RTW 2024

“Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will surely judge between the fat sheep and the scrawny sheep. For you fat sheep pushed and butted and crowded my sick and hungry flock until you scattered them to distant lands. So I will rescue my flock, and they will no longer be abused. I will judge between one animal of the flock and another. And I will set over them one shepherd, my servant David. He will feed them and be a shepherd to them. And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David will be a prince among my people. I, the LORD, have spoken!

Ezekiel 34:20-24

“Therefore, give the people of Israel this message from the Sovereign LORD: I am bringing you back, but not because you deserve it. I am doing it to protect my holy name, on which you brought shame while you were scattered among the nations. I will show how holy my great name is—the name on which you brought shame among the nations. And when I reveal my holiness through you before their very eyes, says the Sovereign Lord, then the nations will know that I am the LORD. For I will gather you up from all the nations and bring you home again to your land.
Ezekiel 36:22-24

• Ezekiel 34 is a record of the bad shepherds over Israel. 
• The rulers were serving their own interests instead of looking out for the people. 
• The people had fallen prey to their enemies. 
• God promises to bring one shepherd over Israel. 
• God would rescue His flock. 
• God would care for His flock Himself as the other shepherds should have done. 
• The reference to “my servant David” is a reference to Christ. 
• He is the Good Shepherd. 
• Jesus fulfills all the things that a shepherd should be. 
• John 9 shows us bad shepherds again. 
• Some Pharisees who were standing nearby heard him and asked, “Are you saying we’re blind?”
  “If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty,” Jesus replied. “But you remain guilty because you claim you can see.”
  John 9:40-41
• Bad shepherds lead people the wrong way. 
• The Good Shepherd is the Way. 
• Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”
  John 14:6

Do not follow bad shepherds…follow the Good Shepherd.