Doesn’t it strike you as odd that the comparison so often used of Christ and God as our shepherd is here used in theological debate as to whether the “shepherd” kills and eats his flock?
Does the thought occur that if we end up here, a wrong turn has been made somewhere?
I don’t intend to harm, but the Shepherd does shear the sheep and does have the power of life and death over them.
I know some shepherds, and I know that to be true.
It is also true in biblical times. I don’t think that fact was lost on anyone.