We have all, I suspect, come across bad leadership. Bad leadership in the world, where, for example, corrupt politicians seek to serve their own interests at the expense of the citizens they are supposed to be taking care of. Two countries have had elections in recent weeks. Both sets of elections are very significant for both the country concerned and the wider region. One is Turkey and the other is Nigeria, and one of the midweek life groups that I lead has been particularly praying each week over these matters for Nigeria, and for what flowed out of the recent presidential elections. And that story is still unfolding.
The bad leadership in the world, but also bad leadership in the Church. It seems it is only every few months when some fresh scandal comes to light, either in this country or somewhere else in the world, of a church leader who used their position as a trusted leader in their church community to exploit and hurt those they were meant to serve in order to advance their own goals, objectives, careers, desires. Tragic every time those stories come to light.
And for some folks here, we haven't just come across these things in the news—where you kind of hear about secular or church leadership that has been abusive—some folk here, I suspect, have actually been on the receiving end of such things for themselves. You have experienced it. And so we're going to think this morning about good and bad leadership in the people of God, and we're going to do that with the help of Ezekiel chapter 34.
Let me just set some background. As Lee said, we've been working our way through this book, but for those of us whose memories are rusty, the year this chapter was first delivered was probably about 586–585 BC. In 597 BC, eleven years earlier, the Babylonian army swept into the city of Jerusalem because the people of Israel had been sinful and rebelled against their God. The Babylonians came in and deported some of the people of the land to come and live in Babylon. And that included the priest Ezekiel, who was then called to serve as a prophet to minister to his contemporaries in Babylon, in exile.
Now, the people who had been taken with Ezekiel, they were really hopeful that there might turn out not to be a disaster after all—that God might yet swoop in and rescue Jerusalem from fresh crisis. And for the first half of Ezekiel's book, it is Ezekiel telling the people: don’t pin your hopes on that. The sin of you and your colleagues and forebears and families back home is so serious, there will be no last-minute reprieve. It is the end of the land. There is no way back. The Babylonians will come back and finish the job. Don’t pin your hopes on this being a small little blip in the story—it is curtains for the city of Jerusalem. And that is what Ezekiel says in chapters 1 to 24.
But then the key moment in the book comes in the passage we looked at last week: chapter 33, verses 21 and 22. “In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth day”—he remembered the exact date—“a man who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me and said, ‘The city has fallen.’ Now the evening before the man arrived, the hand of the Lord was on me and he opened my mouth before the man came to me in the morning, so my mouth was opened and I was no longer silent.”
Here's the turning point. The news reaches Babylon that the city has now gone. And from that moment, Ezekiel's message could change. His mouth can be opened. He can now afford to speak messages of hope—because before, a message of hope would have been misunderstood. People would have heard it saying, “There's still a chance for things to be recovered.” But now they know that the city's gone, Ezekiel can speak words of hope, and the people know: this is not a naive poem. This is what God is going to build—something beautiful the other side of the exile.
And so the second half of Ezekiel's book is light and hope, as God speaks to his broken people in exile and says, “Now the exile has come, now you really know it is the end of the story, I’m going to break something brand new. We’re going to start again. It’s going to be brilliant.” And the idea is: so lift their heads up, lift their chin, lift their spirits and get the people to go—there is something amazing to look forward to.
And for us, as the people of God after the arrival of Jesus, we are partly reading of things that God has already done in the Lord Jesus, and we are partly reading of things that he is still yet to do. But they are chapters that are meant to ignite. And God's new plan for his people starts with new leadership. There will be a new king. But here's the surprise: the king they are to trust and follow is not Ezekiel. God is not saying, “I'm going to raise up a new line of kings for you.” No. God says, “I am going to do this myself. I will now step in. The new leadership of Israel will be me. I'm going to rule directly.”
Now, as Christians, our minds go very quickly to John chapter 10, where Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd.” We'll get to that. But we go there slightly too quickly—because mostly, this chapter is not God promising to send a Messiah. This is God promising to do it himself.
