With Violet Mersereau, Edy Darclea, Virginia Lucchetti, Nerio Bernardi.Buy The Shepherd King: Solomon's Bride book 2 on Amazon.com FREE SHIPPING on qualified orders. Jesus the Shepherd-King. Most people who have been exposed to the Bible even a little know that David was a shepherd in Bethlehem as a young boy. Anticipating the Shepherd King Video; Audio; Downloads. Download MP3; Subscribe. The Shepherd King is a 1923 American silent film produced and distributed by the Fox Film Corporation. Pike, “Jesus, the Great Shepherd- King,” in Celebrating Easter: The 2. BYU Easter Conference, ed. Wilson (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University), 6. Dana M. Pike was an associate professor of ancient scripture when this was published.“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters” (Psalm 2. So begins one of the most beloved psalms and best- known biblical passages mentioning a shepherd. Shepherd imagery is utilized in scripture to depict three important aspects of Jesus’s identity and mission: His roles as Savior, King, and Jehovah, the God of Israel. Of these three, His role as compassionate Savior, devoted to protecting and saving the flock of God, is commonly conveyed through shepherd symbolism. The royal dimension of the title “Shepherd” is much less appreciated but just as important. This study highlights both of these facets of shepherd symbolism associated with Jesus, giving extra emphasis to the royal one. Jesus’s claim to be the “good Shepherd” of Israel was also an unequivocal claim to His contemporaries that He was Jehovah, the God of Israel. A brief review of ancient shepherds’ duties and of the figurative use of shepherds and sheep to refer to deities and humans in ancient Near Eastern texts, including the Bible, provides a context in which to consider Jesus as the great and divine Shepherd- King. By culling information from this and other biblical passages, it is possible to obtain a good overview of the duties of ancient shepherds. As one scholar has observed: “Shepherding was one of man’s earliest occupations. Flocks and herds, always a prominent feature in Palestine and other Near Eastern societies, consisted specifically of cows, sheep, and goats, but could also include horses, asses, and camels; the principal animal, however, owing to size, abundance, and usefulness, was the sheep.”. At night, shepherds often led their sheep into a cave or a “fold,” a minicorral often built against the side of a hill, to keep the sheep from straying and to protect them from danger. Quality shepherds were thus dedicated, hardworking, compassionate leaders who provided for and protected and guided their flocks. Keeping a flock together was essential to accomplishing this mission. Many biblical characters had flocks and worked as shepherds for at least part of their lives, including Abraham, Lot, Rachel, Jacob, Moses, and David. Two examples must suffice. Upon journeying to Haran, Jacob spoke with some shepherds. In one of several biblical passages mentioning David and sheep, David drew on his shepherding experience to present himself as capable of fighting Goliath, “And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept . Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear” (1 Samuel 1. Much later in David’s life, the Lord reminded him “I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep . For example, Abel “was a keeper . The Bible recounts laws regulating the punishment for stealing or killing someone’s sheep . The counsel of the wise in ancient Israel was to “be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks . Centuries later, Jesus referred to real sheep (to make a point about people) when he said, “What man of you, having an hundred sheep . On another continent, Alma drew upon people’s experience with sheep to support a religious point he was making: “For what shepherd is there among you having many sheep doth not watch over them, that the wolves enter not and devour his flock?” (Alma 5: 5. The commonness of shepherding in the ancient Near East, including ancient Israel, helps explain why shepherds and sheep became such regular and productive metaphors in scripture. Human rulers and God are referred to as shepherds, and people are referred to as sheep. This metaphor is productive because people have needs and challenges similar to sheep. The following sampling of the many pertinent scripture passages demonstrates the use of this imagery. Toward the end of Moses’s prophetic ministry, he requested that the Lord “set a man over the congregation . Joshua was the shepherd- leader Jehovah chose to succeed Moses. Centuries later, through Isaiah the Lord prophesied of the future Persian king Cyrus II (5. He is my shepherd . After conquering the Babylonian empire, Cyrus allowed the Babylonian exiles, including many Jews, to return to their homelands, thus physically gathering some of these scattered Israelite “sheep.” Centuries later, Jesus recommissioned Peter in his role as apostolic leadership to “Feed my . Since Latter- day Saints understand that Jehovah and Jesus are the same being. One passage usually missed by readers of the King James Version (KJV) is Genesis 4. And he . In Jacob’s blessing of Joseph, Jehovah is referred to as “the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd . For example, “The Lord is my shepherd . He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters” (Psalm 2. Similarly, Jehovah, referring to Himself, prophesied through Jeremiah that in the latter- days, “He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd . Restoration scripture preserves similar usage, as illustrated by these two passages: “Their Redeemer, and their great and true shepherd” (Helaman 1. I am the good shepherd, and the stone of Israel” (D& C 5. Genesis 4. 