EZEKIEL – CHAPTER 34

MESSAGE TO UNFAITHFUL SHEPHERDS OF ISRAEL

Verses 1-10:

Verses 1, 2 are a call from the Lord, to Ezekiel, to address the false-shepherds or rulers of Israel. He was to charge them that the living God had been watching them as they had “fed themselves”, like wolf-dogs with voracious greed, feathered their own nests, while preying on God’s flock. God saw them for what they were, thieves, cheats, robbers and hypocrites, as described also Jer 11:17.

Verse 3 describes how the cheating, deceiving rulers, priests, and false prophets had:
1) eaten the fat of the land,
2) clothed themselves with the finest of wool, and
3) killed them that were well fed for their own tables, and killed the rich to get their properties, 2Ki 21:16; Jer 2:20; Jer 23:17. But they had not fed the flock of God. They had coveted, and taken the best of wages, but neglected giving the people the truth concerning the word of God, grave charges against those who are supposed to be trustees of Divine truth and service, Isa 56:11; Eze 33:25-26; Mic 3:1-3; Zec 11:5.

Verse 4 lists further acts of sin in which they deliberately engaged:
1) They did not treat the sick and diseased, as a true shepherd was to do, v. 16; Zec 11:16
2) They had not bound up the bones of those that were broken, Lev 25:43; 1Pe 5:3.
3) They had neglected to go out and bring back those sheep that had been driven or led away in and with other flocks, 2Ti 2:24; Exo 23:4
4) Nor had they sought the sheep that was crying, bleating, in the dangers of the wilds;
5) Nor did they send any to try to rescue them, but left them to be torn as meat for the wild beasts, cruelly neglecting them, Luk 15:4; Joh 10:12.

Verse 5 asserts that because of such wolf-shepherd cruelty and neglect they of Israel’s flock were scattered,. because there existed no shepherd, or none worthy of the name, 1Ki 22:17; 2Ch 18:16; Jer 23:2; Jer 50:6; Zec 13:5; Mat 9:36. Then they became as meat for prey, to all the beasts and vultures of the field, when they were scattered, Isa 56:9.

Verse 6 bewails that the sheep of the Lord had wandered through the mountains and upon the high hills, exposed to fowls and beasts of prey; because there was no trustworthy shepherd to seek, search out, rescue, nourish, treat, feed, or protect the most helpless beast of the field! Jer 12:9. Neither ruler, prophet, nor priest in all Israel seemed to be true to his trust.

Verses 7, 8 call upon the shepherds (rulers, priests, and prophets) in Israel to stand, without excuse, as witnesses against themselves, a Divine judgment should justly fall upon them for their sins, Num 32:23; Rom 2:1-2; Rom 3:19; Jas 4:17.

Verse 10 warns that the Lord would take the flock of Israel from the hands of her cheating, self-serving, covetous, thieving shepherds, and the “fat living” they had formerly extracted from His flock. They were to feed on her no more, as wolf-dogs feed on helpless lambs, as they had in former days. Zedekiah, their unfaithful king, and his sons slain before his own eyes, then both his eyes punched out, as he had caused his other princes to be slain. Pay day came to him, to all, Jer 13:18-20; Jer 52:10; Heb 13:17.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

THE REPROOF OF THE FALSE SHEPHERDS AND A PROMISE OF THE GOOD AND TRUE SHEPHERD (Chap. 34)

EXPLANATORY NOTES.Eze. 34:1. Prophesy against the shepherds. The trouble which the prophet here encounters arises from the loss of civil government. The seeming loss, he contends, is a real gain, as the present government was so bad.Hengstenberg. Keil designates the turning against the bad shepherds as a foil for the ensuing promise.

Eze. 34:2. Woe to the shepherds. The rulers who sought in their government their own selfish ends, not the good of the people ruled. Kliefoth understands the entire body of officials who had committed to them the leadership of the people. The office, like that of a shepherd for his flock, is to guard and provide for his people.

Eze. 34:3. Ye eat the fat, and clothe you with the wool. Refers to the draining of the subjects. The rulers levied exorbitant tributes. Ye kill them that are fedthe culminating act denoting the murder of the subjects in order to seize on their goods.

Eze. 34:4. That which was driven away. When Israel was not held together in the name of Jehovah through the theocratic offices, the scattering, the self-abandonment and surrender to the worldly powers was the natural necessary consequence.Lange. With force and cruelty have ye ruled them. As the Egyptians once did to the Israelites (Exo. 1:13-14)the native shepherds are no better than the heathen despots were in the olden time (comp. Lev. 25:43).

Eze. 34:5. Because there was no shepherdnone worthy of the name, though there were some called shepherds (1Ki. 22:17; Mat. 9:36). Became meat to the beasts of the fieldthe heathen nations, the wild stock. They became a prey to the Syrians, Ammon, Moab, and Assyria.

Eze. 34:6. My sheepMy flock. The repeated and emphasized My flock prepares for the resolutions of Jehovah that follow. None did search or seek after themrather seek or search. The former is the part of the superior rulers to enquire after; to search out is the duty of the subordinate rulers.Junius.

Eze. 34:10. I am against the shepherds, and require My flock at their hand. God had already begun to do so, having punished Zedekiah with the deprivation of eyesight, after having first caused his sons to be killed and then the other princes to be slain (Jer. 52:10).Fausset.

Eze. 34:11. Behold I, even

I. This found its most glorious fulfilment in the appearance of Christ, as Eze. 34:23-24 expressly announce that God will execute His pastoral office specially by the Messiah. Yet, even before the appearance of Christ the pastoral care of God was active in the restoration from the exile and the other gracious gifts and benefits, which, however, all point forward to the true fulfilment and call forth the desire for it.Hengstenberg.

Eze. 34:12. The cloudy and dark daythe dark, afflictive time of the people of God, when dispersed by the heathen.

Eze. 34:14. I will feed themupon the high mountains of Israelin chaps Eze. 17:23, Eze. 20:40, the phrase is, the mountain of the height of Israel, in the singular number. The reason of the differences is, there Ezekiel spoke of the central seat of the kingdom, where the people met for the worship of Jehovah, Mount Zion; here he speaks of the kingdom of Israel at large, all the parts of which are regarded as possessing a moral elevation.Fausset.

Eze. 34:16. I will feed them with judgmentjustice and equity, in contrast with the cruel rigour of the unfaithful rulers.

Eze. 34:17. I judge between cattle and cattle. The officials are with Eze. 34:10 discharged and gone: the persons concerned can only come into consideration according to their personal qualities, not according to their official rank. I judge between one class of citizens and another, so as to award what is right to each.Lange, &c.

Eze. 34:18. Ye must foul the residue with your feet. Not content with appropriating to their own use the good of others, they, from mere wantonness, spoiled what they did not use, so as to be of no use to the owners. Grotius explains the image as referring to the usuries with which the rich ground the poor (chap. Eze. 22:12; Isa. 24:2).

Eze. 34:22. Therefore will I save My flock, and they shall be no more a prey. After the restoration from Babylon the Jews were delivered in some degree from the oppression, not only of foreigners, but also of their own great people, who had oppressed with bondage arising out of debts and mortgages (Neh. 5:1-19). The full and final fulfilment of this prophecy is future.Fausset.

Eze. 34:23. I will set up one Shepherdthe complex embodiment of shepherd watchfulness, as of all the duties of the shepherd officethe Divine realisation of the idea of all that is involved generally in the nature of the office, as service towards the community for the sake of God, as sacred service in behalf of Gods people.Lange. With the unity is connected the glory of the king and his kingdom, as the decline was connected with the multiplicity of the shepherds. With the coming of that great Shepherd ceases not only the division of Israel, but also the separation between Israel and the heathen.Hengstenberg.

Eze. 34:24. My servant David a princethe true David, the Messiah, in whom the stem of David is to culminate. Not a resurrection of David, but a sending of a David who has not yet been present.Hengstenberg. The fittest person to wield the world-sceptre abused by all the world-kings (Dan. 2:34-35; Dan. 2:44-45).

Eze. 34:25. I will make a covenant of peacea security against hostile powers, of which the ceasing of evil beasts symbolises the negative and the dwelling safely the positive side. Through Christ the people of God are predominant. The heathen world is forced from the dominant place which it had hitherto taken and sinks to the servile.Hengstenberg, &c.

Eze. 34:26. Showers of blessing. The Holy Spirits reviving influences are often compared to a refreshing shower (Isa. 44:3). The literal fulfilment is, however, the primary one, though the spiritual also is designed. In correspondence with the settled reign of righteousness internally, all is to be prosperity externally, fertilising showers (according to the promise of the ancient covenant, Lev. 26:4; Psa. 68:9; Mal. 3:10) and productive trees and lands.Fausset.

Eze. 34:29. I will raise up for them a plant of renown. According to the old style of expositionMessiah, the Rod, Branch, the Righteous Branch (Isa. 11:1; Jer. 33:5), who shall obtain for them renown. Hengstenberg, Fairbairn, and Geikie translatea plantation for a name; the soil which is planted will be famous for its yield, through the showers of blessing (Eze. 34:26). By reason of this fertility Israel shall be renowned among the heathen as the people blessed of the Lord.

Eze. 34:31. And ye My flock are men. What grace when the God of heaven condescends to men who are taken from the earth and return to it! Psalms 8; Psa. 36:8).Hengstenberg. There is evidently an emphasis on men. Men are ye; remember your place, you are merely human; but remember at the same time that I am your God: so that without Me nothing, but with Me all.Lange.

HOMILETICS

A GRAVE IMPEACHMENT OF UNFAITHFUL RULERS

(Eze. 34:1-10.)

I. They abused their authority in ministering to their own selfish indulgence and personal aggrandisement. The shepherds feed themselves. Ye eat the fat and clothe you with the wool (Eze. 34:2-3). The ruler is raised to a lofty dignity and endowed with special resources in order to watch over and protect the interests of his people. The wants and even the luxuries of life are secured to him that he may be free to devote his powers to the general good. He is keenly alive to any act of treachery on the part of his people; but he is none the less treacherous when he abuses his high trust in seeking only his own advantage. He has basely abdicated the highest functions of his kinghood:

Hes a king,

A true, right king, that dare do aught save wrong;
Fears nothing mortal but to be unjust:
Who is not blown up with the flattering puffs
Of spongy sycophants; who stands unmoved,
Despite the jostling of opinion.Marston.

II. They neglected the plainest duties of their office.

1. They made no provision for the immediate wants of the people. Ye feed not the flock (Eze. 34:3). The first demand of nature is food: where this is denied to a people the result is riot or starvation. The ruler who is ignorant how to procure food for his people is incompetent; if he makes no effort to do so he is indolent; if he is indifferent about it he is cruel. The king should be a father to his people, providing for, watching over, and protecting them.

2. They had no sympathy with the afflicted and unfortunate. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken (Eze. 34:4). It is a severe strain on the loyalty of a people when their sufferings win no pity from their selfish ruler. It is a blot on the brilliant reign of Queen Elizabeth that the brave seamen who defeated the Spanish Armada were left to rot in their ships or die in the streets of the naval ports because there were no hospitals to receive the wounded. It would grieve any mans heart, wrote Lord Howard, the High Admiral of that day, to see men that have served so valiantly die so miserably. Modern hospitals and infirmaries are the practical outcome of an enlightened Christian philanthropy.

3. They made no effort to restore the disaffected and the wandering. Neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost (Eze. 34:4). The monarch who is indifferent to the emigration and social discontent of his people helps to weaken the stability of his kingdom. Wealth is unsafe in the midst of rebellious poverty:

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay.

The formal declaration of William II., Kaiser of Germany, in favour of the International Regulation of Labour, is one of the most remarkable events, proceeding direct from imperial authority, of modern times. The oppressed of one country have enriched other countries to which they fled in their despair.

4. They retained the name of an office which their conduct had robbed of all practical meaning. Because there is no shepherd (Eze. 34:5; Eze. 34:8). They professed to be shepherdsvigilant, faithful, kind; but they were unworthy of the name. They were frauds. The flock was worse off than if it had no shepherd. Better no shepherd than such shepherds. An honourable man would relinquish an office the duties of which he was incompetent or unwilling to fulfil.

III. Their rule was one of tyranny and violence. With force and cruelty have ye ruled them, and they were scattered (Eze. 34:4-5). It was a cruel irony of the shepherd-character to deal in blows instead of food, and instead of tending with care to scatter with terror: the shepherd-garb disguised the fangs and savagery of the wolf. It is ill with the patient when his physician is his worst disease. It is the highest injustice when the ruler uses his great power to oppress and destroy his people.

IV. They shall be divested of the office they had degraded and called to account for their misdeeds. I am against the shepherds, and will require My flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more (Eze. 34:10). Tyranny and wrong cannot last for ever: the reckoning-day comes on apace. In all wickedness there is weakness that will soon or later be fatal to its reign. It is related of Lord Ampthill, British Ambassador to the Court of Berlin, that during his mission in Rome he possessed a huge boa-constrictor, and interested himself in watching its habits. One day the monster escaped from the box where he supposed it was asleep, quietly wound itself around his body, and began gradually to tighten its folds. His position became extremely perilous; but the consummate coolness and self-possession which had enabled him to win many a diplomatic triumph befriended him in this dangerous emergency. He remembered there was a bone in the throat of the serpent which, if he could find and break, he would save himself. He was aware that either he or the snake must perish. Not a moment must be lost in hesitation. He deliberately seized the head of the serpent, thrust his hand down its throat and snapped the vital bone. The coils were relaxed, the victim fell at his feet, and he was free. So one day the weak place in wrong-doing is sure to be smitten and it must succumb. Over the head of every tyrant there hangs the sword of retributive justice.

LESSONS.

1. Treachery in government means suffering among the people.

2. A just ruler is above the vice of corruption.

3. The highest office cannot protect the wrong-doer from ultimate exposure and disgrace.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

Eze. 34:1-2. Corruption in the upper, the governing classes, those who give the tone and measure to society, carries along with it corruption among the whole people, and that not merely for a time, but for ever.It is a very honourable title to be called a shepherd, but to be so is a heavy burden, with much trouble, care, and labour.Lange.

Eze. 34:2-23. The removal of false rulers who have ruled for their own selfish aggrandisement, not for the glory of God or the real good of their subjects, is to precede the setting-up of the coming King, who is to rule in love and righteousness, Messiah the Good Shepherd. The Lord Jesus Christ provides for the eternal well-being of His own flock, both the elect remnant of the literal Israel and also the spiritual Israel, the Church, infinitely better than the best of earthly shepherds ever cared for his sheep. But the false shepherds of Israel in Ezekiels days cared only for themselves and for their own grovelling aims, selfish gain, and worldly preeminence, like Diotrephes in ages long subsequent (3Jn. 1:9).Fausset.

Eze. 34:2-10. A Bad Shepherd

1. Is selfish (Eze. 34:2).

2. A varicious (Eze. 34:3).

3. Heartless (Eze. 34:4).

4. Cruel (Eze. 34:4). A terror to the flock (Eze. 34:5-6). Shall not escape punishment (Eze. 34:7-10).

Eze. 34:2. Good shepherds they should have been, but they were naught (Jeremiah 23), and naught would come of them for their maladministration. The sheep will follow the shepherd. The common people are like a flock of cranesas the first fly, all follow.Trapp.

There is a woe to those who are in public trusts, but consult only their own private interests, and are more inquisitive about the benefice than about the office; what money is to be got than what good is to be done. It is an old complaint, all seek their own, and too many more than their own.M. Henry.

Eze. 34:3. Ye eat the fat. This ye might do, if in measure, for the workman is worthy of his wages (1Co. 9:7), but ye gorge yourselves with the best of the best. If the belly may be filled, the back fitted, that is all you take care for.Trapp.

Ye kill them. Contrive methods for a seeming legal course to forfeit first the life, and next the estate of the well-fed, rich, and wealthy, and then make merry and feast as voluptuous, unfaithful shepherds feast on the fattest of the sheep in their masters fold.Pool.

The priests ate the tithes, the first-fruits and the offerings of the people; the princes received the tributes and imposts; and instead of instructing and protecting them, the latter took away their lives by the cruelties they practised against them; the former destroyed their souls by the poison of their doctrine and by their bad example. The fat sheep point out the rich, to whom these pastors often disguised the truth by a cruel condescension and complaisance.Calmet.

Eze. 34:4-6. The Disastrous Effects of Sin.

1. Disease and suffering (Eze. 34:4).

2. Enslavement and oppression (Eze. 34:4).

3. Estrangement and dispersion (Eze. 34:5-6).

4. Abandonment to ruin (Eze. 34:5).

Eze. 34:4. A timely spiritual reformation of the state by its rulers would have averted the judgments of God altogether, and even in Ezekiels time, when wrath from God had already descended, faithful conduct on their part would have been followed by a mitigation of this punishment and a restoration of the scattered exiles.Fausset.

The obligations of the shepherd-office a mirror of human wretchedness.
No person is fit for the office of a shepherd who does not well understand the diseases to which sheep are incident and the mode of cure. And is any man fit for the pastoral office, to be a shepherd of souls, who is not well acquainted with the disease of sin in all its varieties, and the remedy for this disease and the proper mode of administering it in those various cases? He who does not know Jesus Christ as his own Saviour never can recommend Him to others. He who is not saved will not save.A. Clarke.

Eze. 34:5. Not merely in the bodily but pre-eminently in the spiritual enemies of the people of God inheres the wolf-spirit, the devil.Schmieder

Eze. 34:6. The Qualifications of the True Shepherd.

1. He knows the disease of sin and its consequences, for the Eternal Spirit, by whom he is called, has convinced him of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
2. He knows well the great remedy for this disease, the passion and sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
3. He is skilful and knows how to apply this remedy.
(1.) The healthy and sound he knows how to keep in health, and cause them to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
(2.) Those in a state of convalescence he knows how to cherish, feed, and care for, that they may be brought into a state of spiritual soundness.
(3.) Those still under the whole power of the general disease, how to reprove, instruct, and awaken.
(4.) Those dying in a state of spiritual weakness, how to find out and remove the cause.
(5.) Those fallen into sin and sorely bruised and broken in their souls by that fall, how to restore.
(6.) Those driven away by temptation and cruel usage, how to find out and turn aside the temptation and cruel usage.
(7.) Those who have wandered from the flock, got into strange pastures, and are perverted by erroneous doctrines, how to seek and bring them back to the fold.
(8.) Those among whom the wolf has got and scattered the flock, how to oppose, confound, and expel the wolf. He knows how to preach, explain, and defend the truth. He is well acquainted with the weapons he has to use, and the spirit in which he has to employ them. In a word, the true shepherd gives up his life to the sheep, in their defence, and in labouring for their welfare. And while he is thus employed, it is the duty of the flock to feed and clothe him, and see that neither he nor his family lack the necessaries and conveniences of life.A. Clarke.

Eze. 34:7-10. The Divine Judgment on Unfaithful Ministers

1. Is preceded by a clearly detailed indictment of offences (Eze. 34:8).

2. Is the expression of the righteous indignation of God against wrong-doing. I am against the shepherds (Eze. 34:10.)

3. Demands a strict account of the trust so grossly violated. I will require My flock at their hand (Eze. 34:10).

4. Deprives the offenders of all their power and emoluments. I will cause them to cease from feeding the flock, neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more (Eze. 34:10).

5. Is mingled with tender sympathy for those who have suffered from neglect and oppression I will deliver My flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them (Eze. 34:10).

The frightful judgment which is contained even in the beautiful name of the Shepherd.Lange.

Eze. 34:8. God here seemeth to be in a great heat, in a perturbation of spirit, causing a kind of impediment in His speechAs I live: surely becauseso thoroughly was He moved against these lewd shepherds, whose faults He rippeth up again to make better way to their sentence.Trapp.

HOMILETICS

GODS CARE OVER HIS PEOPLE

(Eze. 34:11-31.)

The unfaithful shepherds, who have occupied so prominent a place in the prophets vision, now sink into the background. They have been arraigned, and judgment passed upon them. They are disposed of. And now, by one of those skilful dramatic changes so characteristic of the genius of Ezekiel, the space out of which the delinquents have vanished is filled with the presence of Jehovah, and, while we gaze, shade after shade of the Divine character is artistically developed with inimitable delicacy of touch, until we are enraptured with a picture of the unutterable tenderness and majesty of the God of Israel. The prophecy is full of consolation to the stricken nation, and is intended to inspire hope in the breasts of the disconsolate exiles. It is a sublime and graphic description of Gods care over His people, as we shall see in the following analysis.

I. He will gather together the dispersed.

1. He will seek for them with tender solicitude (Eze. 34:11-13). In contrast with the heartless rapacity of the rulers, who robbed and scattered His people, Jehovah will show that His concern for their welfare springs from unselfish though unrequited love. He seeks not His own advantage, but theirs. As the anxious shepherd plods over fell and moorland, through stony valleys and thorny brakes, in search of his wandering sheep, so the Lord will penetrate into all places where His affrighted people have sought temporary shelter in the cloudy and dark day. The loving heart is reckless of toil and undismayed by the most formidable difficulties.

2. He will make ample provision for their needs (Eze. 34:14-16). He finds them famished, dispirited, wounded; but He will feed them in a good pasture, will bind up that which is broken, and strengthen that which is sick. Though His providence has been abused and His counsel disregarded, their sufferings move His pity and their wants evoke His benevolence. Even our sins cannot stem the perennial outflow of the Divine goodness. But how inveterate and aggravated is sin committed in the presence of such unceasing kindness!

3. He will provide for them a place of safety. There shall they lie in a good fold (Eze. 34:14). Defended from the harassing exactions of false shepherds, and from the ravages of wolfish enemies, they shall forget the weariness and fear of their long, tedious wanderings in the restfulness and security with which they are now enfolded. It is not enough for God to seek and find the lost; His purpose is not accomplished until they are safely sheltered within the arms of His omnipotent love.

II. He will deal with them according to individual merit (Eze. 34:17-22). Even Divine love is strictly discriminative. Its affluence embraces all, but its personal realisation is regulated by the moral condition of the recipient. Love that is not governed by wisdom and justice loses strength and sanctity. I judge between cattle and cattlebetween men and men. God has an infallible insight into character, and marks shades of distinction imperceptible to us. He sees elements of good where our purblind sense sees nothing but evil, and detects the presence of sin underneath the fairest show of virtue. He knows how to encourage the weak and timid, and how to restrain the strong and forward. He knows how to succour the oppressed, and to mete out justice to the oppressor. It is better to fall into the hands of God than be at the mercy of the most impartial earthly judge.

III. He will provide for them THE Good Shepherd.

1. A Ruler of singular and peerless worth. The One Shepherd, the Shepherd-King, as was David, His antitype (Eze. 34:23). Their many shepherds had been unfaithful, avaricious, heartless, cruel. They had oppressed and scattered the flock. The One Good Shepherd would be beyond the reach of corruption or intimidation. He will rule in equity. He will gently lead and bravely defend His people. He will sacrifice His life for the sheep. Others had destroyed: He will save.

2. The rule of the Good Shepherd will bring them into closer personal relationship to God. I the Lord will be their God (Eze. 34:24). The tyranny of the false shepherds had driven the people from God, and fostered in their distracted minds doubts as to His righteousness and goodness. But under the gracious regimen of the Good Shepherd all this will be changed. They shall learn that the covenant promise is unrevokedJehovah is still their God. The government of the Divine Prince is not merely legal and social, but intensely and supremely spiritual. It is the rule of God, for God, and leading to God. Such rule may be slow and gradual in its development, but it is ever bringing us nearer to God, and revealing His purposes and character.

Gods plans, like lilies pure and white, unfold;
We must not tear the close, short leaves apart.
Time will reveal the calyxes of gold.

IV. He will endow them with unprecedented blessings.

1. Peace (Eze. 34:25).

2. Prosperity (Eze. 34:26-27).

3. Safety (Eze. 34:25; Eze. 34:28).

4. Imperishable renown (Eze. 34:29).

5. Union with the Divine (Eze. 34:30-31).

LESSONS.The Divine care.

1. A source of comfort to the afflicted.

2.Of hope to the penitent.

3. Of strength and hope to the diligent.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

Eze. 34:11-31. The description throughout is of an ideal kind. The prophet foretells simply the nature of the coming future under the form of the old landmarks and well-known relations. The best of the past shall revive again; more than revive, it shall appear free from the defects that formerly intermingled with it, clothed with a perfection and completeness hitherto unknown. But while the substance should thus coincide in the new and the old, it is not obscurely intimated that the shell would materially differ; for certainly the literal David should not be the Prince in whom the promise was to stand, but One unspeakably greater than he. When the promised Shepherd was found to be the glorious and mighty Lord, to whom, as David in the spirit foresaw, the heritage, not of Canaan, but of all lands and all nations belonged, it behoved the Jews to conclude that all the rest must receive a corresponding enlargement; the region, the people, the inheritance of blessing, must severally be what the old but represented and typified. What Canaan would have been with its David restored again, and all its covenant blessings enjoyed in richest profusion, such, in the new and higher sphere of the Messiahs Kingdom, shall the whole domain be over which He is the Lord, when this promise of good things to come attains to its full and final accomplishment. We see the word beginning to take effect, even before Messiah came, in the partial re-establishment of the Divine Kingdom within the ancient bounds, and, as far as was needed, for the higher purposes of the Kingdom. We see it advancing afterwards towards its riper fulfilment, when the great object of the prediction came and did the part of the Good Shepherd by avenging for ever the cause of His elect and laying the sure foundation of His everlasting inheritance. And we see it travelling on to its full and destined realisation in every conquest made by the truth of God over the darkness and corruption of the world.Fairbairn.

Eze. 34:11-16. The Divine solicitude. Seen

1. In active endeavours to restore the wandering (Eze. 34:11-13; Eze. 34:16).

2. In bountifully supplying the wants of the people (Eze. 34:13-15).

3. In affording security and rest (Eze. 34:14-15).

4. In the sympathetic treatment of the terrified and afflicted (Eze. 34:16).

Eze. 34:11. Rather than the work shall be undone, I will do it myself, and then it is sure to be well done. Aristotle tells of a certain Persian who, being asked, What did most of all feed the horse? answered, The masters eye; and of a certain African who, when it was demanded, What was the best manure or soil for a field? answered The owners footstepsthat is, his presence and perambulation. Shepherds should reside with their flocks; the Arch-shepherd will not fail to do so.Trapp.

Though magistrates and ministers fail in doing their part for the good of the Church, God will not fail in doing His. He will take the flock into His own hand rather than the Church shall come short of any kindness He has designed for it. The under-shepherd may prove careless, but the Chief Shepherd neither slumbers nor sleeps. They may be false, but God abides faithful.M. Henry.

Eze. 34:12. When things are at the worst God himself will set in: He reserveth His holy hand for a dead lift.Trapp.

Eze. 34:13. This prophecy primarily respected their restoration from captivity in Babylon, and was in part at least fulfilled when so many thousands of them returned to their own land under the conduct of Zerrubabel, Ezra, and others. It seems, however, to look still further, even to the general restoration of the whole Jewish nation from their present wide dispersion over the whole world, which restoration most of the prophets foretell shall be effected in the latter days. But there is no need to confine this promise wholly to the Jews. When those in any age or nation that have gone astray from God are brought back by repentance; when those that erred come to the acknowledgment of the truth; when Gods outcasts are gathered and restored, and religious assemblies that were dispersed are again collected and united upon the ceasing of persecution; and when the Churches have rest and liberty, then this prediction has a true accomplishment.Benson.

Eze. 34:13. The Divine refreshments, images of the spiritual here, of the eternal hereafter.Lange.

Eze. 34:15. Food and rest, the two great necessities of human life. Their rest will nourish them, and their nourishment will bring them new rest. Resttrue, eternal repose, is only to be had under the shepherd-staff of Christ.Lange.

Eze. 34:16-22. The Divine justice.

1. Will punish the wanton abuse of prosperity (Eze. 34:16).

2. Will discriminate between the rich and poor, the strong and weak, the oppressor and oppressed (Eze. 34:17-22).

3. Will deliver the abused captives (Eze. 34:21-22).

Eze. 34:16. The Lords inspection of the flock at the same time a call to self-examination.

The Lord feeds with judgment, that is, with befitting difference, since He dispenses to each what is proper to him. He performs to the weak no more than is good for them. The children he feeds with milk, and defends them. He acts mildly or severely, consoles, frightens, blames, caresses, as at any time is good for us. For the fearful He relaxes the reins, and those who place their confidence in Him He draws to Himself. If some are fat and corrupt the weak, He takes from their strength. Some are proud of the gifts lent to them, and despise the simplicity of others; for these it is good when they are humbled and are deprived of their gifts, so that they may obtain the salvation of Christ. Thus He accomplishes the judgment and the separation between sheep and sheep; and so each one should be concerned about himself, and not trouble himself respecting others. The separation is already going on here in secret, but at last it will become manifest and be seen to issue in a wide gulf. A stern judge is the Good Shepherd. Not merely the unscrupulous leaders of the flock, but even the sheep themselves, will be brought to account by Him.Lange.

Eze. 34:17. I judge between cattle and cattle. Between false and true professors, between them that have only the form and them that have the power of godliness, between the backslider in heart and the upright man.A. Clarke.

Eze. 34:18. Ye abuse Gods mercies, you consume much upon yourselves, and ye spoil more on which the poor would have been glad to feed. There are some who would rather give food to their sporting dogs than to the poor around them who are ready to starve, and would be glad of the crumbs that fall from the table of those masters.A. Clarke.

Would our so-called men of culture also but consider it, who only tread under foot the pure doctrine, or trouble it by their goat-like gambols.Lange.

Eze. 34:21. The mischievous polemic in the Church. A theology that is quarrelsome and combative scatters the Churches in the world.Lange.

Eze. 34:23-31. The Good Shepherd.

1. The Divine Prince (Eze. 34:23).

2. Shall ensure peace, safety, prosperity, and victory (Eze. 34:25-28). Shall become pre-eminent in dignity and greatness by what He does for His people (Eze. 34:29-30).

4. Shall exalt His people into a Divinely-ennobled manhood (Eze. 34:31).

Eze. 34:23-24. The One Shepherd, according to the promise in its fulfilment:

1. His official position through all times.
2. His shepherd-service in the flesh and in the spirit.
3. His personality in respect to God and as regards the flock.Lange.

Eze. 34:23. Who indeed is the only Shepherd. Magistrates and ministers are shepherds; but Christ is the Good Shepherd (Jno. Eze. 10:11); the Great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls (1Pe. 2:25; Heb. 13:20); the True Shepherd above all for skill, love, and power, above Jacob, above David, of whom He is descended, and by whose name He is here called (Jer. 30:9; Hos. 3:5; Eze. 37:24).Trapp.

Messiah, the True Shepherd, who hath given Himself this name both in the Prophets and in the Gospel, and who hath perfectly fulfilled all the duties, the characters whereof have been before described. He is called David because He sprung from David according to the flesh, because He possessed eminently and really all those qualities which the Scriptures give to David as the type of the Messiah, and because He was the person in whom all the promises made to David were fulfilled. Though this prophecy was in a great measure completed when Christ by the preaching of the Gospel gathered into one the children of God, among whom were many of the lost sheep of Israel, yet it will receive a further completion at the general conversion of the Jews.Calmet.

David.

1. As to the name, His beloved (Mat. 3:17).

2. As to His birth in Bethlehem.

3. As to His humble state and littleness (Isa. 53:3).

4. As to His shepherd-service.
5. As to His anointing.
6. As to His devotedness: David for the law, Christ for the flock.
7. As to His victories.Starke.

David, king of Israel, had been dead upwards of 400 years, and from that time till now there never was a ruler of any kind, either in the Jewish Church or state, of the name of David. This then must be some typical person, and from the texts marked in the margin we understand that Jesus Christ alone is meant, as both Old and New Testaments agree in this. And from this one Shepherd all Christian ministers must derive their authority to teach and their grace to teach effectually.A. Clarke. The ancient Jews allowed that the Messiah was meant in this place.

Eze. 34:24. This is that beehive of heavenly honey we so oft meet with in the Old Testament, which therefore the sectaries have so little reason to reject.Trapp.

Eze. 34:25. I will make with them a covenant of peaceI will cut with them the peace covenant; a covenant sacrifice, procuring and establishing peace between God and man; and between man and his fellows. The cutting refers to the ancient mode of making covenants. The blood was poured out, the animal was divided from mouth to tail, exactly in two, the divisions placed opposite to each other, the contracting parties entered into the space, going in at each end, and met in the middle, and there took the covenant oath. He is the Prince of Peace, and through Him come glory to God in the highest, and peace and good-will to men upon earth.A. Clarke.

The evil beasts in the landspiritual false guides, worldly persecutors, plausible hypocrites.Lange.

Eze. 34:26. The Church a source of blessing.

1. As it is the dwelling-place of God. My hill.

2. As it is enriched with a plenitude of Divine grace. I will cause the shower to come down in his season: there shall be showers of blessing.

3. As it is faithful and active in diffusing its God-given benefits. I will make them and the places round about a blessing.

There the Church is a blessing where there is the rain of the Holy Spirit. Without this rain nothing grows in the Kingdom of God: one cannot even say Jesus is Lord (1Co. 12:3).

Eze. 34:28. Spiritual boldness.

1. Over against the powers of the world.
2. Over against the wickedness of sin.
3. Over against the transitoriness and uncertainty of our earthly life.
4. Over against the solicitude of our own heart.Lange.

Eze. 34:29.I will raise up a plant of renowna plantation to the name: to the name of Christ. The words might be applied to the Christian Church; but that Christ may be called a plant or plantation hereas He is elsewhere called a branch and a rod (Isa. 4:2; Isa. 11:1; Jer. 23:5; Jer. 35:15)is most probable. He is the person of nameJesus; who has a name above every name, at whose name every knee shall bow; through whose name, by faith in His name, the diseased are healed; and in whose name all our prayers and supplications must be presented to God. This is the person of Name!Clarke.

Christ, the true tree of life. Or the Church, planted and rooted in Christ, and much renowned all the world over. Christ mystical is a vine covering the whole earth.Trapp.

The Kingdom of the Anointed a planting, inasmuch as the members of the Kingdom are

1. Sown by the Word.
2. Reared, fostered by the Holy Spirit.
3. Grown in time for eternity, to the honour of God the Father.Lange.

