And the Father loved Him. The shepherds of Jerusalem had long forgotten the Father and turned away from His will. And now the Father's anger was coming upon them. Blessed and happy are those who are in the flock of the good Shepherd.