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Chapter 23:1-4 (ESV) - “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD. Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the LORD. Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the LORD.
Question to consider: How did the shepherds destroy and scatter the sheep in Jeremiah’s day?
The shepherds of the people were the scribes and teachers of the Law. At the time of Jeremiah, they destroyed and scattered the people because they taught them strange worship. They set up Asherah poles and high places to Baal while the Law of God remained hidden from the people, and they even allowed their children to participate in their idolatry. This directly resulted in the destruction of Judah and the holy city of Jerusalem.
The LORD wielded Babylon and Assyria as His swords against the kingdoms of Judah and Israel so that the shepherds were struck down and the sheep were scattered throughout the nations. In one sense, the LORD called the remnant of His flock from the nations when the city of Jerusalem was rebuilt during the reign of king Zerubbabel and the high priest Joshua. Faithful shepherds like Ezra brought the people back to the Law, and they turned from their pagan worship.
However, the true fulfillment of today’s passage happened at the incarnation and ministry of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who came for the lost sheep of Israel. At the time in which Christ began His ministry, the shepherds who destroyed and scattered the flock were the Pharisees. Jesus called them thieves and robbers, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.” (John 10:1). The Pharisees did not enter the sheepfold by the door of Torah. There was no “office of the Pharisee” in scripture. They “climbed in another way” by proclaiming that they received their traditions from God, and they hated Jesus for pointing out where their traditions directly violated the Law of Moses and that their authority was not from the LORD but from the devil. “Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:43-44)
The Pharisees scattered the flock by imposing heavy burdens on them with their traditions that either crushed people into walking away from the faith or got them kicked out of the synagogue for violating traditions that ignored the mercy of the LORD. Jesus pronounced a woe upon them for this, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.” (Matthew 23:13, 15)
Thus, Jesus went about the Galilean countryside preaching His kingdom of mercy and healing the sick. Flocks of people emptied out the synagogues and followed Jesus, and He ate with tax collectors and sinners who had been cast out. After Jesus established the new covenant in His blood on the cross, He went to reign at the right hand of the Father and sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost when the remnant of the flock from all over the Roman world heard the good news of Christ in their own native language, and the church was born.
Dear heavenly Father, thank You for gathering the remnant of Your flock at Pentecost and for giving Your church faithful shepherds who preach Christ crucified for the forgiveness of our sins. Please keep us from the deceiving wolves who seek to profit off of Your sheep and devour the weak. Amen.