Jeremiah sees the problem and the problem is the leadership
of the people. They have destroyed the
flock and scattered them without attending to them. The Lord promises that He will gather the
flock and tend them and then raise up true shepherds to care for His
flock. Such will be the deliverance and
restoration that the nation will no longer point back to the exodus and
deliverance from Egypt, this one will overshadow the former days. As those who live after Jesus has come and
gathered the scattered flock, we do point to Him rather than the exodus as our
starting point. Could Jeremiah have
foreseen that Jesus would gather the nations into the covenant? Could he have imagined that the words,
"The Lord is our righteousness", would mean literally that the
righteousness of God would be imputed to His people for their eternal salvation? Such things are too wonderful to be true.
The door of the sheepfold was guarded by the shepherd. Jesus first says He is the door. He is the right way in. if one climbs over the wall He is an intruder
and will be thrown out, but if one comes in through the door, it is because the
shepherd has allowed him in. The only
way to the Father is through the door, through Jesus. When He claims to be the Good Shepherd, He is
claiming equality with God who is Himself the Great Good Shepherd. David, as a shepherd, knew the difference between
a good shepherd and a bad one and wrote the 23rd Psalm to tell us
about the Great Shepherd and His qualities and characteristics. Ezekiel and Zechariah, in addition to
Jeremiah, tell of a day when the Lord will shepherd His sheep. Jesus says, that day has come. If it isn't true it is incredibly audacious
and blasphemy. The choice was clear.
Paul knows better than anyone what it means to be puffed up
in knowledge and visions and to have been taken captive and disqualified by
these things from participating in the life of Christ. He knows that the asceticism of the body,
circumcision, knowledge, questions of food and drink, keeping the proper
festivals, reasonings, etc. don't qualify one for salvation. These things are not wrong in and of
themselves, they are neither ends nor the means to an end and that was the real
problem, that they were what made someone fit for God. The only way we qualify is faith in the
atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
Baptism doesn't save us, it only identifies us with Jesus, dying to sin,
rising to life in Him. Legalism kills
but the Son sets us free. Let us
maintain that freedom always.
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