Hungering after righteousness as the means and preservative against the eternal hunger and distress on account of sin; hunger against hunger, as the way to everlasting satisfaction.Lange.

Eze. 34:30-31.All these promises belong long also to us, if we be true believers in Christ. Then we can say, The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. When we were wandering on the mountains of error, Jesus sought us and brought us safely into the fold. He feeds us in the green pastures of His ordinances now. He leads us in paths of righteousness, and makes us to lie down at rest, reposing on His love; and will at last bring us to the heavenly land of promise, where we shall hunger no more and thirst no more, and our shame shall be turned into everlasting glory.Fausset.

Eze. 34:30. Only by the way do the pilgrims of God doubt; not at the beginning, and at the end not at all. At first they proceed in faith, at last they shall see face to face.Lange.

Eze. 34:31.Under the more immediate interpretation of the similitude that men are meant, there is at the same time indicated the universality of grace; that not Israel alone but Adam, humanity, are named as the flock; and the greatness also of the grace is perceptible in this, that Israel is not designated by its honourable name, that which expresses its election of grace, but man, which calls to remembrance dust of the ground, sin, and death.Schmieder.

This is a chapter which both magistrates and rulers of the Church ought to meditate upon very seriously. The complaints that God here makes of false shepherds, and the curses He denounces against them, show that it is the duty of pastors, with their utmost diligence, to watch over the sheep with which they are entrusted, and to provide with care and readiness for all their wants, and that if they fail herein they must give a severe account to God for it. This too lays an obligation upon princes and magistrates to govern faithfully and justly the people committed to their trust. What befell the Jews, who for the unfaithfulness of their prophets and magistrates were utterly destroyed, shows that it is the greatest misfortune to a nation to have wicked rulers, and that all who were concerned for the glory of God and the happiness and edification of the Church have great reason to pray to God that He would always raise up to His people faithful and good pastors.Ostervald.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

II. REPLACEMENT OF CORRUPT LEADERS

34:131

Israels past sin and punishment stemmed largely from corrupt and selfish leadership. The first step in Ezekiels program of reconstruction for the nation was the replacement of those worthless leaders by a new breed of rulers. God would place at the head of His restored people a scion of the house of David. Under His rule Gods people would enjoy peace, safety and prosperity.

A. The Evil Shepherds of the Past 34:110

TRANSLATION

(1) And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, (2) Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, to the shepherds: Thus says the Lord GOD: Woe unto the shepherds of Israel who were feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock? (3) You eat the fat, and with the wool you cloth yourselves, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the flock. (4) The weak you have not made strong, nor the sick have you healed, nor have you bound up the broken, nor have you brought back those which strayed away, nor have you sought those that are lost; but with force and rigor you have ruled them. (5) So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and became food for every beast of the field, and were scattered. (6) My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill, and over the face of the land My sheep were scattered, and none did search and seek. (7) Therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: (8) As 1 live (oracle of the Lord COD) surely in as much as My sheep became a prey, and My sheep became food to every beast of the field because they had no shepherd, nor did My shepherds search for My sheep, but the shepherds fed themselves, and did not feed My sheep, (9) therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the LORD. (10) Thus says the Lord COD: Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require My sheep at their hand, and I will cause them to cease from feeding the sheep; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; and I will deliver My sheep from their mouth, that they may not be food for them.

COMMENTS

The shepherds against whom Ezekiel is told to prophesy were the kings, princes and other leaders of the now defunct nation of Judah. These men stand under a divine woe because they had been concerned only about their own welfare and not that of the sheep which had been committed to their guardianship (Eze. 34:2). They lived sumptuously at the expense of the flock. But still they did not feed, i.e., care for the needs of, the masses (Eze. 34:3). The needs of the weak, sick, straying, and lost sheep the poor and defenseless among the population had been ignored. They had been ruled with force, not with consideration and justice (Eze. 34:4). Unprotected by their national rulers, Gods people became a prey to surrounding nations. Attacked by these beasts of prey the sheep scattered in all directions (Eze. 34:5). They wandered through strange hills and valleys all over the face of the land in their efforts to escape the invaders. None of their leaders made any efforts to regroup the flock or avert the flight. The flock was simply abandoned (Eze. 34:6).

Concerning those worthless leaders God had a word (Eze. 34:7). God refers to the national leaders as Any shepherds because they were answerable to Him. Gods people had suffered immensely because of these greedy shepherds (Eze. 34:8). Therefore, God bound Himself by an oath (as I live) that He was implacably opposed to those leaders. He would hold these undershepherds responsible for all loses sustained by the flock. He would deprive them of the privilege of leadership. No more would they be able to further their personal aims and ambitions at the expense of the flock. These shepherds virtually had become beasts of prey, and God would finally liberate His people from their leadership (Eze. 34:10). From one point of view at least the Babylonian exile was a liberating experience.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

1-10. The shepherds of the people, instead of feeding the flock, were feeding upon the flock, eating the fat (LXX., milk), and living in ease and luxury, while “my sheep” (Eze 34:5, LXX.) were scattered and becoming a prey to wild beasts (surrounding nations). The shepherds of Israel like the contemporary heathen kings who loved to call themselves “shepherds” in their inscriptions have not cared for the sick or lame, but “with rigor have ye ruled over them” (Eze 34:4, R.V.). The term shepherd is used often elsewhere in the Old Testament, generally with reference to civil rulers (1Ki 22:17; Isa 13:20; Isa 56:11; Psa 78:71; Jer 23:1-6). Particularly compare Jer 23:1-4, and Teaching of the Apostles, ix, p. 4.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘And the word of Yahweh came to me saying, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves. Should the shepherds not feed the sheep?” ’

We need not doubt that this has a backward reference to the shepherds of the past, the kings, priests and prophets who had failed His people, but it also very much included the present shepherds who now had responsibility for the people’s spiritual life and teaching in exile, as the later warnings make clear. And the charge was serious. They were guilty of looking after themselves, whereas a true shepherd would be looking after the sheep.

The idea of kings and leaders as shepherds to their people is a common one (1Ki 22:17; Isa 44:28; Isa 63:11; Jer 2:8, linked with the priests and the prophets; Jer 10:21; Jer 23:1-6; Jer 25:34-38 – more general; Mic 5:4-5 see also Psa 78:70-71). Also see more generally Isa 56:10-11; Jer 50:6; Nah 3:18; Zec 10:2-3; Zec 11:8.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Eze 34:1-31 Sanctification The theme of the preceding passage (Eze 33:1-33) was on restoring righteousness to the children of Israel. For those who would repent and obey God’s word, there was the need for sanctification; and this is the theme of Eze 34:1-31. God’s divine plan to sanctify His people was to place shepherds among them to lead and guide them daily. Because these shepherds failed to strengthen God’s people, He was going to judge them and place a true shepherd over them, which is a prophecy of the coming of their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Eze 34:1  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Eze 34:2  Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?

Eze 34:2 Scripture References – Note a similar passage:

Jer 23:1, “Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD.”

Eze 34:3  Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.

Eze 34:4  The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.

Eze 34:4 Comments – A shepherd’s duty is to pray for the flock fervently (Mat 10:8, Luk 4:18, Joh 14:12).

Mat 10:8, “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.”

Luk 4:18, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Joh 14:12, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”

We can do this because 1Jn 4:4, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”

Illustration:

Luk 8:1-3, “And it came to pass afterward, that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God: and the twelve were with him, And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, And Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance.”

Eze 34:5  And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered.

Eze 34:5 Scripture Reference – Note:

Mat 9:36, “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.”

Eze 34:10  Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.

Eze 34:10 “for I will deliver my flock from their mouth” – Comments – How? God will feed the shepherds with judgment (Eze 34:16), and He will raise up a new shepherd, “David” (Eze 34:24).

Eze 34:16, “I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment .”

Eze 34:24, “And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them ; I the LORD have spoken it.”

Eze 34:16  I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.

Eze 34:16 Comments – The shepherds’ food is judgment from above, from God Almighty.

Eze 34:17  And as for you, O my flock, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats.

Eze 34:18  Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet?

Eze 34:18 Comments – The shepherds lusted after the best, and did not want the sheep to have anything good.

Eze 34:22  Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle.

Eze 34:20-22 Comments God Himself Will Judge – Eze 34:20-22 makes the last mention of the shepherds. God’s judgment is hard and sure.

Eze 34:24 Comments – The Jews were looking for a restored kingdom and a king of the lineage of David who would again rule over them. Therefore, the title “My servant David, a prince among them” is given to Jesus Christ so that they can identify with the Messiah, Jesus Christ, when He comes to be their king. In contrast, to the Gentiles the Messiah was not the son of David, but rather, the Saviour of the World.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Woe upon the Shepherds of Israel

v. 1. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

v. 2. Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, the spiritual leaders of the people, but especially their civil governors, the men responsible for their welfare, set to guard the interests and provide for the good of their subjects, prophesy and say unto them, in rebuking them for the selfishness with which they sought their own ends in all their dealings, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds, Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! looking out for their own interests only. Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? This emphasizes the reprehensible character of the shepherds’ behavior, the fact that they do just the opposite of what is rightly expected of good magistrates.

v. 3. Ye eat the fat, taking the best part for themselves, and ye clothe you with the wool, in the sense in which the term “fleecing the flock” is used even in our days, ye kill them that are fed, the most excellent of the flock; but ye feed not the flock. The action of the rulers was thus to be condemned as in every way opposed to the attitude which might justly be expected of men of their position.

v. 4. The diseased have ye not strengthened, though they were weak with the effects of illness, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, such as were crippled by the fracture of some member, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, namely, by the harsh treatment accorded them, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them, with acts of oppression like those suffered by their ancestors during the Egyptian bondage. Cf Lev 25:43. The picture is that of a people living under the harsh treatment of severe task-masters and driven away from their country by punishments inflicted upon rulers an people alike.

v. 5. And they were scattered because there is no shepherd, none who really performed the true ruler’s function in keeping his subjects together in peace and safety; and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered, the children of Israel being harassed and robbed by all the surrounding nations, even before they were taken away into exile.

v. 6. My sheep, as the Lord still desired to regard and treat them, wandered through all the mountains and upon every high hill, as their captors scattered them throughout the nations of the world; yea, My flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them, no one being concerned about their welfare nor making any effort to find out about their condition. The rulers were, in short, altogether deficient in the sense of duty which should have characterized them in their relation to their people.

v. 7. Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord, in His rebuke upon the unfaithfulness of these rulers,

v. 8. As I live, saith the Lord God, the sovereign Ruler of the world, surely because My flock became a prey, and My flock became meat to every beast of the field, as a result of the shepherds’ neglect, because there was no shepherd, none who really performed the work of a true shepherd, neither did My shepherds, men who purported to hold this position, search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, concerned about their own welfare only, and fed not My flock,

v. 9. therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord, the sentence pronounced upon them by the supreme Ruler:

v. 10. Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds, sternly opposed to them, and I will require My flock at their hand, demanding an accounting from them, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock, take away their position of rulers by which they had enriched themselves; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more, their source of unjust revenue being taken from them; for I will deliver My flock from their mouth that they may not be meat for them. We have here a picture of the manner in which the Lord often delivers such as are His children from the injustice and robbery of men who exploit them in their own interest.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

Eze 34:1

And the word of the Lord, etc. As no date is given, we may infer that what follows came as an almost immediate sequel to that which precedes it. The kernel of the chapter is found in the Messianic prophecies of Eze 34:23, Eze 34:24, as the first stage in the restoration of Israel which is beginning to open to the prophet’s gaze. We can hardly avoid seeing in it the deliberate expression of words that had been spoken by Ezekiel’s master (Jer 23:1-4), and which in his case also were followed by a directly Messianic announcement. In Mat 9:36, still more in Joh 10:1-16, we can scarcely avoid recognizing the distinct appropriation of the words to himself by him of whom they both had spoken. So far as we may venture to speculate on the influence, so to speak, of the words of the prophets of the Old Testament on our Lord’s human soul, we may think of these as having marked out for him the work which he was to do, just as we may think of Psa 22:1-31. and Isa 53:1-12. as having pointed out to him the path of suffering which he was to tread.

Eze 34:2

Prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, etc. Our modern associations with the words, our use of terms like” the pastoral office,” “the pastoral Epistles,” lead us to think of the priests and prophets, the spiritual guides of the people, as being those whom the prophet has in view. In the language of the Old Testament, however, as in that of Homer, the shepherds of the people are always its kings and other civil rulers (1Ki 22:17; Psa 77:20; Psa 78:71; Jer 23:1-6), and those whom Ezekiel had in his thoughts were the tyrannous rulers of the house of David, like Jehoiakim and Zedekiah and their satellites. Our Christian thoughts of the word are the outcome of the leading of Joh 10:1-16; Joh 21:15-17; 1Pe 5:2-4; Act 20:28; but it is probably true that even there the original thought is still dominant. Christ is the “good Shepherd,” because he is the true King. His ministers are shepherds as being officers in his kingdom. Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? The question is an appeal to the universal conscience of Israel and of mankind. No shepherd was worthy of his name who did not do that which the very name implied. He that neglects that duty is simply as a hireling or a robber (Joh 10:10, Joh 10:12).

Eze 34:3

Ye eat the fat. The LXX. and the Vulgate, following a different reading, give milk, and, as “killing” comes in the next clause, this is probably preferable.

Eze 34:4

The diseased have ye not strengthened. The verbs indicate the difference between the “diseased,” i.e. the weak sheep (comp. Isa 40:11; Psa 78:71) and the sick, that were suffering from more definite maladies. So the broken are the sheep that have fallen from a rock and thus maimed themselves. Each case required its appropriate treatment, and none had met with it.

Eze 34:5

And they were scattered. The words are an echo of 1Ki 22:17, and are, in their turn, echoed by Mat 9:36. The words that follow paint the sufferings of the exiles who left their homes and were scattered among the heathen in the days of Jehoiachin and Zedekiah. Of these the kings took no heed, and shut themselves up in the luxurious seclusion of their palace.

Eze 34:7-10

As I live, saith the Lord God, etc. The sentence of the Supreme Judge, of the “chief Shepherd” (1Pe 5:4), that follows, is naturally preceded by a recapitulation of the guilt of the tyrannous rulersthe “idol” or sham shepherds of Zec 11:17 (comp. also Zec 10:3). Both chapters should be studied as throwing light on the teaching of the earlier prophet. It may be noted also how the thought enters into Ezekiel’s vision of the restored Israel (Eze 45:8-10).

Eze 34:11

Behold, I, even I, etc. The words, as the last reference shows, and as we find in Eze 34:23-31, do not exclude, rather they imply, human instrumentality, just us our Lord’s do in Mat 18:12 and Luk 15:4-7; but they reveal the truth that Jehovah is the true Shepherd of his people. Not the sweet psalmist of Israel only, but the lowest outcast, might use the language of Psa 23:1-6; and say, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” He will gather the sheep that have been scattered in the “cloudy and dark day,” the day of the Lord’s judgment (Eze 30:3). For the prophet the words pointed to that vision of a restored Israel, which was dominant in the expectations both of Isaiah (or the Deutero-Isaiah) in Ezekiel 40-48; and in Jeremiah (Jer 33:12-18), which floated before the minds of the apostles (Act 1:6), and to which even St. Paul looked forward as the solution of the great problems of the world’s history (Romans 9-11.).

Eze 34:13-15

On the mountains of Israel by the rivers. The picture of the pleasant pasture-lands of Judah, almost, as it were, an expansion of Psa 23:1-6; of the mountains which are not barren and stony, of the streams that flow calmly in the inhabited places of the country, serves as a parable of that which is to follow on the restoration of Israel. The sheep that had been wandering so long in the wilderness should at last lie down in a fat pasture (verse 15), and the tender care of the Shepherd should watch with an individualizing pity over each sheep that had been brought back. Every broken limb should be bound up. Every sickness should be treated with its appropriate means of healing.

Eze 34:16

I will destroy the fat and the strong. What follows introduces another feature into the parable, and is hardly less than an anticipation of the great scene of judgment in Mat 25:32. The “fat and the strong,” as contrasted with the “broken” and the “sick,” are, when we interpret the Darable, the noble and wealthy who, under the kings of Judah, had been allowed to work their evil will upon the people. Of these he says that he will feed them with (better, in) judgment, that for them there must be the discipline of punishment. They too are his sheep, but they require a different treatment from the others.

Eze 34:17

Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle. It may be worth while to note, as modern English usage tends to limit the range of the word, that it is commonly used in the Old Testament of sheep rather than of kine (Gen 30:34-42; Gen 31:8-12). In Gen 30:32 we have the same Hebrew word as that which Ezekiel uses. Between the rams and the he-goats. The words, at first, seem to point to a division like that of Mat 25:32, and may, perhaps, have suggested it. Here, however, the contrast lies, not between the sheep and goats as such, but between the strong and the weak of each class. The “rams” are as much the object of the shepherd’s discipline of judgment as the “he-goats.” Both stand as the representative of the rapacious self-seeking classes who oppressed the poor and needy, and, not content with being the first to feed on the pastures and to drink of the waters, trampled on the former and defiled the latter. So in the next verse the contrast lies between the “fat cattle,” whether sheep or goats, and the “lean.”

Eze 34:23

And I will set up one Shepherd over them. Here, more than ever, we have an anticipation of our Lord’s teaching in Joh 10:1-18. He claims to be the Fulfiller, as of the prediction of Isa 40:11 and Jer 23:1-3, so also of this. He, the “Son of David,” is the David that inherits that among other promises. It has to be noted, however, that Ezekiel’s words paint, less distinctly than those of the earlier prophets, the picture of an individual Messianic king, and seem rather to point, as do those of Zec 12:10 (I do not now discuss the date of that prophecy), to a line of true rulers, each faithfully representing the ideal David as the faithful Ruler, the true Shepherd of his people (Psa 78:71; comp. Eze 37:24; Eze 45:8, Eze 45:9).

Eze 34:25

I will make with them a servant of peace. The whole verse is an echo of Le Eze 26:6, in part also of Hos 2:20 [English version, Hos 2:18]. The words are less definite as to the nature of the covenant than those of Jer 31:31, but probably the same thought underlies both. Sins are pardoned, the capacity for righteousness, righteousness itself, are given. In bright contrast with the picture of a country haunted by the lion, the jackal, and the wolfthe “evil beasts” of Eze 14:15so that no man could pass through without risk, we have that of a land from which such evil boasts have been cleared out, so that men may sleep safely even in the wilderness and the woods. The language, however, is figurative rather than literal. As the “sheep” are the people of the true Israel, so the evil beasts must, at least, include the enemies, Chaldeans, Edomites, Philistines, and others, that had before made havoc of them.

Eze 34:26

Round about my hill. Ezekiel’s thoughts, like those of Mic 4:1 and Isa 2:2, cluster round the hill of Zion, the mountain of Jehovah, as the center of the restored Israel. In that land, as the prophet saw it here, and still more in the closing vision of his book (Eze 47:12), there were, outwardly as well as spiritually, to be showers of blessing (the phrase is peculiar to Ezekiel), and the land should yield its fruits.

Eze 34:27, Eze 34:28

When I have broken the bands of their yoke. The underlying meaning of the figurative language of Eze 34:25 is now utterly explained. Israel is to be delivered from its Chaldean and other oppressors. The “yoke shall be broken.” They shall no more be a prey to the heathen. None shall make them afraid.

Eze 34:29

A plant of renown. The words at first suggest the thought that Ezekiel was reproducing the ideal picture of the “branch,” the “root,” the “stem,” the “plant.” of Isa 11:1; Jer 23:5; Zec 6:12. Here, however, the word is collective, and is translated “plantation” in Eze 17:7, “planting” in Mic 1:6; Isa 60:21; Isa 61:3. It can hardly be taken as speaking of more than the general fertility of the land. The rendering of the LXX; “a plant of peace,” obviously implies a different reading (shalom instead of shem), and this Cornill has adopted in his text. So taken, the words naturally lead on to what followsthe promise that men should no more be consumed with hunger.

Eze 34:31

And ye my flock. The great utterance, we might call it the “ode of the shepherds,” comes round to the point from which its second portion started (Eze 34:11). All blessings were summed up in the thought that, behind every representative of the Father’s care, the ideal David and his house, there was the eternal relationship between Jehovah and his people, even that of the Shepherd and his sheep. The LXX. omits the words “are men,” and here also is followed by Cornill.

HOMILETICS

Eze 34:1-10

Shepherds denounced.

I. THEIR RESPONSIBILITY. Ezekiel now turns from the people to their leaders. Theirs is the greatest guilt. They were placed in positions which led to much being expected of them. Their failure means a corresponding guilt. The princes and priests, the political leaders and the religious teachers, would be included under the designation “shepherds.” The same two classes and other varieties may be seen today; i.e. political rulers, Christian ministers, leaders of public movements, public writers; all who influence others in thought and life are like Israel’s shepherds. Note the grounds of the great responsibility of such people.

1. Privilege. The shepherds have the honor of being set over the flock. Position is a privilege; it brings a responsibility.

2. Power.

(1) There is the natural power of superior gifts. The shepherd is higher in mental power than his sheep. Great intellectual gifts bring with them a sort of pastoral responsibility in regard to weaker minds.

(2) There is the superadded power of office. The shepherd is appointed over the sheep. All who are placed in positions of influence are made especially responsible.

II. THEIR WICKEDNESS.

1. Positive wrong-doing.

(1) Self-seeking. The shepherds feed themselves instead of feeding the flock. They are mere hirelings, not true shepherds (Joh 10:13). All who undertake public office for the sake of private gain belong to this disgraceful category. It would be hypocritical to suppose that the shepherd should not consider his wages. But his fault is when he puts his profit above his duty.

(2). Cruelty. The shepherds “kill them that are fed.” They are worse than hirelings; they behave like robbers and wolves. So was it in the Middle Ages, when bishops preyed on their flocks. The same is true of all tyrannous governments under which rulers oppress the people for their own advantage. It applies to the use of power and influence for selfish advantage to the injury of others, as in making a living out of pernicious literature, etc.

2. Negative negligence. Looking after themselves, the wicked shepherds neglect their flock.

(1) The flock is not fed. It is the duty of the preacher to feed Christ’s sheep (Joh 21:16). If he is making his own profit to the neglect of this duty the people may starve for lack of the bread of life.

(2) The sick are not tended. Care for the sick sheep is an especial duty of the true shepherd. Sick souls need sympathy and help. The poor, the unfortunate, the sorrowful, the fallen, are all neglected by self-seeking leaders.

(3) The sheep are scattered. There is no bond of union. The sheep do not listen to the voice of the bad shepherd. He forgets to call them, or does so in a listless, unattractive manner, or makes himself uninteresting to them, so that they will not respond. Bad leaders scatter the Church.

(4) Wild beasts ravage the flock. David delivered his flock from a lion and a bear. “The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (Joh 10:11). But the hireling fleeth at the sight of the wolf (Joh 10:13). With bad leaders men are a prey to evil and error.

III. THEIR DOOM.

1. God‘s opposition. “Behold, I am against the shepherds.” They may be stronger than the sheep, but God is stronger than they are. Faithlessness in office provokes God’s great wrath.

2. Hopeless requirements. “I will require my flock at their hand.” But it is lost!

3. Loss of office. The bad shepherds are dismissed. The unfaithful servant is deprived of his talent (Mat 25:28). Disgrace, dismissal, ruin, are the punishments of unfaithful service.

Eze 34:11-13

Seeking lost sheep.

I. THE SHEEP ARE LOST. Israel was scattered among the nations like sheep that have wandered from the fold and are lost in the wilderness. Souls have been scattered from their shelter and have wandered into distant places. Note some of the characteristics of the lost sheep.

1. They were originally in the fold. This refers to Jews rather than to heathen, to backsliding Christians, to children of Christian homes; but also in a general way to all, because all men begin life in innocent childhood not far from the besom of God.

2. They have gone into distant places. Israel was driven abroad locally; souls depart from their homes spiritually,

(1) in thought, when the old beliefs are abandoned for the wilderness of doubt;

(2) in life, when the old ways are left, and God and duty are neglected. Heaven then recedes into the background.

3. They were scattered. No bond of union remains. The flock, which was a unit, becomes broken, and there are now only separate sheep. Error and sin disintegrate society.

4. They were lost in darkness. The disaster happened “in the cloudy and dark day.” The time of doubt, trouble, or temptation is one of danger. Then souls may be cast adrift for want of wise and tender shepherding.

5. They suffered through the neglect of the shepherds. The great sin is that of the faithless leaders.

II. THEY ARE SOUGHT. The shepherds lost them; God seeks them. God himself desires that the lost should be restored. For he values them as the farmer values his flock. It is not a matter of indifference to God that souls should perish. He does not leave the sheep to come home, prepared to welcome them on their return; he seeks them. He does not only hold himself ready to welcome the returning penitent. He goes forth to seek him. The housewife sweeps the house to find her lost piece of silver (Luk 15:8). The father goes to meet the prodigal son (Luk 15:20).

1. God seeks by his providence. The movements of life should bring us back to God.

2. He seeks by his prophets. Ezekiel was seeking the lost sheep. The Bible is sent forth as God’s means of seeking the lost. So is all true preaching of the gospel.

3. He seeks by his Son. Christ came first to seek “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mat 15:24), and then all lost sheep. Christianity is a search for the lost.

III. THEY ARE FOUND. “I will bring them out from the peoples,” etc. When God finds a soul, he restores it. He may find it in the wilderness; if so, he will not leave it there. The shepherd may find his sheep buried in the snow; it may be hard to dig them out; he may even have to carry them home on his shoulders. If he is strong enough he will do this. God not only finds; he restores.

1. He brings the sheep home. Israel is restored to her own land. Souls are restored to their home in God.

2. He feeds them. They must be hungry in the wilderness, far from the green pastures. So “he feeds them upon the mountains of IsraeL” The father kills the fatted calf for his restored son. Christ gives his body as bread of life for his people.

3. He refreshes them. The sheep are led “by the rivers.” They thirsted in the wilderness; now they can drink and live. God gives new life and peace to his restored children. Christ gives “living water” (Joh 4:10). When God finds a lost soul, that soul is saferestored, fed, refreshed by his grace.

Eze 34:17

The flock divided.

When the flock is found it is not all treated alike. The rough, horned cattle are separated from the gentle, helpless sheep. Israel was not to be restored to prosperity as a nation without discrimination. God would judge between the different characters of exiles. Judgment of individuals is here referred to.

I. GOD DEALS WITH INDIVIDUALS AS WELL AS WITH NATIONS. As there are national sins, so there are national punishments, and also national mercies. The whole nation must in a measure participate in these things. But over and above such matters there is an individual treatment of separate men and women. No man is safe from trouble by belonging to a prosperous nation. God’s returning favor to a community may leave hardened rebellious souls still in the dark.

II. GOD JUDGES THE INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS OF CHURCHES. No man is safe just because he lives in Christendom, neither is any one safe because he is a member of any Church. There are rough, cruel animals in the flock, which are injurious to others, and unworthy of their privileges. In the final judgment the sheep will be separated from the goats (Mat 25:32), and in dealing with Churches the same method of discrimination must be applied. Indeed, it is worse for one who is not a Christian to be enrolled in the membership of a Church, than for him to remain outside. His position is false and hypocritical. Moreover, his presence is injurious to the well-being of the worthy members. If the rough, horned animals were abroad in the wilderness, they would do little harm. The mischief arises when they are crowded together with the sheep in one fold.

III. IT IS THE DUTY OD CHURCHES TO EXERCISE DISCIPLINE. Care should be taken as to who are entrusted with the highest privileges of Christian fellowship. It is easier not to encourage the unworthy to enter than to eject them after they have made themselves obnoxious to the community. Nothing can be more foolish than to enlarge the nominal roll of a Church by including doubtful names. A wise teacher has said, “It would be well if we had fewer Christians, and better ones.”

IV. THERE IS A DISCIPLINE WHICH BELONGS ONLY TO GOD. We can regulate the conditions of membership in organized societies. But we cannot really determine who are true members of Christ’s flock. Therefore, in excluding the apparently unfit from a Church, we cannot, we dare not, pretend to pronounce a sentence of excommunication upon them. Much less are we justified in forcibly stamping out heresy, schism, and, what is far worse, worldly and sinful professions of Christianity, by the rough treatment of persecution. Wheat and tares must both grow together until the harvest (Mat 13:30). Then, indeed, God will judge. The great Fisherman will divide his own fish when he brings the net to land (Mat 13:48).

Eze 34:23

The one shepherd.

In place of the many unworthy shepherds who have fattened themselves by spoiling the flock of Israel, God will now give his people one good Shepherd, reviving the royal line of David. The shepherd of Bethlehem had been a true protector of his people. He is to appear again in his great Descendant. No doubt Ezekiel’s contemporary readers would look for a restoration of the temporal monarchy, as Christ’s disciples looked for it (Act 1:6). But such a restoration was never accomplished. The prophecy is fulfilled in a higher though an unexpected way by Christ as our good Shepherd.

I. THE PERSON OF THE SHEPHERD. “My servant David.” Jesus Christ is the only person to whom these words can apply. Not only was he of the family of David; he realized to the full the ideal that David set forth in broken lights and failed to attain himself. He is the true David, the true Shepherd-King. Thus amid the sorrows of the exile, the disconsolate captives are cheered by a vision of the coming Christ, though as yet but vaguely and dimly discerned. We, with fuller knowledge, can turn from our disappointments and failures and find consolation in the Christ who has come and who is ever in our midst. Perhaps if the old shepherds had not been so unworthy, this wonderful prediction of the new Shepherd would not have been made. The disappointments of worldly confidence drive us to Christ. When earthly friends “fail or leave us,” we need the true Friend who “sticketh closer than a brother.” If Christian ministers have been unworthy, Christ abides faithful. Perhaps too much confidence was given to the human instruments; then the shock of discovering this to be misplaced may not be wholly hurtful; it may help the Church to look away from men and trust only in Christ.

II. THE APPOINTMENT OF THE SHEPHERD. He is set up by God. God sent Christ. It is God’s will that his scattered sheep should be restored. That was stated earlier (see verses 11, 12). Now we see how it is to be done. Christ is to be the new Shepherd who will seek and find the lost sheep. He comes to us thus with all the authority of his Father. He is called God’s “Servant”a remarkable and unusual expression for the Messiah. This reminds us of “the Servant of the Lord” in the latter part of Isaiah. The name was recalled by St. Peter when preaching to the Jews (Act 3:13). St. Paul tells us that in his great humiliation Christ took on him the form of a servant (Php 2:7). This agrees with the whole spirit of the life of our Lord, who came not to do his own will, but the will of him that sent him. It implies a rebuke of the bad shepherds, who had only pleased themselves and so neglected their Master’s interests. They were too proud to consider themselves servants. But the great Son of David is willing to be a Servant.

III. THE WORK OF THE SHEPHERD.

1. He rules the flock. He is “set over” the sheep. The shepherd has authority over the flock. They are required to follow him. He shuts them up in the fold at night. Christ is King, as the Greater David. He is appointed to rule his flock as the Shepherd and Bishop of souls. If we would profit by his care we must obey his voice.

2. He feeds the flock. They would starve in the wilderness. The shepherd can lead them into the green pastures. He can supply them with winter stores. Christ feeds his people with his own body and blood.

3. He saves the flock. Though not stated in this verse, and perhaps not directly following from the preceding verses, this is very prominent in our Lord’s own description of his work. By the sacrifice of his own life he saves his sheep (Joh 10:15). The favorite picture of the persecuted early Christians, on the walls of the catacombs at Rome, is perhaps the choicest of all representations of Christviz. the good Shepherd.

Eze 34:25

A covenant of peace.

I. THE MAKING OF THE COVENANT. A covenant is an agreement between two parties. But in the case of covenants between God and man this agreement is not arrived at after the fashion of human bargaining, in which the two who are concerned meet on equal terms. The covenant is made by God and offered to man, by whom it has to be accepted in order that it may take effect. ‘We meet with several successive covenantswith Adam, with Noah, with Abraham, with Israel in the Law. Jeremiah promises a new covenant (Jer 31:31). A similar idea is here presented by Ezekiel. The old arrangement has broken down. For a time, the people of God are outlawed exiles, cut off from their ancient privileges, with little hope for the future. Now they are assured that God will not forsake them. It is impossible to renew the old covenant; but a new one shall be granted. God now approaches us in the gospel with that new covenant which Christ said was given in his blood (Luk 22:20). It was given to the world in the work of Christ. But it is ratified afresh with every soul that accepts its conditionsviz; repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Act 3:19, Act 3:26). All who thus enter into it enjoy the privileges of God’s covenant merciesmercies promised and assured to God’s people.

II. THE CHARACTER OF THE COVENANT. It is essentially a covenant of peace. Every covenant is intended to be of this character. It is to prevent misunderstandings, to define mutual relations, to harmonize reciprocal actions. It is, in fact, a sort of treaty; and treaties, as long as they are observed, are instruments of peace. But the new covenant is emphatically and in a very special manner one of peace.

1. It endorses the restoration of peace between God and man. Sin is a breach of the peace, pardon is the making of peace. The restored Jews were brought into relations of peace with God. Christ reconciles us to God.

2. It signalizes the establishment of peace between man and his fallow-man. Christ is our peace in regard to mutual human relations. He breaks down “the middle wall of partition” between Jew and Gentile (Eph 2:14). He brings peace on earth (Luk 2:14).

3. It is the outward evidence of internal peace. Christ gives peace to the soul. The covenant assures his people that this peace is sound and solid (Joh 14:27).

III. THE FRUITS OF THE COVENANT. The evil beasts are to depart and the people are to dwell safely in the open pastures and even sleep in the woods without danger. The departure of man is followed by an incursion of wild beasts. Lions came into the land when it was much depopulated by the Captivity. Then it would only be safe for people to live in close communities. At the present day we never see in Palestine those scattered farmhouses and cottages that give so much picturesqueness to rural England. The people all live in villages or towns. That must be a very safe condition of the country which would admit the manner of living described in our text. A similar condition spiritually is brought about under the new covenant of Christ. The wild beasts of haunting sins and prowling temptations are driven away. It is possible to enjoy a sense of freedom and security when under the protection of Christ. To plant one’s homestead in the midst of the pasturage, to be able to sleep out in the woods in the summer-time when at work far from home, would mean much comfort and happiness in a safe and settled community. Such a condition is typical of the citizen of the kingdom of heaven, and though certainly it is not yet fully enjoyed, it will be when the reign of Christ is perfectly established.

