The Epochal Horizon, Part 2
The image of the king as a shepherd of the sheep of Israel has two underlying notions to it. This is where we will see some of that overlap I mentioned a moment ago. The connection between David and this “true shepherd” who is the future king of Israel is all the more relevant when we grasp that David himself was at one time a shepherd. By calling this new king a shepherd the prophet is immediately connecting him with the Davidic dynasty, without saying so specifically.
The second connection is between this “true shepherd” and God Himself. There are several other places in Scripture where God refers to Himself as a shepherd. Genesis 49:24 is one example, but Lamar Cooper is probably right when he identifies Psalm 23 as the best known example. Cooper writes:
David provided insight not only into God’s role as “Shepherd” but also into the responsibility of kings to be rightly related to God. The king was to be the undershepherd and God the true King and Shepherd. Psalm 23 was David’s personal commitment to this principle. “The Lord is my Shepherd” (Ps. 23:1) was a personal declaration that he, David the king, had a King/Shepherd, who was Yahweh.[1]
The whole of Ezekiel chapter 34 re-enforces this connection with the powerful and comforting “I will” statements of God. Verse 11 reads, “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.” God is the shepherd of Ezekiel 34, it He who will seek out His sheep. He will rescue, gather, feed, bind up, strengthen, seek, and cause to lie down. Yahweh, God, is the shepherd and none other.
Through the “Redemptive-Historical” lens we can see that Ezekiel 34 is a prophecy concerning the coming Messiah. The promise to David of a descendant who would possess a special favor with God was apprehended by the whole nation and they waited anxiously for the appearing of this Davidic king. The exile, however, dashed their hopes and left them not only without a king, but without a land for a king to rule over. It is from this point on that the messianic promise takes on the form of the prophetic. The prediction of the coming king assures the people that God has not forgotten and will still keep His promise to David. Ezekiel 34 is right in line with these prophecies as the true shepherd of Israel will bring the people back into their own land, put them at rest, and rule over them as God’s appointed representative.
[1]Lamar Eugene Cooper, The New American Commentary. Vol. 17. (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1994). 301.
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