Episode 184
The Good Shepherd: Unpacking John 10 Through an Old Testament Lens
Welcome back to Ryan and Brian's Bible Bistro! In this episode, your hosts Ryan and Brian dig into the rich imagery of Jesus as the Good Shepherd in John 10, but with a twist—they take a long, meandering path through the Old Testament to uncover the deeper context. From Genesis to the prophets, the shepherd motif isn’t just about care and comfort (think Psalm 23); it’s a complex tapestry of God’s faithfulness, human failure, and ultimate redemption.
Here’s what’s on the menu this week:
- Shepherds in the Bible: Ryan and Brian explore how shepherds pop up everywhere in Scripture—literally with Abel, Abraham, and Jacob tending flocks, and figuratively with leaders like Moses, David, and even God Himself (Genesis 49, Numbers 27).
- Sheep Without a Shepherd: A recurring Old Testament theme (1 Kings 22, Ezekiel 34, Zechariah 10) reveals the chaos of God’s people under flawed human rulers—greedy, violent, and scattering the flock. Sound familiar? Jesus picks up this thread in Matthew 9 and John 10.
- God as the True Shepherd: Passages like Isaiah 40 and Jeremiah 23 show God stepping in where human shepherds fail, promising to gather His scattered sheep Himself. Spoiler: Jesus fulfills this in a big way.
- John 10 Unpacked: Jesus declares, “I am the Good Shepherd,” contrasting Himself with the “thieves and robbers” (greedy, violent leaders) who came before. Set against the backdrop of Hanukkah—the Feast of Dedication—this claim hits different, challenging even the heroic Maccabean legacy.
- Practical Bible Study Tips: Learn how to dig into Old Testament backgrounds to enrich your understanding of the New Testament. (Shoutout to Logos Bible Software for making it easier!)
Ryan and Brian also share a hilarious real-life shepherd encounter from the Jesus Trail and reflect on how Jesus’ voice still calls us today—unlike the noisy distractions of false shepherds. Plus, a nod to 1 Peter 5, where church leaders are urged to shepherd God’s flock with care, not greed.
Grab a coffee and join us at the Bistro as we connect the dots from ancient pastures to the eternal Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep.
Resources Mentioned:
- Check out Kenneth Bailey’s books, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes and his work on shepherds, linked at thebiblebistro.com.
- Visit our website for show notes, past episodes, and book recommendations—your purchases through our links help keep the Bistro brewing!
Connect With Us:
- YouTube: Ryan and Brian’s Bible Bistro
- Facebook: The Bible Bistro
- Website: thebiblebistro.com
If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend and tune in next Tuesday for more tasty theological bites. Thanks for stopping by the Bistro!
Transcript
Foreign.
Speaker A:Welcome back to Ryan and Brian's Bible Bistro.
Speaker A:I'm Ryan.
Speaker B:And I'm Brian.
Speaker A:And this is the Bible Bistro, a.
Speaker B:Podcast all about the Bible theology and all things related to the Christian faith.
Speaker A:We're here.
Speaker A:That's right.
Speaker B:Coming to you every week with insights into the Bible Week.
Speaker A:Every week that we make it.
Speaker B:Hey, we're here.
Speaker B:It's harder than most people realize.
Speaker A:Why, are you busy?
Speaker A:I'm not busy.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker A:I just, I never have.
Speaker B:Basically, I spend most of my time preparing for this podcast and then the rest of the time I spend recording this podcast.
Speaker A:Yep, that's how it goes.
Speaker A:Well, Brian, welcome back.
Speaker B:Yeah, welcome back.
Speaker B:Good to see you, Bistro.
Speaker A:Yeah, we've, we're, we're back again.
Speaker A:What do we talk about last week?
Speaker B:Can you remind me, we talked about.
Speaker A:Seen with Eyes of Faith.
Speaker A:I remember this now, of course.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:The blind eyes are blind seeing.
Speaker A:Yes, yes.
Speaker A:And now we're walking back and.
Speaker B:We'Re going to get to the next chapter.
Speaker B:We looked at chapter nine in the Book of John last night.
Speaker B:Gospel of John, we're going to look at chapter 10, but we're kind of doing this in a different way.
Speaker B:We wanted to look at a theme in the Bible and also talk a little bit about how we study the Bible.
Speaker B:People are always asking and we want, we don't just want to be something that we're teaching.
Speaker B:You guys are listening.
Speaker B:But we want you to engage with this and begin to maybe learn some skills.
Speaker B:So one of the things that is important to do anytime you're looking at a New Testament passage, is to look at the Old Testament backgrounds.
Speaker B:What are some of the ideas?
Speaker B:And so there's a couple of different times.
Speaker B:Well, Jesus uses images of shepherds several times in his ministry.
Speaker B:If you think about it, can you remember some of the times that Jesus uses the image of shepherds?
Speaker A:Well, I mean, yeah, John 10, the.
Speaker B:Good shepherd, which we'll get to that.
Speaker B:But then he also talks about sheep without a shepherd.
Speaker B:He uses an image of a shepherd that leaves the.
Speaker B:Go ahead.
Speaker A:The gate, the sheep gate.
Speaker B:And leading them in, he has where the shepherd will leave the 99 in order to go and find the lost.
Speaker B:So there's those kind of images that he uses.
Speaker B:But it's interesting that the shepherd image is used a lot of times in the Old Old Testament as well.
Speaker B:So let's go to that John 10 you're talking about.
Speaker B:And that's kind of where we're going to head to eventually.
Speaker B:But we're going to Take a long, meandering path to get there.
Speaker A:I love meandering.
Speaker B:When you think about Jesus as the good shepherd, and I ask you, well, what are some Old Testament passages about Shepherd?
Speaker B:I think many people might think of Psalm 23, for example, the Lord is my shepherd.
Speaker B:And think about those passages that talk about God's care for us and concern.
Speaker B:And I want you to know that is absolutely in John chapter 10.
Speaker B:Jesus makes that point in John 10.
Speaker B:But here's my point.
Speaker B:I think we need to make sure that we've done a thorough look in the Old Testament to see.
Speaker B:When we're looking at New Testament passages, we want to look thoroughly in the Old Testament to see if there's some other aspect of that.
Speaker B:So I think we get a little bit of a.
Speaker B:I don't know how to say a multifaceted or maybe a little bit of a broader context against which to understand John 10.
Speaker B:And I think it brings us a little bit of insight.
Speaker B:We've done a podcast, an episode on this John 10 before, but we're really going to kind of look back and see how do we do that homework of looking at shepherds in the Bible.
Speaker B:So Abraham, of course, the father of the faith.
Speaker B:And even before this, you get Abel, who was a keeper of sheep.
Speaker B:But Abraham and his offspring, his generations to come, were nomadic, keepers of flocks and herds.
Speaker B:I mean, that's one of the things that we see repeated throughout the book of Genesis, is that they travel from place to place.
Speaker B:They had flocks and herds.
Speaker B:Jacob, you might remember, Abraham's grandson, goes up and lives with his uncle, and that's all about flocks and herds there.
Speaker B:And he gains wealth because he's able to breed these flocks and herds.
Speaker B:So shepherding is just used in a very literal sense from.
Speaker B:From the time the Bible begins, more or less.
Speaker B:Like I said, even all the way back, just after the garden, we see shepherds being a part of this, but the other way we see shepherds used in the Old Testament is figuratively and often it is used of kings and other leaders of God's people.
Speaker B:So I wanted you to kind of see that.
Speaker B:Now, there's a couple of exceptions to this.
Speaker B:We usually don't see it really until the time of David, but there's a couple of times we see a figurative use of shepherds before this.
Speaker B:I thought these were both interesting, and one of them actually, here's.
Speaker B:You know, you're always learning something, right?
Speaker B:I saw something that I had never seen before.
Speaker B:So I'm going to take a Little side journey to look at that, at that little thing that we found there.
Speaker B:But the first one is in Genesis, chapter 49.
Speaker B:And Genesis 49 is an interesting text.
Speaker B:Technically, it is what we call testamentary literature.
Speaker B:It's an example of a testament.
