YOU WOULD THINK THAT, for a deity to identify itself, its attributes, and its intentions by equating itself with menial members of its creation, it would be the ultimate in humiliation. But indeed, that is what the Judeo-Christian God has done. And in so doing, he demonstrates his grace and, ultimately, his love.
Did you ever take a close look at Psalm 23, for example? Our God—through the psalmist David’s words, “the Lord is my shepherd”—equates himself with a lowly keeper of sheep! But God has never been a shepherd—he is not a keeper of sheep, he’s a creator of sheep!
In this psalm King David, who was once a shepherd himself, now indirectly equates himself with a sheep—with all its stupid and stubborn ways. This is, of course, a great self-humiliation, especially for a king. But think how much greater it is for the Sovereign God of the universe to align himself with the lowly human occupation of watching and guarding these, his woolly-brained creatures!
Calling out to earthly shepherds
At his birth, the angels announced God’s coming in the flesh to shepherds! The first announcement that cosmic history itself has now been changed was given to men of the lowliest of occupations (Luke 2:8)! He upsets the world’s vaunted economic order from the very first moment of his earthly existence. He elevates those lowly laborers as he does all laborers before and since.
During his earthly ministry, Jesus Christ refers to himself as the “Good Shepherd.” (John 10:11) Perhaps that called to mind in his readers the person on King David, their national hero.
Calling out other so-called shepherds
And God goes even further and compares himself—or rather contrasts himself—with less-than-honorable spiritual “shepherds.” These shepherds are the human keepers of his flock, his people. And the Lord speaks sternly to them, through the prophets in the Old Testament (Jeremiah 25:34, Ezekiel 34:2, for example) and through Christ the Son in the New Testament (1 Peter 2:25, 1 Peter 5:4, for example).
We can easily see how the image of a shepherd, with its requisite characteristics of patience, perseverance, and gentleness combined with strength, sternness, and wrath, fills in yet more of the picture we have of God himself.