JEHOVAH’S CHOSEN RULER

In view of Jehovah’s great concern for his “sheep,” we can rest assured that his choice of a ruler for mankind would indeed be a great blessing. But has Jehovah God chosen a ruler? Yes. Ezekiel 34:23, 24 tells us:

“I will raise up over them one shepherd, and he must feed them, even my servant David. He himself will feed them, and he himself will become their shepherd. And I myself, Jehovah, will become their God, and my servant David a chieftain in the midst of them.”

We are not to conclude from this promise that Jehovah will raise up the original King David from the dead in order to put him in this shepherdlike office. Rather, God’s “servant David” is one who has inherited the royal right from King David. He is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ did surrender his life for the “sheep.” Jehovah God, however, raised him up from the dead. That is why Hebrews 13:20 speaks of Jehovah as “the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an everlasting covenant, our Lord Jesus.” Resurrected back to spirit life such as he originally had, Jesus Christ is now a heavenly Shepherd. In view of this there could be only the “one shepherd” that Jehovah could raise up over the remnant of spiritual Israel, namely, this resurrected Jesus the Messiah.