Tag Archives: Jeremiah 23

The Shepherd & the Hired Hand

May 5, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord.
Jeremiah 23:1 (NIV)

A couple of weeks ago, I gave a message among my local gathering of Jesus followers in which I mentioned that things are more connected than we realize. The text of that message was Jesus’ statement, “I am the Bread of Life” and I talked about how that metaphor is connected to the entire Great Story from Genesis through Revelation. I’m preparing this week for another message this Sunday around Jesus’ statement, “I am the Gate,” and wouldn’t you know it, Jeremiah’s prophetic message in today’s chapter connects directly to Jesus’ statement made over 500 years later. I love synchronicity!

In Jeremiah’s day, God’s people were led civically by the Kings, but most of them were poor leaders as detailed in the books of 1 Kings and 2 Kings. In today’s chapter, God through Jeremiah considers the monarch to be the “shepherd” of His people, His flock. But, rather than protect, guide, and lead the flock well, God says that they scattered them, refused to care for them, and actually drove them away.

Likewise, in Jeremiah’s day, God’s people were led religiously by the priests and the prophets. There were a ton of these, by the way. If you were born a direct male descendant of Aaron (back in Moses’ day) you were a priest. Over 1000 years, the number of direct male descendants was quite large. Being a prophet was also a professional gig, and every pagan cult and idol had their prophets, as well. At the time of Jeremiah, God’s Temple in Jerusalem had become a religious bazaar, with altars and shrines to all sorts of deities along with their priests and prophets. Many of God’s priests (sons of Aaron) and prophets played both sides.

Jeremiah’s message in today’s chapter is a message specifically to these three groups of leaders: kings, priests, and prophets – who were supposed to be “good shepherds” of God’s flock, but they weren’t. God through Jeremiah declared in today’s chapter:

“Both prophet and priest are godless;
Even in my temple I find their wickedness.”

Fast forward just over 500 years and Jesus is standing before the same group of religious leaders from His own generation, and He tells them:

“Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers.”

Jesus continued:

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.”

Jesus uses the same metaphor that God used through Jeremiah in today’s chapter. The kings, prophets, and priests should have been good shepherds of the Good Shepherd, but they were nothing more than hired hands who allowed the wolf into the pasture. Jesus metaphorically accuses the descendants of those prophets and priests of being and doing the same thing. Nothing had changed.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself meditating on something I written before in these posts. Times change, technology changes, culture changes, but one thing that doesn’t change is the human condition. Fast forward 2,000 years from Jesus and here I am, preparing to stand before God’s flock in a few days to talk about these connections. The same reality faces me that faced the prophets and priests of Jeremiah’s day, of Jesus’ day. Will I be a good shepherd of the Good Shepherd, or am I just a hired hand making a buck and putting in my time?

Jude found the latter among Jesus’ followers when he wrote about those who “are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves.”

Likewise, Peter addressed those who led Jesus’ followers in his day: “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.”

I pray that I may always shepherd well.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Don’t Walk Out in the Middle of the Movie

April 17, 2018 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch….”
Jeremiah 23:5 (NIV)

I have a vivid memory from about the age of 13. My mother sat me down at our family’s dining room table and explained to me that, financially, things were not looking good for our family. My father was in a business that was not doing well and my father had decided to walk away from the partnership in order for it to survive. There was a possibility, my mother explained, that we would lose our house and have to move. She wanted me to understand that things were tight and there would be no money for extras. We all had to “tighten our belts.”

As is typical with children, I’d never given much consideration to our family’s socio-economic status. Our needs were met. We had a loving family. My parents were hard workers and things were always status quo. This message of doom was a shock for me.

I do remember a few lean years as my dad switched to a couple of different jobs and ended up commuting an hour each day to work. My folks plugged away to make ends meet. It was the years of the farm crisis of the late 70s and early 80s and, while we weren’t farmers, there were plenty of people struggling. As a teenager, I learned some important life lessons in those years about perseverance, hard work and simple faith. In fact it was during those years that I found my faith in Christ.

It is common, I have found, for casual readers to wade into the ancient messages of the prophets and find only doom and gloom. And, to be honest, there’s plenty to be had. There is a lot of violence from a very violent period of history. It’s easy to get weighed down by the negativity. But, if you’re not careful you’ll miss the larger story.

In today’s chapter, amidst a terrible siege and Jeremiah’s prophecies of destruction, death and exile, the message takes an abrupt u-turn. From the royal line of David, Jeremiah predicts, God is going to raise up a “Righteous Branch” to shepherd His people. From a macro-view, it appears that God is pruning back the royal line which has been bearing bad fruit for a long time. There will be lean years. Things look pretty gloomy. That’s what happens when you prune things back. But from that royal line a new Branch will spring which will become the Vine from which the fruit of the Spirit and new wine will be produced. Matthew and Luke were careful to record Jesus’ family tree in their respective Gospels. They wanted everyone to know that Jesus’ sprung from David’s tree. The “Righteous Branch” had bloomed.

This morning the chapter has me thinking about the doom and gloom of the prophets. Every great story includes conflict and a period of time in which everything looks bleak. The hero is a “goner” and it’s all going to fall apart. Then comes the eucatastrophy and the climactic moment when it all comes together and works out.

I’ve discovered that giving up on the prophets in the middle of the doom and gloom is like giving up all hope because dad’s job changed and things are going to be tight financially. It’s like walking out of the movie when the hero is tied up next to a bomb and the countdown timer is at two minutes. Jeremiah, the “weeping prophet” reminds me today to “wait for it.” There is hope, light, and redemption at the end of the tunnel, but I have to press on and persevere.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Jeremiah 23

February 1, 2011 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

Dove of the Holy Spirit — Image by hops_76 via Flickr

I don’t want to hear it anymore. Only the person I authorize speaks for me. Otherwise, my Message gets twisted, the Message of the living God-of-the-Angel-Armies. Jeremiah 23:36 (MSG)

Many years ago I knew of a church who was in between pastors. The son of a church member had been educated and ordained in this particular church’s denomination. He had no job at the time and was living at home. So, the denomination and the church board tagged him to help fill the pulpit. The man was a nice person and extremely intelligent. But, he was not a gifted communicator. He had all the head knowledge and denominational credentials, but the words died on his lips each Sunday morning as the congregation struggled to figure out what he was trying to say.

In this particular congregation was another man. He lacked the denominational credentials and had not attended the denomination’s seminary. But, everyone in the church agreed that he was gifted in communicating God’s Message. When he spoke, God’s Message was alive and active. The Holy Spirit moved in the congregation. And yet, this man was eventually banned from the pulpit because he lacked the approval of the denominational authorities.

I am all for doing things decently and in order. I believe in education. Many times, however, I’ve watched as human organizations confuse their authority with God’s. I’ve observed how easy it is for us confuse man’s approval with God’s. Those who are gifted by God will be used by God. On the contrary, no amount of education or denominational credentials can manufacture God’s spiritual gifts.