THE LORD GOD WILL SEEK THEM OUT

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL

III. PROPHECIES REGARDING ISRAEL’S FUTURE, Ezekiel 33-48

  1. The Fall of Jerusalem, Eze_33:1-33; Eze_34:1-10

8. What is the duty of a shepherd toward his flock? How is the selfish shepherd reproved?

Ezekiel 34:11-24

THE LORD GOD WILL SEEK THEM OUT

For thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I Myself will search for My flock and seek them out.

As a shepherd cares for his sheep on the day that he is among his scattered flock, so I will care for My sheep; and I will rescue them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day.

I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land.

I will feed them in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down on good grazing ground and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.

I will feed My flock and I will let them lie down [to rest],” says the Lord GOD.

“I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bandage the crippled, and strengthen the weak and the sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong [who have become hard-hearted and perverse]. I will feed them with judgment and punishment. [Luk_19:10]

“And as for you, My flock, thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Behold, I judge between one sheep and another, between the rams and the male goats [between the righteous and the unrighteous].

Is it too little a thing for you that you [unrighteous ones who are well-fed] feed in the best pasture, yet you must trample down with your feet [of wickedness] the rest of your pastures? Or that you drink clear [still] water, yet you must muddy with your feet [of wickedness] the rest [of the water]?

As for My flock (the righteous), they must feed on what you trample with your feet and drink what you muddy with your feet!'”

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD to them, “Behold, I Myself will judge between the [well-fed] fat sheep and the lean sheep.

Because you push with side and shoulder, and gore with your horns all those that have become weak and sick until you have scattered them away,

therefore, I will rescue My flock, and they shall no longer be prey; and I will judge between one sheep [ungodly] and another [godly].

“Then I will appoint over them one shepherd and he will feed them, [a ruler like] My servant David; he will feed them and be their shepherd. [Eze_37:24; Joh_10:14-18]

And I the LORD will be their God, and My servant David will be a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken.

F.B.Meyer
On
Ezekiel 34:11-24

The shepherds of this chapter were not the religious leaders of the people, but rulers who sought in their government not the good of the people but their own selfish ends. But the statements made by the prophet may be rightly applied to rapacious priests who care more for the fleece than for the flock. Pastors are required to lead the flock of God not for filthy lucre but as examples for the sheep, 1Pe_5:2-3. It is their duty, also, to strengthen the spiritually diseased, heal the sick, bind up the broken in heart, and seek the lost.

Notice the tender manner in which the Lord Jesus Himself supplies the deficiencies of His unfaithful servants. In beautiful contrast to their selfish cruelty and rapacity, He sets Himself in cloudy and dark days to gather and tend His people, though they had been as scattered sheep, each taking his own way. When the ministers of His Church fail in their duty, the Lord hastens to supply their lack. Without doubt these gracious promises refer primarily to the Lord’s Second Advent, when He will seek out and deliver His Chosen People, and bring them to their own land. But surely we must not limit the reference thus. We are His sheep, by purchase and by choice. He knows us, as we know Him. He has sought and saved us. He feds us and causes us to lie down beside the waters of rest.

By Philippus Schutte

New Covenant Israelite! "And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;  Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee."  Rom 11:17 -18

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