"Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep... the lost you have not sought and with force and harshness you have ruled them... my sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them... I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them."
It sounds like those shepherds had king bellies! When their bellies became their king, they forgot about their sheep. So those sheep were scattered and lost! "And I will set up over them one shepherd, my David, and he shall feed them; he shall feed them and be their shepherd." God will raise up true shepherds and take those innocence sheep away from those false shepherds who used those sheep for their own gain, for their own glory. God will take care of those false shepherds, not us for God promised, "I will rescue my sheep from their mouths." All we can do is to relax in Him as His sheep.
How do we know whether we are acting like a true shepherd or false shepherd?
The question reminds me of how Jesus asked Peter three times, "Do you love me?" Then Jesus responded, "Feed my lambs", "Then tend my sheep", and "Then feed my sheep." After those three comments, Jesus told Peter the most important tip as a true shepherd:
"Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go." -John 21:18
Who is your Shepherd who will dress you and take you to where you don't want to go? Are you allowing God to dress you and take you to wherever He takes you, so that you may tend to the sheep rather than yourself when you allow God to take care of those things? If you take so much of your time taking care of yourself, then how may you take care of those lost and untended sheep?
Pray: Hey Daddy Up There, help us to remember Peter's failure and our failures after we said we love you. But we know that we don't actually love You to the fullest and never will! Yeah, we are greedy because we love to say, "me...me...me..." rather than "they need this or that... how may we help them... may we go over to them..." as we keep a lookout for them. Please take us and dress us, we need You to take care of our needs so that we may begin to forget about our king-selves and tend to those wounded or lost sheep. Let us turn our eyes to how You have been taking care of us and bless us continually so that we may begin to relax in Your arms as we tend others who need the caring more than we do. In Jesus' name, we say Amen!
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