Theme · narrative
Shepherd
The patriarchs are literally shepherds, and the metaphor transfers naturally to leadership: God shepherds Israel, David the shepherd boy becomes king, and the prophets judge Israel's leaders as false shepherds who scatter the flock. Psalm 23 is the most intimate expression: 'The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.' Ezekiel 34 promises that God himself will search for his sheep and set over them one shepherd, his servant David. Jesus claims this role explicitly: 'I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.' Peter calls Jesus the Chief Shepherd and tells elders to shepherd the flock entrusted to them.
Passages expressing this theme
- 1Pet 2:25 — For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
- 1Pet 5:2 — Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;
- 1Pet 5:3 — Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.
- 1Pet 5:4 — And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.
- 2Sam 5:2 — Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the LORD said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Isr
- Acts 20:28 — Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
- Ezek 13:5 — Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the LORD.
- Ezek 34:2 — Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the
- Ezek 34:11 — For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.
- Ezek 34:12 — As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the
- Ezek 34:13 — And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited
- Ezek 34:15 — I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD.
- Ezek 34:16 — I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong;
- Ezek 34:23 — And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.
- Ezek 37:24 — And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.
- Gen 48:15 — And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day,
- Gen 49:24 — But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)
- Heb 13:20 — Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
- Hos 11:10 — They shall walk after the LORD: he shall roar like a lion: when he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west.
- Isa 32:2 — And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
- Isa 40:11 — He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.
- Isa 49:10 — They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.
- Isa 50:4 — The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned
- Isa 56:11 — Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.
- Isa 63:11 — Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? where is he that put his holy Spirit within him?
The Church Fathers on Shepherd
He is shepherd to shepherds and a guide to guides: that we may feed his flock with knowledge, not with the instruments of a foolish shepherd.
This sheep is equally called shepherd and says "I am the good Shepherd." By his manhood he is sheep; by his divine loving-kindness he is shepherd.
(Home. ubi sup.) For in a mystery, those shepherds, and their flocks, signify all teachers and guides of faithful souls. The night in which they were keeping watch over their flocks, indicates the dangerous temptations from which they never cease to keep themselves, and those placed under their care. Well also at…
Let us now consider who are the shepherds, and what living creatures they shepherd and what was the nature of the dispute between the shepherds of Abraham and those of Lot. Shepherds are those who govern the flocks. They are diligent and wise when they do not allow their animals to trample the farmlands with their…
(Hom. lix. 2) Shepherds always go behind their sheep; but He, on the contrary, goes before, to show that He would lead all to the truth.
Each year, when spring with its breezes begins to usher in the birth of so many sheep and to deposit the numerous young of the fruitful flock about the fields, the meadows and the paths, a good shepherd puts aside his songs and leisure. He anxiously searches for the tender little sheep, picks them up and gathers…