Speaker B:And we use the term last will and testament, right, to talk about something that you want to say at your death or after your death.
Speaker B:In this case, it is Jacob.
Speaker B:He's laying on his deathbed, and he says something to each of his sons, and he gives them particular blessings.
Speaker B:And a couple of his grandsons, too, but he gives them particular blessings.
Speaker B:He makes some statements that seem to have a prophetic nature to them.
Speaker B:We've looked at Judah before.
Speaker B:Remember, Judah says, you'll be the ruler.
Speaker B:But this is a passage about Joseph, another of Jacob's sons, Joseph.
Speaker B:And this is what he said.
Speaker B:I think I had you pull this up.
Speaker B:Genesis 49, 22, 26.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Joseph is a fruitful vine.
Speaker A:A fruitful vine near a spring whose branches climb over a wall.
Speaker A:With bitterness, archers attacked him.
Speaker A:They shot at him with hostility, but his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber.
Speaker A:Because of the hand of the mighty one, of Jacob, because of the shepherd, the rock of Israel, because of your Father's God who helps you, because the Almighty who blesses you with the blessings of the skies above, blessings of the deep springs below, blessings of the breast and womb.
Speaker B:Okay, so it talks about you're going to have this time of plenty and so forth.
Speaker B:Well, I won't say too much more about Joseph, but of course, Joseph never has a tribe or a place in the Promised Land, but his two sons do, Manasseh and Ephraim.
Speaker B:And so part of that's prophetic about what's going to take place there and that kind of thing.
Speaker B:But when it talks about shepherds there, how would you say that it describes a shepherd?
Speaker B:In that case, what does it say?
Speaker A:Because of the shepherd, the rock of Israel.
Speaker A:It's about God.
Speaker B:It's about God.
Speaker B:So God is the shepherd of his people.
Speaker B:So even as far back in Genesis, this is the first use I could find of a figurative use of shepherd for God shepherding his people.
Speaker B:Again, we know Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd.
Speaker B:But my point is that this is a tradition that goes all the way back here into the Book of Genesis where we see God a shepherd.
Speaker B:Now, another place that's kind of interesting, where it's used before the time of King David for the leaders of God's people is in numbers 27, 15, 17, and I think I have you reading that.
Speaker A:Yes, you can.
Speaker A:All right, here we go.
Speaker A:Numbers 27, 15, 17.
Speaker A:Moses said to the Lord, Moses said to Yahweh, may Yahweh, the God who gives breath to all things, appoint someone over his community to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in.
Speaker A:So the Lord's people will not be like sheep without a shepherd.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:So that the Lord's people will not be like sheep without a shepherd.
Speaker B:So how would you describe Moses concern here?
Speaker B:What's Moses concerned about?
Speaker A:Leadership.
Speaker A:Someone that's going to be there and guide the people.
Speaker B:So this is the passage really where Joshua is the one who's chosen and appointed to be the leaders of God's people after Moses dies.
Speaker B:So I think Moses is getting toward the end of his life.
Speaker B:He's beginning to wonder about what's going to happen, how's this going to take place.
Speaker B:If you think about numbers, the end of the Book of Numbers is really the last of the narrative.
Speaker B:Then we have Deuteronomy, which is this long sermon.
Speaker B:Next time you're bored at your preacher preaching too long, read the book of Deuteronomy.
Speaker B:There's Moses, final sermon.
Speaker A:It'll explain what your preacher's talking about too, probably.
Speaker B:But anyway, the idea is that.
Speaker B:That God's people need a shepherd.
Speaker B:They're like sheep without a shepherd if they don't have a leader.
Speaker B:Now, that image, sheep without a shepherd, immediately struck me when I was looking at that, because it reminds me of something that Jesus said.
Speaker B:But then this is an example of kind of how we can discover some things.
Speaker B:Like I said, I'd never seen this particular thing before.
Speaker B:I thought, well, there's that background against what Jesus spoke.
Speaker B:But I put that into my search bar in my Bible study software, Sheep without a shepherd.
Speaker B:And I recognized I had never seen this before, that there are a number of Old Testament passages that follow that same idea.
Speaker B:And I kind of thought it'd be fun to run through those and get then to Jesus and kind of talk about that a little bit.
Speaker B:But the first one is there's a couple of these that are kind of strange stories.
Speaker B:But the first one is a very strange story.
Speaker B:It's during the time of Jehoshaphat, when Jehoshaphat was a king of Judah.
Speaker B:And it's a time where he's trying to decide whether he's going to go up and attack the king.
Speaker B:That is the kingdom to the north, up north of Israel.
Speaker B:And he has all these prophets who he ask, and they all say, oh, you're going to have victory.
Speaker B:There's going to be no problem.
Speaker B:And he says to his advisors, basically, I'm kind of summarizing all this very quickly.
Speaker B:He says to his advisors, is there no prophet of Yahweh left who will actually tell me the truth?
Speaker B:And they said, well, there's this one guy, his name's Micaiah.
Speaker B:The problem with him is he's always saying negative stuff.
Speaker B:He's never positive.
Speaker B:He always says negative stuff.
Speaker B:And so he says, well, bring him to me.
Speaker B:So they go and get him.
Speaker B:And Micaiah says, well, you need to know this.
Speaker B:I'm only going to tell what the Lord tells me to say.
Speaker B:And so he goes, and so Jehoshaphat says, well, should we go up and should we attack or not?
Speaker B:And Micaiah says, oh, yes, you'll have great victory.
Speaker B:And so then Jehoshaphat says, what do I need to do to get you to swear that you're only going to tell me the truth?
Speaker B: , First Kings,: Speaker B:Micaiah answered, I saw Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd.
Speaker B:And Yahweh said, these people have no master.
Speaker B:Let each one go home in peace.
Speaker B:So there's that image again, kind of a cool.
Speaker B:You know, it's a really weird story, but that image of being scattered like sheep without a Shepherd.
Speaker B:Ezekiel 34, we're going to come back to a little bit later.
Speaker B:It's one of those famous Old Testament passages.
Speaker B:Chapter really deals with this idea of the leader of God's people as shepherds.
Speaker B:But verse five says, so they were scattered because there was no shepherd.
Speaker B:And when they scattered, they became food for all the wild animals.
Speaker B:And here he's imagining kind of them being taken away from the promised land.
Speaker B:Zechariah 10.
Speaker B:We looked at this a few weeks ago when we went through Zechariah.
Speaker B:You remember that passage where we talked about where they're listening to idols because of the.
Speaker B:And they're not speaking truth?
Speaker B:It says in Zechariah, chapter 10, the idols speak deceitfully.
Speaker B:Diviners see visions that lie.
Speaker B:That's kind of like that idea of false prophets again, right?
Speaker B:Diviners see visions that lie.
Speaker B:They tell dreams that are false.
Speaker B:They give comfort in vain.
Speaker B:Therefore, the people wander like sheep, oppressed for lack of a shepherd.
Speaker B:And that kind of helps with something else here, because part of what the shepherd needs to do is to guide the flock by speaking truth, right?
Speaker B:They need to be speaking the truth that God has revealed in order to guide the flock.
Speaker B:That was a lot of kind of.
Speaker B:Just a quick kind of rundown.
Speaker B:But I had never realized that idea of sheep without a shepherd was used so frequently in the Old Testament for this same kind of an idea.
Speaker B:So then we get to Matthew 9.
Speaker B:Go ahead and read this passage, if you would.
Speaker B:Matthew 9.
Speaker B:This is verses 35, 38 in Mark 10, I believe.
Speaker A:Mark.
Speaker B:Yeah, someplace.
Speaker A:Mark.
Speaker A:Matthew 9, 35.
Speaker A:Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.
Speaker A:When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.
Speaker A:Then he said to his disciples, the harvest plentiful, but the workers are few.
Speaker A:Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.
Speaker B:So the idea.
Speaker B:And we'll come back to that last part here in a little bit.
Speaker B:But he says he looked and he had compassion because the people were like sheep without a shepherd.
Speaker B:So they're just like what these Old Testament prophets were warning about.
