20221219

one shepherd for all of them

Ezekiel 37:24-28 (JDV)

Ezekiel 37:24 My servant David will be king over them, and there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow my rules, keep my prescriptions, and obey them.
Ezekiel 37:25 ” ‘They will live in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They will live in it forever with their children and grandchildren, and my servant David will be their prince forever.
Ezekiel 37:26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be a permanent covenant with them. I will establish and multiply them and will set my sanctuary among them forever.
Ezekiel 37:27 My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Ezekiel 37:28 When my sanctuary is among them forever, the nations will know that I, Yahveh, sanctify Israel.'”

one shepherd for all of them

The Book of Hebrews, in the New Testament –, explains the permanent covenant that Ezekiel predicts. He says that it will replace the first covenant under Moses, that Christ will be its mediator, and that it will set God’s people free from their violations under that previous covenant — by his death (Hebrews 9:15).

He says that our Lord Jesus Christ is the “great shepherd of the sheep” — the “one shepherd” Ezekiel mentions in 37:24. He also explains that the death of Christ is crucial in this plan — by mentioning the “blood of the permanent covenant.” He also shows that God will prove that Jesus is that predicted shepherd by raising him from the dead (Hebrews 13:20).

There are not two permanent covenants: one for Israel and one for the church. God has one plan, one Messiah, and one permanent covenant.

LORD, thank you for our one shepherd.