Eze 34:26

Showers of blessing.

The grateful rain in a semi-tropical country, that brings fruitfulness to the earth and refreshment to man and beast, is suggestive of the Divine grace that comes on parched and weary souls.

I. SHOWERS OF BLESSING ARE NEEDED. It is a sign of miserable deadness when any Church or soul can be satisfied to continue in the dull routine of formal service without receiving any refreshing Divine grace. The first awakening from such a condition of torpor must result in a great thirst of spirit. The need is indeed such that all might well feel it, viz.:

1. Individual souls. Each soul needs a blessing. It is sad to be on the margin of a shower, perhaps to receive some of the dust that precedes it, yet to have no droppings of its refreshing water.

2. Active servants of God. The preacher, the missionary, the Sunday school teacher, the Christian worker in all kinds of service, need, greatly need, showers of blessing

(1) in their own hearts, to strengthen and cheer, to stimulate and rouse;

(2) in their work.

3. The Church. Deadness seizes the Church without a Divine blessing. Worldliness, formalism, narrowness, selfishness, then degrade and corrupt it. The Church sadly needs a Divine benediction.

4. The world. All men need what few men seekthe grace and aid of God. The old weary earth thirsts and pines unconsciously for a new Pentecost.

II. SHOWERS OF BLESSING COME FROM HEAVEN.

1. Their source. This is above us. Showers fall from the clouds that sail far over our heads. We must look up for the blessing. Men put too much trust in the earth. The most fertile land, without rain, would be a Sahara Desert. The most capable and energetic human work needs grace from above. Paul plants, Apollos waters, and God gives the increase (1Co 3:6).

2. Their descent. The showers are formed in the clouds, but they do not remain there. It is disappointing to see black clouds gather in a season of drought, and then pass away without shedding a drop of rain. Showers are descending waters. Blessings are not only promised and retained in the treasury of heaven; they come down and water the earth.

III. SHOWERS OF BLESSING DESCEND IN ABUNDANCE. It would take long for men with watering-cart and hose to distribute the moisture that is spread over a wide area in an hour by one summer shower. God blesses richly and abundantly. His grace is widespread. Every root of grass in the meadow comes in for a share of the shower; every leaf in the forest is cleansed and refreshed. Moreover, the result is done with the utmost gentleness. It is a shower, not a flood. “He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass” (Psa 72:6).

IV. SHOWERS OF BLESSING COME AT VARIOUS SEASONS. It is not always raining. Palestine had its former and its latter rain. Showers alternate with sunshine in our April weather. There are seasons of especial blessing. It may not be well for us to be always receiving the most stimulating kind of Divine grace. Nor is it possible for us to be perpetually cheered. Yet we can and should pray for blessing, and hail the cloud no bigger than a man’s hand as the promise of coming showers.

V. SHOWERS OF BLESSING ARE FOLLOWED BY BEAUTY AND FRUITFULNESS. How fair and fresh the earth looks after a spring shower! Then “the dainty flowers lift up their heads,” the grass shines in its greenest hues, and the very ground is fragrant. The world, the Church, the soul of man, will wear a new beauty and gladness, and bring forth fruit to the glory of God, when heavenly showers of blessing have been received. Well may we pray for them with more than Elijah’s earnestness!

Eze 34:29

A plantation of renown.

Restored Israel is to be a plantation of renown. The Israel of God, the Church of Christ, may be considered as of the same character.

I. THE CHURCH IS A DIVINE PLANTATION.

1. It is planted by God. A plantation is not a wild, primeval forest. It is a wood the trees of which have been carefully selected and set in the soil by the hands of men. God plants his people.

(1) He originates the life of the soul.

(2) He determines the position and sphere of individual activity.

(3) He calls men into his Church.

2. It is a community. A plantation is not a single tree, nor is it the scattering of a few separate trees over the fields. It is a collection of plants. “God setteth the solitary in families” (Psa 68:6). He has ordained domestic and social life. Christ founded the Church. Brotherly fellowship is a Divine ordinance.

3. It is carefully tended. The woodman visits the plantation, removing dead boughs, keeping the soil clean, destroying dangerous parasitic growths, etc. God does not leave his people alone. They are not like the neglected tropical forest, in which the wreck of the hurricane lies undisturbed and dead, and living trees are matted together with gigantic creepers and tangled with undergrowth; they are like a well-trimmed plantation.

4. It is expected to grow. A plantation in poor soil on a bleak hillside may be slow to thrive, and one on a hot sandy plain may even perish in drought. But healthy well-placed plants should grow from saplings till they become great trees.

II. THE CHURCH IS A PLANTATION OF RENOWN.

1. There is renown in the planting of it. It is customary for a member of the royal family who visits a country place to be asked to plant a tree. If the request is complied with, the young tree is watched with peculiar care and ever after pointed out with interest. It is a plant of renown. Not only has the Church been planted by God; it has been planted at the cost of the sacrifice of Christ. This plantation has been watered with the blood of Christ. It has the renown of the great sacrifice of Divine love consummated on Calvary.

2. There is renown in the history of it. There are trees of historic interest. Such was the oak of Mature, sacred to the memory of Abraham. Englishmen have found a romantic interest in King Charles’s oak. Sherwood Forest is famous for Robin Hood and his merry men. The plantation of the Church has a very mixed history. The greatest trees are not always the most fruitful, and the greatest names in ecclesiastical history are not always those that deserve the highest honor. The public and official history of the Church is disgraced with many a deed of un-Christlike and worldly conduct. But the plantation as a whole, the general body of Christians, the quiet town and country congregations, have done a work of charity-enlightening, comforting, and savingin all ages of Christendom. Here, rather than in her calendar of saints, the true renown of the Church is to be found, and this renown is the glory of Christ, whose body she is; so that her members must exclaim, “Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy Name be the glory.”

3. There is renown in the destiny of it. The Church has a great future before it. It goes forward to realize a grand idea. It has to win such a name as it dares not wear as yet. But even now, as the army shares the renown of its captain, the Church is honored in its Head, to whom God has given “a Name above every name.”

Eze 34:30

The presence of God.

I. GOD IS PECULIARLY PRESENT WITH HIS PEOPLE. We know that he is everywhere on the desolate sea and the fair earth, in the high heavens and the dark regions of death (Psa 139:1-24.). Therefore if any would desire to escape from his presence, this is impossible. How, then, can God be said to be in an especial manner present with his people? Spiritual presence is spiritual manifestation. God is more fully present where he more completely manifests his power and grace.

1. He is present in the hearts of his people. He dwells in the contrite and humble spirit (Isa 57:15). The Christian’s body is a “temple of the Holy Ghost” (1Co 6:19). God comes into especially close contact with those who are reconciled to him, and who open their hearts to receive his Spirit.

2. He is present in the lives of his people. He shapes their lives with his providential guidance, and watches over them with tender care, warding off danger and supplying wants. Even when they forget him in the slumbers of the night and during the busy distractions of the day, he neither sleeps nor neglects his people. Ever with them to guide and help and save, as he was with Israel in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, God overshadows and surrounds his people with his fostering presence.

II. GOD‘S PEOPLE MAY RECOGNIZE HIS PRESENCE. The verse which suggests these reflections is somewhat like a frequent expression in the prophecies of Ezekiel. After denunciations of wrath and judgment against the heathen nations, the conclusion repeatedly arrived at is, “And they shall know that I am the Lord” (e.g. Eze 30:25). In these cases the awful action of God in his wrath is to bring home to the heathen the fact of his existence and supremacy; but it is not said that they will know that God is with them. To Israel, however, this new thing is asserted. Israel will not merely know that God is the eternal Lord; she will know that God is present. This further knowledge belongs to Christians. They are not merely theists, who believe in the existence of God; they know his actual, living presence. It is not suggested that this knowledge is to be obtained by direct, mystical intuition; it is rather suggested that it is gathered from the experience of God’s goodness. Hagar recognized the presence of God when the angel addressed her (Gen 16:13). Jacob perceived it on awakening from his dream (Gen 28:16). The later Jews were to see it in their restoration from the Captivity. We are to acknowledge it in the experience of the Christian redemption. In this Christ will manifest himself to us as he does not unto the world (Joh 14:21, Joh 14:22).

III. THE RECOGNITION OF GOD‘S PRESENCE IS ACCOMPANIED BY THAT OF HIS OWNERSHIP OF HIS PEOPLE. “And that they, even the house of Israel, are my people.” God is present with his people as their Owner. He comes to them to claim them. He visits his inheritance to take possession of it. When we perceive that God is with us we have to go further and acknowledge his relationship to us. It is much to acknowledge that we do not belong to ourselves, that we are God’s possession, bought with a great price, and valued by him as precious property is valued by its owner.

Eze 34:31

God’s flock.

Israel was formerly God’s flock. Christians are now God’s flock.

I. CHRISTIANS ARE CONSTITUTED INTO A FLOCK. The wandering sheep are restored. They no longer roam at large over the mountains. They are gathered together. Man is naturally gregarious. Religion should deepen this characteristic by destroying selfishness and quickening the great social instinct, love. Thus Christ founded the Church idea. He recognized that he had many sheep that were not of the fold of Israel, or of his first community of disciples, and he prayed that they might all become one flock, even if they might not all be gathered into one fold. It may be impossible to restore the external unity of Christendom. At all events, this grand consummation seems at present to be far off, and some of those who profess to desire it most fervently do their worst to postpone it by their narrowness, bigotry, and serf-assertion. Certainly, if the dream is ever realized, it will not be by all sections of Christendom succumbing to the views and practices of any one party, but by a general agreement within large lines of liberty. Meanwhile, though we may not have one fold, we should be one flock. There should be a spirit of brotherhood among all Christians. The boundaries of folds do not convert sheep into wolves. The spiritual unity of Christendom may be accomplished in the spirit of charity and sympathy taking possession of the hearts of all Christians.

II. CHRISTIANS ARE TENDED AS A FLOCK. The flock is under the care of a shepherd. God has “set up one Shepherd over” his flock (Eze 34:23)Christ, who cares for his sheep to the extent of giving his life for them. The flock of Christ is variously tended.

1. It is fed. God has not left his people in the wilderness, or, if they must traverse that barren region, he sends heavenly manna and gives water from the rock.

2. It is sheltered. The shepherd watches over the flock by night and drives off beasts of prey. Christ guards his people from harm and danger.

3. It is led. The shepherd leads his sheep by the still waters, and ultimately home to their fold. God led his people Israel “like a flock” (Psa 77:20), till they had passed all the perils of the forty years’ wandering, crossed the Jordan, and taken possession of the Promised Land. Christ leads his people through life safely on towards the heavenly Canaan.

III. Christians SHOULD BEHAVE AS A FLOCK.

1. They should follow the Shepherd. Christianity is walking in the footsteps of Christ (Joh 12:26). We cannot expect the grace of Christ if we wander from him.

2. The flock is the property of its Owner; it exists for his advantage. It is not to be supposed that we are to receive countless blessings and render no return in obedience. The supreme end of the Church is the glory of God, though this is attained in conjunction with its own highest welfare.

3. The sheep are foolish, weak, helpless creatures. The Shepherd is far greater than they. He deserves to be locked up to with trust, and followed obediently. In our ignorance, folly, and weakness we should trust and obey our good Shepherd, who is wiser and stronger than we, and whose will is supreme over our lives.

HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON

Eze 34:1-10

The human shepherds of the flock.

It is a comparison as old, yes, older than literature, this of the people to a flock of sheep, and of their rulers, leaders, and spiritual instructors to the shepherds whose vocation it is to protect, care for, and feed them. Both in the Old and New Testament Scriptures we meet with passages in which unfaithful, careless, selfish, and grasping religious teachers and leaders are denounced as hirelings who have nothing of the true shepherd’s heartno watchfulness, commiseration, and self-sacrifice. In the time of Ezekiel there were throe who, called to be pastors and reputed to be pastors, were nevertheless destitute of the pastoral character and habits.

I. THEIR CONDUCT. This is very graphically and (after Ezekiel’s manner) with outspoken plainness described in these verses.

1. The shepherds’ neglect of the flock. They neither feed them upon suitable pastures, nor strengthen the weak, nor heal the sickly, nor recover the lost, nor deliver the defenseless sheep from the wild beasts of the field. On the contrary, they treat them with violence and with rigor.

2. The shepherds’ care for themselves. They use the flock merely for their own pleasure and advantage, eating of the flesh of the sheep, and clothing themselves with their wool.

3. The consequent condition of the flock. Neglected by their custodians, they are scattered, they wander upon every high hill, they fall a prey to the beasts of the field. In all these respects there is a parallel between the conduct of careless, hireling shepherds and the conduct of those in Israel who claimed to be the spiritual pastors of the people. These, whether priests or prophets by profession, simply used their position as a means towards their personal wealth, ease, pleasure, and aggrandizement. And no wonder that the sons of Israel, so neglected by those who should have made their highest welfare their care, were abandoned to every enemy, and sank into a state of degeneration, debasement, and hopelessness.

II. THEIR CONDEMNATION. That such flagrant neglect, of duty could not pass unnoticed and unpunished may be presumed by the least thoughtful. Under the rule of a Governor of infinite justice, those placed in a position of eminence and of influence, if they neglect to fulfill the duties of their position, must surely be called to an exact account of their trust. The prophet tells us concerning the unfaithful shepherds that:

1. God is against them. He, whose help and countenance would have been vouchsafed had they honestly and earnestly set themselves to do the work which they professed to undertake, now sets himself against the unfaithful.

2. They are held responsible for the flock. “I will require,” says God, “my sheep at their hand.”

3. The custody of the flock is taken away from them. And at the same time, they are prevented from any more feeding themselves. It cannot be that the flock should be punished for wandering, and that the careless shepherds, through whose neglect they wandered, should be suffered to go free.T.

Eze 34:11-16

The Divine Shepherd of the flock.

What a marvelous contrast is here presented between the hireling and unfaithful shepherds who have presumptuously undertaken the care of God’s people, and the Lord God, who in his condescension assumes the pastoral office, and fulfils it with Divine qualifications and completeness! According to the beautiful and touching representation of this passage

I. THE LORD SEEKS HIS SHEEP WHEN LOST. They have gone astray, through willfulness on their part and through negligence on the part of the pretended shepherds. Bat the Divine Shepherd seeks and saves that which was lost, and, distant though they be, and in dangerous places, finds them out and lays his gracious hand upon them.

II. THE LORD DELIVERS HIS SHEEP FROM THE POWER OF THEIR ENEMIES. They have their enemies, and they have fallen into their enemies’ hands. From such peril One only can save; and the Lord rescues them and, in the exercise of his pity and his power, sets them free from bondage and oppression.

III. THE LORD RESTORES THEM TO THE FOLD OF SAFETY AND OF PEACE. Even as Jehovah brought back the exiles from the East into the land of their fathers, so does the good Shepherd and Bishop of souls ever restore the penitent and believing to the welcome of his gracious heart, and to the fellowship of his rejoicing Church, to go no more out.

IV. THE LORD FEEDS THEM IN THE PASTURES OF HIS GRACE. The language of this passage is upon this point very full, rich, and reassuring. The good Shepherd declares, “I will feed them upon the mountains of Israel, by the water-courses; I will feed them upon good pasture, and on fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel.” We may understand by this all the provision which the wisdom and loving-kindness of God have made for the wants and the welfare of his redeemedthe truth of his Word, the blessings of his sacraments, the fellowship of his saints.

V. THE LORD HEALS THEM FROM ALL THEIR WEAKNESSES AND SUFFERINGS. “I will bind up that which was broken, and strengthen that which was sick.” He healeth all our diseases. His hand applies the remedy, administers the medicine, restores the broken health of the soul. No necessity is uncared for; no ill fails to meet his sympathy; no weakly, tender lamb of his flock shall perish through neglect. “He shall gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that give suck.”

APPLICATION. These representations of Divine pity and tenderness are amply fulfilled in the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In his own discourses he set forth his mission under the similitude of the faithful, devoted shepherd. He laid down his life for the sheep. The apostles felt the justice and the beauty of the similitude. And upon the early Christians generally it made a profound impression; in their works of art they delighted to picture Jesus as the good shepherd.T.

Eze 34:23, Eze 34:24

A pastor and a prince.

Christians cannot fail to recognize the Messianic reference of this portion of prophecy. The language employed not only exactly depicts him who is “Immanuel, God with us;” it is so exalted that it is not possible to refer it to any inferior being, to any under-shepherd of the flock, any overseer and ruler in the Church subject to human infirmities and failings.

I. THE SOLE SUPREMACY OF CHRIST OVER THE FLOCK. The “one Shepherd,” God’s “servant David,” who can this be but Christ? For he is the Head of the new humanity, who has made both one. “There shall be one flock and one Shepherd.” This is no other than the one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus.

II. THE SACRIFICIAL DEATH OF CHRIST FOR HIS FLOCK. Christ’s people are a purchased possession; he laid down his life for the sheep. Thus he proved his love; thus he accomplished the gracious purposes of his Father; thus he effected the deliverance of his ransomed ones from the power of the enemy. All that the Savior does for his people is comprehended in and follows from his identification of himself with them in his incarnation and sacrifice.

III. THE PERPETUAL SWAY OF CHRIST OVER HIS FLOCK. God’s servant is appointed to be, not only the pastor, but the prince, of the redeemed. His rule is marked by justice and equity, and at the same time by benignity and compassion. He is the Prince of righteousness and the Prince of peace. His dominion shall be universal”from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.” His dominion shall be imperishablefrom one generation to another, “and of the increase of his government there shall be no end.”

APPLICATION. These representations of Christ summon all the members of his flock to accept with gratitude his pastoral provision and care; and to submit with cheerfulness to his just and gracious rule.T.

Eze 34:26

The promise of blessing.

By general consent this promise is referred to the time of the new covenant, to the coming of Christ for man’s salvation, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church.

I. FERTILIZING SHOWERS OF BLESSING. As the rain waters the earth, and turns barrenness into fruitfulness, so the provision of Divine grace transforms this humanity from a wilderness of sin into a Paradise of God.

1. The need of such blessing is apparent from the spiritual barrenness which prevails where it is not bestowed.

2. The source of such blessing is implied in this language; for as the showers come from the clouds of the sky, so the Spirit descends from the presence, the heaven of God.

3. The time of such blessing is indicated as appointed by supreme wisdom; the shower comes “in its season,” and the promise of the Father was given in the Father’s good time.

4. The abundance of such blessing. God’s spiritual favors come to his people, not in drops, but in showers, such as are fitted to refresh the parched and thirsty land.

5. The effects of such blessing are life and fertility. The wilderness and the solitary place are made glad, and the desert rejoices and blossoms as the rose. Spiritual growth and fruit are the blessed result of showers of Divine mercy.

II. ABIDING SCENES OF BENEDICTION. By the “hill” of God must be understood the Church of God, which he ever visits, refreshes, and vivifies by the dews and showers of his pity and loving-kindness. The Church, because the object of Divine favor and the depository of Divine truth and power, becomes and remains the agent of untold benefits to the world around. It receives blessing from heaven; it communicates blessing to earth. The heaven above is never as brass intercepting and restraining blessing; it is as the clouds distilling and diffusing blessing. And the rills are never dry which convey the blessing of God from the Church to fertilize a thirsty and barren world.T.

Eze 34:27, Eze 34:28

The peace and welfare of the Church.

So much of this book of prophecy is occupied with denunciation and with pictures of destruction and desolation, that a passage like this is grateful and welcome, as a relief and contrast to much of what has gore before. The-prophet was evidently inspired to look into the far future, and to see visions of happiness and of glory which exalted and delighted his spirit. He was taught that the God of infinite compassion has counsels of salvation for sinful men, and plans of felicity for the ransomed Church. Some of the elements of blessedness, assured by God’s faithfulness and mercy to his people, are pictured in these beautiful and encouraging verses.

I. PROSPERITY, SECURED BY THE VISITATION OF GOD‘S MERCY AND LOVING–KINDNESS. This is figuratively represented by the promise, “The tree of the field shall yield its fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase.” The Church is a garden, a vineyard, a forest; when it flourishes, it puts forth signs of vigorous life, and it is fruitful abundantly. The vitality of the Church expresses itself in its praises, thankgivings, and prayers, in its unity and brotherly love, in its deeds of justice and purity, in its benevolent and self-denying efforts for the good of the world.

II. DELIVERANCE AND LIBERTY, SECURED BY THE INTERPOSITION OF GOD‘S MIGHT. The Lord “broke the bars of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hands of those who made bondmen of them.” “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” It is his office to set God’s people free from thraldom to error and to sin, and to make them God’s freedmen, to introduce them into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. The promise must have had a special significance and sweetness for those who, like Ezekiel and his companions, were captives and exiles in a foreign land, and subject to the authority of strangers. Its spiritual meaning is comprehended and appreciated by all Christ’s ransomed ones who are set free, his banished ones for whose return he has devised effectual means.

III. SECURITY THROUGH GOD‘S PROTECTION. In a less settled state of society than our own, the literal meaning of the promise must have been peculiarly welcome: “They shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beasts of the field devour them; but they shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid.” The Church of Christ is secure as the fold of God’s flock, the fortress of God’s warriors, the home of God’s children. The powers of earth and of hell are strong, but the power of Heaven is mightier, and this power is pledged for the guardianship and safety of the people of Christ. The power of Divine providence controls all outward events. The power of the Divine Spirit within checks every rising fear. “Fear not,” says the Almighty Guardian and Helper, “fear not: I am with you!”T.

HOMILIES BY J.D. DAVIES

Eze 34:1-16

God’s verdict upon self-serving rulers.

The disasters that overtook the land and the people of Israel were largely due to the misdeeds of their rulers. The people in olden time were more easily led by their sovereign than they are now. The ability to read, combined with the free use of printed literature, has stimulated the power to think, and this has led to self-reliance, independence, and freedom. But in Ezekiel’s day a dearth of literature made the people largely dependent on priests and rulers. The self-will of Rehoboam was the initial downward step to civic strife and national ruin. Rehoboam and his successors never learned the lesson that a ruler is a shepherd, that he is entrusted with the welfare of a nation, that he is appointed to live for the people, and not to expect that the people shall live for him. This is a wholesome lesson for all kings and magistrates. They are expected to care for every interest in the commonwealth.

I. GOD‘S ESTIMATE OF A RULER‘S DUTY. A ruler, whether supreme or subordinate, is required by God to act as a shepherd. He is ordained to this office (at least theoretically) on the ground of superior knowledge, skill, and fitness to govern. God’s intention is that the personal endowments of one shall be employed for the welfare of the many. The design in erecting the kingly office is not that everything in the state shall contribute to the pomp and magnificence of the king, but contrariwise, that the king shall devote his talents and energies to the well-being of his weakest subjects. The public health must be his care. Measures for alleviating and uprooting disease must originate at the palace. The education of the young, the development of mental. resources, the dissemination of all useful knowledge, form part of the monarch’s duty. The sanitation of the people’s dwellings is a more royal service than leading battalions on the battle-field. Whatever increases mutual concord, industry, virtue, wealth, morality, and religion demands the king’s attention. And what is true respecting a king is true (in its measure) respecting every meaner magistrate and officer of state. Every man who fills an office of rule is a shepherd, under obligation to safeguard the interests of the people. Such is the doctrine taught by God.

II. GOD‘S RECOGNITION OF A RULER‘S SELF–AGGRANDIZEMENT. Every occupant of a throne acts in the stead of God. He is a delegate of the Most High. Therefore it is his duty to imitate the rule of Godto act as God acts. Inasmuch as God cares equally for all the members in his family, for the obscure and the weak, as well as for the rich and the strong, it becomes earthly monarchs to do likewise. Every neglect of the well-being of subjects is noted down by God. The cry of the oppressed toilers enters the ears of the Lord of hosts. In God’s esteem kingly condescension is a nobler quality than animal courage. It is better every way to enlarge a people’s virtue than to enlarge the boundaries of empire. God notes down carefully each royal delinquency.

III. GOD‘S MODES OF CHASTISING A RULER‘S CONTUMACY.

1. Removal from office. “I will cause them to cease from feeding the fleck.” Defeat upon the battle-field, dethronement, loss of regal power, early death,these are among the modes of chastisement God employs. So many are the plans for vindicating himself which are available to him, that he seldom employs the same mode of chastisement in two separate instances. What are often deemed common disasters are forthputtings of the chastising rod.

2. Arraignment at the bar of God. “I will require my flock at their hand.” Kings, as well as private persons, must give a faithful account of life. Kings are usually here the objects of envy; but when we include in our survey the eternal future, envy may well cease. Every place of honor is a place of responsibility. Kings may recognize on earth no superior authority, yet they too are under law, and must in due time “give an account of their stewardship.” The day of audit draws on apace.

IV. GOD‘S INTERPOSITION FOR THE NEGLECTED FLOCK. “I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.” The political and imperial events of Asia in Ezekiel’s day were dominated by the superior will of Jehovah, and the political events of every empire are under the same jurisdiction. All valuable reward comes from the favor of God; all real punishment is from his hand.

1. Return from exile is promised. They shall dwell in their own land. Every man has naturally an attachment to the land of his fathers, and removal means weakness and loss to the social fabric. Under God’s rule this banishment shall be reversed.

2. Prosperity is pledged. “I will feed them in a good pasture.” Agriculture shall again prosper under the aegis of righteous government. Security of person and property is the vital breath of industry. Fields and gardens shall smile with beauty under the sunshine of Divine favor.

3. Perfect protection is assured. “I will cause them to lie down.” No harsh noise of invasion shall disturb them. They shall be far removed from all disquietude beneath Jehovah’s wing. Their munitions of granite are the words of the Omnipotent. The power that supports the heavens is their defense.

4. Gracious care of the suffering is announced. This was a new thing in Ezekiel’s day. In such stormy times the weak and diseased were counted a burden. This conduct is emphatically God-like. For God takes a special pleasure in conveying sympathy and succor to his suffering ones. “In all their affliction he is afflicted.”

5. Here is intimation also of moral recovery for the lost and the guilty. “I will seek that which was lost.” He who cares for men’s temporal interests cares infinitely more for their soul’s health and joy. The gladness that rolls through heaven when a sinner turns is gladness that originates with God. He delights to reclaim a wayward lamb. His patience and tenderness are most of all conspicuous in dealing with rebels. His greatness hath made many great.D.

Eze 34:17-22

Social oppressions.

The wisest men detect only some of the evils that blemish a nation; they are blind to more secret delinquencies. The Almighty Ruler detects every hidden iniquity, nor will he spare any form of sin.

I. OBSERVE THE CONTAGION OF WICKEDNESS. The first part of the chapter reveals God’s judgment upon evil rulers now is brought to light the wrong-doing of men in private and unofficial stations. The sins of pride and violence soon filter down from magnates to merchants, from princes to peasants. Vice is more contagious than any bodily disease we are familiar with. As children easily learn to imitate the words and ways of parents, so men in inferior stations copy the deeds of those immediately above them. As thistle-down bears an abundant crop of seed, so do also most kinds of sin.

II. MARK THE EVIL AND BITTER FRUITS OF SELFISHNESS. Selfishness is the prolific mother of a thousand sins. In a ruler selfishness becomes as a scourge of scorpions to the people, and makes the man a monster; in a private person it works a world of minor mischiefs. In any form it is a malignant and despicable thing. As night casts its black shadow over every scene of natural beauty, so selfishness blights and disfigures every relationship between man and man.

1. Here are acts of malevolence. The rich and the strong eared only for themselves. Self-aggrandizement in them had grown into ill will for their neighbors. National calamity, which ought to have brought them nearer to each other for mutual help, had generated a malevolent temper.

2. This ill will led to acts of wanton destructiveness. Such portions of agricultural produce as they could not use themselves they destroyed, so that their poorer neighbors might be reduced to yet direr straits. Never was the fable of the dog in the manger more literally realized. Landlords who destroy cottages in order to drive out the poor from the parish, walk in these men’s shoos.

3. Acts of personal cruelty. “They pushed the diseased with their horns until they had scattered them.” The horns were weapons provided by God for their defense against their foes, and it was a strange abuse of God’s kindness to use these weapons for the injury of their suffering fellows. Every form of disease is a mute, pathetic appeal to our better nature for sympathy and help. We do ourselves a lasting injury when we refuse assistance. We turn the natural milk of human kindness into gall. Men are members of one social organism; and in injuring each other they injure themselves. The culture of benevolence is a primary dutya fountain of joy.

4. Self-blindness. To these self-indulgent men “it seemed a small thing” to treat their weaker and suffering brethren thus. Yet it was a very mountain of wickedness. A selfish eye looks through the wrong end of the telescope, and sees real objects greatly minimized. By-and-by their eyes will be opened. By-and-by the mist of appearances will vanish, and all human actions will be revealed in naked reality.

III. RIGHTEOUS DISCRIMINATION AND AWARD ARE NOT FAR AWAY. “Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle.” Probably many of these rich blustering men complained bitterly enough of the selfish violence of their rulers, and never surmised that they were committing the very same sin under another guise. They saw the mote in others’ eyes, yet did not suspect that a beam filled their own eye. But an unseen Judge was there, and weighed in the balance of perfect equity every deed and word of man. It is a consolation to the suffering that deliverance from the highest source will come, and will come at the best possible moment. The great Refiner sits by and watches the refining process in the furnace. His plans to us are full of mystery, for our vision is very limited, while he sees the end from the beginning. His eye skillfully discriminates between every form and every degree of human offense. Men will not be judged (as they are often now) in classes, but as individuals. Some Canaanites will be accepted; some Israelites will be rejected. Some Pharisees shall find their way to heaven; some publicans will Perish. A rich man may be saved in spite of the encumbrance of riches; some poor men will be outcasts eternally because destitute of faith and love. The balance of God is an even balance, and in his presence the smallest deception is impossible.D.

Eze 34:23 -41

The golden age of peace.

Predictions of Divine retribution, added to bitter experience of misfortune, had well-nigh filled the souls of the people with despair. And despair is a critical condition for man. It may lead to self-abandonment, to the wildest excesses of vice and devilry. Will God make no interposition on their behalf? Must their only prospect be midnight, unrelieved by a single star? No! over the black cloud God again flings the bow of gracious promise. Black midnight shall be followed by a roseate dawn. The old order shall give place to a new. A nobler kingdom shall be set up.

I. A NEW KING. He is described as “my servant David.” This description is not to be accepted literally, but symbolically. The people could not understand the magnificent purpose of God by any other language. As God stoops to our infantile state by describing heaven to us in language borrowed from earth, so did he portray the era of Messiah’s reign by language borrowed from the most prosperous events in their past career. Despite all his failings, David had been their most illustrious sovereign. His reign had brought them prosperity and honor and great enlargement. They shall have another Davida better David. In reality, as well as in name, he shall be the “Beloved,” even “the Man after God’s own heart.” God shall make the appointment, therefore questions touching its wisdom may well be silenced. The King of their King is God, therefore the new Monarch shall be a true Shepherd, viz. one who will care more for the flock than for himself. The spirit of his reign shall be love.

II. A NEW CHARTER OF INCORPORATION. “I will make them a covenant of peace.” For centuries past they had tasted the horrors and the misery of war. Civil strife and foreign invasion had made the beauteous land a desolation. War between man and man had been incessant, because the whole nation was at war with God. The influence, the virtue, the spirit of the new King were designed to spread until they had permeated the whole nation. Love to God would produce benevolence to each other. Further, it was an act of incomparable condescension on the part of God to make such a covenant with men, particularly with such rebellious men. For a covenant is a contract which brings’ obligation on both parties entering into its and which deprives them of a portion of their liberty. So, in amazing kindness to men, and that he may lift them up, God freely brings himself under obligation, and gives to undeserving men a right they did not before possess. This gracious covenant embraced the most precious interests of the true Israel, and was appointed as a root of prosperity and joy. And the conclusion of the covenant was guaranteed. “I,” said God, “I will make” it. Hence it included the solution of men’s opposition. It deals with men in their internal nature as well as in their outward conduct. Divine love will gradually melt all hostility, and will fertilize human nature with heavenly grace. “They shall be my people.”

III. A NEW ERA OF PROSPERITY. A long catalogue of beneficial effects are specified.

1. Civic concord. “I will cause the evil beasts to cease.” By evil beasts we may properly understand unprincipled and oppressive men. A gracious influence shall touch and remodel the characters of men. “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid.” Instead of an instinct to injure, there shall be an instinct to benefit each other.

2. Personal security. “They shall dwell safely even in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.” The security shall be perfect. The former haunts of robbers shall become the abodes of peace. The very deserts shall resound with the merry laughter of children and with the songs of honest swains.

3. Agricultural fertility. “The tree of the field shall yield its fruit, and the land shall yield her increase.” Often in the olden time they sowed a bushel and reaped a peck; but this resulted from God’s displeasure. Now crops shall be prolific. The barren hills shall smile with the olive and the vine. The valleys shall be robed with russet corn. The table of every cottager shall be laden with plenty.

4. Seasonable communications of good. “I will cause the shower to come down in its season.” As in most lands rain is essential to fertility, so in Messiah’s kingdom the descent of spiritual influence is essential to a fruitful piety. The windows of heaven shall in due season open, and plentifully irrigate the souls of suppliants. Out of the inexhaustible storehouse a gracious supply shall, come.

5. Unprecedented, blessing shall be given. “I will raise up for them a plantation of renown. This seems to indicate some useful product of a most beneficent kind“a plantation” remarkable, and that shall bring them high renown. Without question, gifts and graces have been bestowed upon men in this gospel age unheard of in former years; and richer donations of grace are yet in store.

6. Honor. For long and dreary centuries they had borne the reproach of the heathen. They had been the tools of rival kingsthe laughing-stock of the Gentiles. Now this shall be reversed. In proportion to the depth of their dishonor shall be the height of their exaltation. Not false and meretricious honor shall they have, but that tame honor which is the fruit of righteousness.

7. Intimate friendship with God. Their knowledge of God shall be deep and experimental. They shall have something better than theoretical and speculative knowledge. They shall have the full assurance that God is among them. They shall feel that God has a proprietorship in them, and that they have a proprietorship in God. God is their God. “The house of Israel are my people, saith the Lord God.” This is supreme joy, the beginning of heaven, when God dwells in us and we dwell in God. The union is organic, inseparable.D.

HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON

Eze 34:1-10

The use and the abuse of office.

It is generally agreed that by the shepherd of the text we are to understand primarily the king and princes of Israel, who should have guarded and nourished the people of Israel with the devotedness with which David (see Eze 34:23) once tended his people; but the interpretation need not exclude the “ecclesiastical” officers of the land, those whose practice was to teach and warn the peoplepriest and Levite and prophet. These strong words of correction will apply to all those, of every time and country, who hold office and undertake public trust. We gather

I. THAT WE SHOULD ACCEPT OFFICE WITH A DEEP SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY. The Hebrew king held office under God; so also did priest and prophet. And so do we.

1. It is in the providence of God that we are led to take our position, whatever it may be.

2. It is God who has given us the capacity and the advantages which have fitted us for the post we occupy.

3. We are sacredly bound to do everything in every sphere “unto him” and for the glory of his Name. So that the deepest desire as well as the uppermost purpose of our mind should be to do all things which devolve upon us as in his eye, to his approval, in accordance with his expressed will, after the manner and in the spirit of Christ.

II. THAT WE SHOULD HOLD OFFICE WITH A DISTINCT VIEW TO FAITHFUL SERVICE. NotHow shall we please? or, How shall we rise? but, How can we serve? or, How useful can we prove to be? should be the question on our lips because in our minds. The special opportunities presented to us must necessarily depend on the particular post we hold. But, whether it partake of a more secular or of a more sacred character, it is not unlikely that it will embrace the opportunity of:

1. Strengthening those that are weak (Eze 34:4); offering a helping hand or cheering voice to those that are less skilful or less experienced than ourselves.

2. Restoring those that have failed or fallen (Eze 34:4); going to those that have made a mistake, or that may have committed that which is worse than a mistake, and enabling them to regain the confidence and the hope which they have lost.

3. Enlightening those who have not been taught or trained; “feeding’ them (Eze 34:2).

4. Sustaining in comfort, in wisdom, in hope, in gladness of heart, in usefulness, those who are walking in their integrity. These services especially apply to the Christian minister; it is his sacred function, his welcome opportunity, in a peculiar sense, to do all this in the spirit of holy, happy service; thus following in the footsteps of the good Shepherd himself.

III. THAT SELFISH NEGLIGENCE IN OFFICE WILL DRAW DOWN THE DIVINE DISPLEASURE. God’s high displeasure is revealed against the kings and princes of Israel, who only sought their own honor and enrichment (see Eze 34:2, Eze 34:7-10). And those who profess to teach and to guide in the name of his Son, the chief Shepherd of the Church, and who use their office not to feed, or guard, or save the flock, but to care for their own comfort and seek their own pleasure,how shall they escape the judgment of God (see Eze 33:1-8)? On the other hand, we may confidently reckon

IV. THAT THE DEVOTEDNESS OF LOVE WILL MEET WITH A LARGE REWARD. They who seek the wandering, who strengthen the weak, who sustain the whole and healthful in their integrity; they who pray earnestly, and watch vigilantly, and work diligently, and, when the hour comes, strike manfully, shall in no wise lose their reward.C.

Eze 34:11, Eze 34:12

God’s interest in men.

We learn of the interest God takes in us that he is

I. UNAFFECTED BY OUR SOCIAL DISTINCTIONS. The great ones of the land regarded those who were at the bottom of society as beneath their consideration. What mattered it if they lived in privation and in ignorance, so long as the royal palace, so long as the costly castle, was well furnished? But this distinction between the worth of men on the ground of social rank or of circumstance finds no place at all in the mind and heart of God. He cares for men as they are; possessed as they are with a nature that is capable of great thingsgreat sufferings, sorrows, degradation, iniquities, on the one hand, and great joys, hopes, nobilities, achievements, on the other hand. Not where we stand or what we hold, but what we are and what we may become, is the Divine consideration.

II. DRAWN TOWARDS THE NEGLECTED. It is the guilty neglect of the flock by the selfish shepherds that drives the sheep to the notice of the Divine Shepherd, and that draws out his pitiful pastoral affection (Eze 34:8-11). And we may infer that the neglected, because they are such, are the objects of the Divine sympathy. The neglected child in the home, member of the Church, pupil in the school, student or toiler in the world of art and industry, citizen in social circle or the broader sphere of the nation, is the object of the pitiful regard of One who never overlooks, who understands how that heart feels which is wounded by the disregard of men, who “lifteth up the meek,” who “hath respect unto the lowly.”

III. CONCERNED FOR THE LOST AND SCATTERED. Those who are far away from Zion and from all its sacred and hallowing influences are still “my sheep” (Eze 34:11); and the strain of the twelfth verse is one of tender sympathy and earnest solicitude for those who “in the day of clouds and thick darkness” have been “scattered on the wild.” We have wandered away from the home of the Father; some of us into a very “far country;” it may be that of almost entire forgetfulness; or of an utter shameless indifference; or of a deliberate disobedience of his known will; or of an absolute denial of his existence; or of a wanton endeavor to corrupt and destroy the character of his children. And yet, however far we have gone astray, in all the emptiness and spiritual poverty of our distance from home, in all our misery and aching of heart, in all our hopelessness, our Divine Father follows us and pities us; his heart is filled with a parental solicitude for us.

“For though deceived and led astray,

We’ve traveled far and wandered long,

Our God hath seen us all the way,

And all the turns that led us wrong.”

IV. ACTIVELY ENGAGED IN THEIR REDEMPTION. “I will seek out my sheep, and deliver them.”

1. The restoration of the exiled Jews may be one part of the fulfillment of this promise.

2. The coming of the Son of man “to seek and to save that which was lost” was a later and better fulfillment. And we find a further, a perpetual Divine redemption of this ancient word of promise in:

3. The putting forth by the Church of Christ of all its redeeming energies. Whenever and however any one that, filled with the spirit of his Savior, seeks to raise the fallen, to bring back to truth and piety those that have gone away in the darkness, to heal the stricken and suffering spirit and to enrobe it with “the garment of praise,” there God is himself “searching out his sheep,” and “delivering them from the places whither they have wandered.” How excellent is the portion of those who are his agents in this gracious work!C.

Eze 34:14

The mountain-height of Israel – moral and spiritual elevation.

“I will feed them “upon the mountains of the height of Israel” (literally, see Revised Version; see also Eze 17:23 and Eze 20:40); i.e. upon the mountain-height of Israel; and the reference is to

I. THE EXCELLENCY OF ISRAEL IN THE SIGHT OF GOD. The neglected and scattered sheep that had been untaught or misdirected by their rulers should be eared for by the Lord himself; they should be placed on the very summit of sacred privilege, they should be sheep feeding on the mountain-heights of the Holy Land. Mount Zion was “the holy mountain (Eze 20:40), where the best spiritual pasture was to be had for the hungering heart of the devout Hebrew; but “everything in Israel had a moral elevation.” At any rate, Israel in its best days, under David, Solomon, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, Hezekiah, Josiah, attained to an elevation of knowledge and of character which was comparatively great and high. Its superiority to all surrounding nations was seen in:

1. Its knowledge of the living God. While they were worshipping gods of their own creationfalse, capricious, cruel, lustfulthe people of God were honoring One who was just, holy, kind, true, faithful; one who was worthy the deepest reverence, the fullest trust, the strongest affection that the human soul could offer; One whose service constituted the most lofty enjoyment and exerted the most elevating influence on the minds and lives of his worshippers.

2. Its morality. There are many passages in Scripture condemning immoralities among the Jews, and there were periods when Hebrew morality declined. In the time of our Lord it had sunk with the sinking of religion into formality and routine. Yet an historical comparison between the morale of the Jewish nation and that of all contemporary peoples would show that the children of Israel, in any period of their history, towered high and far above their neighbors. Comparatively speaking, they were true, and pure, and temperate, and just. To be taught and trained as was the Hebrew child in his home and in his school and in the sanctuary of God, was to ascend and to move along the “mountain-height of Israel.” The very best and the saintliest men of Israel, whose names are held in highest honor by the good and pure of every land, were the mountain-peaks that did not rise straight and lonely from the deep valleys; they rose from the high elevation, the mountain-ranges of general national piety and purity. The idea is far more perfectly realized, and the prophecy finds its complete fulfillment in

II. THE HIGHER EXCELLENCY OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. Here we stand on loftier ground. We have:

1. A still loftier conception of the character and the will of God. Learning of Jesus Christ, knowing God as revealed to us in him, we recognize a Divine Father, grieved with his children’s sin and departure from himself; yearning over them in their distance and their misery; seeking at his own infinite cost to save them; engaged through the centuries in the gracious and glorious work of redeeming the human race to holiness and happiness, to the kingdom of heaven.

2. A still higher morality. Sitting at the feet of the great Teacher, following in the steps of the Divine Exemplar, restrained and constrained by the influences of the Holy Spirit of God, we rise to and walk along the lofty mountain-range of Christian morals, breathing a Christian atmosphere, engaged with our Lord and Leader in his great work of grace and truth. With Christ’s own truth in our mind, with his example before our eyes, with his Spirit willing to dwell within and to inspire all that seek his presence and his power,

(1) how utterly unworthy of us is everything small and mean in feeling and in action!

(2) how it becomes us to take a high and noble course, to speak in an elevated strain, to breath a pure and bracing air, to do lofty and magnanimous deeds, as we move up the mountain-path to the heavenly places!C.

Eze 34:17-22

The sinfulness of selfishness.

It was not only the shepherds, but some of the sheep, of” the rams and the he-goats,” that were injuring and robbing the sheep. It was not only the kings and the princes, but the strong and wealthy among the people of Israel, that were disturbing and distressing the land. It is not only those “who have the rule over” the Churches of Christ, but some of the fellow-members, who have to be corrected, and whose conduct needs to be transformed. Ezekiel’s vision was that of a flock of sheep seeking nourishment “in the green pastures and by the still waters” of Israel; but instead of each one taking its turn and making room for its fellow, he saw the strong ones eating and drinking themselves, and befouling the grass and the water for those who came after, or else pushing violently at the weaker ones and driving them away, “scattering them abroad” to pine and to perish, for anything they cared. A painful picture of a selfish society, each man struggling for himself, and “the weaker going to the wall.” How utterly unlike should this scene be to any community that claims to be Christian! And yet shall we venture to say that them are no societies that bear that name, and that write themselves among the number of the good, to whose condition this prophet’s picture bears a sad resemblance? Do we not see in countries and communities where nothing like this should be seen, a selfish scramble, a disregard for the claims and the necessities of others, a cruel indifference to the wants of the weaker, a willingness and an eagerness, and indeed a determined struggle, to be well pastured and well watered, however many there may be that are perishing for lack of food and shelter? We may well dwell upon

I. ITS UNLOVELINESS. Even to the eye of the loving and tender-hearted man such unrelieved selfishness is offensive; it is unsightly and repellent in a high degree. How utterly unbeautiful must it, then, seem in the sight of him who is Love itself! Surely it is one of those things which he is” of purer eyes than to behold,” which he “cannot look upon” save with profound aversion.

II. ITS HEARTLESSNESS AND DEMORALIZING EFFECT UPON THE AGENTS OF IT. It argues a pitiful inconsiderateness of other people’s need, a guilty indifference to the wants and sufferings of other souls. And such cruel carelessness as this is not only a great and sad evil in itself, a sin and a wrong in itself; it is a hardening, mischief-working course. It indurates the soul, and leads down to such an immoral condition that at last a man’s own personal comfort and enlargement are everything to him, and the wants and woes of his brethren and sisters nothing.

III. ITS UTTER UN–CHRISTLIKENESS. Can anything be more painfully and completely unlike the spirit and the conduct of Jesus Christ than a selfish struggle for the first place, let who will go hungry and thirsty and be driven away? Anything more diametrically opposed to the spirit and contrary to the will of that “Son of man who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many,” it would be difficult to discover.

IV. ITS CONDEMNATION AND ITS DOOM. “I will judge between the fat cattle and the lean” (verse 20). The day will come when we shall give account of the use we have made of our power. And if then it be found that we have used our horns (verse 21) to thrust aside our brother from the good he was seeking, in order that we might enjoy it; that we have not used our power to help the needy, to strengthen the weak, to give drink unto the thirsty, to raise them that are bowed down, we may expect the language of condemnation from the Judge of quick and dead (see Mat 25:41-46).C.

Eze 34:23, Eze 34:24

One greater than David.

Certainly this prophecy finds its fulfillment in the coming of the Messiah. He was to be the “great Shepherd,” the “chief Shepherd,” the “good Shepherd” of the sheep. He was to be to the people of God all, and very much more than all, that David had been in his time. We have thus before us the persons and the work of David and of his “greater Son.” The Son of David excelled his human prototype in

I. THE GOOD PLEASURE HE GAVE TO THE FATHER. David was a man of God’s own choice, was “the man after his own heart.” But there were times when God’s pleasure in him was withdrawn; one time when “the thing that David had done displeased the Lord,” and that in no slight degree. But there never was an hour in the life of Jesus Christ when he was not the “beloved Son, in whom the Father was well pleased.”

II. THE COMPLETENESS OF HIS CHARACTER. David’s character, all things considered, was a very fine one; he was a man we can admire. He was brave, generous, affectionate, devout; he loved the people over whom he reigned, and strove to serve them well. But there were grave defects in his character, showing themselves occasionally in serious mistakes or positive transgressions. But the David of Ezekiel’s prophecy was One whose character lacked nothing whatever. Each one of his attributes was complemented and completed by its oppositegentleness by holiness, sensitiveness by firmness, piety by activity, etc. Once, as it has been well said, and only once, the plant of our humanity bore a perfect flower, and that was when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. In him all the elements that go to make up an absolutely perfect human character met and blended. He was the Son of man, “perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” “He was holy, harmless, undefiled;” “and in him was no sin;” “in his mouth no guile was found.”

III. THE GREAT WORK HE WROUGHT. David did a very good work. He welded the twelve tribes of Israel into one strong nation; he defeated and drove away his country’s enemies; he extended the borders of the land and made Jerusalem a praise and Judah a power in the earth; he bound the people in strong bonds to the worship and service of Jehovah; he wrought for the intelligence and the morality of the people. That was much; but a large part of it was soon undone by unwise or unworthy successors; the kingdom he formed and strengthened was soon cleft in twain, and before very long it was dissolved. How incomparably greater is the work that Jesus wrought!

1. He spoke that truth concerning God and man and human life and character which the world will always want to learn.

2. He lived that life of love and purity, of blamelessness and beauty, of piety and sweetness, in which the world will always find its one faultless instance.

3. He endured those sorrows and died that death which constitute the world’s redemption.

4. He left behind him a message of mercy, an invitation to eternal life which is the world’s great, hope and heritage. It is in his gospel that the real fulfillment of the prophet’s promises are to be found (verses 25-30).

IV. HIS PERSONAL RELATION TO MANKIND. David is a very interesting historical character, whose life we like to study; and we are thankful for the privilege of reading and singing his imperishable psalms. But Jesus Christ, apart from the truth he spoke and the example he left us, is himself the Divine Savior in whom we trust, the Divine Friend we love, the Divine Lord we live to serve.C.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Eze 34:1. Came unto me “It is probable that this prophesy immediately followed the preceding. At or before the arrival of the news that Jerusalem was conquered, the prophet was to speak of the tyranny and carelessness of the governors, and to promise the return of the people.” Michaelis. Ezekiel still continues his prophetic cares and foresight toward those who survived the desolation of Jerusalem, both those who continued in Jerusalem and also the captives elsewhere. Of the former some false hopes seem to have been formed by the captive Jews, that this remnant would be still able to preserve the existence of the Jewish state in Palestine. C. Eze 33:24.

The negligence of the governors being pointed out as a cause of the incredulity of the people, the transition here is natural, and the connexion close between this prophesy and the foregoing one; as also between the beginning of this prophesy and its conclusion. For, considering that in part the people suffered for the faults of their shepherds, mercy now urged the prophet to declare from God that he would judge between themsave the flock, andset up one shepherd over them, who should feed them, even his servant David.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

II. THE DIVINE PROMISES

1. Against the Shepherds of Israel, of the Shepherd Kindness of Jehovah toward His Flock, and of His Servant David (Ch. 34)

1And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying: 2Son of man, prophesy upon the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say to them, to the shepherds, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Woe to the shepherds of Israel, that were 3feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock? Ye ate the fat, and clothed yourselves with the wool; ye killed what was fed; ye fed not 4the flock. Those which became weak ye have not strengthened, and the sick ye have not healed, and the wounded [broken] have ye not bound up, and the driven away have ye not brought back, nor looked after that which was lost [perishing], and with rigour have ye ruled them, and with oppression. 5And they were scattered, because [there was] no shepherd, and were for food to all living creatures 6[for meat to all beasts] of the field, and they were scattered. They wander, My flock, upon all mountains, and upon every high hill; and upon the whole face of the earth have they been scattered, My flock, and there is none that 7seeks after, and none that looks after. Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of Jehovah. 8As I livesentence of the Lord JehovahBecause My flock has become for a prey [for booty], and they have become, My flock, for food to all living creatures of the field, because [there was] not a shepherd, and My shepherds have not sought after My flock, and the shepherds fed themselves, 9and fed not My flock: Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of Jehovah; 10Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I [am] against the shepherds, and demand My flock from their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; and the shepherds shall no more feed themselves; and I deliver [snatch] My flock out of their mouth, and they shall not henceforth be for food to them. 11For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I, I [am there], and seek for My flock, and inspect [scrutinize] them. 12As a shepherd inspects his flock, in the day that he is amongst his flock, the scattered [sheep], so will I inspect My flock, and deliver [rescue] them out of all the places whither they were scattered 13in the day of cloud and darkness. And I lead them forth from among the peoples, and gather them from the lands, and bring them to their ground, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel, in the valleys, and in all 14the dwellings of the land [the earth]. On good pasture will I feed them, and in [on] the high mountains of Israel shall their walk be: there shall they lie down in a good walk, and on a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. 15I will feed My flock, and I will make them lie down: sentence 16of the Lord Jehovah. I will look after the perishing, and the driven away will I bring back, and the broken will I bind up, and will strengthen the sick, and the fat and the strong I will destroy; I will feed it with judgment. 17And ye, My flock, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I Judges 18 between sheep and sheep, the rams and the he-goats. Is it too little for you that ye feed on the good [best] pasture, and ye tread down the rest of your pasture with your feet, and drink the sunk water, and with your feet trouble 19the residue? And My flock, must they feed on what your feet have trodden, 20and of what your feet have troubled must they drink? Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah to them: Behold, I, I [am there] and judge between 21fat sheep and lean [impoverished] sheep. Because ye push with side and with shoulder, and thrust with your horns all those which have become weak, till 22ye have scattered them abroad: Therefore I help My flock, and they shall no longer be for a prey, 23and I will judge between sheep and sheep. And I appoint [raise up] over them one shepherd, and he feeds them, My servant David; he 24will feed them, and he will be to them a shepherd. And I, Jehovah, will be to them a God, and My servant David prince in their midst. I, Jehovah, have 25spoken. And I conclude for them a covenant of peace, and cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land, and they dwell securely in the wilderness, 26and sleep in the woods. And I give them and the environs of My hill [for a] blessing, and cause the rain to come down in its seasonshowers of blessing there shall be. 27And the tree of the field gives its fruit, and the land shall give its increase; and they are safe upon their ground, and they know that I am Jehovah, when I break the bars of their yoke, and I deliver [rescue] them from the hand of those whom they served [who wrought through them]. 28And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, and the beasts of the field shall not devour them, and they dwell secure, and there is none to make them afraid 29And I raise up for them a plantation for a name, and they shall no more be swept away from hunger in the land, and no more bear the reproach of the 30heathen. And they know that I, Jehovah, their God, [am] with them, and they [are] My people, the house of Israel: sentence of the Lord Jehovah 31And ye My flock, flock of My pasture, men [are] ye; I [am] your God: sentence of the Lord Jehovah.

Eze 34:2. Sept.: … … ;

Eze 34:3.

Eze 34:4. … . (Anoth. read.: .)

Eze 34:5. … . .

Eze 34:6. () () . (Anoth. read.: .) Vulg.: et non erat qui requireret, non erat, inquam, qui requireret.

Eze 34:8. Sept.: … . .

Eze 34:10. … . .

Eze 34:12. … .

Eze 34:14. Sept.: … . , . . . , .

Eze 34:15. … . , .

Eze 34:16. … . .. For all read ) except Chald.

Eze 34:21. Sept.: … . , . .

Eze 34:22. . .

Eze 34:25. … .

Eze 34:26. … . , . , .

Eze 34:27. … .

Eze 34:28. Sept.: …

Eze 34:29. …

Eze 34:30. Sept. Syr. Arab. add , and omit .

Eze 34:31. . . . , .

EXEGETICAL REMARKS

Eze 34:1-10. The Shepherds of Israel

Eze 34:1. Hengstenberg regards the prophet with this word of Jehovah as meeting the trouble which arises from the loss of civil government: the seeming loss, he contends, is real gain, since the existing government was so bad. Keil excellently designates the turning against the bad shepherds as a foil for the ensuing promise. What the relation to the first part of the book, the natural sequel to the same already suggests, namely, a vivid representation of the past,this will now show itself to be the more appropriate, since in the second part of the book the promise of God is what gives the prevailing tone. The future salvation cannot be better set off and characterized than upon the past distress; just as upon the dark background of our misery, redemption generally appears the brighter, and also so much the more a necessity; and Joh 8:10 (Woman, where are those thine accusers?) conveys an import of a similar kind with reference to a still more distant time than what is here referred to.

Eze 34:2. (comp. , Eze 13:2), agreeably to the tenor of what follows, as much as: against; but as the controversy has respect to positions of eminence, it carries a certain reference to that. Kliefoth undoubtedly views the shepherds rightly, when he understands thereby generally the entire body of officials who had committed to them the leadership of the people. At least the following description, bearing as it does the shepherd form, is capable of comprehending all, and admits of application to all. Hence some have taken it with reference to the kings, and also to the priests; others have thought merely of the kings, or of the collective order then holding the reins of government (as Hengst.); others, again, have found here the false prophets and teachers of the people. The reference to Jeremiah 23., which has been leant upon, decides nothing; it only shows how, in the second part also of his book of prophecy, Ezekiel kept himself in unison of sentiment with his predecessor and companion. Nothing can be proved here by the biblical idea of the shepherd (Keil), since it is just the image of a shepherd which is set before us; and the fact that in Eze 34:23 sq. David forms the antithesis, and that in the character of prince, finds its explanation in the Messianic idea, thereby symbolized and historically exhibited, which, as in our prophet, is viewed pre-eminently in its kingly aspect (pp. 23, 24). So, on the other hand, by means of the contrast with the anointed, it leaves, under the image of the shepherd, the complex of official life to be understood. All the officeshence He is called Christand princes also (comp. on Eze 12:10) must, the more they had been guilty, culminate in him.1 In order to retain the king and the great (, the magnates, Hitzig), Hengst. notices the circumstance that Jehoiachin and Zedekiah, and likewise many of the chiefs, were still in life; that the announcement therefore might extend into the future. But he holds that what the prophet here announces as having as to its main part already taken place, must be simply an explanation of the judgment in the form of an announcement of it!, the address repeated, pleonasmus emphaticus, whereby the shepherd-idea at the same time is prominently brought out, while, on the other hand, the threatening attached and description of the reality comes thus into more marked contrast.That were feeding themselves; this already indicates all (, reflexive, Ewald, Gr. p. 788), the selfishness that merely seeks its own, instead of what belongs to the flock. (, small cattle; especially sheep, but also goats.) Comp. Php 2:21; 2Co 12:14; Judges 5-12; Act 20:28; 1Pe 5:2.

Eze 34:3. Here a detailed description is given of the not feeding, to which the feeding, the obligation involved in the relation of shepherd to flock (should not the shepherd, etc., Eze 34:2), stands opposed; and the picture is drawn so as to make enjoyment merely take the primary place on the side of the shepherds. Such was their habitual acting. Instead of fat, Hitzig reads with the Sept. , milk, as also Rosenmller, so as thereby to avoid the anticipating and repeating as regards the killing in the third clause. Certainly the milk Would suit well with the wool, and the eating (1Co 9:7) should occasion no difficulty. There must not, however, be supposed the lawful use of the flock, but from the first the greed which appropriates to itself the best of the animal; at length the best animal itself is what appears in the representationfrom which, however, nothing arises for determining more closely what office is meant, since it is applicable to each office [but manifestly most strictly applicable to the kingly or ruling office, P. F.].To the greedy misappropriation for ones own use, there is a companion picture in Eze 34:4; the words: ye fed not the flock, farther declaring, on the one hand, the want of care for the flock, the contemptuous neglect of them, nay, on the other hand, the merciless energy with which what should have been protection had turned into simple domination. , partic. Niphal from , are those which had become weak, wretched, whether it may have been through sickness or overdriving. is the sick itself. The Niph. pass. of denotes what is wounded, what has been somewhat brokencorresponding to which is: to bind up, to wrap up firmly. Comp. Mat 12:20. is the driven away, the exiled, in consequence of harsh treatment (comp. 1Pe 2:25). , to lose ones self, to be lost, to perish (comp. Mat 10:6; Mat 15:24; Mat 18:11; Luk 15:4; Luk 15:6; Luk 19:10). The two last expressions prepare the way for the (to domineer, to trample on) with , and with (tyranny). Comp. Exo 1:13-14; Lev 25:43; Lev 25:46; Lev 25:53; Jdg 4:3 : 1Sa 2:16; 1Pe 5:3.

Eze 34:5. There is here, finally, given the closing feature, as it is likewise involved in the verb , the keeping together; while they did not discharge the shepherd-obligation, did not feed the flock, they also failed to keep them together, which is expressed by the Niphal of in respect to the sheep, which also had already been prepared for by and (Eze 34:4). The description now applies to the flock, not to single sheep merely. The first Hengst. understands of the internal dissolution of the people, in consequence of which the power of resisting was lost in regard to those without; the second he understands of the exile. Both expressions, however, are fundamentally the same. When Israel was not held together in the name of Jehovah through the theocratic offices, the scattering, the self-abandonment, and surrender to the worldly powers was the natural, necessary consequence. , from the want, the non-existence of a shepherd; because no shepherd who had discharged his duty according to his office was there; comp. Jer 10:21; Zec 10:2; Mat 9:36. In consequence of the scattering of the flockthis first of allthey became food to the nations round about; the otherand on this account is repeatedovertook them to the full in their state of exileas previously in the ten tribes, so now also in Judah, as set forth in Eze 34:6. (Num 27:17; 1Ki 22:17; Joh 10:12.) The representation in the image should plainly be understood as a pictorial delineation; so that: upon the whole face of the earth, by which the preceding: upon all mountains, and: upon every high hill, may be regarded as thrown together, must be taken to mean not their own land, as some have thought (Theodoret), viewing it in connection with the heathen worship practised there, but also the earth, without reference to heathen lands. The , however, should be distinguished from [that is, the wandering from the scattering], and possibly, therefore, the heathenizing tendency and the punishment borne among the heathen may be indicated. The repeated and emphasized My flock prepares for the resolutions of Jehovah that follow. There being none to search is explained by the preceding: because there was no shepherd. Upon and , see at Eze 3:18. According to Hv., signifies to inquire farther, to search for, to concern ones self about, while signifies the seeking for the lost.

Eze 34:7. There is now, on the ground of such unfaithfulness to duty, pronounced the woe of Eze 34:2, under the form of hearing the word of Jehovah.

Eze 34:8. The manner of proceeding, however, as commonly with Ezekiel, is first of all again to rehearse the guilt of the shepherds, and so to resume the charge that the flock, which Jehovah had committed to these shepherds as His own, had been taken away by the stranger, given up to the stranger, turned into a booty,a contrast of such a kind that all, in a manner, was said by it. A prey is more exactly defined by: for food, agreeably to Eze 34:5; and the expression: because there was no shepherd, after Eze 34:6, is explained by: have not sought after My flock.

Eze 34:9. This verse, with the therefore, renews the demand on the shepherds (Eze 34:7).

Eze 34:10. Instead of we have here , and instead of Eze 13:20; Eze 13:8., antithesis to , . Comp. Eze 33:8; Zec 9:16.The flock must be demanded of the officials, and these made to ceasewhich was fulfilled up to the time of Christ. With reference to the flock, such a seeking is a deliverance (), considering the character of the shepherds; and because the circumstance of their feeding themselves goes immediately before, which points back to Eze 34:3, is put instead of , and forms the parallel to , previously used (Eze 13:21).

Eze 34:11-22. Jehovah in His Shepherd Tenderness toward His Flock

Eze 34:11. This verse grounds (For) the ceasing of the past relation of shepherd and flock through the all-expressive personal addition: , which the Targum Jona. renders by: Behold, I will manifest Myself. As it is said in Joh 1:10 sq.: He was in the world, and: He came unto His own.I seek for My flock, a contrast to: there is none that seeketh for, in Eze 34:6, and to: they have not sought for, in Eze 34:8. Instead of , however, there stands the more inward , inspect, consider, by means of which the following expansion is introduced, which has respect exclusively to the flock,the community, on whose preservation everything depends (Ewald).

Eze 34:12. There must be the inspection (Gesen.: properly, Aram. inf. Pol) of a shepherd; Jehovah will therefore discover Himself not only as proprietor, whose proprietorship is of another kind, but specially as shepherd, which He really is, in contrast to the merely titular officials, nay, as if He alone were shepherd (Psalms 23.). Hence also , where formerly there was ; comp. Jer 13:17 (Isa 40:11; Jer 31:10; Luk 15:4).In the day that he is amongst his flock describes more fully what is implied in the brief though energetic and significant: Behold, I, I, of Eze 34:11. The epithet to indicates the assumed condition, however much, as a characteristic apposition, it is at variance with the meaning and nature of a flock. One has to think of the day that succeeds a nocturnal storm and tempest, and all the dangers arising from wild beasts, etc., when, after that the selfish shepherds had in a body proved faithless to their calling, now at length the true shepherd of the flock presents himself. So that: in the day that he is amongst his flock, evidently forms a contrast to: the day of cloud and darkness, at the close of the verse; which words are, therefore, improperly connected by Hitzig (Klief.), with an ahusion to Eze 30:3; Eze 29:21, and especially to Joe 2:2, with: and deliver them (). For the day of cloud and darkness (, combination of cloud and darkness, yet not by a throwing together of and , but an extended form, like , from ), as also the derivation of the formula from the lawgiving on Sinai (Deu 4:11; Heb 12:18) might indicate, is not the day of Gods judgment upon all the heathenalso, not the dark showers of the birth of a better time, as Ewald puts it, connecting the expression with Eze 34:13, but the day of the dispersion of His people,the punishment which, according to the law of God from Sinai, befell them by the instrumentality of the heathen. Accordingly, belongs to the immediately preceding relative clause , a connection which is usual.The rescuing, delivering out of, whereby the inspection of the flock accomplishes the kind of salvation indicated, presupposes in the general: a dangerous position,in particular: imprisonment, servitude, oppression, tyranny, etc. That it was to be out of all the places, etc., besides being in accordance with the preceding figure (Eze 34:6), arises from the form of the salvation, which is represented as primarily a gathering (Eze 28:25), especially a bringing back out of exile to the land of their home, as is shown in Eze 34:13 (Exo 6:6; Exo 7:4-5; Act 2:9-11). Comp. also Eze 11:17; Joh 11:52. But at the same time, as Hengst. has said, other glorious gifts and benefits, which, however, all pointed forward to the true fulfilment, and called forth desire for it, are indicated by: and feed them ()Eze 6:2-3.And in all the dwellings of the land are, primarily, all the parts adapted for occupation, for inhabiting; might not , however, have a farther reference?

Eze 34:14. An explanation is here given of the feeding by Jehovah with regard to the fodder (), to which also corresponds, but, at the same time, with reference to lairs, reposing, resting, dwelling. It lies, besides, in the thing itself that the pasture-ground was, at the same time, a lair and resting-place, fold, Psalms 23; Son 1:7. , Philippson: upon the mountains of the height of Israel; comp. at Eze 17:23; Eze 20:40.

Eze 34:15. A bringing together of what has been said in both respects; comp. on , Eze 29:3; Psalms 23.

Eze 34:16. An explanation is here given, and in contrast to the denounced faithlessness (Eze 34:4) of those who had hitherto held the shepherd-office, of the feeding as that is understood by Jehovah, of a much more internal nature, and indeed with an eye to right and righteousness. As the contrast in strong and strengthen (comp. for that Luk 22:32) may of itself indicate, but as the words: I will feed it with judgment, put beyond doubt, and the sequel shows, the feeding by Jehovah is also a judging, which does not mean simply a right dealing, or treatment according to right and equity, but involves, as we shall see, a separation. With judgment is sufficiently explained by the: I will destroy ()Psa 37:38; comp. also Eze 14:9; Luk 1:51-52. The ironical turn given to the (the suffix does not relate to the flock) may easily be understood from the visible antithesis to the: and with rigor have ye ruled them, and with oppression, in Eze 34:4; comp. also the distinction between and in the comparison with in Eze 34:3. The Chaldee paraphrase interprets: godless and sinners, while the Vulg. translates: custodiam, as does Luther also, as if it had stood . Comp. also Rev 2:27; Psa 2:9.