Speaker B:You know, they're following, you know, back in the time of Jehoshaphat, you know, they're not getting good direction because they're following false prophets.
Speaker B:They're following the words of idols.
Speaker B:They're like sheep that are scattered and don't know what direction to go in, rather than having a shepherd who can lead them, who can guide them.
Speaker B:And so Jesus basically tells his disciples, and like I said, I think we'll come back to this.
Speaker B:At the very end of this podcast episode, he tells his disciples, there need to be plenty of people going out.
Speaker B:And of course, he changes the metaphor here with a harvest, but we need workers to go out and basically be shepherds, teach them and point them toward the good shepherd is what comes up.
Speaker B:I just thought that was an interesting little side note never noticed before.
Speaker A:Yeah, I think it's interesting how at least so we've seen so far, is just that the term changes in some ways, you know, like just, you know, we have God described as the shepherd, and then later on, you know, as we are, as we're getting into, you know, well, there is no shepherd.
Speaker A:Well, the shepherd God is still shepherd, but there seems to be.
Speaker A:Shepherding has changed a little bit.
Speaker A:That term has changed as you go from that initial Genesis account down to some of these other Old Testament accounts.
Speaker B:So then we finally get David as the shepherd.
Speaker B:And this is in 2 Samuel 5.
Speaker B:2.
Speaker B:Of course, David had already been anointed king.
Speaker B:And there was a long period of time.
Speaker B:Samuel had already recognized him.
Speaker B:And again, I think the reason David is really the one that I always kind of think of first is because he was a shepherd when Samuel came and found him in Jesse's household, right.
Speaker B:He was out tending the sheep when all the other sons came along to see if they were going to to be the next king of Israel after Saul.
Speaker B:So he'd already been anointed king.
Speaker B:Saul had already been defeated.
Speaker B:But it's in 2 Samuel 5, it says that the tribes come up to Hebron to find David.
Speaker B:And then this is what they say to him.
Speaker B:2 Samuel 5.
Speaker B:2.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:In the past, while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel on their military campaigns.
Speaker A:And the Lord said to you, you will shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler.
Speaker B:So the promise is that David will be their shepherd.
Speaker B:And you see that comparison with the ruler, shepherd and ruler become, I think, in the time of King David, then that becomes the dominant metaphor for the way that shepherd is used.
Speaker B:There's another strange story.
Speaker B:Since I don't have time to go into this in great detail, we could actually, probably, actually we should find somebody who knows something about this and have him talk about it.
Speaker B:But 2 Samuel 24 is a very strange little story where David ends up taking a census of the fighting men, and there's punishment that comes as a result of it.
Speaker B:He has to announce the punishment.
Speaker B:Basically, he initially says, well, give us a plague for three days.
Speaker B:70,000 men die in the first day.
Speaker B:And David pleads with God.
Speaker B:And in pleading with them, David says to the Lord, I, the shepherd, have done wrong, and these are but sheep.
Speaker B:And so there again, that idea of the king as the shepherd.
Speaker B:And he's saying, basically, they don't deserve.
Speaker B:Don't bestow punishment on the sheep for what the shepherd has done is what David says there.
Speaker B:Now we get into the time of the prophets, and they use this idea of shepherd a lot.
Speaker B:Again, for the rulers of God's people, not just for God, but also for his people.
Speaker B:But there is this one image that I love in Isaiah 40, Isaiah 49, 11.
Speaker B:Go ahead and read that.
Speaker B:And when we talk about God as the shepherd, ask the one who cares for the sheep.
Speaker B:This image is probably better than any other.
Speaker B:Well, Psalm 23 is pretty good.
Speaker A:It's pretty direct right to the point there.
Speaker B:But Isaiah 40 is a really.
Speaker B:Verses 9 through 11.
Speaker B:Go ahead and read that for us, if you would.
Speaker A:Yeah, you bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain.
Speaker A:You who bring good news to Jerusalem.
Speaker A:Lift up your voice with a shout.
Speaker A:Lift it up.
Speaker A:Do not be afraid.
Speaker A:Say to the towns of Judah, here is your God.
Speaker A:See, the sovereign Lord comes with power, and he rules with a mighty arm.
Speaker A:See, his reward is with him.
Speaker A:Him and his recompense accompanies him.
Speaker A:He tends his flock like a shepherd.
Speaker A:He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart.
Speaker A:He gently leads those that have young.
Speaker B:I just.
Speaker B:I think that's just kind of a beautiful image in a poetic, Hebrew, poetic form here that he gathers up the lambs and he holds them close to his heart.
Speaker B:He cares for those who have young, those who have special, you know, especially in a vulnerable position.
Speaker B:He cares for them.
Speaker B:So here the Lord is.
Speaker B:Is the shepherd.
Speaker B:God is the shepherd in this image.
Speaker B:And I guess here's the point.
Speaker B:I should say again, maybe our first thought is when Jesus says, I'm the good shepherd, yes, he cares for us.
Speaker B:And that's true.
Speaker B:That's a very true thing.
Speaker B:But the Old Testament, looking at this shepherd, I think we find a little bit of.
Speaker B:You were alluding to this a little bit earlier.
Speaker B:There's a little bit of a conflict here, a little bit of a.
Speaker B:What's.
Speaker B:Attention, I guess, is the word I'm looking for here.
Speaker B:God, even all the way back in Genesis, is called the shepherd, the rock.
Speaker B:He's the one you can rely on.
Speaker B:He's the shepherd that you can trust.
Speaker B:But then there are these shepherds over the people, and sometimes they end up scattering the flock.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Sometimes they end up not guiding in a way that is useful.
Speaker B:It reminds me a little bit.
Speaker B:I said this to you before we started recording.
Speaker B:It reminds me a little bit of that passage where God says to Samuel that the people want a king.
Speaker B:And basically I want you to go and anoint Saul.
Speaker B:You know, this is when Saul becomes the king.
Speaker B:And maybe even.
Speaker B:That's a good example.
Speaker B:But do you remember what he says there?
Speaker B:Do you remember that whole passage we were talking?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Actually, I was looking that up about when Samuel's anointing Saul or what the conditions were.
Speaker B:Yeah, but.
Speaker B:Yeah, hold onto that for just a minute.
Speaker B:I was talking more about where he says, samuel gets upset because he's the judge, which.
Speaker B:The Book of Judges we've talked about before.
Speaker B:And basically they show us that none of these leaders are able to lead God's people for a long period of time, and then their sons come along and mess it all up.
Speaker B:So Samuel was this Great.
Speaker B:He was a great.
Speaker B:He was a prophet, he was a holy man, but he was also a leader.
Speaker B:He was a judge, the last great judge.
Speaker B:But then his sons didn't follow in his ways.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And so the people said, we want a king over us, like all the nations around us.
Speaker B:And Samuel's upset because he says, they rejected me.
Speaker A:And then God says, no, they're really rejecting me.
Speaker B:Me as king.
Speaker B:And that's what I think fills this out a little bit, is God is the good shepherd.
Speaker B:He is the one who we want to care for.
Speaker B:And yet we have often.
Speaker B:And God's people often settle for leaders and rulers who are unable to maintain that even if they're a good ruler, they are going to have a finite lifetime.
Speaker B:Hezekiah is always my favorite example of that.
Speaker B:Hezekiah was a great king, holy man, led the people back to, did away with all the high places, even cut up things that had been around since the time of Moses because people were worshiping them.
Speaker B:But then his son Manasseh comes along and undoes even does worse than anything Hezekiah had ever done.
Speaker B:So the very best kings, the very best human rulers of God's people can only rule for so long, and then there's going to be an issue.
Speaker B:What were you going to say about the anointing of Samuel?
Speaker A:Well, yeah, just that when God says, samuel, give them a king, he kind of says like, hey, they're going to have to take this king is going to do some things to them.
Speaker A:Like this earthly king has been given some rights, but also it's like, hey, this is what he's going to do.
Speaker A:So there seems to be a little bit of that transition there because God was going to lead them.
Speaker A:He didn't ask them to recruit all the army and all that stuff.
Speaker A:It's saying when you get an earthly king, this is what's going to happen.
