The Good Shepherd

Hello, and welcome to today's inspiration from Our Daily Bread.

My name is Amy Boucher-Pye, and I called our reading The Good Shepherd. When Pastor Warren heard that a man in his church had deserted his wife and family, he asked God to help him meet the man as if by accident, so they could chat. And he did! When Warren walked into a restaurant, he spotted the gentleman in a nearby booth.

Got some room for another hungry man? he asked, and soon they were sharing deeply and praying together. As a pastor, Warren was acting as a shepherd for those in his church community, even as God through the prophet Ezekiel said he would tend his flock. God promised to look after his scattered sheep, rescuing them and gathering them together. As we see in chapter 23, he would tend them in a good pasture, and search for the lost and bring back the strays.

He would bind up the injured and strengthen the weak. God's love for his people reverberates through each of these images. Though Ezekiel's words anticipate God's future actions, they reflect the eternal heart of the God and Shepherd who would one day reveal himself in Jesus. No matter our situation, God reaches out to each of us, seeking to rescue us and sheltering us in a rich pasture. He longs for us to follow the Good Shepherd, he who lays down his life for his sheep.

Today's Bible reading is from Ezekiel chapter 34 verses 11 through 16. For this is what the sovereign Lord says, 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, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in 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 a good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the sovereign Lord. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. 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. Let's pray. Loving God, you care for us even when we wander and go astray. Help us always to stay in your sheepfold that we will receive from you your love and your care. We thank you and we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.