Eze 34:17. As a confirmation of the sense put upon the last part of Eze 34:16, this verse introduces by way of contrast the (remaining) flock: And ye, My flock. The officials are with Eze 34:10 discharged and gone; the persons concerned can therefore only come into consideration according to their personal qualities, not according to their official rank; consequently, as one sheep merely with another, in other words, as fat and strong, or such like (Deu 32:15). Hence the: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, explains the: in judgment, of Eze 34:16 as a judgment between one kind of sheep and another, individual members of the flock; therefore, that expresses the judicial separation in regard to those previously named fat and strong, and (, to urge, push; the he-goat , properly: pusher) an enlarging apposition. Hitzig: against the rams and the he-goats. Beside the pushing and pressing (Eze 34:21) there sounds distinctly forth the leading and guiding of the flock; so that the older expositors were right in thinking of the shepherds in Eze 34:2, yet not in that character, but simply as individuals. (As, in another respect certainly, the Servant of Jehovah, the Deliverer, is represented as a sheep, as a lamb (Isa 53:7), so in Ezekiel are the destroyers.) The fat and the strong among the sheep are therefore regarded as like the rams and he-goats, and placed on the one sidethe situation, therefore, not at all so dissimilar to that in Mat 25:32, as Keil repeats after Hitzig, who merely gives this explanation: The separation of the sheep from the goats in Mat 25:32 has nothing to do here. As belonging to the sheep-flock, he-goats and rams are also, in the general sense, sheep (small cattle), and they are expressly so called in the words: between sheep and sheep but undoubtedly sheep and sheep (Eze 34:20) forms a distinction, namely, that those which Jehovah designates His are not like the he-goats and rams, from which He sets them apart. They are certainly not, as excellently remarked by Kliefoth, represented as the righteous and innocent, but they are called the strayed, the driven away, the wounded, the weak: but they are the penitent, who hear the voice of God; therefore will He first seek them, and bring them back, and heal and strengthen them, but afterwards also will redeem them from the oppressions which the others, the he-goats, have exercised upon them. According to Hitzig, these latter are with the fat and the strong the rich and noble, who in manifold ways wrest from the humble by force and rigour their worldly goods. But Kliefoth quite rightly: a poor man can just as well be a he-goat as a rich man a sheep. Only with the poor man the sphere is very limited; while for the rich and noble, power and the right to exercise it sit upon the very rim of their cradle. The robber-knights, as Hengst. calls them, are born in castles. The haughtiness, however, engendered by fatness and the misuse of their resources is to be taken into account. David, even upon the throne, designates himself poor and needy (Hengst.). The thing referred to, therefore, in the case of the rams and he-goats, is the wickedness which exhibits itself as violent procedure in superior positions of life. God procures for the suffering sheep justice against the malicious (Hengst.).

Eze 34:18. The unjust behaviour of the one portion toward the other is here exposed. Hengst.: The address extends to the tyrants of the futurethat is, to the Scribes and Pharisees of our Lords time, whom it exactly suits.Comp. on , Eze 16:20. Are ye not content with your own enjoyment, but must ye also disturb that of others? Thus fatness and strength might have enjoyed themselves at smaller cost. (Rev 3:17?) But now, as they left over to no one what they would not or could not use as pasture, but wantonly trampled it under foot, so did they also with respect to drink. , from , Eze 32:14, sinking of water, is commonly interpreted as: water clarified through sinking, so that the clarifying is rather the main thing, the impurities have gone to the bottom. Hengst.: water of sinking, settled water; interpreted by Hitzig as: water on the ground, to be found at the bottomthat is, the coolest water. But as (promiscuously Eze 32:2)by treading with the feet to make confused and troubledshows, what perhaps most readily suggests itself is, that the water which was sunk, which had become little, and so threatened want, they in their wickedness had made undrinkable. (Luk 11:52?)

Eze 34:19. , with Athnach! Is this right?

Eze 34:18.

Eze 34:20. To them according to Eze 34:17, to the last mentioned, the flock of Jehovah, and not to the evil and good together,to the one for terror, and to the other for comfort (Rosenm.).

Eze 34:11. only here, with the view probably of distinguishing from Eze 34:3 (comp. at Eze 34:16). Usually is read for it, also ., to be thin, impoverished (comp. Mar 2:17; Mar 14:38; 1Co 9:22).

Eze 34:21. Here follows an address to the others, as Eze 34:18 does on Eze 34:17. The point of view is not, with Hitzig, to be confined to the pressing of a flock to the fountain. Comp. at Eze 34:4-5 (Jer 23:1-2).

Eze 34:22. , more general and comprehensive than , Eze 34:10; Eze 34:12.

Eze 34:8; Eze 34:17; Eze 34:20.

Eze 34:23-31. The Servant David

The and here gives the immediate sequence, without indicating anything remarkable in what was coming, as this indeed formed the abiding anticipation of the religious thought of Israel; so that since here the removal of the offices and the judgment upon the persons has been effected, he who was now to be looked for must at length come,the course of events has plainly reached him as the last member in the series, according to which the: I raise up (), will have to be understood. No special forthcoming effected by God for the good of Israel, as in Deu 18:15 , in the more peculiar might and grace of the Spirit, but simply the official (mediately divine) appointment of the shepherd in question is announced, although with a reference to 2 Samuel 7. But what is said there at Eze 34:12, (I will set up thy seed), was in Eze 34:11 illustrated beforehand by the: I commanded to be over My people (), said with respect to the judges. These, therefore, appear as only provisional arrangements, as temporary, through Gods command interjected into the disorder for putting an arrest on the same, while for the seed, of which Eze 34:12 speaks, a permanent introduction and settlement was to be made. In spite of this diversity in the use of , however, there lies nothing in to suggest the fable of the Gilgul, as was done already by particular Rabbins, and recently has been resumed by Strauss, Hitzig, and others. At all events, Ezekiel would have expressed himself otherwise, if we were here scientifically to find the exegetical idiosyncrasy of a corporeal return of the historical David, by a resurrection from the dead. It is a desperate consolation, such as could have been imagined by no good exegetical conscience, to feel obliged to refer for such like fancies to Rosenmllereven to the Zoroastrian doctrine of the return of the Paschutan.On , see the Doctrinal Reflections to our chapter. signifies here certainly not one, one generally; also it can scarcely mean only, and has nothing immediately to do with the union of the two kingdoms under his sceptre, because there was nothing said of this previously; but the contrast is with the former shepherds and the sheep of the flock scattered through their guiltthis manifoldness on the one side, on the other has set over against it the oneness of this shepherd, who is the complex embodiment of shepherd watchfulness, as of all the duties of the shepherd office,the divine realization of the idea of all that is involved generally in the nature of the office, as service toward the community for the sake of God, as sacred service in behalf of Gods people. [Kliefoth: This shoot of David comprehends in his one person the whole shepherd-offices of Israel, and fulfils them; they are to be done away with him, but no other king over the people of God shall relieve him.]On account of the com. gen. of the flock, the fem. alternates with the masc. in the suffix.He comes to his destination as a shepherd through the: and he feeds; the name is realized in his doing, with a reference to Davids former life and procedure; see Psa 78:70-71.My servant David, who, on account of his attitude of obedience as Jehovahs servant, showed himself to be one peculiarly fitted for serving the community, over which he was placed officially for the performance of such service, namely, as His servant not only chosen by Jehovah (objectively), but also called, but also anointed, but also in every way confirmed. As David after the flesh, so My servant after the Spirit points back genealogically in connection with the dynasty. There will be a Davidic person, and he will be in accord with the kingly pattern of David, so that Jehovahs servant David will revive in him to the consciousness of every one. Therefore, in fact, a return of David, and indeed in the seed of David (Jer 23:5); therefore also different from the return of Elias in John the Baptist. Application is to be made to Christ, but to derive the exposition of the words from this presently fails, as when Kliefoth interprets My servant thus: because, he, as Gods instrument, will accomplish what is written in Eze 34:11-22. One must be at home in the style of representation which is given throughout Scripture of David, but more especially in the prophetic style of representation concerning him, in accord also with the pregnant prophetic self-consciousness which discovers itself in his own psalms, in order rightly to understand these and similar descriptions of the Messiah. See the Doctrinal Reflections on the chapter, and comp. Hos 3:5; Jer 30:9; Jer 23:5; Luk 1:32-33. Besides, the respect had to the fundamental passage 2 Samuel 7. itself leaves no doubt as to the proper understanding.How much the comprehensive ideal, just because figurative, notion of the shepherd preponderates, is clear from the expressly and intentionally repeated: He will feed, etc. (Rev 7:17).

Eze 34:24. When it is said in 2Sa 7:14, in reference to the immediate posterity of David: I will be a father to him, there is here what corresponds to it in the words: And I, Jehovah, will be to them a God. Comp. Eze 11:20. Father to him, God to them, as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is our God. In like manner: and My servant David points back to 2Sa 7:8, where this appears in the form of an address, along with the promise there given; is there, while here is used. That through the government of David Jehovah was going to be in truth the God of His people Israel, etc. (Keil), is not expressly said, but the grand ideal, the eternity of the Davidic elevation and loftiness, is certainly set forth (2Sa 7:13; 2Sa 7:16; comp. Eph 1:22). But that Jehovah is He who thus speaks must dispose of all opposition from the present aspect of things.

As the whole service of David the prince in their midst is appointed for the salvation of the people, there is expressed in Eze 34:25 the establishing for them the covenantthat which always, when so peculiarly said in the technical phraseology, proceeds from the Highest in relation to the lower, that is, from Jehovah (Jer 31:31 sq.). The reason is, that the in itself ambiguous notion, yet corresponding to the covenant-relation originally in like manner established by God, manifests itself for the people as a revelation of such relationship, namely, as an attestation of offered grace, presenting itself, and giving assurance of Gods readiness to enter into fellowship with men. Comp. at Isa 55:3 (Heb 8:10; Act 3:25).Covenant of peace (Isa 54:10), since in consequence of the covenant relationship of God there is guaranteed to the people this security, happy condition, salvation (Rom 14:17), of which the ceasing of evil beasts symbolizes the negative, and the dwelling securely the positive side. Comp. Lev 26:6 (Hos 2:20 [18]). According to Hv. and Hengst., the evil beasts are the hostile human potencies (Eze 34:5), and the driving of the heathen world from its hitherto domineering position must be meant. According to Hitzig, the public security in the land is pledged. But security (, Eze 28:26) the wilderness itself must have offered to those dwelling in it, which is sufficiently explained by the parallel (Qeri: ), surrendering themselves carelessly to sleep in the thicket of the woods. [Hv. finds an allusion to Solomons time of peace and blessing; but Kliefoth a literal return of the paradisiacal state after a materialistic manner.]

Eze 34:26. To the personelle (them) are annexed, in a local form of expression, the environs, by which, therefore, could not be meant men, with reference to the image of sheep, or the adjacent places for the persons inhabiting them. But the prominence given to My hill, that is, the temple-mount, or, with reference thereto, Jerusalem (Isa 31:4; Isa 10:32), carries over the representation of the peoples associates to the land. Comp. also Eze 34:14 : And on the mountains of the height of Israel. The words: And I give for a blessing, chiming in with Gen 12:2, could not possibly (as Cocc. and Hengst. suppose) allow of our interpreting the environs as meaning the heathen joining themselves in the time of salvation to the old covenant-people (Eze 17:23; Eze 16:61; Eze 47:8), which is quite remote from the connection here. And thou shalt be a blessing, in Gen 12:2, is certainly explained thus in Eze 34:3; but here the expression: to give for a blessing, as the immediately following explanation of rain in its season shows us (Deu 11:14; Joe 2:23), adhering to the preceding reference to the land, will mean probably more than to bless. Yet still nothing essentially different, though giving utterance to it in a very marked manner.The people shall be bodily a blessing through their land, to which Jehovahs hand of blessing will mightily testify; hence showers of blessing (which mediate the blessing, in distinction from Eze 13:13; Pro 28:3; comp. also Deu 32:2; Isa 55:10-11; Rom 15:29; Eph 1:3)shall be so primarily on no other account, but simply for their own experience and their own personal enjoyment. But comp. Eze 34:29. [Rosenm. brings to remembrance how far superior Palestine was to Egypt in regard to such blessings of the material heavens.] Accordingly, Eze 34:27 continues and portrays (comp. Lev 26:4) the fruitfulness thence arising in the field and land, in order presently to come back to the inhabitants settled again upon their home-soilon which comp. Eze 34:25, Eze 28:25-26. (from , to join, make fast, bind) is generally the yoke of draught-cattle, in order to fasten them together or to the plough. are the two ends of the cross-piece of wood which forms the chief strength of the yoke; hence in Eze 30:18 = yoke. The cross-piece of wood laid upon the neck of the animal was fastened by a cord or thong to the pole of the plough, and passing under the neck of the animal (see Delitzsch on Isaiah 58). As the allusion to Lev 26:13 and what follows here will show, it is to be understood figurativelynot in general of the endurance of sufferings, but specially of slavery, as in Egypt formerly, which should be broken. For parallel with stands and (Exo 1:14), of the laying on of slave labour. with is to work with or through any one, so that the working stands out in him, he appears purely as an instrument (Mat 11:28; Mat 23:4; Joh 8:36; Act 15:10; Rom 8:2; 2Co 11:20; Gal 2:4).

Eze 34:28. Comp. Eze 34:22; Eze 34:8.

Eze 34:25; Eze 34:8 (Eze 29:5).Lev 26:6; also Mic 4:4. Those whom they are said, in the preceding verse, to have served, are therefore the heathen, and the two other promises resume again the same two sides as Eze 34:25, while the words: and there is none to make them afraid, portray still farther the secure peaceful rest, almost reminding us of the opposite picture at the close of Eze 34:6.

Eze 34:29. And I raise up for them is parallel to Eze 34:23; the promise there begun in these terms reaches here its conclusion, for the whole of what has gone before relates to one and the same Messianic character.According to Hitzig, can only mean a plant-place or ground; the plant-land should become to them for renown; what they planted should grow and prosper so as to be a glory for them. According to the older style of exposition it is the plant, Isa 11:1 : the Sept. and others read with it . Simpler, certainly, is the rendering plantation (agreeably to Eze 34:26 sq., and as at Eze 17:7), and it is also explained by the: no more sweeping away by hunger, etc., by reason of the fruitfulness of the country, and in contrast to the state of destitution mentioned elsewhere (Eze 5:12; Eze 5:16; Eze 6:11-12). So, too, (for a name) has its explanation in their having no more to bear reproach from the heathen. [The exposition which, by a reference to Gen 2:8-9, would understand it of a renewal of the paradisiacal plantation (Hengst.), is far-fetched, there being nothing in the connection for it; nor can it be understood how such a renewal, under comparison of Eze 36:29 sq., would consist in the rich distribution of harvest blessings. According to Kliefoth, the plantation, like that of the first paradise, must be the suitable thing for holy men.] Instead of the contempt with which the heathen scoffed at the fallen, prostrate, ruined condition of the people, those same heathen should now be convinced, from the blessing upon Israel, that the children of Israel, those who really were such, were also in reality the blessed of the Lord. Hitzig merely: it should no longer be said among the heathen, The Israelites are hunger-bitten, they have nothing to bite and chew. Comp. on the other hand, Mat 5:6; Joh 6:27; Joh 6:35; Rev 7:16-17; Mat 13:43.

Eze 34:30. Jehovah will be their God, and as such will be with them, will show Himself to be such toward them (Rev 21:3). To this corresponds the other side of such a relationship, indicated by: My people, as also by: the house of Israel (2Co 6:16).

Eze 34:31. This verse does not, of course, mean that what was said of the flock has its application to men; but rather is it Gods design to testify that His promise in respect to both sides, as well what He is to them to whom He gives ittherefore against doubt and feeble faithas what they are taken for by Him, and so equally against all undue self-exaltation, keeps in view Adam, the man, or: men, which also fits in exactly with the immediately preceding designation of the people as: the house of Israel., comp. Eze 34:17.Flock of My pasture (Jer 23:1; Psa 74:1); not: which I tend (Ges.), but because Jehovah had given Israel the fruitful land of promise for a pasture-ground. The exposition of My people by men, and still more the repetition, notwithstanding that, of: I am your God, entirely corresponds to the character of the second main division of our book, to the prophecies respecting Gods compassions toward His people in the world (Psa 36:8 [7]), and the rather so, if, with Hvernick, the fundamental prophecy in relation to what follows is to be seen here.That the Sept. should have omitted is not to be commended, although the Targum and the Arab. translation have done the same. The Syriac, however, has retained it, and it is scarcely to be explained how it should have been brought in, where (after Eze 34:30) the solemn remark, that not real sheep and goats were meant, would have to be called more than superfluous and flat. Hengst. translates: And ye are My flock, My pasture-sheep are ye men, etc.; Keil: And ye are My flock, etc., ye are men Hv. explains: Indeed ye, who are called to what is so great, are weak creatures; but where the Lord acknowledges to men that He is their God, He is strong in their weakness; no glory is too great that it might not come to be manifested in them. Kliefoth, who finds the translation of Hengst. against grammar, and calls Hvernicks exposition a superimposed one, carries forward his misunderstanding of the paradisiacal reference: those belonging to the people of God would, through the Branch of the house of David, be as Adam was when he received from God this name after creation. J. F. Starck, with an emphasis on the general grace: And ye, etc., ye men, I am your God. [And ye, My flock, My pasture-flock, men are ye, I am your God. There is evidently an emphasis on men: men are ye, remember your place, you are merely human; but remember, at the same time, that I am your God; so that without Me nothing, but with Me all.P. F.]

DOCTRINAL REFLECTIONS

1. We should admit, on the one side, that the term shepherd, as is also so natural from the fulness of the references which the image includes, has application to the guiding of the people in general, consequently to every, office of that nature; yet we should not deny, on the other side, that shepherds especially and primarily signified kings. Only the rendering of the word by overseer, and in particular when the overseers or elders of the exile come into consideration, is very wide of the mark. However, the notion also of civil magistracy, which Hengstenberg attributes to the shepherds as kings, is an abstraction which is not appropriate to the image. In relation to the theocratic people primarily, in which relation we must seek for the more immediate reference of the biblical expression shepherd, the feature of leading will naturally assume the more prominent place, as it does in Joh 10:3 sq., which gives us an interpretation from the fulfilment of what is contained in this chapter. That the shepherd is the leader finds, then, its culmination in the protection, which the giving of his life for the flock provides for it, Joh 10:11. The other features in the image do not therefore fail; they only fall behind the one more peculiarly brought out, such as discipline, tender care, which belong to the spiritual import of the image (comp. Joh 10:9-10). The prophetic or teaching office is therein expressed, as in the self-surrender of the shepherd for the flock the priestly office is indicated. The notion of the shepherd, accordingly, comprises generally the official form and representation of the Old Testament theocratic life, and likewise pre-eminently the kingly office, giving prominence to the kingly government (pp. 23, 24), as is the case with the Messianic idea under the Old Covenant, with that of Christ under the New Testament, so that shepherd and the anointed come near and mutually supplement each other. In the Messianic character of the shepherd, there comes out, along with the relation to the theocratic people, the other relation, that, namely, to Jehovah, the Lord of the theocracy, according to which the shepherd appears as the representative of Jehovah among His people. If in this respect Messiah is the term for the relation in question as regards equipment, or internal power of the Spirit, so in that of shepherd there is given, we might say, the fulfilment, the realization of the same relation by means of a corresponding government. On account of what they had not done, the shepherds of Israel are manifestly the unrighteous, the wicked ones. On account of that which He does who makes Himself known in John 10, He proves Himself to be the Good Shepherd. But as there the Jews (Joh 10:20) supposed Him to be actuated not by the Spirit of the God-anointed, the Messiah, but to have in him an evil spirit ( ), so they misunderstood also His unbosoming of Himself on that occasion as the Shepherd, and turned away from Him.

2. In this chapter (says Cocceius) the office of shepherd is taken from the shepherds of Israel, and promise is made of the kingdom of Christ, the Chief Shepherd. The shepherds of Israel are of a threefold order, Zec 11:3; Zec 11:8. The three shepherds there are vigil, et respondens, et offerens munus (Mal 2:12); that is, elder, prophet or doctor, and priest. They are called gods, but in Psa 82:6 sq. their abolition is pronounced. Therefore the apostle, 1Co 2:6, says of the princes of this world, that they are come to nought.

3. The prophecy in Ezekiel 34 is kept very general, and does not connect itself closely with specific occasions and circumstances, hence admits (apart from its typical bearing on the experiences of Israel, outward and spiritual) of manifold applications to all states, churches, families; and with justice, for it is really designed for all that could be named figuratively shepherd and flock, like a mathematical formula which expresses a law that may be applied to innumerable cases (Schmieder).

4. From the second verse of this chapter the Lord Jesus appears to have quoted the repeated woe against the Scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23). The application to these throws light specially on the days of Christ, but generally on the period subsequent to the exile. The hierarchy, as it appears in its antagonism to Christ, is the final degradation of the theocratic officialism of Israel. Prophecy ceased with Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. In its place, as the characteristic appearance of Ezra shows, and as fabled also by the Jewish traditions of the Great Sanhedrim and the Great Synagogue, came the learning of the Scribes. As it was already with the three last prophets in relation to the earlier prophetic office, so also did the princely dignity of Zerubbabel stand related to the Davidic kingdom of former times. Zerubbabel was leader to the returning captives, and was appointed royal governor over the new colony, in which his character as a born prince of Judah was lost sight of. Although he stood as governor directly under the Persian kings, still the Persian governors in Samaria were instructed to keep their eye upon his administration. What, however, in his appointment by Cyrus, carried, according to the Jewish mode of contemplation, a specially royal, that is, Davidic aspect, presently again fell into abeyance with the person of Zerubbabel. On this account alone the application by some of Eze 34:23 to Zerubbabel is shown to be untenable. None of Zerubbabels sons succeeded him as governor. If from the time of Nehemiahs death the post of provincial governor gradually disappeared, as is with much probability supposed, then, for the purpose of taking the oversight of civic affairs (and of any other kind of oversight we know nothing), only the office of the high-priesthood remained, the history of which henceforth became a very worldly one, full of ambition and crime. The Maccabees united with it the dignity of military general; afterwards, as conferred upon them by the people, a hereditary princedom, over against which the Sanhedrim, which had meanwhile been constituted, and was under pharisaical-priestly influence, strove to maintain its position; and then at last the title of king. That the dignity of high priest as combined with princely rank, especially when the prince was a Sadducee, formed a kind of caricature of Psa 110:4, does not hinder on the other side the noting of an important feature therein with regard to Christ; just as in the resolutions of the people and their counsellors there is apprehended, with a clear consciousness, the future appearance of a faithful prophet (1Ma 14:41). The dissolution-process now indicated of the theocratic offices in Israel after the exile suffices for the chapter of Ezekiel before us.

5. Israel, as remarked by Beck, should, amid the tumult of desolation and the luxurious forms of development of the God-forgetting worldly nationalities, have stood forth as a strictly separate sanctuary of God, to which not the present, indeed, but so much the more certainly the future belonged; and even the falling away from this simple isolation of the whole state-economy justified its real wisdom by means of the desolating results that ensued. A many-membered organism of law, like a comprehensive ring, encompassed the whole individual and commercial life, woven into the elements of the worlds fellowship, while the more determinative arrangements of the outward natural life, of the reckoning of time, of the physical and social human life, were consecrated as serviceable organs for the establishment of a pious fellowship with God, of a righteous ordering and wholesome direction of the life. It was an externality, but no hollow-surface existence ending in itself; rather a vessel and framework of a spiritual inwardness of being, destined to future development, and bearing this in itself in a manner pregnant with promise. The proof of this is specially furnished by prophecy, whose foundation was already laid among the fathers of the Israelitish people, which came forth into peculiar external activity under the constitution of the Mosaic economy, and at last assumed formally the place of an order in the State. Hence its cessation was pre-eminently a mark of the time, as being that of the approaching advent of Him whose Spirit was in the prophets ! Were but the whole people of Jehovah prophets! was the wish of Moses (Num 11:29); expressing as regards Israel the design of prophecy, and at the same time with an eye toward the Pentecostal future. Still more, however, was this import involved in the priesthood, which was no caste foreign to the people, but rooted in a brotherly stem of the same, giving promise of a priestly position to the whole of Israel, with corresponding fulness of obligation to duties of service. So close and inward, because a service rendered to the whole, and springing out of its innermost idea, was the relation of these offices in Israel to Israel itself, that their unfolding and Israels unfolding overlap each other, are congenial. The destination of Israel to the kingdom lies enfolded in Exo 19:6 (Rev 1:6), although in what is merely the outward governing power of one, the civic subordination of the others may come more prominently out. The full prospect for the future looks toward those who are without, to the heathen nations, the world.

6. What the servant Moses (Heb 3:5) represented individually for the whole theocracy, this found its representation as regards Jehovahs supreme authority in the entire community in David, who, as servant of Jehovah, takes up into himself the servant Moses, as prince in Israel represents the divine supremacy.

7. So much has the being without a shepherd, Eze 34:5, become the case with Israel, that by the extirpation of the Good Shepherd through the bad shepherds of Israel, the scattering of the people has become complete; and certainly also the gathering of the true Israel has been fulfilled. Comp. on this Zec 13:7; Isa 53:6; 1Pe 2:25.

8. Maintaining their position over against the world was the one thing needful for Israel as the people of God; so that the gathering through Christ, as on the one side it was restitution in conformity to the ideal of Israel, so on the other generally it was for them the condition of life, lifes deliverance. Thus Israel lives on still, not merely as to its character as a people, while the other peoples of antiquity have historically vanished, but the idea of Israel as a people is in Christ the idea of humanity.
9. Gods will has from the first been directed to the object of gathering a new humanity out of the world, of a people of God out of all peoples; and the choosing of Israel as the people of God was only a first provisional step toward the accomplishment of this will: God gathers Israel to Himself as His people only for the purpose of gathering through their instrumentality a people from among all nations. But now it seemed, in the days of Ezekiel, as if through the scattering of Israel, as those in whom for the time being the people of God appeared, the collecting of a people of God had been abandoned and become impossible. To that, however, it could not be allowed to come; and in the text, which is quite general in its terms, there is embraced alike the bringing back of Israel from exile, the gathering of the Church of Christ by means of His word, and the final gathering of the children of God out of the world generally, as certainly as the matter itself belongs to the formation of a new humanity (Kliefoth). The fourteenth verse is by the same expositor similarly explained in a quite general way, though he has a spiritual and external addition of this sort, that the future return of the converted Jews to their land should be taken into account.

10. The ceasing of the offices in Israel is not simply, therefore, a historical fact, a ceasing of life-forms that once existed, but it is the emptying of those forms in the spirit, and consequently in respect to truth. Office-bearing of the kind that belonged to Israel can no more be found in Christ; so that all churchism which would turn back to lay hold of that, or even look aslant toward it, merely (as statecraft also with respect to the kingdom) surrenders its Christianity, or places it in question. What the official constitution of things in Israel signified, has its correspondence in the anointing with the Spirit for all Christians, 1Jn 2:20; 1Jn 2:27; Rev 1:6. What is called office in Christianity can only be ordinances as to service, or , Rom 12:6, or the powers that be, which are ordained by God (Romans 13).

11. (Religion falls radically into the three distinctive actings of the three offices, beginning with a prophetic function as the knowledge of God and manifestation of God, maintaining always a high-priestly relation toward God in the spirit of consecration and surrender to Him, and perpetually unfolding its kingly character by the renewal and enlargement of soul in God, and a walk in Gods freedom and power. After P. Lange.)
12. Upon the judging between sheep and sheep Hengstenberg remarks that the main fulfilment here also is to be sought in Christ, whose government and secret yet powerful guidance permits no tyranny and injustice to endure. A principal phase was the decision between the synagogue and the Christian church. But that this judging goes through the whole history, that we have to do in it with a true prophecy and not with a patriotic phantasy, appears from a comparison of the existing Christian world with that of the heathen and Mahometan, and also with the Old Testament judicial relationships. Since the appearance of Christ, there has been at work a reforming agency among the people of God.
13. A rich man in Scripture is not one who has many goods, but whose heart clings to what he possesses, so that it ceases to be for him something accidental; while a poor man is he only who knows and feels himself to be poor, who is so not merely in an outward respect, but in spirit alsoin his consciousness (Hengst.).

14. The introduction of David, as already remarked in the exposition, without anything farther or particular, confirms what is stated by Hengst., that the Messiah, the glorious offspring of David, had in the time of the prophet been for long a lesson of the Catechism. David, however, according to his personality in sacred history, not only appears as the readiest thought when a shepherd is the subject of discoursethough certainly the shepherd-state with him is so entirely his style and manner, that from being the shepherd of a flock he became the shepherd of Israel (Psa 78:70; 2Sa 7:8)but also, in an especial manner for the promised gathering of the flock, he suggests more than any one else who might be brought into consideration, since through him the tribal supremacy of Judah, toward which even in Egypt the hope of Israel was directed (Genesis 49), effected that the tribes of Israel, which had been in a state of division, should unite, and remain together for the glorious kingdom of Solomon under its ascendency. Much more, however, does the personality of David bring into view and represent in relation to the Messianic ideaviz. that he, the anointed of Jehovah, and the king who had been raised up from a low estate, was after Gods own heart, himself possessed of the prophetic Spirit (Act 2:30; Mat 22:43),one who manifested earnest desire and love for the worship of Jehovah, by invigorating and supporting both it and the priesthood, as well as in his psalms, and by the building of the temple, which originated with him. There was then provided, as Beck says, the substratum for a new aspect of salvation, and there was opened up by the promise a new mental horizon in the seed of David, who was chosen for an abiding reign of peace, and for the building of Gods house, and upheld with perpetual experiences of Fatherly grace, and that even amid chastisements for sin, and in the everlasting continuance of Davids house, kingdom, and throne (2Sa 7:8 sq., Eze 23:1 sq.; Psa 89:30; Psa 89:37 sq., 72). To the idea of a ruling power, which was contemplated by Moses, there was added the dynastic in the case of David, who became the founder not only of a kingly dynasty, but of one through which the kingdom of Israel was to reach its highest culmination. The entire image of the peoples shepherd, which expresses the divine title of this dynasty, stretches so manifestly beyond all the individual rulers belonging to the Davidic line, that for the receiver of the promise, David, said promise does not at all stand or fall with Solomon, the first member in the chosen line, whose conditional rejection rather appears not to be excluded by the divine favour promised inalienably to the seed, 1Ch 28:9 (Beck). The individual members of the Davidic dynasty served in their working and suffering as offerings and harvests to future times; their blossom-seasons were far from reaching the height of the ideal of their houseformed merely the foil for the more definite limning of the glory which glimmered through it (Psalms 72); but, on the other hand, their periods of depression did not bring that ideal to destruction, only imprinted it more deeply in the heart, taking the divine grace and truth as a pledge for its realization (Psalms 89), and so left it over to the Son of David, in whom the image of the divine government and kingdom was concentrated, Luk 1:32 sq. (Beck).

15. In the Messiah the whole existence of Israel as a people is comprised, its organization as plastically working itself out through the theocratic offices; while, on the other side, salvation and blessing, which these offices, had instrumentally to administer to the people, attained to perfection in His consecrated personality with an elevation, which is also indicated in the expression of Eze 34:24 : a prince among them. The parallel expressions in this verse: Jehovah a God to them, and: David a prince in their midst, serve for the form of the salvation and the blessing to be made good, if the one statement is taken as the theme, and the other as its exposition. A moral signification like Keils: pasturing in full unison with Jehovah, carrying out the will of Jehovah only, imports too little into this text, and the filling of it up by pointing to unity of being with God, again, imports too much. To the theological judgment the relation will, perhaps, represent itself much as Psalms 2 does in respect to the sonship in its connection with the kingdom. In the psalm the theocratic temporal sonship is indicated, according to which mention is made in Rom 1:4 of his being determined to be the Son of God; and in like manner, here in Ezekiel, it is only the realization of the promised salvation and blessing, as it is suggested by the covenant-relation of Jehovah to Israel, which can immediately come into consideration. The verses that follow bring into notice the grace of the covenant; the covenant graciousness manifests itself, according to Eze 34:24, in the David-Messiah, as the one who generally was to prove the covenant of Jehovah to be an abiding one with His people, and in particular the eternity of the kingdom of David. If the: I have begotten thee, in Psa 2:7, seems to import more than: I appoint (or raise up), here, the expression in Psa 2:6 : I have anointed (), does not indicate more (comp. at Eze 22:30); and both expressions in the psalm, like the one here (), refer to 2 Samuel 7, where the decree () in Psa 2:7 is obvious: I will be to him a father, and he will be to me a son (Eze 34:14). While He is so called there on account of the unceasing filial relation to the divine favour, of course in connection with the promise of an eternal sovereignty, with Ezekiel, Eze 34:23-24, it is the latter only which has a place, an everlasting princedom of David, the divine ideal of His sole governmental personality. In another light, however, will the parallel-membered passage of Eze 34:24 appear to us, if we add in thought the: Behold I (), which is so expressively repeated (Eze 34:11; Eze 34:20). In that case Jehovah Himself will have to be thought of as present in this David. If in the term shepherd a reference is made to the circumstance that David was literally such before he became king, so by the designation servant David, which likewise is twice used with emphasis, a relation is expressed, which Nitzsch characterizes as an Old Testament mode of describing the religion of human life (System, p. 187); since the servant of God generally is the subject of the honour that comes from God, and as such is the chosen one, the one who is specially privileged, set up for the maintenance of the true religion in behalf of others, and actively engaged in doing sonor merely a true and proved, but also an atoning, and finally a glorified human personality. Farther, there is now on both occasions used the epithet My servant, with all the more emphasis in Eze 34:24 as it is preceded by the expression: I Jehovah and there is to be compared the: My shepherd, in Zec 13:7, coupled with the words of explanation: against the man that is My fellow. Indeed, as the whole passage from Eze 34:9 onwards is the self-manifestation of Jehovah, a divine background must form the gold-ground of the Messianic picture.

16. There is no need for placing any constraint on the of ver 23; so much it quite naturally implies, that although the basis of the one shepherd is the house of David destined to an everlasting continuance, and one can, with Hengstenberg, understand by David the stem of David culminating in Christ, so that the fulfilment in Christ is not the sole, but only the highest, the true one, still a definite, and indeed a unique personality, an individual, is contemplated hereone who has not his like. Comp. Jer 23:5.

17. The typical element in Israels condition, or the prefigurative representation of the future spiritual life, of which Israel itself was more or less unconscious,a representation which was called forth and animated by the essential principles of that life,was, like the typical character of the Israelitish religion generally, the basis of prophecy (P. Lange, Philos. Dogm.).

