Sermon Tone Analysis

The Old Testament Background to .

The imagery of God as the Good Shepherd is found in the Old Testament and this lays the foundation and background for .

Our text for this morning is from .

In this text are two familiar parables to us: The Parable of the Lost Sheep () and The Parable of the Lost Coin ().

As we will see, the focus of the parables isn’t actually on the sheep that was lost, nor the coin that was lost, but rather on the shepherd who finds the lost sheep and the woman who finds the lost coin.

Thus, they would be better known as The Parable of the Good Shepherd or The Good Shepherd and the Lost Sheep, and The Parable of the Good Woman or The Good Woman and the Lost Coin.

That way the main characters and actors show up prominently from the outset.

Lying behind the parables in are a number of passages from the Old Testament.

We will look at two in particular this morning: and .

God is the Good Shepherd

“Restores my soul” is literally, “brings me back” or “causes me to repent” in Hebrew.

God is the active agent.

“Leads me in the paths of righteousness” assumes that previously David was wandering the paths of unrighteousness.

“I will dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life” is literally, “I will return to the house of the Lord for the length of days.”

Behind both the Parable of the Good Shepherd and the Lost Sheep and the Good Woman and the Lost Coin is (this is also true in regard to the third parable, The Parable of the Good Father and His Lost Sons, but that particular parable we have already examined and is not the focus for us this morning).

says,

We observe a few things here.

First of all, as in , David opens with a shepherd.

And though in Jesus’ day, shepherds were looked down upon, David, who was himself a shepherd, says that God Himself is a shepherd.

He is indeed a Good Shepherd, for He goes after His wandering, straying sheep.

In verse 3, David says of God, his Shepherd, “He restores my soul.”

Often we think of being refreshed in spirit, as in, “I was depressed, the Lord restored my soul.

I am no longer depressed.”

(Bailey, Finding the Lost, p. 68) However, this is misleading.

In the Hebrew it reads: נַפְשִׁי יְשׁוֹבֵב (naphshi yeshovev), which come from the Hebrew words נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh), which means “soul” or “self,” and שׁוּב (shuv), which means “to turn back” or “return.”

שׁוּב is the great Hebrew word used throughout the Old Testament for “repentance.”

And so what David is saying about God, his Good Shepherd, is that He “brings me back” or “causes me to repent.”

This will show up in , as we will see.

David also says of God, “He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”

The implication is that the psalmist has been wandering the paths of unrighteousness.

God the Good Shepherd came after David when he was wandering the wilderness of unrighteousness and brought him back, or caused him to repent, and thus leads him in the paths of righteousness.

And, finally, David confesses in faith that “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall return to the house of the Lord for the length of days, that is, all the days of my life.”

As we find in the parables in , there is a returning to the house of the shepherd, as well as a celebratory feast that likely take their imagery from .

contains God’s critique of Israel’s shepherds

God Himself will search for His sheep and rescue them

God will judge between sheep and sheep.

The shepherds of Israel are also sheep and the sheep are not innocent in their wandering.

God will raise up for Himself His Servant David (Jesus) who will be the Shepherd of His people.

Here the foundation is laid for Messiah being the Shepherd of God’s people.

Jesus is declaring He is Messiah and God when He takes for Himself the title of the Good Shepherd who searches for His lost sheep.

is our Old Testament reading for this morning.

Hear it again in light of and :

We make some observations from this text as well.

In there is only one Shepherd and He is a Good Shepherd.

In , the bad shepherds are introduced and contrasted with the Good Shepherd.

In , God tells His prophet, Ezekiel, to chastise the shepherds of Israel because they were not shepherding the people as they were supposed to be doing.

The “shepherds” are the spiritual and religious leaders of Israel.

The people are the “sheep.”

God then says in ,

“Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.

As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.”

And again God says in verses 15-16,

“I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD.

I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy.

I will feed them in justice.”

And one more time from , God says,

“…I will rescue my flock; they shall no longer be a prey.

And I will judge between sheep and sheep.

And I will set over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd.

And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them.

I am the LORD; I have spoken.”

In these passages we see that God says through the prophet that He Himself will search for His sheep and bring them back (again, a picture of repentance) and rescue them.

He will also judge between sheep and sheep.

The shepherds of Israel were themselves sheep.

And not all who belonged to Israel trusted in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and His Messiah.

The sheep are not innocent in their wanderings from God.

But God, the Good Shepherd, will go after the lost sheep and bring them repentance and restore them and rescue them.

We also hear in this passage a promise of the coming Messiah.

Jesus is spoken of here in Ezekiel, and elsewhere in the Old Testament, as God’s servant David.

David himself was long dead by this time.

And so this kind of a reference is to the promised Messiah, who was to be the Seed of David, the one who would reign on David’s throne forever.

This is Jesus.

And very interestingly, God speaks of this “David” who is to come, His Messiah, He will be the Shepherd of Israel and He will bring the lost sheep back from their wanderings and feed them and bring them to faith: God will be their God and His Messiah their Prince.

All of this should bring to our minds then, all that Jesus says in the Gospels about His being the Good Shepherd (), about Him being the one who goes after the lost sheep of the house of Israel and those outside of the house of Israel ().

Indeed, when Jesus claims to be the Good Shepherd and the one who goes after the lost sheep to bring them to repentance and restoration, He is not only claiming to be God’s Messiah, He is claiming to be God Himself.

From passages like and , the Pharisees of Jesus’ day would have heard that claim loud and clear.

The Pharisees claimed to maintain their purity by not eating with the “people of the land”

They are upset with Jesus because He welcomes sinners (the people of the land) and tax collectors (those who collaborated with the Roman oppressors).

Both of these are fellow Jews with the Pharisees.

The parables of are told in response to the grumbling of the Pharisees

Once again this morning we meet the Pharisees and the עַם הָאָרֶץ (ahm ha aretz), the “people of the land.”

We were introduced to them a couple weeks ago.

These are the ones described by the Pharisees as “sinners.”

There were Jewish communities like those that lived at Qumran–where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found–that sought to maintain their purity by living in isolation from other people and they had strict community rules and standards.

This is how they defined and enforced their piety and purity.

Others, like the Pharisees, were fine living among the “people of the land” and working with them and engaging in commerce with them.

Once again this morning we meet the Pharisees and the עַם הָאָרֶץ (ahm ha aretz), the “people of the land.”

We were introduced to them a couple weeks ago.

These are the ones described by the Pharisees as “sinners.”

There were Jewish communities like those that lived at Qumran–where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found–that sought to maintain their purity by living in isolation from other people and they had strict community rules and standards.

This is how they defined and enforced their piety and purity.

Others, like the Pharisees, were fine living among the “people of the land” and working with them and engaging in commerce with them.

Once again this morning we meet the Pharisees and the עַם הָאָרֶץ (ahm ha aretz), the “people of the land.”

We were introduced to them a couple weeks ago.

These are the ones described by the Pharisees as “sinners.”

There were Jewish communities like those that lived at Qumran–where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found–that sought to maintain their purity by living in isolation from other people and they had strict community rules and standards.

This is how they defined and enforced their piety and purity.

Others, like the Pharisees, were fine living among the “people of the land” and working with them and engaging in commerce with them.

The way they sought to maintain their purity was by scrupulously following the Law–hear that from their perspective: this includes rabbinic tradition and all the rules and stipulations that they added to the Law of God–and a major part of their maintaining their purity (in their minds) was that they would not eat with the people of the land, nor tax collectors, nor would they welcome them into their home, except in rare circumstances.

The tax collector was especially despised because they worked for the Roman government.