THE THIEF COMES TO STEAL, KILL & DESTROY (PART V)

“Self-Serving Narcissistic Shepherds”

By Akin Ojumu

In the Book of Ezekiel chapter 34, we read about the prophecy proclaimed against the shepherds of Israel. First part of the prophecy listed the various malfeasances of the shepherds. They were indicted not only for dereliction of their responsibilities, but also for their utter abuse and total neglect of the sheep that God put in their care.

Ezekiel 34:1-6

“Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who only feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed their flock? You eat the fat, wear the wool, and butcher the fattened sheep, but you do not feed the flock. You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bound up the injured, brought back the strays, or searched for the lost. Instead, you have ruled them with violence and cruelty. They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild beasts. My flock went astray on all the mountains and every high hill. They were scattered over the face of all the earth, with no one to search for them or seek them out.’”

After laying out the charges against the shepherds, God then pronounced His judgement against them. Because they abdicated their responsibilities as shepherds, the LORD rejected and punished them. In His infinite mercies, however, He rescued His sheep from the hands of the wicked shepherds.

Ezekiel 34:7-10

“Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: As I live, declares the Lord God, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.”

The Pharisees and the religious leaders of Jesus’ days were the shepherds of God’s flock. It was into their care the LORD committed the children of Israel to provide spiritual guidance. Their responsibility was to feed and clothe the sheep. It was their job to shield and protect them from the wolves and predators. Whenever the sheep were injured and afflicted, the shepherds were commissioned to heal and provide succor. 

Regrettably, the religious leaders failed woefully in all their responsibilities. Instead of being shepherds protecting the sheep, they became predators devouring the sheep. In their shameful failure to fulfil their God-given obligations, the religious establishment metamorphosed into a self-serving, greed-ridden religious system that devoured the window, plundered the poor, and disempowered the powerless. 

Believing they are protecting the Torah, i.e., the written Law given by God to Moses, from corruption, they supplanted it with their “Tradition of the Elders” which comprised of man-made rules, regulations, rites and rituals which became too heavy a burden impossible for the people to bear. 

It was in this context that the man who was born blind who had just been healed by the Lord Jesus Christ was dragged by his neighbors before the Pharisees after they had interrogated him extensively in order to get to the bottom of the circumstances surrounding his healing. The blind man’s neighbors had difficulty accepting the fact that someone who was suffering the consequences of his or his parents’ sins by being born blind could regain their eyesight. To make matters worse, the miracle happened on a Sabbath day, a holy day, on which no healing was to take place, according to the Traditions of the Elders.

John 9:13

“They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind.”

Upon hearing the charges laid against the man who was formerly blind by his neighbors, the Pharisees were enraged. Instead of rejoicing that a sheep under their care had been miraculously delivered from a life spent in perpetual darkness and destitute existence, the “shepherds” of Israel lost their minds. 

John 9:15-16

“So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.””

Straight off the bat, the Pharisees had problems with the fact that the healing took place on a Sabbath day, an egregious violation of one the “Tradition of the Elders”. In their apostate minds, no true prophet of God would violate their invented Sabbath law. As far as they were concerned, the man’s healing was either the work of Beelzebub, the prince of demons, or that the man was never blind in the first place.

Upon learning that it was their archnemesis, the Lord Jesus Christ, who brought about the restoration of sight, their rage boiled over. With their righteous indignation reaching combustible levels, the religious leaders who were supposed to be shepherds of Israel did not see fit to wrap the arms of compassion around one of the sheep of God under their care whose sight had been restored. On the contrary, they were consumed with resentment.

John 9:18

“The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight.”

In their furor, they subjected the poor man to rounds of intense interrogation all in an attempt to make him renounce his healing and denounce the Person who healed him. The ferocity of their inquisition was so fierce you’d think the man was a murderer or someone caught in adultery.

John 9:16

“Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them.”

Confronted with undeniable evidence of a miraculous healing of a man born blind, a handful of the religious leaders began to question the illogic of their antagonism towards Christ. These vacillating Pharisees struggled to find a way to negatively spin the supernatural event they had seen. Being familiar with Scriptures, they understood that a man who could heal someone born blind was no ordinary man. Instead of standing strong on their convictions, however, they willfully silenced the voice of sanity tugging at their consciences. 

Rather than accept the Lord Jesus for who He claimed to be, judging by the signs and wonders they saw Him performed, they doubled down on their denial and rejection. In their determination to protect their position of power and preserve their prestige before the people, the Pharisees refused to believe the evidence before their eyes.

John 9:17

“So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.””

Having made up their minds to continue in their state of antagonism, they sought to delegitimize and discredit Christ. With a malicious intent, they wanted the blind man to incriminate himself. Cynically, they pressed the blind man to give them his thoughts about the man who opened his eyes. Without a moment of hesitation, however, he told them that he believed Jesus was a Prophet.

We’ll take it from here next time.