Speaker A:So there seems to be a little bit of that transition happening there in that when you want an earthly king, this is where some of this is going to change over.
Speaker B:What does he say is going to happen?
Speaker B:What kind of things did you notice there?
Speaker A:Yeah, so this is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights.
Speaker A:He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots, commanders and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and others still to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.
Speaker A:He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.
Speaker A:He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants.
Speaker A:He'll take a tenth of your grain like he's When I teach us, I.
Speaker B:Always like to say any centralized government costs money.
Speaker B:Yeah, you're going to get taxed.
Speaker B:And not only that, you're going to have your young people conscripted into the service of this human ruler.
Speaker B:And I'm glad you said that.
Speaker B:Hold on.
Speaker B:Remember that idea?
Speaker B:I hadn't planned to do this at this point, but hold on to that idea because when we're going to get to something here in just a minute that says the difference about what it is when God is our shepherd.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Compared to this.
Speaker B:Now, Isaiah 40 is a beautiful image of shepherd.
Speaker B:Isaiah has other images of shepherd I didn't spend time on because those are the negative ones.
Speaker B:That's where he's saying the shepherds are not doing what they're doing.
Speaker B:But I did pull out these three prophetic passages.
Speaker B:The first is Jeremiah 23, and we've talked about these before.
Speaker B:But Jeremiah 23:1 6, this is before the Babylonian exile.
Speaker B:Just hold onto this.
Speaker B:This is when Jeremiah, remember, he's the one who's saying, hey, it's too late, we're going into exile.
Speaker B:But God's going to be faithful.
Speaker B:Seventy years later, he's going to bring us back.
Speaker B:Ezekiel, we're going to look at in just a minute.
Speaker B:Ezekiel is during the Babylonian exile.
Speaker B:His job was to prophesy to that community of Jews who were living in Babylon right along the river there.
Speaker B:And then you have Zachariah, which we just finished that series on who is in a post exilic period.
Speaker B:All three of them use this image of wicked shepherds.
Speaker B:Okay, so go ahead and read Jeremiah 23.
Speaker B:I'm going to do Ezekiel 34 in a minute.
Speaker B:This is Jeremiah 23:1 6.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture, declares the lord.
Speaker A:Therefore this is what the Lord the God of Israel says to the shepherds who tend my people.
Speaker A:Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away, and have not bestowed care on them.
Speaker A:I'll bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done, declares the Lord.
Speaker A:I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number.
Speaker A:I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing, declares The Lord, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, a king who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.
Speaker A:In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety.
Speaker A:This is the name by which he will be called, the Lord, our righteous Savior.
Speaker B:Okay, great passage.
Speaker B:So it talks about these wicked shepherds who have scattered.
Speaker B:There's that idea of scattered the flock again.
Speaker B:And I think literally Jeremiah here is talking about the exile.
Speaker B:They have been taken away from their pasture.
Speaker B:If you think about the promised land, they've been taken away.
Speaker B:They've been scattered to the four winds.
Speaker B:Syrians came through, took the 10 northern tribes, scattered them to the far winds.
Speaker B:Babylonians are going to come and they're going to take the rest of the people into Babylonian exile.
Speaker B:But then the turn is there.
Speaker B:Do you see what he says?
Speaker B:I myself will become the shepherd for my sheep.
Speaker B:God says, I am going to become the shepherd.
Speaker B:So again, back to what we saw originally.
Speaker B:God is the shepherd.
Speaker B:And he says, these other shepherds have not done what they're supposed to do.
Speaker B:Again, even the best of them have failed in the long term.
Speaker B:And so I myself will do this.
Speaker B:And then he immediately goes into this.
Speaker B:I'm going to call it a Messianic statement.
Speaker B:I will raise up to David.
Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker B:This is saying from the line of David, a branch, which we've seen that image before in Zachariah as well.
Speaker B:I'm going to raise up for David a branch, and he's going to be a king.
Speaker B:Who's going to.
Speaker B:Who's going to reign wisely.
Speaker B:He's going to be a righteous king.
Speaker B:So you see what I'm saying?
Speaker B:I myself am going to shepherd.
Speaker B:I'm going to raise up this Messiah.
Speaker B:And that's pointing toward where we're going to end up going, I think.
Speaker B:Okay, so.
Speaker B:So that's Jeremiah 23.
Speaker B:Questions on that or anything you notice there that you want to bring up?
Speaker A:No, I mean, we see that this is God's pasture, the sheep of my pasture.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:Like, there's not been a relinquishing of ownership here.
Speaker A:But the shepherd here is a temporary.
Speaker A:At least in this context, is you have.
Speaker A:The sheep don't belong to this shepherd, it belongs to God.
Speaker B:Yeah, remember that?
Speaker B:That's going to be something we see in John 10 too, that he talks about.
Speaker B:The hired hand isn't the owner of the sheep.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And so, yeah, keep a hold of that.
Speaker B:So here's Ezekiel 34 and this is a long passage, so I don't know how much of this I'm going to read, and I'll probably stop.
Speaker B:I wanted to read this because it's just very rich in its imagery.
Speaker B:So if I don't read all of this, go back and read it yourself.
Speaker B:Ezekiel 34 is just incredible.
Speaker B:The word of the Lord came to me, son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel.
Speaker B:Prophesy and say to them, this is what the sovereign Lord says.
Speaker B:Woe to you, shepherds of Israel.
Speaker B:Same thing Jeremiah 23 starts with, right?
Speaker B:So he's using that same kind of language.
Speaker B:Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who only take care of yourselves.
Speaker B:Now, that's an interesting thing.
Speaker B:Should not shepherds take care of the flock?
Speaker B:You eat the curds, clothe yourself with the wool, and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock.
Speaker B:Now, I want to stop there for just a minute and go back to what you said about Saul, okay?
Speaker B:So he's saying, here's my little.
Speaker B:This is the best joke I've got today.
Speaker B:He says, you fleece the flock, right?
Speaker B:You're taking the wool, you're taking the curds, you're eating.
Speaker B:You're profiting off of the flock, but you're not bestowing care on them.
Speaker B:You've not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured.
Speaker B:You've not brought back the strays or searched for the lost.
Speaker B:You've ruled them harshly and brutally.
Speaker B:That's the other thing that we see is.
Speaker B:So I'm going to talk about two things.
Speaker B:I'm going to talk about greed, and I'm going to talk about violence, okay?
Speaker B:And with Saul, it wasn't as clear there, but.
Speaker B:But when you start to be sensitive to this kind of thing, you see it in, hey, he's going to conscript your sons and send them into war, right?
Speaker B:So you've got greed.
Speaker B:They're going to take care of themselves.
Speaker B:They're going to take the taxes, they're going to live in a big palace, and your guys are going to have to pay your death tax, whatever, and there's going to be violence.
Speaker B:Those two images, I think, are very important.
Speaker B:You've ruled them harshly and brutally.
Speaker B:So they were scattered because there was no shepherd.
Speaker B:And when they were scattered, they became food for all the wild animals.
Speaker B:In other words, all these other nations around them could just snap them up.
Speaker B:My sheep wandered over all the mountains, on every high hill.
Speaker B:They scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.
Speaker B:There's the image of the shepherd leaving the 99 to go look for the 1 right.
Speaker B:Therefore you shepherds hear the word of the Lord as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord.
Speaker B:Because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become become food for all the wild animals.
Speaker B:Because my shepherds did not search for the flock, but cared for themselves rather than the flock.
Speaker B:Therefore you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord.
Speaker B:This is what the Sovereign Lord says.
Speaker B:I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock.
Speaker B:In other words, they're going to be no more.
Speaker B:Down in verse 11 I'll skip down for this is what the Sovereign Lord says.
Speaker B:Same thing in Jeremiah.
Speaker B:I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.
Speaker B:As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep.
Speaker B:I will rescue them from all the places where they have scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.
Speaker B:So that's the image you get of the shepherd searching and looking for the lost sheep and bringing them back.
Speaker B:I will bring them out of the nations okay, here's where we're getting into what the literal meaning of this is.
Speaker B:I'll bring them out of the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land.
