One Shepherd Forever

My servant David will be king over them; there will be one shepherd for all of them. – Ezekiel 37:24a (NET)

Who are the “them” to whom this statement is referring? Because this is in the book of Ezekiel, we know that it is God’s covenant people Israel. In fact, God is here speaking of a unified people of Israel, as it is written that “They will never again be two nations and never again be divided into two kingdoms” (37:22b). God has said that He “will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will rule over them all” (37:22a). That one king is the one referred to as “My servant David,” who would be the “one shepherd for all of them.” We go on to read that “They will live in the land I gave to My servant Jacob, in which your fathers lived; they will live in it---they and their children and their grandchildren forever, David My servant will be prince over them forever” (37:25). Now, because this was written in the sixth century before Christ, we know that this is not possibly an actual reference to King David of Israel, but to the messiah of Israel to come, the son of David, the shepherd of Israel.

Jesus, of course, refers to Himself with such terminology. He calls Himself the good shepherd. He lays claim to the role and title of Messiah, and therefore, by extension, to being the king in the line of David. The conception of the messiah at the time of Christ was that he would be the ruler of Israel, and that under his God-ordained rule, Israel would rule all nations. Therefore, Israel’s messiah was to be the ruler of the world in the inaugurated kingdom of God. We put aside the nationalistic colorings contained in this conception, and as Christians, we hold to this same idea. We believe that Jesus was Israel’s Messiah, and that as Israel’s Messiah, He does indeed rule over all nations and all powers, as king of the kingdom of God that was inaugurated with power at His Resurrection. That kingdom consists of a renewed humanity (renewed Israel) that is made up of all those that are in union with Christ through a belief in Him as Lord of all (the Gospel).

It is because of that union with Christ that we are able to think of ourselves as renewed Israel, that is, as the people by which God intends to get glory through the Spirit-empowered spreading of the knowledge of Himself, that we can look to this passage in Ezekiel and revel in the promises that it presents. In contemplation of that, we read that “This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to take the Israelites from among the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from round about and bring them to their land” (37:21b). By the power inherent in the preaching of the Gospel, and the faith that is engendered by that preaching, God has been and is still gathering a people for His kingdom. Rather than this being limited to ethnic Israel alone, this renewed Israel is gathered from all nations. Yes, as we have already seen, God promises to make them one nation in the land, on the mountain of Israel (promised land), with no division between Jew and Gentile, but one people, never again divided into two nations or kingdoms, and placed in the land of promise, with one king, one shepherd, Jesus, to rule them all.

God says that He will gather them and bring them to their land. Just as Israel was brought into their land of promise following their exodus from Egypt, renewed Israel, a renewed humanity, looks to a promised land. What is that promised land? It is a renewed creation. It is the deliverance from its bondage to decay and corruption and death for which the entire creation groans in its suffering (Romans 8:22). It is a return to the land that was given up by our father Adam, when he failed to trust God, which was the very good creation into which he was placed to bear God’s image, to have dominion, and to steward. Just as exiled Israel is promised a return to the land that God gave to their father Jacob, which was the land in which their forefathers had lived, so too will exiled-though-renewed Israel, a people brought forth from all of mankind, be brought to live in the land in which their first father had lived, which was Eden, God’s perfect creation. God says that such a land will be occupied by the children and grandchildren of His covenant people, and that this occupancy will endure forever. Here, it is said, that His king will rule forever. This is indeed a dominion which shall not pass away and a kingdom that will not be destroyed (Daniel 7:14).

As we move through the close of this chapter, we must take heed to the words that are used in addition to the repeated use of “forever” that have already been seen. God says, “I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be a perpetual covenant with them. I will establish them, increase their numbers, and place my sanctuary among them forever. My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be My people. Then, when My sanctuary is among them forever, the nations will know that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel” (37:26-28). Perpetual and forever are how our God describes the land into which He will bring His renewed people. He will do this when, hearkening back to both Israel and Adam, He “saves them from all their unfaithfulness by which they sinned” (37:23b). God says that He “will purify them” (37:23c), and in that purification, which we can understand to be His bringing to belief in the Gospel through the Spirit that makes manifest His covenant faithfulness, “they will become My people and I will become their God” (37:23d).