18. Christ, as the Anointed of God in the theocratic sense, the Messiah promised by the prophets, is the true Servant of God in the law of the Spirit, whom the Old Testament Israel prefigured in the law of the letter, the richly Anointed of God, whose precursors were all officially anointed typical sons of Jehovah under the Old Covenant. Jesus is the Christ, since His whole life was the discharge of a holy office. Jesus has not merely in some sense the office of a Christ, of a God-anointed person devoted to the wellbeing of the world; He is the Christ Himself. Hence His office is designated as the absolute office, as the sum of all the offices inseparably connected with salvation; and it is at the same time declared, that His office first represented in full reality and completeness what the separate callings in respect to salvation in the world could represent only figuratively, partly in a typical, partly in a symbolical manner. As guiding organs of the Old Testament life, the theocratic offices were such also for the future divine-human life. With the organic separation of these offices was connected the feature of their transitory character, their incompleteness. Hence the fulfilment of the religion in the person of Jesus was at the same time the fulfilment and completion of these offices. His life is, as the individualizing of the completed religionabsolute life from God, for God, and in and with God. Hence, also, must Christ comprise in His personality the three offices as a unity in their completed essence-form, and in the fundamental characteristics of His life they must shine forth in their rounded completeness (P. Lange, Pos. Dogm.).

19. The dark caricature and counterpart of the prophetic activity of Christ or of the revelation in Him is the Jewish Talmud; the reverse image of His high-priestly function is the penal wandering of Israel throughout the world; and over against His royal administration and kingdom stands the demoniacal worldly-mindedness of the Jews, with its important results (P. Lange).

20. Upon the prophecy as a whole with respect to its fulfilment it may be said, that in its trichotomy the servant David, as the third piece, is the simultaneous discharge of the two parts that had preceded. Through Him has it come to an end with the offices of Israel (Eze 34:1-10); with Him comes the manifestation of Jehovah Himself as the shepherd (Eze 34:11-22). Now, if He who perfects Himself after this manner is the Messiah, then also everything that is essentially connected therewith must plainly be found in Jesus Christ. The appearance of the Son of God in the flesh, especially in the insight afforded into His mighty working by His resurrection from the dead, is so much the more the fulfilment of our prophecy, as this has in manifold ways been testified by Himself and His apostles. As in the exile and during the time that followed, till Christ, the dissolution of the theocratic offices in Israel as such (comp. Eze 34:4) took effect, so did the gathering of the people, in contrast to the scattering (Eze 34:5), by means of the return from Babylon, become a reality (Eze 34:13, and comp. Isa 44:28, where Cyrus is called My shepherd ). But the so strongly marked scattering of Eze 34:5 is only one thing; another is the wandering upon the mountains and hills (Eze 34:6), to which not the gathering effected by the return to their home corresponds, but feeding upon the mountains, etc. (Eze 34:13 sq., comp. also Isa 53:6), which had locally its fulfilment in Christ (Mat 9:36; Luke 15), especially the distinctive characteristics described in Eze 34:16. In like manner, also, the judgment of separation exercised through the person of Christ within Israel (Luk 2:34; Mat 21:44) stands connected with what is written in Eze 34:17 sq.; and immediately thereafter the Messiah-David (Eze 34:23 sq.) is made distinctly to shine forth out of the prophetic representation. What is said, e.g., by Keil of the twofold judgment of scattering along with the twofold gathering of Israel, as being in this prophecy not distinguished, but thrown complexly together, has been imported into it from another quarter. That only a small part of Israel, as he says, received the Messiah when appearing in Jesus as their shepherd, gave occasion not so properly for a new judgment of dispersion among all nations, as rather, we may say, that the Babylonish judgment was in consequence thereof confirmed for unbelieving Israel as such, and also completed. For Israel was still, at the time of Christs appearing, in a state of dispersion among all nations, because scattered throughout the Roman world, so that even the gathering from Babylon must be referred to the advent of Jesus Christ, since thereby His birth in the City of David, as well as His resurrection in the place where He was crucified, after being loosed from the pains of death, and hence the turning of the promised land into a blessing after the manner indicated in Eze 34:26, were rendered possible. One must not say that the fulfilment of this prophecy had begun with the redemption of Israel from the Babylonish exile, and still less that it began with the appearing of Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd of the seed of David; but this latter appearing is the fulfilment, so that we have no other to expect, and the bringing back from Babylon to Canaan was merely its preparation; and the true understanding of this preparatory gathering as a gathering is to be sought in the Church of Jesus Christ, in the gathering of the Israel after the Spirit out of the whole world (Joh 10:16). If it admits of no doubt (Kliefoth), that what is said of the establishing of a new covenant in Eze 34:25 has been already fulfilled by the appearance of the Lord in the flesh, and by His work, it should have given this intelligent expositor no further concern, as if the fulfilment of our prophecy could have belonged entirely to what still is future. This prophecy, also, has not been fulfilled by successive stages, but the fulfilment through Christ only presents itself separately in Christ, while the Church of Christ lives the Messianic life of the Son of God in the world as His body. The judging between sheep and sheep, the separating of the he-goats, the purifying of the people of God into a sinless community, wherein Kliefoth finds essential parts of the prophecy, which belong even to the very close of time,all this comes into realization through the efficacious working of the Holy Spirit sent by Christ (comp. Joh 16:8; Rom 8:9)does so onwards till the day of Christ, since as the Lord is the Spirit, so the Son of man has been appointed the Judge of the world. The delineation of blessing in Eze 34:25 sq. is in form taken from the land and the people, but so as to be emblematical of the kingdom of the Anointed. Yes, even the formation of a new paradise, and the restoration of humanity to its condition of original innocence, does not lie in the text of Ezekiel, but in the exegesis of Kliefoth, who, with such a view of the meaning, cannot get the better of that Chiliasm which he opposes.

21. The characteristic manifestation of the Good Shepherd takes place when He calls His own sheep each by its name, while the sheep on their part hear His voice (John 10). Thus are they led out of the fold, the economy of the Old Covenant, after their state of wandering upon all mountains and on every high hill; and if Jehovah (Isa 53:6) lays upon Him the iniquity of all, so He who in Joh 10:10 testifies that He came in order that they might have life, and have it more abundantly, says also in Eze 34:11; Eze 34:16 there, that He was going to give His life for the sheep.

22. Christ had to come to them, first, as the teaching Shepherd; secondly, as the Shepherd that should give His life for the sheep, in order that He might set them free from the bondage of the law, and at the same time from their rulers; thirdly, He should Himself become manifest among them as Prince. Thus should the promise to Abraham, that God would be a God to his seed, become yea and amen.The Sadducees and Pharisees troubled and corrupted to the sheep of the flock, who were obliged to hear them, the pure doctrine; whereupon Christ appeared, and healed the sicknesses of Israel, and gave Himself up to death for His sheep. This is the one period in the prophecy; the other period is, when Christ is given as a prince, quickened from the dead, raised to heaven, and before all Jerusalem anointed through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, when, by the preaching of the apostles, sheep was distinguished from sheep (Cocceius).

23. After the import of the similitude upon Israel has been given in Eze 34:30, a still deeper thought is subjoined to this import, namely, the bearing of Israel on mankind generally. What of Israel attains to salvation does so not under the national title (house of Israel), which has been rendered obsolete through the new covenant, but simply as connected with Adam, whose antitype Christ is (Romans 5). Consequently, we have here the exposition of the people of the old covenant in relation to humanity at large.

HOMILETIC HINTS

Eze 34:1-2. Corruption in the upper, the governing classes, those who give the tone and measure to society, carries along with it corruption among the whole people, and that not merely for a time, but for ever.It is a very honourable title to be called a shepherd, but to be so is a heavy burden, with much trouble, care, and labour (Stck.).An entire tribe also of Israel, that guides the other tribes, and stands at their head, feeds the tribes of Israel, like a shepherd, 2Sa 7:7. And there are many degrees of upper and lower shepherds, down even to single householders. So also in Christendom are all authorities, whether in the State, the Church, or the family, to be regarded as shepherds of their respective flocks, smaller or greater. Every pastor is really a shepherd in the biblical sense. The same person can, however, be at once shepherd and sheep, according as he has to discharge the office of ruling, or the duty of letting himself be ruled. It is also a matter of indifference through what instrument the shepherd governs his flock, whether by means of the staff or the dog, whether by the rod, or the sword, or the word. The schoolmaster, too, in so far as he commands, and exercises discipline, and governs the school, is a shepherd (Schmieder).Whoever would be a proper teacher must possess and manifest the true shepherd-faithfulness, must seek simply and alone what is Christs, Php 2:21 (Starke).They are hirelings who seek after spiritual work, that they may thereby enrich themselves, or gain their bread, Act 20:18 sq.; Rom 16:18 (Tb. Bible).I ask you on your conscience, Are ye not obliged to feed the souls of your hearers with the living word of God, if ye would be shepherds? (Berl. Bib.)As shepherds, rulers also must not suck the blood of their subjects (Starke).Justice and injustice, blessing and cursing of feeding ones self. The shepherd must also go upon the right pasture for his own poor soul.The shepherd-office as at the same time duty to ones self.

Eze 34:3. The shepherd receives from the flock his necessary support, his recompense from the Lord (Augustine).

Eze 34:4. Pastors should confirm those who are not strong in the faith, cherish the weak and such as cannot go forward, that they may be strengthened, and step firmly on the way of God; should bind up those who have a wounded conscience, so that they may not be consumed by mourning; should bring back those who have been misled and seduced by other teachers; but should seek out such as are perishing for want of guidance and have lost the right way, guiding them to wholesome pasture, etc. (Cocc.).Preachers should especially commend themselves to the corporeally and spiritually sick among their hearers (Starke).The shepherd office is sheer service (and those whose it is to serve have ); it is not lordship, nor must be, either over the goods or the consciences of men.The obligations of the shepherd-office a mirror of human wretchedness.The fivefold nature of a shepherds work. Paul became all things to all men, that he might save some.

Eze 34:5. Scattering, isolation, so that people know not rightly to whom they belong and what they should do, is the consequence of an inactive, tyrannical, luxurious government (Schmieder.).What is the consequence of bad shepherds, that is also unmistakably the curse for great communities.The shepherd on an earthly domain knows well how many the sheep of his flock number; but how many spiritual shepherds, if they know it externally, and have the number of their church members in their head, bear them upon their hearts according to their internal states?Not merely in the bodily, but pre-eminently in the spiritual enemies of the people of God, inheres the wolf-spirit, the devil (Schmieder).The many shepherds (the hierarchy) may possibly disguise the one Good Shepherd to the sheep, as though He were not there.

Eze 34:6. Scattering can become evil, wandering may be still worse; as in life, so in doctrine.In front of the spiritual heights, as well as before flatness in spiritual things, a shepherd has to keep his flock together.

Eze 34:7-14. To have not done according to the word of the Lord must lead to great trouble from the Lords word, namely, to hear its judgments.Gods judgment on bad shepherds, a righteous and severe one.The frightful judgment, which is contained even in the beautiful name of the shepherd.Corruption in the shepherds, princes, priests, is mentioned among the signs of the Lords advent (Berl. Bib.).

Eze 34:10. In this, that those shepherds should no more be, it is not indicated that the shepherds then existing should perish, and others come into their place, who should bear the same office and have the same power, for this would not have been a full deliverance. Nor is this declared by the prophet, that, after the abolition of the shepherds of that time, no wolves should arise and false prophets, who would not care for the flock of Godcomp. Act 20:29; Zec 11:16. But this is what is meant, that even if such should arise, they were by no means to be accounted shepherds, but their commands and instructions might safely be repudiated, etc.; whereas under the Old Covenant the people were so placed under their shepherds as to be constrained to adhere to them, since the temple must be frequented by those who drew near to God (Cocceius).The right shepherd is also the judge of the false shepherds (Berl. Bib.).A reward will be given to shepherds in righteousness, but also with a gracious recompense.

Eze 34:11. Christ the Chief Shepherd of our souls. Oh, with what love does He seek them! How does He bring them into the right condition, convert them through His Spirit, and guide them to the right pasture! (Tb. Bib.)

Eze 34:12. Redemption out of all places the great prospect of faith, the blessed hope also of the resurrection.There comes a day of the Lord; a morning-star must appear after a dreary night (A. Krummacher).

Eze 34:13. So again at last, when God poured out His Spirit upon the apostles, there was a gathering together from all places of the flock of God, Act 2:9 sq. (Cocc.).The genuine land of Israel is the new earth with the new heavens (Schmieder).Godliness has the promise not only of the life that now is, but also of that which is to come, 1 Timothy 4.The divine refreshments of the Lord, images of the spiritual here, of the eternal hereafter.Death a shepherd, Psa 49:15 [14]. But while he does his work, there is also for believers the shepherd-staff of the Good Shepherd.This world is only an inn; not our home, rather a prison, since we have been made and redeemed for heaven (Stck.).Hence we should not despair when we see that in troublous times only a few are left. The flock may continue small, but it can never happen that there shall be no flock. If the woman has fled with her children into the wilderness, Revelation 12, she must again return to be among men (Heim-Hoff.).Union of the faithful the work of the Lord; and the more that the churches, through the general falling away of the members, come to be composed of believers, will the union of the churches also come to be regarded as a matter of the Lord, and no merely political maxim.

Eze 34:14. The secret of the pasture of Christ (Schmieder).How few consider the blessedness of the righteous, and how well it goes with them! (Stck.).Good pasture and bad pasture.The high mountains of Israel, his promises in respect to their fulfilment, his worship in spirit and truth.

Eze 34:15. Food and rest, the two great necessities of human life.Their rest will nourish them, and their nourishment will bring them new rest (Berl. Bib.).Nothing can be more frequently repeated to believing souls, nothing more deeply impressed upon them, than what has been promised to them in Christ Jesus their Lord (Stck.).Rest, true, eternal repose, is only to be had under the shepherd-staff of Christ.What can the whole world offer instead with all its enjoyments?The everlasting promises of God in Christ, and the delusive shows of the devil in the lust of this passing world.

Eze 34:16 sq. The Lords inspection of the flock at the same time a call to self-examination. (Preparation-sermon before the holy communion.)The lost, those who are cut off from grace, excommunicated, these, in our Lords time, were the publicans and sinners; now, those who are excluded and condemned by the alone blessed-making Church (or confession). The wandering are those who no longer hold to the Church,the sects, separatists. The wounded are such as have taken some offence, like a sheep that has been bitten by a dog. The sick are those who, through false teaching and bad example, have become weak in the faith. The case of all these the Good Shepherd promises to take in hand (Schmieder).But the Lord feeds with judgment, that is, with befitting difference, since He dispenses to each what is proper to him,to one this, to another something else. He performs to the weak no more than is good for them. The children He feeds with milk, and defends them. He acts mildly or severely, consoles, frightens, blames, caresses, as at any time is good for us; for the fearful He relaxes the reins, and those who place their confidence in Him He draws to Himself. If some are fat, and corrupt the weak, He takes from them their strength. Some are proud of the gifts lent to them, and despise the simplicity of others; for these it is good when they are humbled, and are deprived of their gifts, so that they may obtain the salvation of Christ. Thus He accomplishes the judgment, and the separation between sheep and sheep; and so each one should be concerned about himself, and not trouble himself respecting others. The separation is already going on here in secret, but at last it will become manifest, and be seen to issue in a wide gulf (Heim-Hoff.).The kingdom of God belongs to those who are weary and heavy laden (Mat 11:28); by and by their turn shall be to rejoice in the Lords goodness, Luk 16:25 (Hitzig).Why should the he-goats be in the flock of God? on the same pastures, beside the same brooks as the sheep? They are at present tolerated, afterwards separated from it (Augustine).Astern judge is the Good Shepherd; not merely the unscrupulous leaders of the flock, but even the sheep themselves, will be brought to account by Him (Umbreit).Believers are thereby admonished to consider on what side they should place themselves, so that they may escape the future day of slaughter; and at the same time are comforted, so as to be able to hold out with patience during this life. Religious strifes and controversies also will be brought to an end by the judgment of the Lord (Luther).

Eze 34:18. Compare what is set forth here with what the King says in Mat 25:34 sq. Would our so-called men of culture also but consider it, who only tread under foot the pure doctrine, or trouble it by their goat-like gambols!And keep thee from the judgments of men, whereby the noble treasure is corrupted: this I leave thee at the close (Luther).

Eze 34:19. This, alas! represents so many church services in which unbelieving men preach, just as Eze 34:21 points reprovingly to the empty churches (Richt.).

Eze 34:21 sq. The mischievous polemic in the Church.A theology that is quarrelsome and combative scatters the churches in the world.Spiritual dogmatism.A more correct estimate of separation from the Bible point of view, than from that of a corrupt church with its anathemas.The righteous may certainly be oppressed, yet not wholly suppressed (Stck.).Redemption a judgment, and the judgment of the Lord a redemption.The help of the flock is its Shepherd alone; therefore must we withdraw our confidence from all creatures, and expect nothing from new laws and constitutions.This is the manner of the divine compassion, that it takes our misery as an invitation (Heim-Hoff.).

Eze 34:23 sq. Christ has not come without a call, but with the good-will and mission of His heavenly Father, Joh 5:43 (Cr.).One, because all pointed to Him, in word and in deed, and because no one, except in Him, is anything.God names Him His servant, since Christ, made under the law, has fulfilled it, that He might extirpate sin, and bring in righteousness, and so might be complete goel and propitiation, Psa 40:9-10 [8, 9] (Cocc.).David: 1, as to the name, His beloved, Mat 3:17; Matthew 2, as to His birth, in Bethlehem; 3, as to His humble state and littleness, Isa 53:3; Isaiah 4, as to His shepherd-service; 5, as to His anointing; 6, as to His devotedness, David for the law, Christ for the flock; 7, as to His victories (Stck.).He will not only feed them, but also discharge in their behalf all shepherd-duty besides needful for their preservation and support, their refreshment and invigoration, and will remain their Shepherd for ever. Thus will He teach and heal, and take away sicknessesnot do and act merely, but suffer also, purchase the sheep with His precious blood, whereby He will prove Himself to be the True Shepherd, etc. (Cocc).He is the Prince among believers, because He is the Mediator between God and men; because as Head He communicates grace to the members and the living Spirit; and because, moreover, we see in His countenance the fatherly heart of God. Through Him is the Lord our God, that is, He is reconciled to us, and unites Himself to us (Heim-Hoff.).Where Christ reigns, there God is with us, Mat 28:20.

Eze 34:23-24. The One Shepherd according to the promise in its fulfilment: 1, His official position through all times; 2, His shepherd-service in the flesh and in the spirit; 3, His personality in respect to God and as regards the flock.

Eze 34:25. 1. Justified by faith, we have peace with God through Christ. God is for us, who can be against us? 2. He blesses us with all spiritual blessings. The apostles teach and sow, but the Lord gives the showers of blessing, that the seed of the word may spring forth, and the trees yield their fruit; that is, that the great and the small may believe in Christ Jesus, and confess Him with the mouth. 3. He breaks the yoke of slavery to sin, and gives freedom from all enemies. Whence, naturally, there arises a strong confidence, Rom 8:35-39 (Heim-Hoff.).The covenant of peace in Christits divine ground, its invincible strength, its blessed peace. The secure land even now in the midst of the world.The evil beasts in the land,spiritual false guides, worldly persecutors, plausible hypocrites.False teachers and tyrants God causes either to die or to change their mind; but the Son of God has conquered the roaring lion, who is the devil (Luther).In the world ye may be of good cheer, is the saying of the Good Shepherd to His own (Joh 16:33), as it certainly was their experience (Joh 14:27).Security and security, carnal and spiritual, how different!He gives sleep to His own, even in the wilderness (Psa 127:3 [2]).

Eze 34:26. Salvation is of the Jews, John 4.What the father of the faithful was to be to the world (Genesis 12), namely, a blessing, that should believers be in this world.Zion, as after the flesh in Christ, so after the Spirit in the spiritual Zion, in its destination to bless, its task of blessing, and its duty of service for the earth.There the Church is a blessing where there is the rain of the Holy Spirit. Without this rain nothing grows in the kingdom of God; one cannot even say, Jesus is Lord (1Co 12:3).

Eze 34:27. The blessed earth, and the land of Israel, when smitten with the curse.Where faith is, there is a good tree, and there also is produced good fruit (Stck.).Not only shall the axe be laid to the root of the trees, but for the trees also there is a promise of fruit.Fruit and increase in spiritual things: the former, glory to the man himself, example and enjoyment for others; the latter, the thankfulness we owe to God.The knowledge derived as well from the misery of servitude as from redemption out of all sin and misery.The sinner a tool of the devil; the redeemed a servant of God.The rest in Christ from the bondage in sin.

Eze 34:28. Blessedness, to be no longer compelled to belong to the world; to be chosen out of it, although one must still be in it!Spiritual boldness, over against the powers of the world, over against the wickedness of sin, over against the transitoriness and uncertainty of our earthly life, over against the solicitude of our own heart.

Eze 34:29. The planting of the Heavenly Father, Mat 15:13.The kingdom of the Anointed a planting, inasmuch as the members of the kingdom are1, sown by the word; 2, reared, fostered by the Holy Spirit; 3, grown in time for eternity, to the honour of God the Father.The kingdom of God is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost; how, then, can there ever be want? (Luk 22:35)The good, the glorious name, which the people of God should have in the world.We should, however, not merely have the name to live (Rev 3:1), and still be dead.Hungering after righteousness as the means and preservative against the eternal hunger and distress on account of sin; hunger against hunger. Hunger in order not to hunger, as the way to everlasting satisfaction.Eternal glory and temporal reproach in the world and from the world.The rod of wickedness shall not rest for ever on the lot of the righteous (Psa 125:3).

Eze 34:30. God at times conceals from His own His countenance, that He may thereafter embrace them with everlasting favour (Stck.).The last knowledge is the experience that God is our God, and we are His people.The survey from the end back upon the beginning of the way leads us to recognise the eternal election of God above all else.Only by the way do the pilgrims of God doubt; not at the beginning, and at the end not at all. At first they proceed in faith, at last they shall see face to face.

Eze 34:31. Under the more immediate interpretation of the similitude, that men are meant, there is at the same time indicated the universality of grace,that not Israel alone, but Adam, humanity, are named as the flock; and the greatness also of the grace is perceptible in this, that Israel is not designated by its honourable name, that which expresses its election of grace (yet Eze 34:30?), but man, which calls to remembrance dust of the ground, sin, and death. Such significant addresses, containing much in little, in simple language both fulness and greatness of thought, we fitly call profound (rich in spirit, geistreick). And God, the Spirit of all spirits, should not His speech be with spiritual richness? (Schmieder.)The kindness and love of God toward man in Christ Jesus our Lord, Tit 3:4.Israel in his significance for humanity.That the true Israel is the Son of man, itself shows the wide horizon of the grace of God in Christ.The Christian application of My fatherland must be greater.Neither the shepherds nor the sheep of the flock are saints, but simply men.God manifests in flesh a divine nil humani a me alienum.The tabernacle of God with men, Revelation 21, the end and aim of Jehovahs action as shepherd.

Footnotes:

[1]style of interpretation here does not seem quite satisfactory. It is true, the representation is given under the image of a shepherd, and under that image all official administrations might be in a sense included. But the question is, what in Old Testament scripture, especially prophetical scripture, is actually included in it? In Jer 2:8 the shepherds are expressly distinguished from both prophets and priests; they are named as a distinct class, and can only be understood of kings and rulers. These also are what are most naturally understood by shepherds in Jer 23:1-4. It was, In fact, the case of David which gave rise to this metaphorical language, who was taken from the humble office of feeding his fathers sheep to feed Gods people Israel, and to be a captain over Israel (2Sa 5:2; Psa 78:70-71); and this gave the tone to future use. The actions here also ascribed to the false shepherds favour the same view: they are such as belong not to faithless and corrupt teachers, but to bad rulersviolence, selfish disregard of the weak and oppressed, wrongful dealings with their goods, etc. This also is the view taken by Henderson: not ecclesiastical rulers or teachers, but the civil governor.P. F.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

The Prophet is here again instructing the Church by figure, in representing the unfaithfulness of the Shepherds who neglect the Lord’s fold, and the faithfulness of Jesus the first Shepherd, who layeth down his life for his sheep. The subject under this similitude, runs through the whole Chapter.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

This Chapter begins with a woe, and an awful charge follows. Who are particularly meant here by the Shepherds, is not said; perhaps both Priests and Levites; the Elders, and all that had a charge; (for at this time the government had no prince) and the people were in captivity. The Holy Ghost indeed hath given no date to this Sermon; but as it was delivered by Ezekiel, it must have been while the Church was in Babylon. Perhaps the Holy Ghost was pleased to have it handed down to the Church without a date, on purpose that it might suit shepherds of every generation. Reader! look at God’s charge of unfaithful shepherds, and tremble! They are said to feed themselves, but not the flock. They are charged with neglecting the diseased of the fold; and even with force and cruelty to be ruling over them. They are said to be altogether inattentive to poor strayed sheep and wanderers, and never to search nor seek after them. Reader! awfully ponder these things. But do not fail while noticing the worthlessness of men, to observe the tender mercy of the Lord. The poor, diseased, neglected, and even wandering and scattered sheep, the Lord still calls his. My sheep (saith the Lord) wandered; yea my flock was scattered. Precious Jesus! how blessed is it thus to eye thy grace and favor, amidst all the infirmities of thy fold, and the worthless conduct of their keepers!

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Eze 34:12

The keen sarcasms of Erasmus, the insolent buffoonery of Hutton, were lavished on the ‘lovers of darkness’ and of the cloister. In England Colet and More echoed with greater reserve the scorn and invective of their friends. As an outlet for religious enthusiasm, indeed, monasticism was practically dead. The friar, now that his fervour of devotion and his intellectual energy had passed away, had sunk into the mere beggar. The monks had become mere landowners. Most of their houses were anxious only to enlarge their revenues and to diminish the number of those who shared them…. It was acknowledged that about a third of the religious houses, including the bulk of the large abbeys, were fairly and decently conducted. The rest were charged with drunkenness, with simony, and with the foulest and most revolting crimes.’

J. R. Green, Short History of the English People, chap. vi.

Eze 34:3

‘In the eyes of the living generation,’ wrote Mrs. Browning in the preface to her poems, ‘the poet is at once a richer and poorer man than he used to be; he weal’s better hood cloth, but speaks no more oracles.’

Reference. XXXIV. 3. Jesse Butt, The Soul’s Escape, p. 158.

Eze 34:4

‘We had a chaplain at the bagne,’ says Jean Valjean the ex-convict in Les Misrables (chap. 1.), ‘and one day I saw a bishop, Monseigneur, as they call him. He is the cure over the cures. He said mass in the middle of the bagne at an altar, and had a pointed gold thing on his head, which glistened in the bright sunshine; we were drawn up on three sides of a square, with guns and lighted matches facing us. He spoke, but was too far off, and we did not hear him. That is what a bishop is.’

The Responsibility of Office

Eze 34:10

In ancient times, as we find in Homer, it was customary to liken the people of a nation to sheep, and their rulers and leaders to shepherds. The title in its primary sense refers to kings and great leaders, yet by implication it may be taken for all who hold office, whether secular or ecclesiastical.

I. In considering the responsibilities of office, we must have in mind the source from which all authority flows. From every point of view that source is God Himself; for when St. Paul makes the statement, ‘The powers that be are ordained of God,’ he deduces it from the primary truth, ‘There is no power but of God’.

1. This is true because God’s providence so orders the circumstances of individuals in this world as practically to determine who shall be in positions of authority.

2. The gifts of mind and advantages of circumstance which enable us to hold positions of authority are bestowed upon us by God.

We are reminded by the Prophet that God can at any time remove the unfaithful servant, and that He will do so if it seem good to Him.

There is the account to be given, ‘I will require My flock at their hand’.

II. The duties of an ideal ruler are described in the latter part of the chapter, where God assumes the title of ‘Shepherd’ for Himself, and afterwards foretells the setting up of the kingdom of the Good Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice three of them:

1. The seeking out of the sheep who are scattered. 2. Feed the flock. This does not only mean feeding of the body, but of the mind and of the soul. 3. Protecting those under our care.

III. Our attention is drawn to some of the sins of a bad ruler:

1. His principal sin is generally selfishness. He rules for his own benefit, not for the benefit of those who are entrusted to his care.

2. Neglect of the flock.

3. Positive oppression and cruelty.

A. G. Mortimer, The Church’s Lessons for the Christian Year, part iv. p. 276.

References. XXXIV. 11, 12, 16. R. E. Hutton, The Crown of Christ, vol. ii. p. 93.

Feeding His Flock

Eze 34:15

The Lord’s feeding of His children is tenderly discriminating, and to bring us to maturity He uses very varied breads. Glance at two or three of the breads which are mentioned in the Sacred Word.

I. ‘ I will feed thee in a good pasture,’ saith the Lord. There are sweet and beautiful seasons, when life ceases to be a noisy tumultuous river, when it settles down into ‘still waters,’ and we are blessed with quiet visions which come as Heaven’s bread. The Lord is feeding us in a ‘fat pasture,’ giving us meat in due season.

II. ‘ I will feed thee with the bread of tears.’ Tears as bread: I do not think it means the tears that we shed because of our own griefs, but tears shed because of the griefs of others. These tears constitute bread, and enlarge our souls. Sympathy is feeding. It has sometimes happened that a whole family has been fed by the presence of an invalid child. ‘When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, He groaned in the spirit, and was troubled.’ Our Saviour was being fed with ‘the bread of tears!’

III. ‘ I will feed thee with the bread of adversity’; not only with sympathy for the griefs of others, but with personal grief of thine own. The bread of hardness! Do we not all know the experience in common life? How often we say to one another, in describing some personal experience: ‘Yes, I felt it very hard’. We were eating the bread of hardness. ‘We have toiled all night, and taken nothing!’ ‘Endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ;’ endure hardness, and so become still better soldiers of Jesus Christ.

‘I will feed My flock.’ The good Lord has many breads. ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’

J. H. Jowett, Meditations for Quiet Momenta, p. 14.

Eze 34:16

By the River Side in the Meadow there were Cotes and Folds for sheep, an House built for the nourishing and bringing up of those Lambs, the Babes of those Women that go on Pilgrimage. Also there was here one intrusted with them who could have Compassion, and that could gather these Lambs with his Arm and carry them in his Bosom, and that could gently lead those that were with young. Now to the care of this Man Christiana admonished her four Daughters to commit their little ones, that by these waters they might be housed, harboured, suckered, and nourished, and that none of them might be lacking in time to come. This Man, if any of them go astray or be lost, he will bring them again; he will also bind up that which is broken, and will strengthen them that are sick. Here they will never want Meat and Drink and Cloathing, here they will be kept from Thieves and Robbers, for this Man will die before one of those committed to his trust shall be lost.

Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress, part ii.

Eze 34:18

Thus they went on, till they came at the foot of the Hill Difficulty, when again their good friend Mr. Greatheart took an occasion to tell them of what happened there when Christian himself went by. So he led them first to the Spring. Lo, saith he, this is the Spring that Christian drank of before he went up this Hill, and then ’twas clear and good, but now ’tis dirty with the feet of some that are not desirous that Pilgrims here should quench their thirst.

Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress, part ii.

Eze 34:21

Bunyan once more recurs to this chapter in the second part of The Pilgrim’s Progress, when he is describing the reception of the pilgrims by the Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains. ‘Then said the Shepherds, you are welcome to us, for we have comfort for the feeble as for the strong. Our prince has an eye to what is done to the least of these, therefore Infirmity must not be a block to our Entertainment. So they had them to the Palace-Door, and then said unto them, come in Mr. Feeble-Mind, come in Mr. Ready-to-Halt, come in Mr. Despondency, and Mrs. Much Afraid his daughter. These, Mr. Greatheart, said the Shepherds to the Guide, we call in by name, for that they are most subject to draw back, but as for you and the rest that are strong, we leave you to your wonted liberty. Then said Mr. Greatheart, This day I see that Grace doth shine in your Faces, and that you are my Lord’s Shepherds indeed; for that you have not pushed these diseased neither with side nor shoulder, but have rather strewed their way into the Palace with Flowers, as you should.’

Reference. XXXIV. 23. R. E. Hutton, The Crown of Christ, vol. ii. p. 295.

Eze 34:26

When the one Shepherd is set over them, even He who shall stand (oh how much do we lie!) and feed in the strength of the Lord, the isles (and this the greatest of them), which wait for His law, are to look for that: and I will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. How desirable must every drop of such a shower be!… But when this shall be in Scotland (and it must be) is better to believe than prophecy; and quietly to hope and sit still (for that is yet our strength) than to quarrel with Him, that the wheels of His chariot move leisurely.

Samuel Rutherford.

Showers of Blessing

Eze 34:26

This word ‘blessing’ is one which belongs strictly to the vocabulary of religion. Irreligious people do not speak about blessing.

I. The copiousness of the blessing. If the will and love of God could have free course, there would be showers of blessing. The obstacle which hinders is in ourselves. Have you never, when enjoying any of the simple pleasures of nature, reflected with surprise on how little they are taken advantage of? It is so with the blessing of God, so near and yet so far on account of our negligence. How few cultivate sources of blessings prayer, study of Bible, a whiter holiness, more spiritual power.

II. Its timeliness ‘to come down in its season’. This refers to the temporal blessing of the early and the latter rain, but it has a wider scope. Blessing of every kind comes in its season in the time of need when the hearts of men are sighing for it. This is God’s season for which He waits. In ordinary life it is the little extra which makes all the difference between the weak and the strong man health, capital, art. May Christians heed this little more. It is near at hand; one act of surrender and it is yours.

III. The diffusiveness of God’s blessing ‘the places round about’. To be a Christian is to be so filled with the life of God that the vessel runs over, and all round about get the benefit. This is a severe test. Can you stand it?

James Stalker, The Sermon Year Book, 1891, p. 317.