Speaker B:I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements of the land.
Speaker B:I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel be their grazing land.
Speaker B:There they will lie down in good grazing land.
Speaker B:Psalm 23 reminds us of right.
Speaker B:And there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.
Speaker B:I'm sorry, I will have them lie down, declares the sovereign Lord.
Speaker B:Verse 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays.
Speaker B:I will bind up the injured, strengthen the weak, but the sleek and strong I will destroy.
Speaker B:I will shepherd the flock with justice.
Speaker B:And he goes on.
Speaker B:I mean, it's just a really interesting kind of image.
Speaker B:Zechariah 11.
Speaker B:I'll just refer you back to our episode.
Speaker B:I can't remember what episode number it is, but just a few weeks ago.
Speaker A:I'll reference it, we'll put a link to it.
Speaker B:We talked about Zechariah chapter 11, and it talked about basically God says there, raise up these bad shepherds to lead my flock, and then he's going to do away with them.
Speaker B:So same kind of image, both pre exilic during the exile for Ezekiel and then post exilic.
Speaker B:We have prophets sharing that message of these shepherds.
Speaker B:Okay, now again, just to reiterate.
Speaker B:So it's not just Psalm 23 is not the only thing we have in the Old Testament about shepherds.
Speaker B:We have kind of these contrasting images of God being a shepherd who was going to care for the flock, but he entrusted his flock.
Speaker B:Like you said, he's the owner, but he entrusted his people to these leaders, none of whom have done well.
Speaker B:And I'll go back, I suppose you'd say, even before you get to the first Samuel in the book of Judges, he entrusted his people to these leaders who failed to do what was right.
Speaker B:And Judges, the further you get the book, the, the farther they get from God's will.
Speaker B:So you get this contrast between God as shepherd and these leaders as shepherd.
Speaker B:And I'm going to bring up this as well.
Speaker B:They look out for their own interest.
Speaker B:They're greedy and they subject their flock to brutality.
Speaker B:Sorry.
Speaker A:That's all right.
Speaker A:Well, as we were kind of on that topic, I was thinking about, while you take a drink, there is.
Speaker A:Read about this as making themselves rich.
Speaker A:It's always a thing for me.
Speaker A:When I think about King Solomon, I think about, like, man, he's a great example.
Speaker A:This is the glory days.
Speaker A:You know, like, at least I used to think naively, like, these are the glory days, the country is rich and so forth.
Speaker A:But then you get the other half of the narrative as soon as he is dead and you have Jeroboam and Rehoboam and it's this conversation like, hey, you know how your dad, like, really?
Speaker A:Yeah, like he lived a high life and basically subjugated all of us into like, these harsh conditions, you know, could you take it lighter on us?
Speaker A:And so for me, it's always been like, Solomon and this wisdom.
Speaker A:I always, I remember thinking like, oh.
Speaker B:The Sunday school vision.
Speaker A:Yeah, the Sunday school version of Solomon of like, oh, he's.
Speaker A:He's got, he's got this wisdom.
Speaker A:He's so smart.
Speaker A:Oh, he's gonna cut the baby in half.
Speaker A:He's so wise.
Speaker A:I wish I had that wisdom.
Speaker A:And then you get into the rest of it and you realize, you know, Solomon wasn't that great.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker A:Like, he didn't end his reign.
Speaker A:Well, and apparently in the.
Speaker A:The reason there were these gardens and there was this gold and all that stuff.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Is because he's subjugating his own people.
Speaker B:He highly.
Speaker A:He, he did Samuel promise, like, this is what he's going to do.
Speaker A:And Solomon did it.
Speaker B:And even back to Deuteronomy, there's That Moses says, well, when you appoint a king over you, here's what he's going to do.
Speaker B:He's going to go down into Egypt again and get horses, which is a warfare image.
Speaker B:It's a.
Speaker B:And even I'll point out Jeroboam was opposing Solomon during Solomon's reign and then ended up fleeing into Egyptian exile, if you remember that.
Speaker B:And so it's not until after Solomon he comes back and then we get the whole Jeroboam Rehoboam stuff going on.
Speaker B:But yeah, I think that's exactly.
Speaker B:So the way to understand the Old Testament shepherd, this is all I'm trying to say, isn't only to understand God as the good shepherd, as Psalm 23, but also to understand that there is this strain that we can follow through the scriptures that says that these shepherds, these surrogate shepherds, let's call them, who should be leading the people according to God's will, fail to do that.
Speaker B:So now let's get to the New Testament.
Speaker B:We've already looked at the one New Testament passage.
Speaker B:Jesus had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
Speaker B:So I want to do something about that.
Speaker B:John, chapter 10, and I'll remind you, John chapter 9 ends with Jesus making this statement.
Speaker B:This is why he came into the world, so that the blind could see and the seeing could be blind.
Speaker B:And the Pharisees say, what are you calling us blind?
Speaker B:And Jesus basically speaks condemnation against them.
Speaker B:If there were no chapter break, chapter 10, verse 1 would then begin in this way.
Speaker B:Truly, truly, I say to you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way is a thief and a robber.
Speaker B:Now I find those.
Speaker B:I probably make much too much out of these two words, thieves and robbers.
Speaker B:But the word robber, sometimes, in fact, I think if that's the correct word.
Speaker B:Is that lace taste?
Speaker A:We're about to find out.
Speaker B:I can't.
Speaker B:Are you looking?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yes, it is.
Speaker B:Okay, so that, that can even be, if you look at the semantic range of that, it can even be something like an insurrectionist, right?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:A rebel.
Speaker B:A rebel.
Speaker B:So thieves are motivated by.
Speaker B:By greed.
Speaker B:Robbers are violent people who are.
Speaker B:Who are trying to stir up insurrection, trying to stir up trouble.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And so here's what, what Jesus says.
Speaker B:He says those who come in a different way are motivated by, and this is Brian Johnson's paraphrase, so be careful here.
Speaker B:But those who come in to the sheep pen by another way, they're either trying to fleece the flock they're either trying to steal or they're trying to.
Speaker B:I would say this.
Speaker B:Use violence as a means to power, okay?
Speaker B:That's what they're trying to do.
Speaker B:The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
Speaker B:The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice.
Speaker B:We'll come back to that idea of listening to his voice.
Speaker B:He calls his own sheep by name, and he leads them out.
Speaker B:When he's brought them all out his own, he goes on ahead of them.
Speaker B:And his sheep follow them because they know his voice.
Speaker B:But they will never follow a stranger.
Speaker B:In fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice.
Speaker B:Look at verse 6.
Speaker B:Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.
Speaker B:So against the background of the Old.
Speaker B:The Pharisees should know the Old Testament, right?
Speaker B:I mean, especially that prophetic part of it.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:That was their specialty.
Speaker B:And so think about what we've looked at in the Old Testament against that background.
Speaker B:Jesus is saying that the true shepherd is the one who guides his people, and they will hear his voice.
Speaker B:You could even go back just two chapters to chapter eight, where Jesus had this big discussion there with the Jewish leaders, where he says, you don't understand my language.
Speaker B:Why is my language not clear to you?
Speaker B:Because you listen to your father, the devil, right?
Speaker B:You speak his language is literally what it says, and you don't understand what I'm saying to you.
Speaker B:So we'll come back to that, too.
Speaker B:But you see the Pharisees here.
Speaker B:So part of why the sheep were scattered was because they were listening to the worthless idols and they were listening to the lies of the false prophets.
Speaker B:Remember Micaiah, the story there?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:So it requires someone who is speaking truth for them to follow.
Speaker B:I know I've probably told this example before, but it's one that's very striking to me.
Speaker B:The first time I ever visited Israel, I went on a.
Speaker B:We did a hike.
Speaker B:We hiked what's called the Jesus Trail.
Speaker B:Highly recommended if you ever have an opportunity to do it.
Speaker B:And to do it with Mark Zuckerberg, who's been on this program.
Speaker B:We need to have him back on our podcast another time.
Speaker B:But Mark led us, and we were walking through this olive grove, and it's interesting the way that olive groves are there.
Speaker B:They're kind of communal.