Now, we do get to Jesus in here. If you look at verses 23 and 24, almost as an afterthought God says, “I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David. 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.” So having said for about twenty verses “I'm going to do it myself,” he just drops in, “and I’m going to send a David (mark II) to come and lead.”
King David was the first of the great line of kings that the people of Israel had enjoyed. God had promised David that there would always be someone from his family to rule on his throne. And when the Lord Jesus arrives, the Gospel writers are careful to note that he is descended from the line of King David. So in verses 23 and 24, God says, “I myself will be your shepherd—oh yeah, and Jesus too.”
And the big problem with Israel's line of kings is that they served themselves. But here's the contrast with David—with the Lord Jesus. My servant David is not... the new David, the Lord Jesus, is not appointed to lead the people of God to serve himself. He’s not even there to serve the flock. He is the Lord's servant, and he leads for the glory of God, to care for what God is concerned.
So what we are learning about here is this: what happens when God himself steps in—when God himself says, “I will lead you. I will be your shepherd”? What does that look like?
Many years ago, I served in a couple of churches, and a smaller of the two—but I wasn’t in very frequently—it was called St John's Church, Alsager’s Bank. And I led a service there about once a month. They had stained glass windows around—a number of windows around this church. I looked at one of them. I thought, “This is a lovely picture of a man.” And it's obviously that the founder of the church—this church wants to honour this man who was their family pastor. The window said: “In memory of Pastor Bonum.”
Now, I have sure never had the opportunity to study Latin. Any of you who did will know at this point what's going on—and what I've misunderstood. As I looked around the windows, I saw another window. And this one was dedicated to “Lux Mundi.” Now at that point, a few bells began to ring. There was a very influential series of essays published in the 19th century—disastrous essays, very damaging—entitled Lux Mundi. So I did actually know what that meant. It means “The Light of the World.” And as I looked around the other windows, I came across “The Resurrection and the Life” and “The Way, the Truth, and the Life,” and I suddenly realised that “Pastor Bonum” was not the name of the church's founding pastor at all. It was simply the Latin for “Good Shepherd.”
The windows of the church were pictures of the “I Am” sayings from John's Gospel. Except that the church was commemorating its founding pastor—because the pastor of that church was Pastor Bonum—the Good Shepherd—the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see, who is the pastor of this church? His name is not James. His name is not Lee. His name is the Lord God. And Jesus is his servant.
Now we do need human leaders too. Actually, in 1 Peter 5, which Lee read for us, we do see that the elders of the church are called to serve as shepherds who are under the overall leadership of the great shepherd—the great pastor. The word “pastor” is the word for “shepherd.” So if you are a Christian, Jesus is your pastor. And Ezekiel 34 is there to tell you what it is like when the Lord God and the Lord Jesus Christ is your pastor.
And God wants the people in exile to know: this is wonderful. He wants them to be excited at the thought that God is going to come and be their pastor. You've had it occasionally, where you've been in a country where a new party wins an election. The landslide. Huge numbers of people vote for a change in the leadership of the country, and there's this huge sense of optimism. I've been through this a couple of times in this country—this huge sense of euphoria: things are going to get better, we finally have changed the people running this show. Now, these people—they've had terrible leadership, and they've suffered under it. And God is saying, “I'm going to kick them out. And I'm going to do this.”
And here's what it’s going to be like. Because when it happens in politics, cynicism kicks in—because we all know from experience, it'll only be a matter of six months, five years, ten years before the cracks in the new party start to appear and they're as corrupt as the last lot. So we just become cynical. And we don't really believe these manifesto promises will lead to a better run.
But we mustn’t let that happen here—because this is really what it will be like when God takes charge.
So here we have, then, three things that it is like when Jesus is the pastor—when Jesus is the shepherd.
1. He cares for the little ones.
He cares for the little ones. So here's what went wrong—verses 1 to 4:
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed those that were ill or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.’”