References. XXXIV. 26. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. i. No. 28. J. Monro Gibson, A Strong City, p. 243. XXXIV. 27. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv. No. 1462. XXXIV. 30, 31. Ibid. xxx. No. 1807.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

Rulers Reproved

Eze 34

This chapter contains a divine reproof of “the shepherds.” It will be necessary first of all to understand the meaning of that word as it occurs in this connection. We think of pastors, bishops, Christian overseers, and the like. There is no reference to them whatsoever in this tremendous indictment In this case the meaning of “shepherd” is ruler. It may be king, or magistrate, or prince; but the idea is magisterial, governmental, and not of necessity priestly or pastoral. Here is God, if we may so say without irreverence, standing up for the people. When did he ever do otherwise? Verily this is a People’s Bible. The Lord has never been kindly to kings and rulers and merely nominal and official magistrates; they have done their utmost to disestablish the theocracy. Every king is by so much an enemy of Heaven. He cannot be otherwise. From the beginning the history is a history of protest on the part of God. We forget the introductory arrangement; we have obliterated from our minds the practically atheistic prayer which said, Give us a king, that we may be like the other nations of the earth. God often answers prayers that he may plague people with the effect of their own supplication. God knows how to conduct the school; we are in a place of education and of discipline; he knows that it is better to answer some prayers than to neglect them, and he knows that every answer means disappointment, humiliation, chagrin, and possibly ultimate confession, penitence, and restoration. The Lord is condemning shepherds who feed themselves and neglect the flocks. Is not God the God of classes, aristocracies, west-ends, and official personages generally? Is he not for the popes and kaisers and czars and men who head and lead the armies? Never. They are conducting as far as they can a process of disestablishment of the Church; they are trying to disestablish the theocracy, the rule of God. The whole tendency of their personality and government is towards materialism, force, spectacular display, military pomp and grandeur. Give them guns, and they want no other church or altar; multiply their horses, and they ask not for your missionaries, teachers, and instructors in moral sentiments: whereas God is all on the side of the invisible, the moral, the spiritual, the metaphysical. His kingdom cometh not with observation: the sun never rises noisily, when he wakes the whole heaven knows it, but not by any noise or tumult he has made knows it by the quiet ministry of all-blessing light.

Here then is the Lord God of heaven and earth leading the cause of the “flock” the mean, the weak, the neglected, the despised. What is God’s policy towards the peoples of the world? By these words let us stand as Christian Churches for ever. Here is our charter; this we learn from a negative point of view is what God would have the nations be and do:

“The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost” ( Eze 34:4 ).

What! is God interested in the sick, the broken, the outcast, the lost? Why do we not then one and all fall down and worship him, and say, The Lord he is God? He would defend us, espouse our cause, break in upon our solitude with heaven’s own companionship. Why should there be any atheist? Even ideally this is the grandest conception in the whole universe with which we are acquainted; as an ideal representation of shepherdliness there is nothing in all poetry to compare with this domestic, tender music. He does not complain that no battles have been fought, no victories won, no renown acquired. His list is worth reading again “sick,” “broken,” “driven away,” “lost” That is God’s record. He wants vouchers on all these points. What about the sick? he says. What is our answer? Lord, we had a theory about the sick and the broken we thought the weak ought to go to the wall; we assembled and discussed the matter, and we all voted for the survival of the fittest Is that an answer to Eternal Righteousness? You left the sick man behind because he was sick. Will that do in any day of judgment that is governed by the spirit of right? What then did the shepherds or rulers do to the people? What they are doing today: “with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.” There is nothing modern in coercion, there is nothing startlingly original in cruelty. God will not have it so; he will have a ministry of light, intelligence, persuasion, reason. Is God then opposed to law and judgment and penalty? By no means: but he prefers to administer them himself “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” He will balance all things; he himself will make all things right in the end. It is a dangerous thing for any man to ascend the judgment seat; it is an infinite peril for any man to say, This is right, and that is wrong, in relation to disputed or controverted questions. All such exercise of right or office leads to the accession of vanity and self-trust on the part of the administrators and judges. We are all men poor, frail, fallible men. “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.”

Can rulers misbehave themselves without the people feeling their misbehaviour either directly or indirectly? It would appear not: the indictment reads, “And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd.” It is the place of the ruler to be a pastor, a father, a pater in Deo . Beautiful even up to the point of sweetest music is the title “father in God” the great broad-hearted father, skilled in excusing things that other people would turn into grounds of accusation and condemnation and expulsion; that fatherliness which keeps all doors open, so that if there be any return on the part of the wanderer there shall be no difficulty in getting into the house softly, stealthily, and to be found there next morning as if the place had never been vacated. There is a music of love; there is a skill of affection; there is a masterliness in redemption. We cannot amend the ways of God. What will the Lord do to the shepherds? He says: “Behold, I am against the shepherds.” What a challenge is that! Omnipotence speaks, Almightiness marks the battlefield and sounds the battle bugle. But will he not visit the flock with tremendous indignation? A beautiful answer is given to this inquiry in pronouns: “My sheep,” “my flock”; and again, in Eze 34:11 , “my sheep,” and in Eze 34:12 , “my sheep,” “my,” “mine,” though so neglected, bruised, desolated, orphaned; still mine. His mercy endureth for ever: when my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up; never so much the Lord as when my poor heart needs him most. He comes for you to the public-house, to the den of iniquity, to the place consecrated to blasphemy, and he says, You are still mine: I want you, I have come for you: let us go home together, as if our companionship had never been interrupted. Oh skilled love, masterly pity!

When God gathers all the sheep together again what will he do with them?

“I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God” ( Eze 34:14-15 ).

There is joy in the shepherd’s heart when he brings back that which was lost. The parable says the shepherd has more joy over the sheep found than over the ninety-and-nine that went not astray, and likewise there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth, more than over the ninety-and-nine just persons which need no repentance. We are to look upon this people not so much in the light of moral aliens from God as of people who have been unjustly treated or basely neglected; we make all the distinction between the one class and the other when we speak of outcast Israel and outcast nations, and people who have voluntarily and shamelessly left the kingdom of heaven. Yet it is wondrous to observe how even in the latter case mercy prevails against judgment, softens judgment by the sheer force of tears.

There is one class described which is most noteworthy. It is described repeatedly, notably in Eze 34:16 : “That which was driven away.” Some people go away, some people are driven away; we must make a distinction between the two. Are we driving away men from churches? That is quite a possible mischief. We may be so hard, so unreasonable, so pharisaic, so wanting in all the tenderness of practical sympathy, that people will be simply driven away. I would not present myself before any harsh ministry; I would never sit to listen to any man who simply and exclusively denounced the judgment of God against my life; I can do that myself: I want a great shepherd-brother, a great pastor-king, who will assure me over and over again for such repetition will never be tedious that God really does love and wants me to go home again at once. Some may condemn this as sentimental, but I do not take the cue of my life from such foolish persons. I am so weak, frail, self-helpless that I want a thousand ministers to tell me at the rising of every sun that today I may be a better man than I was yesterday. We need ministries of comfort, encouragement; and in such ministries we shall often find skilfully introduced the element of fear; but when it is introduced by men who talk thus the music of life, it will be introduced with a thousandfold force: it will come upon us with such unexpectedness, and it will be associated with such an atmosphere of pathos, that we shall no longer rebel, but rather say, “The judgments of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.” Are we driving people away? Are we driving people away from the family? I have known children driven away because their fathers were fools in discipline. When children have to go out from the fireside to seek their innocent recreations and amusements; when they have to steal away to these, and come back in the guise of hypocrites and liars, I do not expect them to turn out Christian men. The home should be the brightest place on earth; then the Church: the Church should be the larger home.

How one evil leads to another, and how iniquity gathers as it rolls, is strikingly illustrated in this chapter:

“Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet? And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet; and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet” ( Eze 34:18-19 ).

To live at such a table, who can do it? We do get some little things, but they are all bespattered, they are all fouled; they do not come to us like virgin snow from heaven: we get them at secondhand, after they have been mauled and crushed, after the bloom has been rubbed off them; or if they be streams they have been fouled by other feet. What do many of us ever get but something that has been thrown to us, or something that other people else could not themselves devour? If they could have devoured it we should have never seen it. I owe all I have in the world to the people. I owe nothing to the upper classes; in so far as they are the upper classes in mere name, I hate them. I take up the indictment of history against them. What then? Are they all personally bad? Nothing of the kind: some of the choicest souls the Lord ever made have been found amongst them. I am not speaking of all persons, I am speaking of official designations, functions, appointments; and I am speaking not of them only, but of them as they are misconceived, abused, and administered, in malfeasance or in selfishness. There are good men in all classes; there may have been good kings. We must take care how we drive people away from law. The driving away policy is always a bad policy, if it be possible to substitute for it the policy of reason, persuasion, sympathy, and love. Let us be just to all men.

The Lord is against all monopoly and tyranny, against all heedlessness of the flock, against every form of neglect; he will never sympathise with the few against the many, with the strong against the weak, with the mighty against the frail. I know a family at this time who have been a hundred years on the land, and they dare not ask my lord god the duke to put a little annexe to their house that they might be able by some arrangements to mitigate the pressure of their rent. Is God with the duke or with the tenant? If he is with the duke he has belied the revelation of his providence. We must live quietly, without rebelliousness or revolutionariness, merely for their own sake. “God’s mills grind slow.” The ages are to us a long time in coming, and a long time in going; but God must not be judged by today, yesterday, or tomorrow, but by the whole scope and purpose of his throne. So judged, my faith is that one day we shall say, “God is love,” and we shall hail one another in the language of true companionship and brotherhood, saying, After all, we are the stronger and the tenderer for our conflicts and sufferings below.

Then God says he will make all his flock and the places round about his hill a blessing; he will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing: and God will raise up for his flock “a plant of renown,” rather, a plantation renowned for plentifulness: the fruit of it shall be heard of; the fruit of it shall be free; the fruit of it shall satisfy the hunger of the world.

The concluding words are very sweet, “And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture” ( Eze 34:31 ). This seems to be an individual and direct address; princes and rulers are no longer within the purview of God; but turning to the flock itself he says, “And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men.” The meaning is, You are only men, made yesterday, and very frail. “And I am your God”: here is a great and necessary contrast. God’s condescensions are never any abdications of his majesty. When he stoops it is with the stoop of a King; he is never less than King, never less than God. He knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust; he knoweth that we are of yesterday and know nothing; he describes us as “a wind that cometh for a little time, and then passeth away,” but he pledges his Godhead that manhood is precious and shall not be lost if love can save it. Here is the gospel before the incoming of the historical Christ. But Christ was always in the world. Christ is the God of the Old Testament, according to Christian interpretation. He was in the world, and the world knew him not. Abraham, he says, rejoiced to see his day; he said, “Abraham saw my day, and was glad,” and beginning at Moses and all the prophets he expounded to two auditors in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. When therefore we preach an Old Testament gospel, we are in reality preaching a New Testament gospel. There is only one Testament old as God, new as the present day.

Prayer

Almighty God, thou hast measured all things, and set all things in order. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord; the hairs of our head are numbered; not a sparrow falleth to the ground without our Father. All things are thine, and thou knowest them one by one; if one be gone astray, thou dost go after it, and thou wilt not return until thou hast found it. Thou art the Good Shepherd; the Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep; the Shepherd lives for the flock. Our Saviour liveth, ever liveth, to make intercession for us, and thou art thyself thinking about us alway. We cannot understand thy thought; sometimes we reproach the action of God, not knowing what we are doing, saying, This is wrong, when afterwards thou dost prove it to be right. Thou dost rebuke our will; thou wilt not permit us to go our own way, and lo, when all is concluded we see that thy way was right, thou didst lead the blind by a way that they knew not. Now at the Cross of Christ, gathered loyally and lovingly, and trusting our whole soul to Christ for salvation, we would trust our whole life to our Father in heaven for guidance. We are unwise, we are foolish, we know it all, our own experience witnesses against us; so now in the sanctuary, at the Cross, with all holiest, sweetest ministries acting upon us, we would renounce the self-considering past, and put ourselves wholly into the hands of God. Guide us, O thou great Jehovah; Jesus, still lead on. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Help us to cut off our right hand, or pluck out our right eye, if we have offence from either, and to do everything at thy bidding. We do sometimes, yea, even now, wish to live the divine life, that has no self, no interest, no narrow solicitude; the great, broad, generous, everlasting life of passionate love to God. Canst thou work this miracle for us? Lord, if thou canst do anything for us, help us herein. Why should we go astray when we might rise upward day by day towards fuller and clearer light? Why should we mistake a scorpion for an egg? Why should we seize the stone supposing it to be bread? Lord, help us, guide us, and with all thine almightiness of wisdom, strength, and grace do thou endeavour to make us better. Thou shalt yet have a man upon the earth that shall serve thee, a redeemed and perfected humanity, an Adam as thou didst mean him to be pure, holy, simple, childlike, loving; having no self, having only God. Amen.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

XVIII

PROPHECIES OF THE RESTORATION

Ezekiel 33-39

The subject of this chapter is Ezekiel’s prophecies of the restoration of Israel. Jeremiah (Jeremiah 30-33) gave a similar group of prophecies, and in the book of Isaiah (40-66) we find this same theme: The restoration of Israel and its future glory. Here Ezekiel discusses the same theme.

We saw in the last chapter that Ezekiel had, in a prophetic way, disposed of the foreign nations, the enemies of Israel, having predicted the entire overthrow of all those who had been the means of Israel’s downfall with the exception of Babylon. He gave no direct prophecy of the downfall of Babylon, only an indirect one prophesying her rule over Egypt for about forty years, which implied that he believed that Babylon would fall at the end of that period. Thus it may be seen that these chapters on the restoration of Israel are in their logical place in his prophecies. He had predicted the fall of Jerusalem, the capital, and the scattering of the people among all the nations. Then he predicted the fall of all the nations that were her enemies, and having finished with them, the way was made clear for his predictions regarding the future of Israel. He devotes these seven chapters to the blessed age, the messianic age, which follows the return of Israel from her exile in these foreign lands.

The great function of the prophet is here set forth. He is to be a watchman (Eze 33:1-20 ). The figure, of course, is an Oriental one. It was the custom in those lands to build a watchtower on the border of their territories, or at the approaches to their cities, or near their great centers, and appoint a man to stand upon the watchtower and when he saw an army coming he was to blow his trumpet and warn the people. There were many throughout Israel and all Oriental lands. The prophet transfers the figure to spiritual functions as regards the people of Israel.

The duty and responsibility of the watchman are set forth in Eze 33:1-6 , which are easy to comprehend and which need not be commented upon except that the watchman has the responsibility for the lives of those over whom he watches. If he sees the foe coming and warns, his duty is done. If he sees the foe coming and does not warn and any of the inhabitants lose their lives, their blood shall be required at his hands because he had failed in his duty. He shall suffer as a result of that failure.

This duty and responsibility were impressed upon Ezekiel thus: The Lord speaks unto Ezekiel and says, “So thou, son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. …. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shall surely die, and thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way; that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thy hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, and he turn not from his way; he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul.”

A glance at the situation will explain this more clearly. Ezekiel in Eze 18 , prophesied and brought before the people that great doctrine of individual responsibility and liberty. He exploded the old theory that a man is the slave of his environment and must necessarily suffer for the sins of his fathers. It is not necessary that he should perish because of the sins of his fathers. Ezekiel brought before them the great doctrine that Jehovah does not will the death of any man; that Jehovah has given to all men the privilege and possibility of repenting and if they repent and turn, the penalties of their past sins or their father’s sins are forever abrogated and they are free from them. The doctrine of individualism is there set before us, and this chapter is an application of that principle.

Ezekiel now realizes that, since his nation is destroyed, their capital in ruins, the center of religious worship is gone, that his duty is to speak to individuals; that now it is with individual Israelites. His duty is to warn them of their own sins and the dangers that are consequent upon their sins. He is not to speak to the nation in the mass any more, but he is to deal with individuals and put each individual upon his own personal responsibility and relationship to God. He can thereby prepare the people to return to the land and begin anew the nation God has purposed they should become.

The condition of the minds of the people is that of despondency, making the prophet’s appeal of no effect. Eze 33:10-20 , especially in Eze 33:10 , we have the condition of their minds set forth: “Thus ye speak, saying, Our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we pine away in them; how then can we live?” This indicates at once that the people were in a state of despair. They had no hope; they believed that their doom was inevitable; that it was useless for them to think of enjoying fellowship with God and life any more. To counteract that complaint and that condition of mind, Ezekiel brings before them four great principles which are found in the remainder of this section, and I will embody the substance of these verses in these four statements:

1. That Jehovah desires that men shall live.

2. That man is not irrevocably bound by the past, but may repent.

3. That men are to come to God individually and thus come into the new Israel.

4. That men are judged more by what they are than by what they have been.

Let us now discuss the theme, occasion, and date of the prophecy of Ezekiel in Eze 33:21-33 . On hearing of the fall of Jerusalem, Ezekiel announces the conditions of return. These conditions are moral and religious. In Eze 33:21 we have the date of this prophecy: the twelfth year, that is one year after the fall of Jerusalem, tenth month and fifth day of the month, almost eighteen months after the fall. He says, “One that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten.” Some find a chronological difficulty here. Some of the ancient versions say it was in the eleventh year and tenth month, which means that Ezekiel heard of the fall of Jerusalem six months after that event occurred. According to this account of Ezekiel it was a year and six months. It seems to them almost incredible that it would require eighteen months for the news of that great event to reach the prophet and much more likely, he received the news at the end of six months, that being ample time for the caravans to reach Babylon and the news to spread. But it is better to take it as it stands, allowing for probable delays on the part of this messenger in getting to Babylon.

Now, after he received news that the city was smitten, he had a word to say to the people that remained in Palestine; that remnant spoken of in Jeremiah (40-44), Ezekiel addresses in Eze 33:23-29 . Note verse Eze 33:24 : “Son of man, they that inhabit those wastes of the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance,” which seems to refer to the miserable remnant that was left at Mizpah, Bethlehem, and various other places. They say, “Abraham was one, only one, and he inherited the land, but we are many and the land is given us for an inheritance.” Their idea is that since to Israel was given this land, and they were the nucleus of Israel, and since Abraham being only one, developed into such a large nation, they who are many have as many more chances of developing into a great nation, and therefore they remain in Palestine believing that they will become a great nation and possess the land for all the future. The people who said that were still practicing their idolatry. Ezekiel says, “Thus saith the Lord God: As I live, surely they that are in the waste places shall fall by the sword; and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured; and they that are in the strongholds and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.”

In Eze 33:30-33 , we have the effect of Ezekiel’s prophecies upon the people with whom he dwelt, there by the river Chebar in Babylon. Here is a passage of great comfort to a preacher sometimes. Ezekiel has now become popular and he is drawing fine congregations; the people are flocking to hear him, and they say, verse Eze 33:30 : “And as for thee, son of man, the children of thy people talk of thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord.” And he goes on to say how they came and heard the words but did them not, for with their mouth they show much love but their heart goeth after their gain. They have a great many good things to say to their preacher but their hearts go after their gain. “And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they hear thy words, but they do them not.” “Fine sermon, very lovely song, prayed splendidly,” they say but they never think of heeding what the preacher says.

The evil shepherds are described (Eze 34:1-10 ). They feed themselves, not the flock. Jeremiah had something to say regarding those evil shepherds. Ezekiel has a strong denunciation of them in these ten verses. These shepherds feed themselves and care for themselves, but care nothing for the sheep, and the sheep wander through the forests and the deserts and upon every high hill and are scattered among all the nations of the earth and there are none that seek after them to bring them back. As a result the shepherds are denounced verse Eze 34:10 : “Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my sheep at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the sheep; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; and I will deliver my sheep from their mouth, that they may not be food for them.”

But Jehovah takes care of his sheep after disposing of the evil shepherds. Jehovah will undertake the care of the flock in the restoration period (Eze 34:11-19 ). Notice particularly verse Eze 34:11 : “Behold, I myself, even I, will search for my sheep, and will seek them out.” Latter part of verse Eze 34:12 : “So I will seek out my sheep; and I will deliver them out of all places whither they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.” Verse Eze 34:15 : “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God.” Jehovah says that he will be the shepherd. He makes no reference here to a messianic Saviour, the Christ, or King that is to come. He himself is going to do it. And then in Eze 34:17-22 , Jehovah says that he is going to separate and distinguish between different parts of the flock.

Verse Eze 34:17 : “I judge between sheep and sheep, the rams and the he-goats.” He is going to see that the leaders among the people of Israel are not like cattle that go down to the stream and drink and muddy the water, thus making it unfit for the others to drink. Jehovah is going to distinguish between them and see that they are in their proper places. Then from Eze 34:23-31 it says that Jehovah will raise up David as Shepherd and there shall be great prosperity. He said before, “I will be the Shepherd,” but now he says, “I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.” This is messianic and refers to the work of Christ. In the latter part of Eze 34:26 , he describes the prosperity that shall come: “There shall be showers of blessing.” Here is where the words of the song, “There Shall Be Showers of Blessing,” came from. The prophet continues the magnificent description of the prosperity of the country and how all shall flourish under the rule and care of this great Shepherd, David, not David himself in person, but a member of his dynasty and of his family, who is Christ, our Lord.

There is a prophecy against Edom in Eze 35 . The substance of this chapter is this: Mount Seir, or Edom, had sinned against Judah and Jerusalem at the time of her calamity (Eze 35:5 ). He charges Edom with two sins: (1) “Thou hast had a perpetual enmity”; (2) “Thou hast given over the children of Israel to the power of the sword in the time of their calamity.” When Edom, or Mount Seir, found Israel down, they trampled on her as hard as they could. Eze 35:10 mentions a third sin, and that is (3) “Thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries (northern and southern Israel) shall be mine, and we will possess it.” The point is this: When Israel was deported to Babylon and the country left desolate, the Edomites came from the south and took possession of all the land of Judah they possibly could and began to inhabit and make it their possession. Because of that the prophet’s denunciation is buried against them, prophesying the downfall of their capital and their country. It was necessary for the prophet to do this. They were encroaching upon Israel, and they must be driven forth from the land to make way for Israel.

Then there is a prophecy concerning the land of Israel in Eze 36:1-15 . This is the counterpart, or the other side, of the prophecy (6) where he denounced the mountains of Israel because they were the high places of worship and predicted their desolation and overthrow. In the future age, the mountains of Israel shall be delivered out of the hand of the enemies, and they shall become abundantly fruitful. Notice, especially, verse Eze 36:8 : “But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people Israel; for they are at hand to come,” i.e., “Ye shall till and sow and I will multiply men upon you; all the house of Israel, and the cities shall be inhabited and the waste places shall be builded.” Then he says, “And I will multiply upon you man and beast,” carrying forward his glowing description of the prosperity and fruitfulness of the land.

In Eze 36:16-23 the prophet says that Jehovah will do this thing for his name’s sake and in honor of his own holy name: “Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God: I do not this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for my holy name which ye have profaned among the nations whither ye went.”

In Eze 36:24-38 , we have the restoration and regeneration of Israel. Here we come to the New Testament ground, in the gospel dispensation. This is Ezekiel’s deepest, sweetest, and best prophecy. This passage calls to mind a notable challenge of Alexander Campbell, substantially in these words: “The whole world is challenged to produce even one passage in any part of God’s Word, from Genesis to Revelation, proving that God ever commanded prophet, priest, preacher, or layman to sprinkle or pour water just water pure water, on man, beast, or thing as a moral ceremonial or religious rite.” In response to the challenge the one passage cited was this scripture, Eze 36:25 . Of course it was easy for Mr. Campbell to show the irrelevancy of this passage. It does not meet the requirements of the challenge because:

(1) It is not a command of God to any man to do any sprinkling whatever, but an express declaration of some kind of sprinkling that God himself will do.

(2) The clean water of the text was not even in its type just water, but was a compound called the water of purification whose recipe is found in Num 19:1-10 . This was a liquid compound of ashes and water. A red heifer was burned. Into the burning was cast cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet cloth. The ashes of this burning were gathered up and mingled with water and this mixture was called the water of cleansing, or of purification.

(3) The typical efficacy of this mixture was in the ashes of the red things burned: the red heifer, the red cedar wood, red hyssop, and scarlet cloth; red signified blood. The antitype is the blood of Christ, Heb 9:13-14 : “For if the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

(4) The whole passage in Eze 36:21-38 refers to those last gospel days when the Jews, long disobedient, blinded, and scattered, will be gathered and saved, as set forth by Paul (Rom 11:25-36 ). This salvation will be of grace (Eze 36:22 ). It will be by regeneration (Eze 36:25-26 ). This regeneration will produce a spirit of obedience (Eze 36:27 ). This regeneration consists of at least two parts, cleansing and renewal. The cleansing (Eze 36:25 ) is effected by the application of Christ’s blood typified by the water of purification, the antitype of which is the blood of Christ (Heb 9:13-14 ; 1Jn 1:7 ). The renewal (Eze 36:26 ) is the change of man’s nature. Both of these ideas appear in Joh 3:5 : “Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” This is one birth. It is the Spirit birth. The water signifies cleansing; the Spirit, renewal. The same ideas appear in Tit 3:5 : “The washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” In none of these passages is there the slightest reference to baptism.

Now let us consider the vision of dry bones (Eze 37:1-14 ) and its interpretation. What are these dry bones? Is this a literal resurrection from the dead, or is this a conversion, a spiritual resurrection? It is not either. Eze 37:11 gives the clue to the interpretation. These bones are the house of Israel. What makes them so dry? “Behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.” They have no hope whatever as to the resurrection, or renewal of their national existence. They were saying, “We are scattered among all the nations. Our city and our capital is gone and there is no hope for our nation and our people any more.” Nationally or religiously, they were as dry bones which had no hope of a resurrection. Now there is no distinct reference to any resurrection of the body, nor of any spiritual regeneration. It is national.

The prophet was required to preach to them. He preached and the bones began to come together and he kept on preaching and flesh came upon them, and by and by they stood up. The whole house of Israel raised to a new national life and existence! Then he kept on preaching and the result was as we see in verse Eze 37:14 : “I will put my spirit within you and ye shall live and I shall place you in your own land and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.” That was fulfilled to some extent in the return of the 50,000 after the decree of Cyrus, but it was never completely fulfilled. An army of about 50,000 whose spirit Jehovah stirred up, returned at first, and that stirring up was the result of the preaching of Ezekiel and Jeremiah and the study of the latter part of the book of Isaiah. The figure of the resurrection is used in Eze 37:12 , thus: “I will open your graves and cause you to come out of your graves,” but the graves are national graves, not literal. This is referred to by Paul (Rom 11:15 ) as a resurrection and contemplates the final gathering of the Jews before the millennium.

The union of Judah and Israel is symbolized in Eze 37:15-28 : “Take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim.” These two sticks he joined together. This is a symbolic action similar to many other actions of Ezekiel which we have already considered. The meaning of it is this: “Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his companions; and I will put them with it, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in my hand.” Jeremiah prophesied the same thing; so did Isaiah in substance; so did Hosea; so did Amos, Micah, and Zephaniah.

It was the belief of all the prophets that when Israel returned from exile it would be one nation, a united nation. Ezekiel goes on, “I will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.” In Eze 37:24 the king is called “David my servant,” that is, one of his descendants; a member of his dynasty shall be king over them and they shall have one shepherd. Then he says, “I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them.” Verse Eze 37:27 : “My tabernacle also shall be with them; and they shall be my people,” all of which has its fulfilment in the millennial age. This reminds us of Rev 21:3 .

An account of the invasion of Gog and Magog is found in Ezekiel 38-39. This is the picture of the last and final struggle of all the nations with God. We find that John refers to the same struggle in Rev 20:7-9 : “When the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall come forth to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up over the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down out of heaven and devoured them.” Ezekiel says, Eze 38:2 : “Son of man, set thy face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,” nations lying probably away to the north of Israel on the borders of the Caspian and Black Seas representing the great barbarian hordes that infested central Asia and northern Armenia on the very outskirts of the then known world. “I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed and in full armor, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords.”

What does this mean? Ezekiel is picturing the millennial age, the messianic age, and away in the future after the glorious age has been in progress, for how long we cannot tell, he sees this vision of the final struggle. Israel has been enjoying the blessedness of that age for centuries and the nations around her have been destroyed. The nations lying far off on the outskirts of the world now rouse themselves for a final onslaught on God’s kingdom. “And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates.” Thus the people are unprotected; they are living in the messianic age when all is peace and harmony. “I will go to them that are at rest.” What for? “To take the spoil and to take the prey.” This is the final conflict of the barbarian nations of the world with their vast hosts, against the messianic kingdom.

What is to be the result? We find in Eze 38:17-23 , Ezekiel says the prophets have for a long time been prophesying of this very thing, though we do not have any distinct reference to the prophecy. As Gog, with his hosts, encompasses the whole land of Israel and surrounds the city, then Ezekiel says in the latter part of Eze 38:18 , “My wrath shall come up into my nostrils . . . I will rain upon him, and upon his hordes, and upon the many peoples that are with him, an overflowing shower, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.” That is to be the end of Gog and his innumerable hordes.

Then we have this statement, Eze 39:4 : “Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy hordes and the peoples that are with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.” And in Eze 39:9 , he says, “And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall make fires of the weapons and burn them, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall make fires of them seven years.” Eze 39:12 says that the people of Israel are going to bury all those that fall and they are to be seven months burying the dead, and are to have a rule that when any person finds a bone he is to set up a mark by it until the body has been buried outside in the valley. Then we have the feast of all the birds of the air and the beasts of the field upon the slain. The chapter closes with a description of Israel’s restoration (Eze 39:28-29 ). The best commentary on the destruction of Gog is found in that short passage, in Rev 20 , where John pictures Satan as raising an insurrection among all the nations of the world at the close of the millennium. Ezekiel pictures it as taking place a long while after the restoration and the blessed messianic age. (See the author’s discussion of this subject in his book on Revelation.)

QUESTIONS

1. What is the theme of this section and where do we find the same subject discussed in Jeremiah and Isaiah?

2. Show the logical order of these prophecies.

3. What is the great function of the prophet and how is it here set forth?

4. What is the duty and responsibility of the watchman?

5. How was this duty and responsibility impressed upon Ezekiel?

6. What is the condition of the minds of the people and how does the prophet meet it?

7. What is the theme, occasion, and date of the prophecy of Ezekiel in Eze 33:21-33 , and what is the chronological difficulty here and its solution?

8. Whom does the prophet address in Eze 33:23-29 , what the occasion of this address and what the prophet’s message to them?

9. What is the effect of Ezekiel’s preaching on the people in exile (Eze 33:30-33 )?

10. How are the evil shepherds described in Eze 34:1-10 , what the prophet’s denunciation of them and how does Jehovah take care of his sheep?

11. What is the prophecy against Edom in Eze 35 and why?

12. What is the prophecy concerning the land of Israel in Eze 36:1-15 ?

13. What is the motive of Jehovah in doing all this (Eze 38:16-23 )?

14. Expound Eze 36:24-38 , showing the controversy about it, and its true interpretation in the light of the New Testament.

15. What the vision of dry bones (Eze 37:1-14 ) and what its interpretation?

16. How is the union of Judah and Israel symbolized and what the glorious picture that follows (Eze 37:15-28 )?

17. Give an account of the invasion of Gog and Magog and the result (Ezekiel 38-39). Discuss fully.

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Eze 34:1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Ver. 1. And the word. ] See Eze 18:1 .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Ezekiel Chapter 34

We have next a solemn, righteous, but severe denunciation of the kings or shepherds of Israel, at whose door Jehovah lays the blame of selfishly afflicting and ruining His people.

“And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.” (Ver. 1-6)

Thus without the fear of God or love for His people, they forgot the relations both of themselves and of Israel to Jehovah. Hence all was wrong, as could not but be when His rights had no place in their eyes. Like the Gentile monarchs, they regarded the people whom they governed as their own, not as the flock of God: hence confusion and every evil work. What a contrast with Him, deigning to be Son of David and King of Israel, who will rule over them justly, reigning in righteousness, as a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry land; as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, yea, as the light of the morning when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, as the tender grass out of the earth by clear shining after rain! The shepherds had fed themselves, not the flock. They fed not the sheep, no matter what the benefits they had drawn from them. No sorrows of theirs drew out their sympathies. They ruled with harshness and rigour, and scattered them, a prey to all the wild beasts without a shepherd’s care; and scattered the sheep over the whole face of the earth: no one sought or searched them out.

But He who called to the sceptre over Israel was not heedless of His people groaning under their wicked rulers. “Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of Jehovah; as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and fed not my flock; therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of Jehovah. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.” (Ver. 7-10) Their sin is set out, the shepherds are convicted and sentenced; but Jehovah promises to deliver His sheep.

The manner of this deliverance is now further assured and explained. “For thus saith the Lord Jehovah; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord Jehovah. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment. And as for you, O my flock, thus saith the Lord Jehovah; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he-goats. Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet? And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet; and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet.” (Ver. 11-19)

Thus the utter failure of the shepherds casts their care on Jehovah Himself who undertakes, not merely to require the sheep at the hands of those set over them, but to search for them and seek them out wherever dispersed. In verses 13, 14, this is detailed in language so simple and express that it is in vain here as in kindred passages to evade His testimony to the work He will yet accomplish for Israel on earth when He has finished gathering His assembly for heaven. Never have these words been fulfilled as yet; they therefore must be. Their certainty and security rest on Himself, and on that mercy which endures for ever, as they will soon sing how joyfully! In vain do sages reason on His non-execution of a threat when men, as at Nineveh, repented: for after all it came, though it be His delight to hear the cry of those that humble themselves at His word, and defer the stroke till patience would lose its character and lapse into indifference at evil which is far from Him. But He who promises knows how to make good all circumstances and conditions, even as He has meanwhile brought in the only righteous basis; as for past forbearance, so for the future harvest of blessing. That day of rich goodness and mercy will not be without the judgment of the wicked, but contrariwise. As we learn in Eze 33 that individual state before God will have a force in Israel which it never had under the first covenant, so here it will be when He judges between sheep and sheep, between the rams and the he-goats, and calls up the wantonness of those who destroyed what they could not use to the hurt of the flock. He will judge the quick no less than the dead.

But there is more still. There might be judgment of oppression and deliverance of the wretched, and blessing of the people restored to the land of Israel; but grace does not stay its flow according to the measures of men. “Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle, and between the lean cattle. Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad; therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle. And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I Jehovah will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I Jehovah have spoken it. And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them. And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid. And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more. Thus shall they know that I Jehovah their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord Jehovah. And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord Jehovah.” (Ver. 20-31)

Not Zerubbabel nor Nehemiah, not the Asmonaean house, still less the Herods are meant, but the King, Messiah-Jehovah, as we know from elsewhere, but here distinguished from Jehovah who speaks and will accomplish. Otherwise your interpretation exposes you to insinuate or think that the word of prophecy is the grossest exaggeration. Interpret it of the Lord reigning over Israel thus gathered back in divine mercy and power, and then one feels that the words cannot rise beyond the reality: when it comes, “the half was not told” will be the genuine feeling of those who behold His glory even on the earth. And what will it be on high!