9: 2. 4). These passages demonstrate how the use of “shepherd” as a title for Jehovah or Jesus was an appropriate expression of the intersection between the roles of a human shepherd—leading, protecting, providing for a flock—and Jesus’s role as Savior of God’s children. People as sheep in scripture. Five of the many passages in the Old Testament in which people are metaphorically referred to as sheep are: “I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep . The following verses illustrate this: “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s ? Jesus’s audiences would have surely recognized the Old Testament roots of His figurative use of sheep to represent people. In reviewing the many passages of scripture in which sheep and shepherds are employed as metaphors, it is clear that Jesus and His prophets use the symbol of a flock of sheep to designate the Lord’s covenant followers. But it is equally clear that there are multiple flocks of people in the world. All do not choose to be part of the same flock. Thus, for example, “Jesus answered . But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep . And as Alma explicitly stated, “If ye will not hearken unto the voice of the good shepherd, . Thus, the relationship between the true Shepherd and His flock represents a covenant relationship between Jesus and those who follow His lead. During the last autumn of His life, six months before His crucifixion, Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7: 1. The events narrated at the end of John 9, in which Jesus spoke with some Jewish leaders following His healing of a man born blind (9: 1–4. John 1. 0. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd . This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not . Then said Jesus unto them . I am the door of the sheep . I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture” (John 1. The fold can be metaphorically understood to represent the Church of Jesus’s covenant followers on earth and, ultimately, as the heavenly fold of the exalted. No one can enter into the Father’s presence except “through” Jesus. There is no other “door.” As He later taught His Apostles, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 1. Having made this point, Jesus highlighted a second use of sheep imagery in the parable He taught the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem: “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd . But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd . I am the good shepherd . His reference to Himself as the protecting and sacrificing “good Shepherd” motivated by compassion for His flock drew upon a shepherd’s real- life duties. This correlation is further strengthened when other biblical passages are considered, such as, “He . It was the royal and divine dimensions of the symbolism of the title “Shepherd” that was so troublesome to them. The inherent implication that as the good Shepherd He was Jehovah, their God, has already been explicated. The association of the title “shepherd” with kings will now be set forth. The following passages, extracted from ancient Mesopotamian (Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian). Marduk, the chief deity of Babylonia, is referred to in the Babylonian “Epic of Creation” (Enuma elish) as a “faithful shepherd,”. As earthly representatives of their deities, ancient Near Eastern kings were often described as shepherds of the people they ruled. Examples of royal claims employing shepherd and sheep imagery are cited here in chronological order. In abundance and plenty I shepherded them.”. The instrument symbolized the ruler’s power and eminence, and especially the nature of his rule, the king’s obligation to maintain order and justice . Kings employed it to illustrate their divine sanction to rule, their ability to provide and care for their subjects, and their power to protect their people from enemies. This title “Shepherd” and the attributes it conveys overlap with the shepherd imagery preserved in the Bible and must be considered in connection with John 1. Jesus claimed to be not only the door of the sheepfold but the Good Shepherd Himself. Understood in the cultural context of the ancient Near East, there was a royal dimension to Jesus’s claim. He thus employed the image of shepherd to communicate His identity as the devoted and compassionate Savior and His identity as a King. This assertion is further borne out by prophecy in the Old Testament, particularly in the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel 3. 4: The Messianic Sh. These are followed by a series of prophecies about the future restoration of the house of Israel, including these statements in chapter 3. The Shepherd King (1.
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