Months passed into years…and then one
cold and snowy night, with the wind howling and the temperature plummeting…in a
wooden house with rags stuffed between holes in the walls and small fire in a
cast iron wood stove…with men and women and children huddled under worn quilts
and blankets…with the Betrothed between two grandmothers to give her
warmth…there is a knock at the door.
An aged and stooped pastor slowly rises
and makes his way to the door…and then…and then…as he opens it…light fills the
room, falling on the faces of all and warming them…caressing them with
tenderness, and transforming them from weary to hopeful, from hopeful to
joyful.
The Betrothed has her eyes closed, her
face is wrinkled, her pulse weak, she sleeps in sorrow. A resplendent figure
enters the room, and the eyes of all but the Betrothed are fixed on Him…and
they know…they know who He is. With rising anticipation, they watch Him quietly
walk to the Betrothed between the two grandmothers. The grandmothers? Well,
they feel like giddy teenage girls again, for they know what is coming.
The King nods to the two grandmas and
they leave Her side. Gently the King lifts the old quilt from his soon to be
Bride.
He whispers, “Ishshah, My Beloved.”
“Come my dear, we have work to do.”
“Many shepherds have ruined My vineyard,
they have trampled down My field; they have made My pleasant field a desolate
wilderness” (Jeremiah 12:10).
“Woe to the shepherds who are destroying
and scattering the sheep of My pasture! Declares the LORD” (Jer. 23:1).
“I will give you shepherds after My own
heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding" (Jer. 3:15).
“For I am jealous for you with a godly
jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I
might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent
deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the
simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:2 – 3).
Well pastor, elder, deacon, trustee, teacher,
small group leader, which will it be?
Which shepherds will you be found among
when the King returns for His Bride?
Robert L. Withers, May 2, 2026
Ezekiel 33:1 – 9.
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