Bible Passage: “For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.” (Ezekiel 34:11-12 NIV)
Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 34:1-31
The easy road is heavily traveled for an obvious reason. We don’t often choose the difficult. The path that requires effort, sweat, exertion, strain—and diligence and caution is often far less appealing than the smooth, straight, and level option.
That’s true for many things. Leadership not least on that list. Leading is hard. There aren’t always clear answers, and if there are, leadership doesn’t depend on knowing them anyway.
Leadership is care, it is guidance and development, it is protection and challenge, where and when necessary.
Ezekiel gives us a portrait of leadership in chapter 34. True leadership is demonstrated by God in today’s passage.
After an indictment against Israel’s bad leaders—false shepherds that had abandoned the flock of Israel, who had taken advantage of them and not protected them—God declares that He Himself will be Israel’s shepherd (and as we read that, we should be immediately transported to Jesus’s words in John 10:1-18 about Him being the Good Shepherd who takes care of the sheep). He will rescue them from all the places they have been scattered.
Men are called to lead, to shepherd those who are in our care. Husbands, fathers, managers, elders—whatever our position of leadership, we are called to sacrificial care for those God has placed under us.
The picture of the bad shepherds in Ezekiel 34 reminds us that leadership cannot be self-serving, nor can it be passive. Leadership is the active pursuit—it seeks out those in our charge to care for them. It goes to whatever places it must and does whatever it takes to care for those under it. Just as God goes to whatever places the sheep of Israel have been scattered and does what He must to bring them back into safety, so too must we as shepherd leaders embrace such work and sacrifice.
Our service is to those in our charge, not to ourselves.
In our homes, in our places of work, in our churches, may we take the high, hard road of leadership so that at the other end of our efforts, the sheep in our care find themselves safe.
Prayer: Good Shepherd, thank You for living the sacrificial example of the Good Shepherd. Help me leave behind the easy and the passive, let go of self-serving and self-interest, and truly care for those in my flock. Amen.
Reflection: Are there any places in your leadership where self-interest and/or passivity have allowed you to take an easier road? What could be done differently?
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