WHEN THE SHEPHERD GOES ASTRAY

What happens when we lose fate and no longer believe in our institutions? Generally speaking, our lives begin to narrow and we retreat to find refuge in those things that still have meaning for us - eating, drinking, sleeping, personal attainment, and those who are close to us. 

This is also true for the Church worldwide as it has embraced sin and compromised with corrupt  philosophies and institutions. 

Our guide explained that affiliation with the Romanian Orthodox Church has dropped precipitously as its people have observed its association with a corrupt society. While they might vote for a corrupt politician who promises benefits, they will not do so for the Church, which they understandably hold to a higher standard.

I asked our guide whether Romanians are abandoning the faith as a result of this collusion. He assured me that this isn't the case, that people can distinguish between the Church and Jesus.

Really? Generally, when our institutions cave, so do we. When our leaders relax their standards, so do we. This is why God had held His shepherds to a higher standard:

• “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.” (Ezekiel 34:2-6; NIV)

For some churches, the unfaithfulness of its shepherd means death. Why? The flock have no other to trust and follow but their shepherds. They do not meditate upon the Word of God day and night (Psalm 1). Instead, their only food is the word and example of the shepherd, who do not lead their sheep to green pastures. Instead, they have insisted that they themselves are the green pastures. However, when these pastures fail, there is no other food for their sheep.

• Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness. (Isaiah 8:20-22)