Speaker B:And he was telling us about the fact that each family kind of owns their own olive tree, and they come and they harvest it in the fall, and all this kind of stuff.
Speaker B:But as we're walking along, all of a sudden there's this bunch of sheep and there's a shepherd there.
Speaker B:Now, shepherds in the 21st century don't look like shepherds in the first century.
Speaker B:This guy had jeans on and a T shir and he had his cell phone out.
Speaker B:All this kind of stuff.
Speaker B:But here's the interesting thing that is similar is they don't have fences and stuff now.
Speaker B:They have fences now to keep us out of where the minefields are.
Speaker B:But you're allowed, basically, you pasture your sheep just in that whole communal area.
Speaker B:That's just where you go.
Speaker B:So here we are.
Speaker B:I think there were 10 of us.
Speaker B:We were walking along this path.
Speaker B:Of course, we're Americans, and Americans are known for their stealth and quietness.
Speaker B:And so we were stumbling along this path, talking loudly, I'm sure, laughing and cutting up and whatever.
Speaker B:And so Mark kind of says, oh, let me go talk to him.
Speaker B:So Mark, our leader, goes up and says to him, basically, hey, what do we need to do?
Speaker B:We don't want to disturb your flock or whatever.
Speaker B:He said, oh, that's fine, keep going.
Speaker B:He said, no big deal.
Speaker B:And so, I kid you not, he speaks to his sheep and he goes off and they follow him and we continue on up the path.
Speaker B:And the reason that was so striking to me is I remembered these words, right?
Speaker B:They won't follow a stranger because they know their shepherd's voice.
Speaker B:And that, I mean, I saw it.
Speaker B:It's still that way today.
Speaker B:Jesus is using an image here that would have been something that they all knew.
Speaker B:So the shepherd was not louder than we were.
Speaker B:I guarantee you that, you know, we were more numerous.
Speaker B:Sheep didn't follow us, they followed the shepherd.
Speaker B:And so I think that's part of what we see here in this is Jesus is saying to the Pharisees, right?
Speaker B:You need to be speaking God's truth for people to recognize and to know your voice.
Speaker B:And basically he's saying, you've like the false prophets in the days of Micaiah, like those worthless idols.
Speaker B:You guys are not speaking the truth that God is telling you to, and you're not recognizing it when you hear it from me.
Speaker B:And we'll see more of that in just a moment.
Speaker B:Anything you want to mention there?
Speaker A:I don't think so.
Speaker A:No, I don't think so.
Speaker A:I mean, it's good.
Speaker B:So verse seven then says this.
Speaker B:Therefore Jesus said again, truly, truly or very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep, all who have come before me.
Speaker B:Second time.
Speaker B:Here's something again.
Speaker B:When we're studying scriptures, what do we always say?
Speaker B:Something that's repeated is important.
Speaker B:So all who have come before me are thieves and robbers.
Speaker B:But the sheep have not listened to them.
Speaker B:I am the gate.
Speaker B:Whoever enters through me will be saved.
Speaker B:They will come in and go out and find pasture.
Speaker B:Very similar to that Image in Ezekiel 34.
Speaker B:The thieves life comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
Speaker B:So there's that idea, you see the violence and the greed.
Speaker B:I have come that they may have life and have it to the full, or have it abundantly.
Speaker B:I am the good shepherd.
Speaker B:The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Speaker B:We'll actually come back to that.
Speaker B:Let me just say this.
Speaker B:So I have come so that they can have life abundantly.
Speaker B:You know, back in Ezekiel 34, you fleeced the flock.
Speaker B:You.
Speaker B:You've stolen from them.
Speaker B:You've all the way back to Saul.
Speaker B:And Jesus is saying this, all who came before me.
Speaker B:I think he's saying all these rulers now.
Speaker B:What's the difference?
Speaker B:The difference with Jesus is the first thing is he owns everything anyway.
Speaker B:He doesn't need.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:He doesn't need our taxes.
Speaker B:He owns it already.
Speaker B:It already belongs to him.
Speaker B:So he's not looking to me going, man, what can I get out of Bryan so that I get something out of being his leader?
Speaker B:So that's what makes him a good shepherd.
Speaker B:The other thing is that he is the powerful one.
Speaker B:He is the one who's already won the victory.
Speaker B:And he lays down his life.
Speaker B:We're going to see this in just a minute.
Speaker B:He's even defeated death itself.
Speaker B:So violence has no more place in this, right?
Speaker B:He is the prince of peace.
Speaker B:He is the one who has come to put an end to war.
Speaker B:And so what I think we have going on here is when Jesus is saying, all who came before me are thieves and robbers, he's saying all these kings that we've talked about had their selfish motives, but I am the good shepherd.
Speaker B:He goes on.
Speaker B:I want to go a little bit further.
Speaker B:This has probably been a long episode already.
Speaker B:I'm.
Speaker B:I'm lost track of time.
Speaker A:We're good.
Speaker A:We're 40 minutes in.
Speaker B:Or that's okay.
Speaker B:We're good.
Speaker B:I am the good shepherd.
Speaker B:The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Speaker B:The hired hand is not the shepherd.
Speaker B:That's what I was telling you earlier when you were saying God is the one who owns the sheep, Right?
Speaker B:But then he's placed these others in care of them.
Speaker B:Same with A hired hand.
Speaker B:You hired somebody to take care of your sheep.
Speaker B:Hired hand is not.
Speaker B:The shepherd does not own the sheep.
Speaker B:So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away.
Speaker B:The enemy, whatever's going to attack him, the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.
Speaker B:The man runs away because he's a hired ham and cares nothing for the sheep.
Speaker B:Here's the contrast.
Speaker B:Jesus says, I am the good shepherd.
Speaker B:Of course, these I am statements we've talked about before, probably a reference to the divine name.
Speaker B:That's how I understand it, to the name Yahweh.
Speaker B:So Yahweh is the good shepherd.
Speaker B:I am the good shepherd here.
Speaker B:I know my sheep and my sheep know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Speaker B:Now he goes on, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this.
Speaker B:But basically he goes on and says, I have other sheep.
Speaker B:Which I think, and I think many others referred would understand it this way as well, that he's saying, not only the sheep of Israel, not only the people of God that we've talked about before.
Speaker B:But Jesus says, there are other sheep who are going to become a part of this flock as well, and they're going to become part of.
Speaker B:Talking about the Gentile mission, inclusion of the Gentiles.
Speaker B:I think verse 17, the reason they too will listen to my voice.
Speaker B:But it says, but anyway, verse 17.
Speaker B:The reason my Father loves me is I lay down my life only to take it up again.
Speaker B:In other words, even if he lays down his life, he has the authority to take it back up again.
Speaker B:No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.
Speaker B:I have authority to lay it down.
Speaker B:Authority to take it up again.
Speaker B:This command I received from my father.
Speaker B:Jews who heard these words were divided.
Speaker B:And again, I think Jews are Jewish leaders.
Speaker B:What were you laughing at there?
Speaker A:Just like they were divided.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:Same thing they've said to him before.
Speaker B:Chapter 8.
Speaker B:They call them demon possessed and a Samaritan.
Speaker B:Aren't we right in saying you're demon possessed and a Samaritan?
Speaker B:Here he says he is demon possessed and raving mad.
Speaker B:Why listen to him?
Speaker B:But others said, these are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon.
Speaker B:Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?
Speaker B:So they still go back.
Speaker B:Back to verse nine.
Speaker B:Then look at verse 22.
Speaker B:This is what brings us all home to me.
Speaker B:Then came the feast of dedication, and there's even a textual variant here.
Speaker B:I won't go into great detail about this, but it probably is best read even if you look at Metzger's textual commentary.
Speaker B:For those who are in the know, the best reading of this probably says.
Speaker B:And it was dedication.
Speaker B:It was the feast of dedication.
Speaker B:Now, dedication is what we call Hanukkah, which is the time where they remember Judas Maccabeus.
Speaker B:You want me to say it?
Speaker A:I want you to say Hanukkah again.
Speaker A:Just whenever you say that, you really.
Speaker B:Hanukkah.