So God says: “If you want a job done properly, do it yourself.” And so, verse 16—God says in verse 15:
“I myself will tend my sheep and make them lie down... I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak.”
In the modern world, we showcase what is strong. We hold up as next role models what is successful, beautiful, handsome, successful, fit, advanced, going places. That's what we like to parade as worth looking at. And you walk into a new room with a new group of people, and very quickly your mind is going, “Who here would be worth my while getting to know, because they can do something for me?” But God is different. He looks after these other groups that the world slightly chooses to ignore.
Now we need a heading. What could we call those various groups that God looks for here? And my mind goes to Matthew chapter 18. So, we tend to know the story of the lost sheep from Luke's Gospel, but let's just look at Matthew's telling of it: Matthew chapter 18.
At first, one: At that time, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called little a little child and placed the child among them, and he said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”
And then verse 10. “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?” No, but Jesus will. “If he finds it, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.”
Jesus is the Good Shepherd. God is the Good Shepherd, and he goes after the little ones. Remember the leaders of Israel — what they had done was they had squashed and hurt their people to advance themselves. What did the Lord Jesus do when he came to care for his sheep? Well, John 10 tells us: he laid down his life for his sheep. He is the reverse — he wants to advance the sheep, and so he sacrifices himself. The utter reversals of bad leadership.
So here's what it looks like when Jesus is in charge. Now please remember: this is a picture to do with sheep, okay? These are not literal descriptions of what he does for us. It tells us the character of our Shepherd, and some care is needed when we work out what these translate into for us. But here's what he does:
He strengthens the weak. So, if you are weak and frail — as a person, as a Christian — he will come to you and strengthen you. He heals the sick. If you are sick in body, mind, or spirit — now again, remember about translating from sheep to us; be careful. There is no promise here that every Christian will automatically be healed of every physical ailment they have. If there was, every Christian for the past 2,000 years would still be alive. But he will come to you if you are sick, and he will mend you. And he may do it in eternity, he may do it in this life — but he will do it. He comes to you in your sickness and meets you there.
If you are injured, if you are broken, he will bind up where it's broken so it can mend. If you wander off, he will come and find you. He might do that by sending Christian brothers and sisters to come after you and bring you back, but he will come and find you. If you are lost, he will search for you. And he will not rule you harshly, and he will not be brutal. He will be gentle.
Matthew chapter 11 — familiar words, verses 28 to 30. Jesus says: “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
He cares for the little ones.
2. He gathers the scattered
He gathers the scattered.
Here's what poor leadership did — verses 5 and 6: “So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered, they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.”
The symbolism of the exile is not just that they had to go from Israel to Babylon. They lost all of their blessings as the people of God — their land, their city, their temple. They lost it all. And then God takes charge in verse 11: “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 rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries. I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and all the settlements in the land. I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.”
He will gather them. So, the exile was not about just being moved to a different place, but losing all your blessings. This is not just about being brought back to a place — it's about having their blessings restored. God will give them a land for living. They will live at peace. They'll be able to meet with God and enjoy his favour. This is full-on salvation.
But the language used here is specifically about gathering having been scattered. And that's because in the Bible, frequently, when God acts in judgement, what he does is he scatters people. Why? When a civilisation is under God's judgement, relationships and communities start to break down and fragment. God leads us to fall out — fall out with each other. And that is one of the things he does in judgement: to leave that to work its way through.
But then, when God blesses his people in the Bible, he gathers them. The Tower of Babel was such a horrendous judgement — and why Pentecost was such a wonderful blessing in return.
So you see, when you become a Christian, you don't just enjoy God's forgiveness and a place on the road to Heaven. No — what you get to enjoy is this: you get to be gathered with the people of God. And when you get to Heaven, that's just an even bigger gathering. He gathers the scattered.
3. He judges for the downtrodden
He judges for the downtrodden.
