Continued from Last Week:

The Messiah in the OT

The Messiah as the Good Shepherd

(Ezekiel 34:23-31)

The same figure of the tender Shepherd appears in Psalms 78:52-53; 79:13; 80:1; Isaiah 40:11; 49:9-10; Jeremiah 31:10; and later in Zechariah 11. It is in Ezekiel 34 that this figure of a Shepherd is most fully expressed and without a doubt this is the background for John chapter 10.

By the time Ezekiel gives this message Jerusalem has already fallen (587 B.C.). During the long nights of that siege, Ezekiel concentrated on prophesying against the foreign nations (Eze. 25-32). But now the nation has fallen as many prophets sent from God warned. It is here that Ezekiel turns to the better times.

To head up this discussion of what will take place in the future days, Ezekiel prophesies about the coming Good Shepherd. At first the announcements are made only about the Sovereign Lord who will "search for [His] sheep and look after them" (v.11). He will "bring them out of the nations and gather them from the countries, and .....will bring them into their own land" (v.13). He will "search for the lost and bring back the strays.....bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong [He] will destroy" (v.16). Indeed, He will also "judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats" (v.17; cf. vs. 20-22). No longer will the tyranny of the oppressors be tolerated anywhere in God's kingdom.

Suddenly without any warning, God announces His plan to introduce His royal Shepherd to tend His flock (v. 23). The term "Shepherd" is used for more than pasturing flocks (v.23). The New Testament term means "Elder." (Acts chapter 20) In all its uses the term embraces the idea of tenderness and responsible caring for what happens to the people, rather than the exercise of brute power.

God's new Shepherd will be "one Shepherd" (v.23), as distinct from many leaders that the nation has had up to this point. God will "place over them" [NIV] this Shepherd just as He earlier promised to "raise up a prophet" (Deut. 18:15), and the "offspring/seed" of David (2^nd Sam. 7:12).

This Shepherd is to be called "My Servant" (v.23), a messianic term we have already explored from Isaiah. He is in the line of David (v.23), just as Hosea 3:5 and Jeremiah 30:9 promised.

In the Messianic age, this Shepherd will "make a covenant of peace with them " (v.25), which will ensure their safety. Furthermore, the flock of God, His people as well as with the crops and fruit in abundance (vs. 26-27). In so doing, the Shepherd will be recognized as the Messiah and their Lord (v.27c). "No longer [will the flock] be plundered by the nations" (v.28a), and "no one will make them afraid" (v.28d). No longer will they "be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations" (v.29), for the Messiah has come to shepherd "the sheep of [His] pasture" (v.31).

And now we must go to John Chapter 10 and see what Jesus said.

Can there be any doubt who Ezekiel was speaking about? Jesus didn't seem to think so.

The Messiah in the Postexilic Prophets

The Book of Haggai

See Our Outline on Haggai Here

Haggai is one of the most well documented prophets we know of. He gave four messages in his little book. The first came on August 29, 520 B.C.__(if we use the Julian calendar dates) urging the people to return to work since they had stopped working on the house of God (ch.1). The second came on October 17, 520 B.C. (2:1), with its word that God calls us to reject a negative spirit. Haggai's last two recorded messages both came on December 18, 520 B.C. (2:10, 20). Not much more is know about this prophet after his small book. He is mentioned in Ezra 5:1; 6:14. However, Haggai did leave us with some predictions about the coming Messiah.

1. The Messiah As the Desire of the Nations

(Haggai 2:6-9)

To Haggai, the future belongs fully to God. History was moving to a climax for the era of the Jewish theocracy and God was about to establish His kingdom and Messiah. As preparation for three immovable and irreplaceable innovations that God promised to bring in, 1) an immovable kingdom (2:6) 2) an immovable king (2:7), and an immovable glory (2:8). God was telling Haggai that He was to shake up this world (change governments) as it had never been done before. The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews uses Haggai as the basis for his message that God will shake everything that is movable in order that the things that cannot be shaken my remain, not being subject to any of the vicissitudes of life (Heb. 12:26-28).

Now how did I get the title to this section, "The Messiah the Desire of the Nations." Look at v.7 in the NIV.

The correct translation is above! "What is desired by all nations" and not "they will come with the wealth of all nations" as in the NASV.

This small text in Haggai is self explanatory. Haggai said that something or someone was coming that was to be "desired" by all nations. The Hebrews writer tells us that Haggai was speaking of none other than Jesus.

Along with the unshakable kingdom (see Hebrews 12:28) and unshakable King is the promise of verses 8-9. God promises to fill His Temple (called the church in the NT__) with a glory that is His when He shakes the Heavens and earth. Jesus was the complete and total fulfillment of Haggai's prophetic utterance.

Lane Rogers