Prophecies of a Triumphant Messiah: God's Davidic Shepherd

The Old Testament depicts God as a caring Shepherd of His people (a common divine image in the Ancient Near East).[1] God also promised to provide a Davidic shepherd who would implement His plan of restoration:

“I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them” (Ezek 34:22–23).

The prophet Micah predicted that God’s messianic shepherd would arise in David’s hometown of Bethlehem and would establish God’s will to the ends of the earth:

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,

though you are small among the clans of Judah,

out of you will come for Me

one who will be ruler over Israel,

whose origins are from of old,

from ancient times . . .

He will stand and shepherd[2] his flock

in the strength of the Lord,

in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.

And they will live securely, for then his greatness

will reach to the ends of the earth” (Mic 5:2–4).

Various Jewish resources interpret Micah’s shepherd prophecy as a direct reference to the Messiah. For example, Targum Jonathan (an Aramaic translation/interpretation of the Hebrew Scripture) renders the text in this form:

“And you Bethlehem-Ephrathah who are too little to be counted among the thousands of the house of Judah, from you in My name shall come forth the Messiah who is to be ruler in Israel and whose name has been called from eternity, from the days of old.”[3]

Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac also identified the figure in Micah’s prophecy as “the Messiah, son of David.”[4] And according to Rabbi Eliezer, when Micah taught that the shepherd’s ancestry was “of old,” this indicated that the origins of the Messiah reached back to a time when “as yet the world had not been created.”[5]

Bethlehem (Beit-Lechem) means “House of Bread” — a significant birth place for Jesus, who called himself the bread of life. Jesus was considered to be the shepherd of his followers (Heb 13:20; 1 Pet 2:25; Matt 9:36), and he linked himself to the ancient redemptive imagery of God’s anointed shepherd:

• “I am the good shepherd . . . and there shall be one flock and one shepherd” (John 10:14–16).

• “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

This claim of Jesus echoed God’s words: “I myself will search for my sheep and look after them . . . I will seek what was lost” (Ezek 34:11–16).

Jesus’s work embodied specific aspects of the divine Shepherd in the Old Testament:

• God rebuked wicked and false shepherds who neglected the flock, and he warned them of coming punishment: “The people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd. My anger burns against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders” (Zech 10:2–3; see also Ezek 34:1–10; Jer 23:1–2; 25:34; Ps 2:9; Mic 2:6–11). Jesus adopted the same role when he condemned Jewish leadership for their lack of guidance and compassion (Matt 23; John 10).

• When the risen Jesus instructed Peter: “Feed my sheep”, he was using the words of God Himself: “The shepherds fed themselves, and did not feed my sheep” (Ezek 34:8).

• Zechariah prophesied that God’s Shepherd would be struck and his sheep scattered (Zech 13:7). This was fulfilled when Jesus was arrested and his disciples fled in terror (Matt 26:31; Mark 14:27; John 16:32).

• God promised to heal His flock (Ezek 34:16; Jer 30–31; Ps 147:3) and restore the dead to life (Ezek 37:12–13). This has clear links to Jesus’s extensive work of healing and raising the dead, and his promise of resurrection from death to life for those who believe in him (John 11:25). Isaiah’s messianic prophesy of the end times included a time of general healing:

“God’s recompense—it is coming!

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened

and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

Then the lame will leap like a deer,

and the tongue of the mute will sing” (Isa 35:5–6).

Targum Jonathan associated the Messiah directly with these promises,[6] and when Jesus was asked if he was the expected Messiah he quoted from Isaiah’s messianic text, claiming to fulfil these ancient promises:

“Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Luke 7:22; also Matt 11:3–5).

Jesus words and work therefore reflect many aspects of the central Old Testament motif of the Davidic Shepherd–King. In this way, he identified himself as the promised Messiah who would lovingly tend God’s people and implement His plan of redemption, healing, and restoration.

[1]. God is described as the Shepherd of His people in verses such as Gen 48:24; Isa 40:11; Jer 31:10; Ezek 34:11–19; Zech 9:16; Micah 7:14; Ps 23:1–6; 74:1; 77:20; 79:13; 80:1; 95:7; 100:3. [2]. The Hebrew word used here is “ra’ah,” which means to tend, feed, or shepherd. [3]. https://intertextual.bible/text/micah-5.1-jonathan-micah-5.1 [4]. https://www.sefaria.org/Rashi_on_Micah.5.1 [5]. Pirkê de Rabbi Eliezer https://archive.org/details/pirkderabbieli00frieuoft/page/12/mode/2up [6]. Targum Jonathan associated the Messiah with the prophecy of end-time healing in Isaiah. For example, this text translated “the Lord Almighty will be a glorious crown” in Isaiah 28:5 as “the Messiah of the Lord of hosts shall be for a crown of rejoicing.” https://archive.org/details/chaldeeparaphra00uzzigoog/page/n102/mode/2up