In verse 17, there's a change of audience. Now, the whole chapter has been speaking, sometimes, of what God will do in judgement against particular people. But the people listening are the ordinary people of God who will benefit when God judges the tyrants.
So far it's been the shepherds that God will move against. But here it changes, in verse 17: “As for you, my flock...” And this is picking up on the language at the end of verse 16: “I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.”
So God will judge these fat sheep — with the goats, with their horns — who butt others out of the way.
Verse 17: “Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of the pasture with your feet? Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet? Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns, and you’ve driven them away. I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another.”
Now you see, it's not the shepherds who are in God's sights — it's the strong sheep, the bullies within the flock. Now, we don't know exactly what this sort of butting out of the way and muddying the water was, or quite what it's about, but your imagination can run, can't it? Because you know how dynamics work in a group of people. You know that kind of thing that happens.
But the point is: this is not oppression here from foreign powers or kings. This is other members of the flock bullying and stopping others from enjoying God's blessings. And God wants them to know: when he's in charge, his leadership, his rule is real. He will step in and stop it when the people of God hurt and shove and push each other.
Now again, tragically, history tells us this can run for far too long before it sets in and gets stopped. But the point is: God sees and knows, and will one day deal with that as it happens.
But the emphasis here is not on the warning. It's not saying, “If you're a bully, I'm talking to you. I'm going to come and get you.” No — the emphasis is on talking to the ordinary people who suffer under this, to tell us the freedom that we will have when God sorts this.
And here's the truth: if you want a Shepherd who will be gentle and kind with the weak, you need to have a Shepherd who will be strong with bullies. And then that means that the sheep can be brought to a place of safety and freedom.
“I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of savage beasts, so they may live in the wilderness and sleep in the forests in safety. I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season — showers of blessing. The trees will yield their fruit, and the ground will yield its crops, and the people will be secure in their land.”
So God gives the people a manifesto. He says: there's going to be a new era. I am going to be the one in charge now — not the cowboys who were ruling the roost before. It's going to be me. And it's gonna be good.
Here is his leadership manifesto. And this is not some pathetic wishlist that will never see the light of day, and your cynicism kicks in — you go, “Yeah, right. Nice ideas. In practice…” No. No — this is really what it's like.
In Conclusion
But what does all this picture of hope for them have to say to us? Let me just speak to two groups of people here as we close.
What if you're here this morning as somebody who is still looking into the claims of Jesus? You're not yet a Christian — you're very welcome. I'm so glad you're here. Because what this is saying to you is: if you decide to let God take charge of your life, it really is good.
So often, people have this suspicion that if they become a Christian, they will automatically be miserable, and they're signing up to a God whose ambition is to spoil your fun for his benefit. Nothing could be further from the truth. God's rule is liberating. He does not dominate. He cares for the weak. He cares for the frail. He retrieves the lost. He mends the broken. He rescues.
If you are not yet a Christian, please join us. It is the best life there is — because God is the best leader you could ever have.
For those of us who are Christians, the aim of this passage is to promise. Some of us have actually suffered domineering leadership — in the world or in the Church. And I'd like to say to you: God is not like that. Do not project your bad experiences from other people onto God. He is not like that. He is in charge, and where there has been abuse in the world and in the Church, eventually he will deal with it.
He does not promise that he will do so quickly. But we have a God who cares. A God who delivers. A God who gathers. We have a God who sees when his children get hurt.
Now, if I look around this morning, I see a couple of hundred sheep of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many of you carry deep scars and deep hurts — and they are all invisible to me. And he cares. And even when those hurts have come from others within his family, he knows. And he wants to help you, and deal with it.
Jesus said: “If I thirst, I should come. No one else can satisfy — I should come to him.”
Jesus said: “If I am weak, I should come to him. No one else can be my strength — I should come to him.”
Jesus said: “If I fear, I should come to him. No one else can be my shield — I should come to him.”
Jesus said: “If I am lost, he would come to me.”
And he showed me on that cross — he will come to me.