Come, all you beasts of the field,
    come and devour, all you beasts of the forest!
10 Israel’s watchmen are blind,
    they all lack knowledge;
they are all mute dogs,
    they cannot bark;
they lie around and dream,
    they love to sleep.
11 They are dogs with mighty appetites;
    they never have enough.
They are shepherds who lack understanding;
    they all turn to their own way,
    they seek their own gain.
12 ‘Come,’ each one cries, ‘let me get wine!
    Let us drink our fill of beer!
And tomorrow will be like today,
    or even far better.’

Israel’s failure to be a light to the Gentile nations was, to a large degree, a failure of spiritual leadership. They had self-indulgent, self-seeking leaders who were dopey, blind and ignorant.

We live at a time when many prominent leaders have ‘fallen’ amid moral scandal, and some have even left the faith altogether. Spiritual leaders are exposed to intense temptation, and I think there may be peculiarly ferocious temptations faced by people in large, high profile ministries. That is not to excuse any bad behaviour, but it should encourage us to pray earnestly and faithfully for our ”shepherds”.

Let’s seek to place a ‘prayer shield’ around them.