The Great Shepherd

The letter to the Hebrews is like taking a quick trip through the entire Bible. Two of the big take-aways from it are that the Bible is one story and that the prophets, priests, and kings of the Old Testament are to Christ what the shadow of an approaching man is to the man himself.

Christ, Hebrews tells us, is superior to angels, a better mediator than Moses, a greater high priest than Aaron, and a better sacrifice than bulls and goats. Through his blood, we have entered a better covenant than Sinai’s, a better Jerusalem, and a better kingdom, one that will never be shaken. And when we arrive at Hebrews’ benediction, the author sneaks in one final Old Testament archetype: the Great Shepherd.

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen (13.20-21).

Moses was the first person in scripture to refer to God’s people as sheep. And he knew whereof he spoke. He had spent forty years as a shepherd prior to his forty agonizing years shepherding a recalcitrant Israel. At the end of it all, his dying request was that God not leave the people without a shepherd (Num. 27:17). His faithful devotion to God's people was a shadow of a greater shepherd to come.

David was next to call God’s people sheep. He, too, was a shepherd before becoming the ruler of Israel. And in uniting God’s flock in worship, he became the archetypal shepherd-king, a man after God's own heart. God promised David an everlasting kingdom, yet his kingdom didn't last. The seeds of its collapse were sown by his son, Solomon, after whose death the kingdom split, north from south (1 Kgs 12:16). Wicked kings and wicked prophets shepherded the northern kingdom deeper and deeper into sin until God gave them over to Assyria, to an exile from which they never returned (2 Kgs 15:29).

Judah, the southern kingdom, lasted a little longer. But eventually they, too, were carried away into exile. And there in Babylon, through the prophet Ezekiel, God spoke these words of promise:

My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes . . . I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them . . . My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore (Ez. 7:24,26,27-28).

These words are echoed in the benediction of Hebrews, where the last image we are left with is Christ as the promised Great Shepherd, and with that comes the reminder that we are sheep. Our life’s purpose is to follow him, to dwell as a flock with him, and to be equipped, together, to do his will. In this way, He will be glorified in this world forever and ever.