Beware of False Shepherds
The people wander like sheep; they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd.
ZECHARIAH 10:2
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Beware of False Shepherds
[The people] are driven away and scattered like a flock into various kinds of superstitions and schisms. Moreover, they perish and famish like abandoned sheep which have no shepherd and which no one tends with the divine pure Word. And therefore Isaiah 53:6 says: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way, etc." Christ also alludes to this verse in Matthew 9: 36ff…. God accordingly is properly vexed when [false shepherds] not only scatter the flock into their schisms but also keep them from desiring the spring rain. Therefore follows: "My anger is hot against the shepherds, and I will punish the he-goats" (Zechariah 10:3). He calls these men "shepherds" because they have the office of shepherds, though in fact they are teachers of idolatry and are dreamers. Such were the Pharisees, and such are all false prophets; and such are also the he-goats, which butt their way among the sheep by force and rule them. . .. [Christ] will redeem His flock from the he-goats and will Himself be their shepherd and visit them with mercy.
From Lectures on Zechariah (German text) (Luther's Works 20:301-2)
ZECHARIAH 10:2
+
Beware of False Shepherds
[The people] are driven away and scattered like a flock into various kinds of superstitions and schisms. Moreover, they perish and famish like abandoned sheep which have no shepherd and which no one tends with the divine pure Word. And therefore Isaiah 53:6 says: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way, etc." Christ also alludes to this verse in Matthew 9: 36ff…. God accordingly is properly vexed when [false shepherds] not only scatter the flock into their schisms but also keep them from desiring the spring rain. Therefore follows: "My anger is hot against the shepherds, and I will punish the he-goats" (Zechariah 10:3). He calls these men "shepherds" because they have the office of shepherds, though in fact they are teachers of idolatry and are dreamers. Such were the Pharisees, and such are all false prophets; and such are also the he-goats, which butt their way among the sheep by force and rule them. . .. [Christ] will redeem His flock from the he-goats and will Himself be their shepherd and visit them with mercy.
From Lectures on Zechariah (German text) (Luther's Works 20:301-2)
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