Luke 22:19 And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
Luke 22:20 Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.
Do we realize what we have just read?
Yeshua here is inaugurating the New Covenant. Every other covenant was established by shedding an animal’s blood, but this one will be established in His.
Not only that, but He Himself is administering it! Take that in. “This cup is the new covenant in My blood which is shed for you.” As the cup passed from one disciple to another, what went through Yeshua’s mind, I wonder? Only He truly understood the import of what He was doing. He was hours away from the crucifixion.
He would proceed to go to His crucifixion via Gethsemane, where His Father would place on Him the iniquity and the guilt of us all. He will then be crucified, and there on the cross would face the full wrath of God in our stead. All this Yeshua did in complete agreement with His Father and submission to Him. He was a willing sacrifice! Oh, how He loved His Father, and how He loved us!
Such is our Savior. Such is the good shepherd. So great is God’s love and passion and desire to do us good, in this world and the next. He is passionate about caring for us.
And this is the background of God’s excoriating words against the shepherds who mistreat and abuse His people. (We are still in Jeremiah 23 and Ezekiel 34 because Israel is facing its greatest leadership crisis since its birth.)
God deeply cares about how His sheep are treated.
In both chapters, we find that ultimately God will not leave the shepherding of His people to anyone else. He will set His Son, the Messiah, as King, Judge, and Shepherd of His people. (Jeremiah 23:5-6, Ezekiel 34:23-24) From God’s complaint, we can learn what’s important to Him as He sees His nation, His people.
How the shepherds (leaders of the nation) treated God’s flock
- The shepherds fed themselves and not the flock (Eze. 34:2-3)
- Did not strengthen the weak (Eze. 34:4)
- Did not heal the sick nor bind up the broken (Eze. 34:4)
- Did not bring back those who were driven away (Eze. 34:4)
- Did not seek the lost (Eze. 34:4)
- Ruled with force and cruelty (Eze. 34:4)
The result was that the sheep scattered, they became food for others, they wandered through all the nations (mountains and hills) until they scattered over the “whole face of the earth.” (Eze. 34:5-6)
What the Shepherd will do:
- He will deliver His flock from them (Eze.34:10)
- He will Himself seek His sheep (Eze. 34:11-12)
- He will gather His people and bring them to their own land (Eze.34:13)
- He will feed them in good pasture (Eze.34:14)
- He will seek the Lost (Eze.34:16)
- He will bind up the broken (Eze. 34:16)
- He will strengthen the sick (Eze. 34:16)
- He will judge between the sheep (Eze. 34:17, 22)
In Jeremiah 23, we have an added dimension: Until the Great Shepherd comes to shepherd His flock, he will give them shepherds who will care for them properly.
All this is a metaphor, of course. God is speaking about the nation and its leaders.
Ezek. 34:31 “You are My flock, the flock of My pasture; you are men, and I am your God,” says the Lord GOD.
This brings us to the present crisis.
Our political system is arranged in such a way that it brings out the worst in man, not the best. It lends itself to abuse of power, manipulation, deal-making behind closed doors, bribery (we’ll support you if you give us this and that… Or “we’ll support you if you pass a law to exempt our yeshiva boys from serving in the army…” etc) There is no real separation of between branches of government; the legislative and executive are fused together.
Ben Gurion understood this problem quite quickly. Ten years after Israel was established, he suggested, in a speech, to change the system to one in which Israel would be divided into 120 districts whose representatives would make up the Knesset (parliament), there would be only two big parties, etc. Of course, by that time, no one in power wanted to change things. There are those who have resurrected this idea. It will take a miracle!
The current situation has brought about many of the things enumerated in Ezekiel 34 and Jeremiah 23.
How can we take a stand before the Lord and pray?
Personally, I have begun reading those two chapters aloud before the Lord as a declaration of His Will for this nation.
Reading aloud in this way, day by day, and praying to the Lord as our Great Shepherd, I have begun to:
- Sense His Authority and providence over everything; His involvement is more real to me. (People can behave out of control, but God is never not in control.)
- Sense His passion, love, and care for His people in a more real way.
- See the Lord and His word as greater than and over the situation.
- Find a place to stand before Him in faith and in trust.
- Find some relief from the anguish I have felt over the situation.
Not everyone reading these Prayer Notes will find it exciting to read and pray these chapters, but it would help if we said that the same loving shepherd cares about your nation. There is a remnant in each nation that is His. We must remember that “ God so loved the world that He gave His Son……”
Remember:
Governments are always held to God’s standards, as enumerated in the Word. He has not lowered or cancelled His requirements. Nations, including ours, will be judged by His standards, not their own.
2Sam. 23:2 “The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, And His word was on my tongue.
2Sam. 23:3 The God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spoke to me: ‘He who rules over men must be just, Ruling in the fear of God.
2Sam. 23:4 And he shall be like the light of the morning when the sun rises, A morning without clouds, Like the tender grass springing out of the earth, By clear shining after rain.’
1 Kings 9:4 Now if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments,
1 Kings 9:5 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, “You shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’
*
It is time for us all to turn afresh to God and learn to stand before Him!
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we
may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Heb. 4:16
Blessings in Messiah,
Ofer
