SHEPHERDS 2 TRUE, RESPONSIBLE OR FALSE  Ezekiel 34.

Ezekiel showed how contented God, Himself, was in becoming the shepherd for His chosen people. ( v14 ) ‘ I will feed them in a good pasture, and their fold shall be on the high mountains of Israel.  There they shall lie down in a good fold, and feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. ‘  God’s sheep shall be satisfied, munching the good pasture of the word of God and grazing on the mountains of Israel.

God strengthened His promise as He repeated, ‘ I will feed My flock, and make them lie down.’(v15)  The Father’s searching heart spoke,’ I will seek what was lost, and bring back what was driven away; bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick; but ‘, in discernment, ‘ I will destroy the fat and the strong, and feed them in judgment.’

This obviously described the ministry of  the coming Saviour, for it agreed with Isaiah 61:1, which read ‘ the Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent me to heal the broken-hearted; to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them who are bound,’

Christ completely linked the predictions of Ezekiel and  Isaiah.  Paul wrote, ‘By Him all things consist’, including the prophetic world as well as His glorious creation. We note also ‘He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.’

Truly the ‘Judge of all the earth does right, ‘ Now as for you,  my flock, I shall judge between sheep and sheep , between rams and goats. ‘(v17)  God resumes His concern for the sheep neglected by faithless shepherds, ‘ You who have eaten the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture – and to have drunk of of the clear waters, that you must foul the residue with your feet.’ ( v18)

Our God sympathised with the helpless, because ’ You have pushed with side and shoulder, butted all the weak ones with their horns, and scattered them abroad. ‘ ( v22)  He is the Defender of the helpless. ‘He shall  not break a bruised reed, nor will He quench smoking flax, till He send forth judgment to victory. ‘ ( Isaiah 42:3)  I oft en used this truth to comfort bruised and ‘smouldering’ patients in their anger or bitterness.

God initiated the care of His sheep,’ I will establish one shepherd over them, and He shall feed them - my servant David.’ He shall feed them and be their shepherd.’ It could not possibly have referred to King David, who had died some hundreds of years earlier. It referred to great David’s greater Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.  How beautifully the Bible previewed the coming of the Saviour Shepherd.   John 10 is linked with this amazing prediction of Ezekiel.  Our Lord Jesus sustains us in our daily walk with Him.

He feeds His flock.  The suffering  persecuted church is nourished by the good shepherd, even with their depleted resources, often with one bible  limited to the pastor.  They have spiritual wealth, even in material poverty.  They have drawn heavily on the Good Shepherd, Who must nurture all God’s people. The President of  the United states on that recent, catastrophic day , reminded the world, that ‘when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, YOU ( my shepherd)  are with me.’ (Psalm 23)

God made extravagant promises, ‘ I, the Lord, will be their God, and My servant David,( meaning Beloved as the father addressed His Son at His baptism)  a Prince among them.  I the Lord have spoken.’   (v 34).  Marvellous that the almighty God ( El Shaddai) should lavish  such favour on His own. That’s not all, for He promised, ‘I will make a covenant of peace with them, ‘ and cause wild beasts to cease from the land; and they will dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.’ ( v25) ‘Our Lord Jesus said, ‘This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many, and for you. ‘ His peace followed the shedding of His precious blood at calvary.  Furthermore, He  silenced the beasts of lust, avarice, greed and hatred; through His mighty power.

A further guarantee provided the inspiration of a precious hymn of  Sankey and Moody, ‘I will cause showers  to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.’ (v26) Our hearts long for such rich fulness to flow from our dear Lord.  May God give us such showers in our personal lives, families and churches.  We need this!

Verse 27 described revival,’ Then the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase.  They shall be safe in their land; and marvel of marvels, ‘They shall know that I am the Lord’; when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them.’ When trees are heavily laden ( and our peach tree last summer was weighed down with luscious fruit.) They speak of the out-poured blessing that God has lavished on us.  With their safety, they will know the privilege of the Lord of love.  Then He sets His people free, and breaks the shackles of slavery.  Praise be to our God, for we are ransomed and liberated.

‘And they shall no longer be a prey for the nations, nor shall beasts of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely; and no-one shall make them afraid.’  When our God repeated His promise of verse 25, He assured us of His determination to provide.

God does not forget, as He reiterates His word, longing  to convince us.

His promises continued, ‘ I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall no longer be consumed with hunger in the land, nor bear the shame of the Gentiles any more.’ (v29)  Is the ‘plant of renown’ the christian church, which is a beautiful plant, with roots in the eternal soil, branches which bring in many nations of God’s people, with the fruit of the Holy Spirit with every bud and leaf?   All His creative genius!

God has moved in revival blessing in every nation where the Word of God has been freely preached.  Edwin Orr recorded in 186 countries the extraordinary awakenings of God’s Holy Spirit.  John Sung, China’s scholarly Bible teacher, witnessed mighty stirrings of God as he preached from pre-dawn to late in the day , seeing vast numbers of his countrymen bow in broken-hearted adoration before the Saviour.  He reaped the sowing of precious seed, ( with the travail of CIM ,OMF and OMS and other great missionary pioneer movements ) that has produced the present house churches of China with 70-80 million worshipful believers. Edwin Orr carefully recorded John Sung’s preaching with such long-term transformation within a great nation.

God will vindicate His own beloved people, ‘ They shall know that I the Lord their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are My people, ‘ says the Lord.

Our Lord longs that we should know Him. ‘He made known His ways to Moses, ( God’s intimate dealings with His dear leader) , His acts ( public dealings with the children of Israel.) No wonder Paul cried, ’That I might know Him; the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings. ‘ ( Philippians 2 )

Then the tender heart of God for the special nation of Israel followed, ‘ You are MY flock, the flock of MY pasture.  You are men. and I am your God, says the Lord God.

( v31 )  God extended the same graciousness to His  church, Christ’s body and the spiritual Israel; for this passage has twin-edged truth.  The Lord Jesus in John 10 , guaranteed ‘To Him the door-keeper opens, and the sheep hear His voice, and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. ( v3)  He added that valuable security, ‘ I give them eternal life; they shall never perish; neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.’  ( v28)

He dearly loved the nation of Israel, the christian church; and you as believers.