A Shepherd's Heart
In the centuries after David and Solomon, Israel’s shepherds—the kings and prophets—led God’s people astray. My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray, turning them away on the mountains. From mountain to hill they have gone. They have forgotten their fold. All who found them have devoured them, and their enemies have said, “We are not guilty, for they have sinned against the Lord, their habitation of righteousness, the Lord, the hope of their fathers.” Je 50.6-7 In the days of the prophet Jeremiah, Israel, was taken into captivity by Babylon. Their Babylonian captors believed that because the Jews were sinners suffering God’s righteous judgement, they had a right to abuse them. God did not, however, approve of Babylon’s arrogance and cruelty. He judged them for it, handing their empire over to the Persians. By the time of Christ, six hundred years later, the Babylonian and Persian empires were gone. The Jews, though under Roman rule, were back in the