When Shepherds Become Predators: How Leaders Pillage Their Own Government
Scripture is unsentimental about power. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible assumes that leadership is dangerous—dangerous to the leader’s soul, dangerous to the people under their care, and dangerous to the community that forgets who ultimately owns authority. When reverence for God erodes, shepherds stop tending the flock and begin feeding on it.
The Bible has a word for this: plunder.
And plunder is never a solo act. It requires a network—sub-leaders, advisors, loyalists, and citizens—who help the shepherd become a predator.
Power Was Given for Service, Not Self
Biblical leadership begins with a simple premise: authority is entrusted, not owned.
“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1).
That includes nations, treasuries, institutions, and laws. Leaders are stewards, not proprietors. When rulers begin to treat public resources—money, influence, or people—as personal property, they cross a theological line long before they cross a legal one.
Scripture repeatedly warns that corrupt leaders “take… take… take.” In 1 Samuel 8, Samuel tells Israel that a king who rejects God’s authority will take their sons, take their daughters, take the best of their fields, and take a tenth of their grain. The rep
eated verb take is the Bible’s own definition of plunder. It is not always violent. Sometimes it is administrative, legal, and socially accepted—yet still condemned by God.
Biblical Markers of a Pillaging Leader
Scripture offers a consistent profile of leaders who misuse power:
- They enrich themselves while the people weaken. Micah condemns rulers who “tear the skin from my people” and “strip their flesh from their bones” (Micah 3:1–3). This is plunder in its most graphic prophetic form: leaders consuming the flock.
- They silence truth-tellers. Prophets become threats. Whistleblowers become enemies. Accountability becomes treason.
- They confuse loyalty to God with loyalty to themselves. They demand allegiance that belongs only to the Lord.
- They weaponize justice instead of submitting to it. Isaiah warns of leaders who write unjust laws “to rob the poor of their rights” (Isaiah 10:1–2). Courts become tools of control rather than instruments of righteousness.
These are not merely political failures. They are spiritual betrayals.
God’s Fiercest Words Are for Corrupt Leaders
“Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves!” (Ezekiel 34:2)
God reserves some of Scripture’s sharpest rebukes for leaders who exploit those they were called to protect. Their sin is not incompetence—it is predation. They devour the very people they were entrusted to feed.
But Ezekiel 34 is not only about the shepherds. It is also about the sub-leaders—the “fat sheep” who trample the pasture and muddy the waters so others cannot eat or drink.
The Forgotten Warning: When Sub-Leaders Become Goats
Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25) is not a cute pastoral image. It is a judgment scene. And it draws a sharp line between two kinds of followers:
- Sheep, who reflect the character of the Shepherd.
- Goats, who follow the Shepherd in name but not in practice.
And let’s be clear: “Goat” in Scripture does NOT mean “greatest of all time.” It means the exact opposite—those who failed to embody the Shepherd’s heart.
In Ezekiel 34, God rebukes not only the shepherds but the “fat sheep”—the sub-leaders, insiders, and loyalists who butt the weak aside, take the best for themselves, and help the shepherds maintain their power.
These are the people who defend the leader’s abuses, intimidate dissenters, enforce loyalty tests, and benefit from the system they help uphold.
They are not the greatest. They are goats—those who graze on privilege while pushing the vulnerable to the margins.
In every corrupt system, the goats are essential. Predatory leaders cannot plunder alone. They need lieutenants, enforcers, spokespeople, and loyalists who will do the dirty work while claiming righteousness.
When God’s People Enable the Plunder
Scripture does not reserve its strongest warnings only for corrupt rulers. It also speaks to the people who accommodate them, excuse them, or benefit from their rule.
Christians become complicit not only by what they do, but by what they tolerate.
Jeremiah rebukes leaders whose eyes and hearts are “set only on dishonest gain” (Jeremiah 22:17), but the chapter also condemns the people who normalize such rulers.
Habakkuk warns that societies built on plunder eventually collapse under the weight of their own injustice: “Because you have plundered many nations, the peoples who are left will plunder you” (Habakkuk 2:8).
Israel’s downfall was rarely the result of a single king’s sin. It was the collective willingness of the people—and especially the sub-leaders—to normalize what God condemned.
Obedience Has Limits
“We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29)
Christian submission to authority is never absolute. When obedience to human leaders requires disobedience to God, the choice is already made.
The Seduction of “Our Side”
The temptation to excuse corruption for the sake of preferred outcomes is ancient and persistent. When Christians trade truth for influence, they usually lose both.
The prophets warned Israel repeatedly: when God’s people align themselves with power instead of righteousness, they become indistinguishable from the nations around them.
And when the church baptizes political expediency, it becomes a goat pen—full of noise, full of energy, but empty of Christlike character.
A Call to Repentance, Not Despair
Throughout Scripture, God calls his people to turn—not only from personal sins, but from collective ones. Repentance is not an admission of defeat; it is the path back to faithfulness.
Repentance restores clarity. It restores courage. It restores the ability to distinguish between shepherds who serve and shepherds who plunder.
Faithfulness in the Meantime
Christians are not responsible for controlling history. They are responsible for bearing witness within it—steadily, courageously, and without illusion.
Faithfulness means refusing to become a goat, even when goats seem to be winning. It means refusing to trample the weak, muddy the waters, or defend the indefensible. It means following the Shepherd, not the predators who claim to speak for him.
“Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.” (Revelation 22:20)
