A wonderful message from Isaiah on the wealthy rulers and applicable today with the billionaire globalist elites who perpetrate all kinds of evil on the earth, and in fact I’d say far worse because death and suffering they spread around the whole earth on behalf of their master, Satan. And there is also the message to the false prophets, applicable today to false teachers that dominate American churches and now infiltrating evangelical denominations. Retired pastor Lon Solomon of Jewish descent has a nice message on these false teachers being the hirelings who flee the sheep when danger comes, as taken from Jesus’s message about being the good shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep.
[26] For wicked men are found among my people;
they lurk like fowlers lying in wait.
They set a trap;
they catch men.
[27] Like a cage full of birds,
their houses are full of deceit;
therefore they have become great and rich;
[28] they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no bounds in deeds of evil;
they judge not with justice
the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper,
and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
[29] Shall I not punish them for these things?
declares the LORD,
and shall I not avenge myself
on a nation such as this?”
[30] An appalling and horrible thing
has happened in the land:
[31] the prophets prophesy falsely,
and the priests rule at their direction;
my people love to have it so,
but what will you do when the end comes? (ESV)
John 10:11–18
[11] I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. [12] He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. [13] He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. [14] I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, [15] just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. [16] And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. [17] For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. [18] No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” (ESV)