Speaker B:Hanukkah.
Speaker B:Hanukkah.
Speaker B:It's the feast of dedication.
Speaker B:When.
Speaker B:During the time of Judas Maccabeus.
Speaker B:Go back.
Speaker B:We've got a whole episode on the intertest.
Speaker A:Gentleman Judith.
Speaker A:Hammer.
Speaker B:Judas.
Speaker B:The hammer.
Speaker B:Maccabees is the word for hammer.
Speaker B:Judas.
Speaker B:He was from the Hasmonean family.
Speaker B:It's during a period of time where a Syrian king by the name of Antiochus Epiphanes was subjugating the people, trying to wipe out the worship of the true God.
Speaker B:And Judas and his family rebelled against them, essentially.
Speaker B:And Judas called the hammer because he struck blows against these superior Syrian forces.
Speaker B:He and his followers were able to fight their way into the temple and close it.
Speaker B:And dedication is where they cleansed the temple and rededicated it to the worship of God.
Speaker B:Antiochus had slaughtered a pig on it, dedicated it to the worship of Zeus, all kinds of nasty stuff.
Speaker B:Again, go back.
Speaker B:I won't spend a ton of time.
Speaker A:This is between the Old and the New Testament.
Speaker B:But here's my point.
Speaker B:Here's my point with this is Judas Maccabeus would have been a hero of the people.
Speaker B:People.
Speaker B:And the other Maccabean kings, many of the other Maccabean kings, they were heroes of the people.
Speaker B:And this is what they're commemorating in this day.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And just like we've seen elsewhere in the Gospel of John, on that day where they're remembering these kings who've gone before.
Speaker B:What was special about Judas is they'd had a foreign oppressing king.
Speaker B:He threw them off.
Speaker B:And then the Maccabees were the kings for several centuries after this.
Speaker B:Right, right.
Speaker B:This was the last time that they'd had a certain amount of autonomy.
Speaker B:The Jews had had autonomy.
Speaker B:So they were as they celebrated Hanukkah now under Roman oppression, which happened in 88 B.C.
Speaker B:you know, that's when that started.
Speaker B:When they looked back on days like this, this would be like us celebrating the Fourth of July after the Canadians have come down and captured us and taken us captive.
Speaker B:I don't mean that's Hilarious.
Speaker B:That's hilarious.
Speaker B:I know, especially today, that probably in this political environment that no longer goes over.
Speaker B:So I need to find somebody else.
Speaker B:I better not mention Greenland.
Speaker B:But anyway, so you get what I'm saying, though, is imagine celebrating this in a time where you're oppressed.
Speaker B:You're remembering the time where your kings threw off the foreign leaders.
Speaker B:And in this context, Jesus said this.
Speaker B:He said it twice already.
Speaker B:All who came before me were thieves and robbers.
Speaker B:I am the good shepherd.
Speaker B:Now, here's what makes this especially poignant is it wasn't too many generations.
Speaker B:In fact, it was only two generations after Judas Maccabeus, this great leader of the people, that we find the Maccabees beginning to oppress the people.
Speaker B:And by the time you get to Alexander Janaeus, this, they're actually going to the Syrian king looking for help against their own king.
Speaker B:Because he was thief and he was a robber.
Speaker B:He was using violence in order to put down rebellion against him.
Speaker B:Crucifying his own countrymen, which we know from Jesus crucifixion was considered shameful, a shameful death.
Speaker B:And he was crucifying this king.
Speaker B:King was crucifying his own countrymen.
Speaker B:Feast of dedication is when you're thinking about these guys.
Speaker B:And Jesus comes along and he says, all who came before me were thieves and robbers, but I am the good shepherd.
Speaker B:And the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Speaker B:Feast of dedication was winter.
Speaker B:That's when Hanukkah takes place.
Speaker B:In December, late December, Jesus was in the temple courts, walking in Solomon's colonnade, which we know is a covered colonnade.
Speaker B:We know it rains in Judea a lot of in the wintertime.
Speaker B:So it makes sense that he's under a covered colonnade.
Speaker B:The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, how long will you keep us in suspense?
Speaker B:If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.
Speaker B:So here he is, Feats of dedication.
Speaker B:And they're asking, tell us plainly if you are this king.
Speaker B:You know, you just said you're the good shepherd.
Speaker B:You've said all this other stuff.
Speaker B:Tell us plainly.
Speaker B:Don't use these figures of speech any longer.
Speaker B:And Jesus said, I did tell you.
Speaker B:I mean, how much more plainly can you say it if you know the Old Testament?
Speaker B:Right, Right.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker B:And he says, I did tell you, but you do not believe the works I do.
Speaker B:In my father's name, testify about me.
Speaker B:In other words, I've opened the eyes of the blind.
Speaker B:I caused the lame to walk.
Speaker B:You know, next chapter, you know, I'm going To raise a guy from the dead, you know, spoiler alert.
Speaker B:But you do not believe because you are not my sheep.
Speaker B:You don't hear it.
Speaker B:You can't see it.
Speaker B:I've told you, and you can't hear it.
Speaker B:My sheep listen to my voice.
Speaker B:I know them.
Speaker B:They follow me.
Speaker B:I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.
Speaker B:No one will snatch them out of my hand.
Speaker B:My Father, who's given them to me is greater than all.
Speaker B:No one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.
Speaker B:I and the Father are one.
Speaker B:Now we hear that last statement.
Speaker B:Statement, and people say, that's the reason.
Speaker B:Then what happens next?
Speaker B:Because look at their response again.
Speaker B:His Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him.
Speaker B:But Jesus said to them, I've shown you many good works from the Father, for which of these do you stone me?
Speaker B:And they say, we're not stoning you for any good work, but for blasphemy.
Speaker B:Because you, a mere man, claim to be God.
Speaker B:Now, certainly, I and the Father are.
Speaker B:One is claiming to be God.
Speaker B:And they understood that.
Speaker B:Whether you do or not.
Speaker B:They understood that.
Speaker B:Right, Right.
Speaker B:We had a comment on one of our videos.
Speaker A:He said it plain for them.
Speaker B:Yeah, but here's the other thing I want to say is against the Old Testament background.
Speaker B:What did God say in Jeremiah 23?
Speaker B:What did he say in Ezekiel 34?
Speaker B:He said, these shepherds have scattered my flock, but there's a time coming where I myself will shepherd my people.
Speaker B:And so Jesus comes along and says, you ready?
Speaker B:I am the good shepherd.
Speaker B:And so I think even in making that statement, he is saying something about that he is the fulfillment of when God says, I myself will come and I will gather my scattered flock.
Speaker B:Even that idea of I have other flocks that are not from this sheep pen, Right.
Speaker B:I will gather my scattered flocks from all the nations, and I will lead them and I will guide them in truth.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:I will speak truthfully to them and I will care for them.
Speaker B:So does the good shepherd mean that Jesus cares for his flock?
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:But my point is, I think when we look at the Old Testament background in its fullness, there's a bit more complexity to it here and a bit more of a.
Speaker B:I don't even know what you'd call it.
Speaker B:Another.
Speaker B:Another aspect to this that has to do with Jesus saying, I'm not like other rulers.
Speaker B:I don't need your money.
Speaker B:I'm not going to conscript you for violence.
Speaker B:You know, Peter drawing his sword and cutting off Malchus ear.
Speaker B:Peter, those who live by the sword, die by the sword.
Speaker B:And then he heals the ear of the servant of the high priest.
Speaker B:You know, he's calling us into an eternal kingdom.
Speaker B:That's the other thing I was going to mention is Hezekiah.
Speaker B:He's a great king in his lifetime, but then he dies and Manasseh takes the throne.
Speaker B:This is an eternal king.
Speaker B:This is one who's the son of David, but he's going to remain forever.
Speaker B:And so he fulfills that promise that God makes in the Old Testament.
Speaker B:Testament.
Speaker A:There's a lot going on here to think about.
Speaker A:You know, I.
Speaker A:I think, you know, one of the things that we've talked about this has been several seasons ago, as we talked about in Tycho's epiphanies.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:But realizing that this idea of a shepherd coming was so big for them, and even the.
