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The Wicked Shepherds
"Wicked Shepherds"
When I was a pastor of local congregations, the severe warnings to the shepherds of Israel in Ezekiel 34 haunted me.
I did NOT want to be one of those.
The promise to the shepherds is that they will lose their sheep and will no longer be able to use them as food or clothing or anything else.
The shepherds think only of themselves and care not for the sheep.
The promise to the sheep is that God will take direct responsibility for and care of the sheep.
It’s the radical promise of spiritual autonomy without an unhealthy dependence on spiritual authority and the abusers of power.
Some see spiritual independence as rebellion.
But I love seeing people exercising it.
1 comment
Confused. Just read 34; it seems to allow for good shepherds (those who “have strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured… (or have) brought back the strays or searched for the lost.” Trust me, 16 years of Catholic school, I’ve met some vile “shepherds” but have benefited from others. That said I am not of the mind that one needs to be “churched” to be …well, anything. Am I overthinking what you’re saying here?