Speaker A:The Maccabees loom so large.
Speaker A:You know, when I think about the names Judas.
Speaker A:You know, we have characters named Judas, Maccabees, Simon, John, John.
Speaker A:You know, like, all the.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:All these names that we see in the New Testament are birthed out of the Maccabeans.
Speaker B:Richard Bauckham's article out of the eyewitnesses of the Gospels is a great resource for that.
Speaker B:He did a fantastic job researching that.
Speaker A:To go, like, yeah, we can recognize they did bad, but, man, they liberated us at the same time.
Speaker A:And so there is very much as.
Speaker A:When we say, well, the Maccabeans did this, well, how much are they thinking about this?
Speaker A:Well, they're naming their children this, and.
Speaker B:They'Re celebrating this, and they're living this.
Speaker B:They're put.
Speaker B:They put a new day on the calendar.
Speaker B:I mean, have actually new week on the calendar.
Speaker B:Eight crazy nights, as we.
Speaker B:As we know.
Speaker A:And the festival hadn't become.
Speaker A:Just wrote for them.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:Like, it still meant, you know, I think I sometimes.
Speaker B:Recent history.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:Like, it's recent history.
Speaker A:It's not.
Speaker A:It's not like how Christmas is for some of us now, where it's just like, oh, this is just the holiday we celebrate.
Speaker A:Like, no, they were connected to its meaning.
Speaker A:Yeah, very much so.
Speaker A:It wasn't just something they did.
Speaker A:And I couldn't help but as we were going through John 10, like, the I am the good shepherd part, it reminds me so much of John 15, like, the true vine.
Speaker A:Like, I am the true vine.
Speaker A:Like, again, Israel was this.
Speaker A:And now Jesus is this.
Speaker A:And like this connection of Jesus following the commands of the Father in this.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:When he Says this command I received from my father to lay down my life.
Speaker A:And that's a, you know, Jesus says, no greater man has, you know, a friend than lays down his life.
Speaker A:Yeah, that we just see this common theme that's kind of extending all the way through the Gospel of John here.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:The one other thing I was going to mention, we talked about we don't have a ton of time to deal with this.
Speaker B:I know, but shepherd is also continued to be used in the New Testament for the leaders of God's people.
Speaker B:Peter talks about this in 1 Peter, chapter 5.
Speaker B:Even our word pastor comes from the Old French word for shepherd.
Speaker B:And this was the interesting thing when I taught in the Dominican Republic because it's the same word there.
Speaker B:What they use in the church is the same word that they use for somebody who goes out and shepherds.
Speaker B:And we're kind of away from an agricultural context enough that we, we sometimes miss those kind of connections.
Speaker B:I remember I had a student who, he was kind of a cut up, but he came in one day down in the Dominican.
Speaker B:He says, oh, teacher, I'm a shepherd, I'm a pastor, right?
Speaker B:And I'm like, oh, that means I have a congregation, I've got a flock.
Speaker B:And I'm like, oh, really?
Speaker B:You kind of haven't been doing this very long.
Speaker B:You're already a pastor.
Speaker B:And he says, yeah, I have five chivos, I have five goats.
Speaker B:And so he was literally shepherd and he knew I would hear it the wrong way.
Speaker B:So you get what I'm saying though, is that idea of shepherd is still the leader of God's people.
Speaker B:And so I think the importance is, and this is what Peter says in First Peter, he says, we have to follow our chief shepherd.
Speaker B:We have to follow his example in speaking truth, in bestowing care, not leading astray.
Speaker B:We need to speak truthfully and lead in a way that's in keeping with what God has desired for his people.
Speaker A:Yeah, I was just looking at 1 Peter 5 here as you were talking about this.
Speaker A:And it's to the elders among you I appeal as a fellow elder and witness of Christ's suffering, who also will share in the glory to be revealed.
Speaker A:Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care.
Speaker A:Again, it's kind of that temporary, like the Old Testament kings watching over them not because you must, but because your willingness.
Speaker A:God wants you to be not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve, you know, thieves and robbers.
Speaker A:That thief, that thief, not lording it over those entrusted you, but being examples to the flock.
Speaker B:Oh wow, good example.
Speaker B:Yeah, that fits better than I thought even I meant to do that.
Speaker B:So yeah, the Lord to get over would be not having that kind of violent authority or you know, that kind of, you know, the Lord it over like Jesus says to his disciples, you know, you're to serve one another, not to Lord it over like the leaders of the Gentiles do.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:Well that's good, very good.
Speaker B:Well, I hope that just kind of.
Speaker B:And again, the insight here is to just make sure if we're doing.
Speaker B:You got to, to understand the New Testament, you've got to understand the Old Testament.
Speaker B:So many of these things, especially Jesus words, so many of his sayings are directly and like I said, even to me today, I never noticed that scattering imagery like sheep without a shepherd.
Speaker B:But it's so important to go back and look at what the Old Testament references are and to see what it says, see what the context is in order to understand how it would have been heard by the audience of the first century.
Speaker B:Especially these that Jesus is speaking to would have known the Old Testament very, very well.
Speaker B:That was their Bible, that was where they had their sermons from, from.
Speaker B:And, and like I said, even these, these festival days you're celebrating, you know, it's, these are the ones that you do every year to, to keep them fresh.
Speaker B:And so I think to understand it in that context is, is so important.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And this is a shout out for Logos software.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, we use that today.
Speaker A:And yeah, well, you know, I was, I typed it in here.
Speaker A:They've got great little AI searches now, which means you don't have to use these crazy terms, okay.
Speaker A:That you can just type sheep and shepherd in there.
Speaker A:But you know, that can help you see where just as we talked about sheep without a shepherd, and it's going to kind of give you some semantic range around that as well.
Speaker A:So help you find something.
Speaker B:Great tool logos is not cheap.
Speaker B:But you know, Ryan, you, you struggled a long time to decide whether to get it or not.
Speaker B:And you, you'd say you very much like it.
Speaker B:You use it on a regular basis now.
Speaker A:So it's pretty much opened every day on my computer.
Speaker B:Yeah, like it's open all the time on mine.
Speaker B:So it's, that's what I study out of.
Speaker B:I don't study out of my hard bound Bible anymore.
Speaker B:It's just so easy to, if you say, oh, I wonder what that word, what the background of that word is and so forth.
Speaker B:So we're planning on maybe doing some lessons on how to study the Bible too.
Speaker B:So stay tuned for that.
Speaker B:But otherwise, if you like this episode, if you found it useful, share it with somebody, go visit our website.
Speaker B:You want to say more about that?
Speaker A:Yeah, you can go to the Biblebeestro.com we've got some book references on there, some books that we like that you can click on.
Speaker A:And if you buy it through the link on our website, we get a couple cents to help support us what we're doing here.
Speaker A:But there's also, you can find all our back episodes on there and some show notes and so forth.
Speaker B:In fact, we'll put up a new book that is really good about sheep and shepherds that will help with this too.
Speaker B:I'm trying to remember the name.
Speaker B:Kenneth Bailey has written a really good book.
Speaker B:Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes is one of his books.
Speaker B:And there's another one where he specifically talks about Jesus as a shepherd or the image of shepherd in the Old Testament.
Speaker B:And so it's just really, really great book.
Speaker A:We'll get that up.
Speaker A:All right, so yeah, you can go check that out.
Speaker A:You can find a link for that book on there.
Speaker A:And again, if you purchase through there, we just got a couple cents.
Speaker A:But if you are enjoying it, as Brian said, please share the podcast with others.
Speaker A:You can like us on YouTube @ryan and Brian's Bible Bistro.
Speaker A:You can find us on Facebook@thebiblebeestro.com or just the Bible Bistro.
Speaker A:Ryan Brian's Bible Bistro.
Speaker A:I can't remember.
Speaker A:They're all kind of mixed up there.
Speaker A:Or you can just go to thebiblebeestro.com Anyway, we, we appreciate you listening and we'll chat with you again next Tuesday.
Speaker B:Yeah, talk to you then.
Speaker A:All right, thanks, Brian.
Speaker A:Bye.