It is absurd on every point of view to interpret these prophecies of the church or of the gospel. Then the very beasts will have their nature changed, and the earth yield its increase: for it will be the day for which creation waits, groaning still and travailing in pain, but then it is to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.

It is the day when Messiah is raised up for them, not now rejected and despised as once, a plant of renown, and Israel shall no more either pine with hunger in the land or be a reproach of the Gentiles. Jehovah will be with them, their God, and they His people. Has He spoken, and will He not make all good? Is aught too hard, too good, for the Lord?

Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 34:1-6

1Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, 2Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock? 3You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock. 4Those who are sickly you have not strengthened, the diseased you have not healed, the broken you have not bound up, the scattered you have not brought back, nor have you sought for the lost; but with force and with severity you have dominated them. 5They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every beast of the field and were scattered. 6My flock wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill; My flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth, and there was no one to search or seek for them.’

Eze 34:1 This is literally a marker for a new revelation.

Eze 34:2 Son of man See note at Eze 2:1.

prophesy This term (BDB 612, KB 659) is first used in Eze 4:7 (Niphal PERFECT, cf. Eze 37:7), but it appears often as a Niphal IMPERATIVE (cf. Eze 6:2; Eze 11:4[twice]; Eze 13:2; Eze 13:17; Eze 20:46; Eze 21:2; Eze 21:9; Eze 21:14; Eze 21:28; Eze 25:2; Eze 28:21; Eze 29:2; Eze 30:2; Eze 34:2[twice]; Eze 35:2; Eze 36:1; Eze 36:3; Eze 36:6; Eze 37:9[twice],12; Eze 38:2; Eze 38:14; Eze 39:1). See Special Topic: Prophecy (OT) .

the shepherds of Israel Shepherd (BDB 944, KB 1258, Qal PARTICIPLE, cf. Eze 34:2[6 times], 3, 5,7,8[3 times],9,10,12,23[twice]) refers to the leaders, both political (i.e., 2Sa 7:7) and religious (i.e., priests, cf. Isa 56:11; prophets, cf. Jer 23:1-4; both Jer 23:9-10; Zec 11:17; and king, cf. Ezekiel 22). This VERB also occurs in

1. Qal IMPERFECT, Eze 34:2-3; Eze 34:8; Eze 34:10; Eze 34:14(twice),15,16,18,19,23(twice)

2. Qal PERFECT, Eze 34:8; Eze 34:12-13; Eze 34:23

3. Qal INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT, Eze 34:10

The origin of this concept comes (1) from the pastoral traditions of the Patriarchs (cf. Gen 49:24); (2) Moses was a shepherd (cf. Exo 3:1); or (3) from David’s early life as a family herdsman (i.e., 1Sa 16:11; Psa 78:70-71). Sheep are animals that need constant care and protection. Shepherding became a powerful metaphor for this.

Zechariah also uses the concept of true and evil shepherds in an eschatological, apocalyptic setting (cf. Zechariah 11-13).

Eze 34:3-4 These false shepherds think more of their own well-being than they do of the people of God (cf. Jer 50:6).

1. feed (lit. pasturing) themselves, Eze 34:2; Eze 34:8; Eze 34:10

2. eat the fat of the sheep, Eze 34:3; Eze 34:10 (usually the fat is not eaten, cf. Eze 39:19)

3. take the wool, Eze 34:3

4. do not feed the flock, Eze 34:3

5. do not help the sick, Eze 34:4

6. do not bind the broken, Eze 34:4

7. do not seek the scattered, Eze 34:4

8. treat the flock violently, Eze 34:4

Eze 34:4 but with force and with severity you have dominated them Note the three terms which denote the cruel treatment.

1. with force, BDB 306, cf. Jdg 4:3; Jdg 8:1; 2Sa 2:16

2. with severity, BDB 827, cf. Exo 1:13-14; Lev 25:43; Lev 25:46; Lev 25:53

3. dominated, BDB 921, KB 1109, Qal PERFECT, cf. Lev 25:53; Lev 26:17 (this is the same root used in Gen 1:26; Gen 1:28)

Eze 34:5-6 As a result of the action, or lack of action, of leaders, the people of God

1. are scattered (cf. Jer 23:1-2)

2. are preyed on (cf. Eze 34:8; Eze 34:23; Eze 14:15; Eze 14:21)

3. wandered away and no one searched for them

Sheep usually stay together. For them to be scattered demonstrates a stressful, dangerous situation.

Eze 34:5 they are scattered for lack of a shepherd Also refer to Num 27:17; 1Ki 22:17; and Mat 9:36.

Eze 34:6 there was no one to search or seek for them The term search (BDB 205, KB 233, Qal PARTICIPLE) is used several times in this chapter.

1. Judah’s leaders did not seek, Eze 34:6

2. the shepherds did not seek (BDB 205, KB 233, Qal PERFECT), Eze 34:8

3. YHWH will require (BDB 205, KB 233, Qal PERFECT) His sheep, Eze 34:10

4. YHWH, Himself will search (BDB 205, KB 233, Qal PERFECT) for His sheep

The word search is parallel in this verse with seek (BDB 134, KB 152, Piel PARTICIPLE, cf. Jdg 6:29; 1Ch 16:11; 2Ch 20:3-4; Job 10:6; Psa 24:6; Psa 38:12; Psa 105:4; Jer 29:13)

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Chapter 34

Now in chapter 34, God speaks out against those faithless shepherds of Israel. Those men that were the spiritual leaders, those men to whom the people looked for spiritual guidance, who had left the real concept of the ministry. The Lord said to His disciples, “The heathen or the Gentiles do love to exercise lordship over each other, but it shall not be so among you. For whosoever would be chief among you, let him become the servant of all” ( Mar 10:42-44 ). You remember how when Jesus took a towel and washed His disciples’ feet and then He said unto them, “You see what I have done. Now if I being your Lord am a servant, then you also should be servants.” And Christ taught the servanthood of the ministry, and that’s actually what the word minister means-a servant. And God intends that those who are the ministers are really the servants to the body of Christ, not lords over the body of Christ. But the servants to the body of Christ. But it is easy to get an attitude of lordship or superiority and start abusing your position and seek to exercise lordship over the people rather than to continue in that attitude of servant. Now whenever you do turn and get this lording attitude, and you begin to look at the… you begin to get greedy, really, for gain, for fancy homes and cars, and things of this nature. Then you begin to misuse that position that God has placed you in.

So the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel ( Eze 34:1-2 )

Now whenever God says, “Woe,” look out, because you’re in trouble.

Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should they not be feeding the flock of God? ( Eze 34:2 )

Men who are using the ministry for their own gain, rather than using the place of a minister to bring gain to the people. It is sad, but it is true that there are many men in the ministry today who are only fulfilling a psychological need in their own lives. They’re not really called of God, and do not really have the true aspect of the ministry at heart. Woe unto those shepherds who use the ministry as a means of just feeding themselves, enriching themselves. “Should you not be feeding the flock?”

You eat the fat, you clothe yourself with wool, you kill them that are fed: but you feed not the flock ( Eze 34:3 ).

Jesus said to Peter, “Feed My flock” ( Joh 21:15 ). Peter later writing to the elders in the church said, “Feed the flock of God which is among you” ( 1Pe 5:2 ). The most important need in the church today is that the people be fed. “Feed the flock of God”-the commission of Jesus unto Peter.

Now the shepherds are further indicted by God because they…

The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have you healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have you brought again that which was driven away, neither have you sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty you’ve ruled over them ( Eze 34:4 ).

They were lording over the flock of God. They weren’t caring for those that were weak or sick or broken or lost. But they had misused the position, and as the result,

[The sheep have been] scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became a prey to all of the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them. Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD; As I live, saith the Lord GOD ( Eze 34:5-8 ),

And, again, when God begins to speak like this, you know that it’s powerful. “As I live,” more or less swearing by Himself because He can swear no higher. “As I live, saith the Lord God,”

surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock; Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them ( Eze 34:8-10 ).

The whole religious system, the priesthood and all, was to be abolished. It’s interesting, it has been abolished. And abolished because they were feeding themselves rather than the flock of God. Of course, in their history we find how it happened the sons of Eli, you remember, these evil boys. How that when people would bring their offering to the Lord, they’d take their meat hooks in and grab the best part of the meat. Anybody would object, they’d beat them up. Causing people to resent their worship of God by the greedy attitude of these men who were supposed to be God’s representatives. Priests standing before God for the people, and yet, so misrepresenting God when they were standing before the people for God. And so God speaks about putting away this whole corrupted system. “They’re not gonna feed off My flock anymore. My flock won’t be meat to them any longer.”

For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and I will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all of the places that they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day ( Eze 34:11-12 ).

Here God says, “I will take up the job of the shepherd. I will seek out these sheep that are lost and scattered.” Aren’t you glad that the Lord is our shepherd? And that He has sought us out, scattered and bruised He found us, and He drew us into His fold, and He put His arms around us and said, “Hey, I love you. You’re My sheep; you’re My people.” Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. I lay down My life for the sheep” ( Joh 10:11 ). The sheep know the shepherd’s voice and they do follow him. And you who have heard the call of the Lord, you’re part of His flock. You’re following Jesus Christ. It’s beautiful.

And I will bring them out from the people, I will gather them from the countries, I will bring them into their own land ( Eze 34:13 ),

And, of course, this is a prophecy concerning the nation Israel, but it does have also personal application, as far as that relationship of God to His people, Christ to His church. But this basically is a prophecy of Israel, the prophecy of the scattering of Israel. The scattering of Israel was precipitated by their crucifixion of Jesus Christ, which was the result of the conspiracy of the spiritual leaders of that day. Those spiritual leaders had rejected Jesus as the Messiah, and they had conspired to put Him to death, because all of the common people were hearing Him gladly. And they said, “What are we going to do? If all of the people turn to Him then we’re going to lose our jobs. We’re going to lose all of this loot that we’ve been making off the people. The Romans may even come and take away our position. We’ve got to put Him to death.” And the high priest said, “Don’t you realize it’s expedient that one man should die for the whole nation?” How little did he know what he was saying.

Now, because of these shepherds, false shepherds, who were guilty of greed, who scattered the flock, Jesus speaks of His gathering together that flock. And this we get into, of course, the prophecy and we see it being fulfilled today as God is drawing the Jews back into the land and is preparing to do a work among them there.

I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, I will bring them into their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all of the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: and there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture and they shall feed upon the mountains of Israel. And I will feed my flock ( Eze 34:13-15 ),

Remember that beautiful prophecy concerning Jesus, “He will feed His flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the young in His arms,” and so forth, “and carry them in His bosom. And gently lead those that are with young” ( Isa 40:11 ). Beautiful prophecy. “I will feed my flock.”

I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and I will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; and I will feed them with judgment. And as for you, O my flock, saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats. Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? And to have drunk of the deep waters, but you have to foul up the residue with your feet? And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet; and they drink that which you have fouled with your feet. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle. Because ye have thrust with the side and with the shoulder, and you’ve pushed all the diseased with your horns, till you have scattered them abroad ( Eze 34:15-21 );

The way that the rich oppressed the poor. Of course, the religious leaders had become the wealthy and they pushed and scattered the flock.

But I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it ( Eze 34:23-24 ).

Now this, of course, is not a reference to king David being resurrected and becoming king again, but even as Jesus promised to David that there should never cease one from him ruling over the people, that prophecy to be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. So it is a reference to that righteous branch that shall come out of David, even Jesus. And in Jer 23:1-40 you have Jeremiah giving the same prophecy in Jerusalem to the inhabitants there and he speaks about how the righteous branch out of David shall come and reign as king over them. As he indicts the false shepherds there and speaks of the glorious true Shepherd that shall come.

In Isaiah we read, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given. And the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. And of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, to order it, and to establish it in righteousness and in judgment from henceforth even forever. For the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall perform this” ( Isa 9:6-7 ). So Christ, as Paul said in Rom 1:1-32 , “Of the seed of David according to the flesh, but declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit,” will come and sit upon the throne of David, and as David again shepherding over the people, or ruling over the people with a shepherd’s heart.

Now people wonder, how could God say, “Well, David was a man after My own heart”? When David committed adultery with Bathsheba and David was a very violent man in many situations, and he had Uriah put to death. And yet, God says that David was a man after My own heart. How can that be? And that was because David had the heart of a shepherd. And when David ruled the people, he ruled them with a shepherd’s heart. And that’s what God desires. That those who rule have the heart of a shepherd where their concern and their care is for the sheep, not for themselves. But they are thinking of the sheep. And David had the shepherd’s heart, and he ruled with the heart of a shepherd. Saul was lifted up in pride when God put him upon the throne, and that’s why Saul was brought down and his family did not follow in the throne. But David, a man after God’s own heart.

And so the prophecy concerning Christ and His coming and shepherding.

And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land ( Eze 34:25 ):

The Kingdom Age, the beasts will be tame. The lion will lie down with the lamb, and a little child will lead them. I’ve always thought what a tremendous pet a lion could make. Wouldn’t that be exciting for a kid to have a lion for a pet? Man, to jump on its back, grab hold of the mane and just take off. The Kingdom Age when God restores, then there will be peace, the covenant of peace among the animal kingdom, among men. Beautiful Kingdom Age, the evil beasts will cease out of the land.

and they will dwell safely in the wilderness, and they’ll sleep in the woods ( Eze 34:25 ).

There will be no fear.

And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; and there shall be showers of blessing ( Eze 34:26 ).

Now we sing that in the church, but actually we’re only borrowing from what God is declaring is going to happen when Israel is restored.

And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and they shall know that I am the LORD when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that serve themselves of them ( Eze 34:27 ).

And so as God brings His people back again they will know that He is the Lord, when He establishes His reign.

And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen ( Eze 34:28 ),

Look at how the Jews have been persecuted among the nations, wherever they have gone. They’ve been a persecuted people. They’ve been a curse and a byword. Anti-Semitism, and it is rising again throughout the world. You read of bombings of Jewish synagogues in Europe. There’s again rising in Germany strong sentiment against the Jews, and even here in the United States we’re beginning to see more and more anti-Semitism. The unfortunate things that are happening up in the Hollywood area even against the Jewish community. But, “They’ll be no more a prey to the heathen.”

neither shall the beast of the land devour them ( Eze 34:28 );

The animals will be all docile.

but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid. And I will raise up for them a plant of renown ( Eze 34:28-29 ),

That plant of renown, of course, is none other than Jesus Christ.

and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more ( Eze 34:29 ).

They won’t be cursed or bear that shame among the heathen.

We were talking with our Jewish guide who grew up in Argentina. And we were seeking to witness to him about Christianity, and he said, “Do you want to know what my first impression of Christians were?” And we said, “Sure.” He said, “Well, every day going home from school I would have to run as fast as I could or else those boys who said they were Christians would beat me up and call me a Jesus killer.” And he said, “They would throw rocks at me and they would beat me up every chance they got, calling me a Jesus killer.” And he said, “That was my first impression of Christians.” And no wonder it’s hard to witness to them if that’s what has been represented by Christianity to them. And it is indeed sad and tragic that much of the anti-Semitism has had its origins in the church. But we as Christians owe a great debt to Israel, to the Jews. After all, they gave us our Messiah.

Thus shall they know that I the LORD their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord GOD. And ye are my flock, the flock of my pasture, and you are men, [ye the flock the flock of my pasture are men] and I am your God, saith the Lord GOD ( Eze 34:30-31 ). “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Eze 34:1-6

THE SHEPHERD OF ISRAEL;

THE MESSIANIC KINGDOM

(Note: The headings for this chapter were suggested by F. F. Bruce and John Skinner respectively.

In view of what Our Lord Jesus Christ and his inspired apostles and writers have stated in the New Testament, little other comment is needed. The identity of this Good Shepherd who will destroy the evil shepherds and rule over the united Israel (the Northern and Southern Israels, as well as all the Israelites and Gentiles combined in God’s New Israel) are fully and dogmatically answered in the sacred New Testament. All of the doubts and quibbles, and all of the picayune allegations and criticisms that one finds in the writings of commentators who apparently have no extensive knowledge whatever of the New Testament are gloriously solved and explained in the New Testament.

“What we have to do with in this chapter is a Messianic prediction in the fullest sense of the term.

The quibble regarding whether a single individual is meant, or if the restoration of the old Davidic dynasty of successive rulers is intended, is forever decided by the Apostle Peter who applied all intimations of some descendent of David “sitting upon his throne,” to “the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his elevation to the right hand of God” (Act 2:30-32), who was universally known by all the Jews of that generation as “The Son of David.” Furthermore, the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, was the total fulfillment; he would never be succeeded by any other. It was not a “line of Davidic kings,” but the one Great and Only King Jesus who is foretold here. Ezekiel himself was also aware of this and said so, although it seems that many have overlooked his message. “David my servant shall be my prince forever.” (Eze 37:25). As Paul put it, “He must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet; and the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1Co 15:25-26).

It is impossible to escape the implications of this chapter that the one prophesied here is “the Personal Messiah,” even the Son of God Himself.

GOD HIMSELF TO BE THE GOOD SHEPHERD

As Bunn noted, “We find here a unique emphasis upon the personal pronoun. The word `I’ is used no less than fifteen times as Jehovah speaks in the first person. Also `my’ and `myself’ are used three times, all within the space of six verses. Therefore when God Himself said. “I myself will be the shepherd of the sheep” (Eze 34:15), it means, undeniably, that, in some sense the Coming Messiah will not be a mere human being. These words cannot be applied to any mortal descendent of David who ever lived, except Jesus Christ our Lord.

We have noted that two or three commentators have found what they called “a contradiction” in some of Ezekiel’s statements that this coming “Servant David” would be a man. Every Christian knows that Christ was indeed both God and Man. “He was the Son of David and at the same time The Lord of David” (Mat 22:42-45). The scholars who do not see this today are still working in the same ignorance that blinded those ancient Pharisees who stood speechless before Christ when he probed their minds with this same dilemma of how Jesus Christ is both God and man.

Other alleged objections to the obvious interpretation here will be noted in the text below.

The historical background against which this chapter appears was pitiful indeed. Israel’s ancient request for God to allow them to have a king was illegal and sinful to begin with; and Samuel warned them of the kind of kings they would get; and the complete and utter failure of the monarchical system had finally worked its total ruin and destruction upon the Chosen People; and, at this stage, God would begin all over again to teach them the spiritual nature of his kingdom. Not a small part of this chapter rehearses the unprincipled wickedness of Israel’s kings. As their history revealed, “The native kings were no better than the heathen despots.” All of them were heartless, cruel, greedy, selfish monsters of tyranny and oppression who cared nothing at all for their subjects. They exploited, robbed, murdered, enslaved and abused their subjects in every conceivable manner.

The mystery still exists as to why Israel, even as late as the times of the apostles, desired nothing either in heaven or upon earth as passionately as they desired the restoration to them of their scandalous old monarchy which God finally and irrevocably destroyed in the events of Ezekiel’s generation. There would yet be required to pass nearly half a millennium before God would be able to change the hearts of enough of them to allow the Advent of that Glorious Messiah prophesied in this chapter; and even at that late date, there were only a small handful, in the relative sense, who “waited for the kingdom of God,” who were “true Israelites,” who were entitled to be called “the seed of Abraham,” and who would form the nucleus of that higher and better Israel of God.

DENUNCIATION OF THE FALSE SHEPHERDS

Eze 34:1-6

“And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, even to the shepherds, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Woe unto the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the sheep? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill the fatlings, but ye feed not the sheep. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought back that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with rigor have ye ruled over them. And they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field, and were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill; yea, my sheep were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and there was none that did search or seek after them.”

This is a graphic picture of an utterly worthless shepherd who had no concern whatever for the flock, except as he might have been able to feed himself and clothe himself from what they provided. No better composite of the whole list of Israel’s kings, northern and southern alike, could be written than this.

Some attention should be given to the term “shepherd.” This comparison of the evil rulers of God’s people is also found in Jeremiah 23 ff, and in Zec 11:1-11. Also, Jesus’ words in John 10 carry the same message.

“The word `shepherd’ in the Old Testament, as in Homer’s Iliad is always a reference to kings and rulers.” Cook stated that, “The first king upon earth wore this title; his name was Aloms. The title was adopted into the Assyrian language as RIU (shepherd) and persisted to the latest times of the Assyrian monarchy. The evil shepherds which had mined Israel were nothing else except the kings who disgraced it, from the first of them to the last. This appears in the truth that even the best of them, namely, “a man after God’s own heart,” was an adulterer, a murderer, and an innovator who tried to move the ark of the covenant with a new cart!

“On every high hill …” (Eze 34:6). Despite the fact of Keil’s disagreement, we believe that Jamieson was correct in seeing in this statement, “A reference to the sinful idolatrous worship practiced upon ‘every high hill’ at those shrines and `high places’ set up and sponsored by those evil shepherds. Jesus spoke of the `scattering’ mentioned here in Mar 6:34.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

The next prophecy dealt ultimately with the one Shepherd. It opened with an indictment of the false shepherds through whom all these evil things had happened to the people. Their sin had been that they had ministered to themselves. Feeding themselves and clothing themselves, they had not fed the sheep, neither had they ministered to the diseased and the sick and the broken and the needy. The result of the failure of the shepherds was that the people were scattered, and had become a prey of the beasts of the field. Because of all this, Jehovah was against the shepherds, and would deliver the sheep.

That deliverance the prophet then described in language full of beauty. Jehovah said, “I Myself, even I, will search . . . and seek . . . and deliver . . . and bring them out . . . and gather them . . . bring them in . . . and feed them . . . and cause them to lie down . . . and bind up . . . and strengthen.”

Continuing the same message, the prophet proceeded to declare that the action of Jehovah would be not merely delivering, but also governing. In the gracious words declaring His shepherd care, the last statement was, “I will feed them in judgment.” That is explained in the following paragraph, in which the discrimination and administration of Jehovah are manifest, in that He judges between cattle and cattle, and prevents the strong from treading down the pasture to the injury of the weak.

Finally, there was the gracious and glorious promise of the one Shepherd, for the description of whom the prophet borrowed the name of the king who had most perfectly realized in the history of the people the purpose of God. In the fulness of time the one Shepherd appeared, and in a mystery of iniquity the sheep whom He would have gathered flung Him out to the beasts. The men of Israel, “by the hands of lawless men did crucify and slay,” and they have been scattered more widely and terribly than ever.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

Selfish Shepherds

Eze 34:1-16

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 Lords 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.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

Chapter Thirty-four

The True Shepherd Of Israel Contrasted With The False

The present chapter contains Jehovahs invective against the unworthy and selfish shepherds of Israel, whose one great concern was to take advantage of every opportunity to enrich themselves at the expense of the flock. There is no date given for this particular prophecy; it may have followed immediately after those we have been considering. From early times kings and governors as well as ecclesiastical leaders, such as priests and prophets, were designated shepherds. Our word pastor is just the Latin for shepherd. In all ages it has pleased God to place upon certain men the responsibility of ministering to and caring for the temporal and spiritual needs of their fellows. Where this service is performed in the fear of God and out of love for the people of his flock, it brings rich reward, as we see in 1Pe 5:1-4, where the faithful pastor is promised a crown of glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

Jehovah Himself is pictured as the Shepherd of His people in many places in the Old Testament. We need hardly remind our readers of the beauty of the twenty-third Psalm, with its opening verse, The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. Then again in Psa 80:1, Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; Isaiah uses the same figure in 40:11, He shall feed His flock like a shep- herd; and Jeremiah, in 31:10, tells how Jehovah will keep Israel as a shepherd doth his flock. It is prophesied of Messiah that He will be a faithful Shepherd who will be raised up in the land of Palestine (Zec 11:16). When our Lord actually appeared among men He announced Himself as the Good Shepherd that giveth His life for the sheep. All His hearers would understand that He meant thereby to declare Himself the promised Deliverer, the Messiah of Israel. Here Ezekiel is commissioned by God to give a solemn warning to the selfish shepherds.

And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, even to the shepherds, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Woe unto the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the sheep? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill the fatlings; but ye feed not the sheep. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought back that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with rigor have ye ruled over them. And they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and they became food to all the beasts of the field, and were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, My sheep were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and there was none that did search or seek after them-vers. 1-6.

The shepherds were the leaders of the people in things both civil and religious. Corruption was everywhere rife among them. They had no real concern for the sheep of the flock; they took advantage of every possible opportunity to enrich themselves, and cared nothing about those for whom they should have had deep concern: they did not minister to the diseased nor to those who were sick, neither did they care for any who were maimed or injured in other ways; nor did they seek after those who had gone astray, as the shepherd is pictured doing in the fifteenth of Luke. They ruled the people with force and rigor, and as a result when the enemy appeared the sheep were terrified and scattered abroad and soon became food to all the beasts of the field: that is, beast-like Gentile powers. How tender the expression used by the Lord in verse 6 where He bewails the sheep wandering through all the mountains and upon every high hill with none to seek after or care for them. Such has been the condition of Israel ever since the dispersion, and will be until in a coming day they return to the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls.

Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of Jehovah: As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, surely forasmuch as My sheep became a prey, and My sheep became food to all the beasts of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did My shepherds search for My sheep, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not My sheep; therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of Jehovah: Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require My sheep at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the sheep; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any wore; and I will deliver My sheep from their mouth, that they may not be food for them-vers. 7-10.

Since these shepherds had been so faithless to their trust the Lord Himself would deal with them. He had taken note of all their evil ways; He saw how they fed themselves and left the people to starve: therefore, He declared He was against these evil shepherds, and would require His sheep at their hand. What a solemn accounting it would be when they would have to answer before His judgment-bar for failing to fulfil the responsibilities He had laid upon them. He would deliver His sheep out of their hand, and deal with them for their perfidy. Surely such words as these may be well taken to heart by any who today are in the position of leaders among Gods people and yet fail to feed the flock committed to them, or to seek after those who have gone astray. Nor need we think only of ecclesiastical leaders, for it is God who has given authority to magistrates, and He holds them responsible to consider themselves as having been entrusted with authority in order that they may exercise it for the good of the nation as a whole. Where it is otherwise His judgment is certain to fall.

But if these shepherds are faithless the Lord Himself abideth true, as we see in verses 11 to 16.

For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I Myself, even L will search for My sheep, and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered abroad, so will I seek out My sheep; and I will deliver them out of all places whither they have been scattered la the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them upon the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture; and upon the mountains of the height of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie down in a good fold; and on fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. I Myself will be the Shepherd of My sheep, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord Jehovah. I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but the fat and the strong I will destroy; I will feed them in justice-vers. 11-16.

Jehovah Himself will search for His sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd endeavoring to gather together his dispersed flock, He will seek for them individually and deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the dark and cloudy day. Then together He will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the various countries in which they have been oppressed, and will bring them as a renewed nation into their own land: that is, the land of Palestine, where He will shepherd them upon the mountains of Israel, and cause that land once more to bring forth abundantly for their blessing.

It is the height of folly to attempt to spiritualize such a passage as this and make it apply only to Gods gracious dealings with His people today. It is clear that the same nation that has been scattered is the nation that will be gathered again when Gods due time comes. Then, indeed, He will feed them with good pasture, and on the heights of Israel they will find their fold and rejoice in the goodness of the Lord.

Note the definiteness of His language, I Myself will be the Shepherd of My sheep, and I will cause them to lie down. Charles H. Spurgeon has well said, One would think even a poor silly sheep would have sense enough to lie down when weary, but alas, with the sheep of Christs flock it is often otherwise. David declared, He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; and here Jehovah says, I will cause them to lie down. He will seek after those that are lost, and will bring back those that have been driven away; He will bind up those that have been maimed, and will strengthen those that were sick; but the self-sufficient and the strong will be disappointed in that day when He shepherds His sheep in righteousness.

And as for you, O My flock, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, the rams and the he-goats. Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have fed upon the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture? and to have drunk of the clear waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet? And as for My sheep, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet, and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet-vers. 17-19.

Not all who profess to be the Lords sheep are actually numbered among His own; so He distinguishes between those who truly trust Him and those who do not. He will judge those who, instead of enjoying the still waters and the green pastures, tread down the latter and defile the former, thus making them unfit for the true people of Jehovah to eat and drink.

May we not see in the behavior of those who spurn the truth of God and ridicule the testimony of Holy Scripture, a sample of this very thing today: they befoul that which means so much to the hungry and thirsty people of Christs flock. Because of such behavior judgment is sure to fall.

Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto them: Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because ye thrust with side and with shoulder, and push all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad; therefore will I save My flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and sheep. And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even My servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I, Jehovah, will be their God, and My servant David prince among them; I, Jehovah, have spoken it-vers. 20-24.

In the day when everyones work shall be made manifest, the Lord will judge between those who are genuine and those who are unreal; He will hold responsible those who have had anything to do with turning His own away from Himself, and will save the flock that they shall no more be a prey to their enemies. This refers undoubtedly to the time when the remnant of Israel will be gathered back to the land of Palestine, when they shall look on Him whom they have pierced and shall mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn (Zec 12:10). Then the Lord shall set up one shepherd over them- His servant David: that is, great Davids greater Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the one true Shepherd of Israel. Then indeed they will know in reality that Jehovah is their God, and the Prince of Davids house will be recognized as the promised Messiah.

And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause evil beasts to cease out of the land; and they shall dwell securely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in its season; there shall be showers of blessing. And the tree of the field shall yield its fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land; and they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have broken the bars of their yoke, and have delivered them out of the hand of those that made bondmen of them. And they shall no more be a prey to the nations, neither shall the beasts of the earth devour them; but they shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid. And I will raise up unto them a plantation for renown, and they shall be no more consumed with famine in the land, neither bear the shame of the nations any more. And they shall know that I, Jehovah their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are My people, saith the Lord Jehovah. And ye My sheep, the sheep of My pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord Jehovah-vers. 25-31.

In the day of Israels restoration to God and to the land, the Lord will recognize them as His covenant people, He Himself becoming their Protector, so that no harm will touch them in the future; evil beasts will cease out of the land, and they will dwell securely even in the wilderness or the forest; and He will order everything necessary for their welfare. No longer will the land suffer for lack of moisture: the former and the latter rains, as another prophet has told us, will be given in their season, and there shall be showers of blessing. These words have made an appeal to many hearts and spoken loudly of both spiritual and tem- poral mercies which God delights to send for the refreshment of His trusting people. We sing even today:

There shall be showers of blessing:

This is the promise of love;

There shall be seasons refreshing,

Sent from the Saviour above.

We are thinking particularly of spiritual blessings. In that coming day God will vouchsafe blessing to Israel, both material and spiritual, which will give them to rejoice in His goodness and praise Him for His loving-kindness. All the blessings that were promised of old to those who kept His law will be given to them in that day because of the covenant of grace. The yoke of their enemies will be broken off their necks, and they will be delivered out of the hand of the Gentiles under whose bondage they have suffered for so long. No more will they be ruthlessly hunted down by haughty and contemptuous nations, but they shall dwell securely in their own land with none to make them afraid. The evils that they have had to meet throughout the centuries will trouble them no more, and Jehovah their God will be with them and will rejoice over them in that day of His power.

The last verse makes this perfectly clear, and explains fully the parable of the Shepherd and the sheep. Jehovah says, Ye My sheep, the sheep of My pasture, are men, and I am your God.

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Eze 34:29

I. It is renowned for its beauty.

II. It is renowned for its fruitfulness.

III. It is renowned for its virtues.

IV. It is renowned for its fragrance.

V. It is renowned for its shade.

VI. It is renowned for its permanence.

G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 160.

References: Eze 34:30, Eze 34:31.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx., No. 1807. Eze 34:31.-J. Vaughan, Sermons, 15th series, p. 205; J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 345. Eze 35:10.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix., No. 536; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 48. Eze 36:11.-Ibid., My Sermon Notes Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 288.

Fuente: The Sermon Bible

Eze 34:1-19. The shepherds of Israel were the kings and princes and all who had authority over them. The prophet Jeremiah had received a similar message Jer 23:1-22. These shepherds of Israel were responsible for the deplorable condition of the flock. Utterly selfish, they cared not for the sheep of His pasture; they feared not God nor did they have a heart for Gods people. The flock was scattered and spoiled.

Such was the sad condition of the people Israel. And when the Lord Jesus appeared in their midst to seek the lost sheep of the house of Israel, He found them as sheep without a shepherd, and He had compassion upon them Mar 6:34. But they rejected Him and the Shepherd was smitten. Zechariahs prophecy was fulfilled: Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith the LORD of hosts. Smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn Mine hand upon the little ones Zec 13:7. The false shepherds, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, were a curse to the people, and the leaders were against the Shepherd. They delivered Him into the hands of the Gentiles. And now for nearly 2,000 years the sheep have been scattered and peeled, wandering among the nations of the earth Luk 21:24. What is their hope and coming blessing we learn from this great prophecy.

(What is said in this chapter of the false shepherds who ill-treated the flock of God, His ancient people, may also be applied to the false shepherds, the hirelings in the professing church. See Act 20:28-35 and 1Pe 5:2-3.)

In Eze 34:7-10, judgment is pronounced upon these false shepherds, and after that the Lord announces the deliverance of His flock (Eze 34:11-19).

Behold, I myself, even I, will search for My sheep and will seek them out. Jehovah arises in behalf of His scattered sheep. He will Himself exercise the office of a true shepherd, seeking out His flock. The cloudy and dark day (the times of the Gentiles) is gone and another morning breaks, the morning for which His people have waited so long. What He will do at this time for His scattered sheep is now fully proclaimed. I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be; there shall they lie down in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed My flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord. And all this has not yet come to pass. Some apply these words to the restoration of a remnant from the Babylonian captivity and see no future fulfillment of these promises. It is evident that the returning remnant did not possess these blessings. Others make a spiritual application and claim that it means the Church and the blessing which Gentiles will receive as the sheep of Christ. This is the common path which most commentators follow. It needs no lengthy refutation, for neither Ezekiel, nor the other prophets know anything of the Church and the other sheep, Gentiles saved by grace and with believing Jews constituting the one flock Joh 10:16; Eph 3:1-21). This is unrevealed in the Old Testament. These gracious words of promise have not yet been fulfilled, nor will they be fulfilled as long as the Church, the body of Christ, is being gathered out from all nations. All must wait till Gods purpose in this age is accomplished. When the Church is complete as to its elect number, when the Lord has come for His saints and the true Church has passed from earth into glory, then will the Lord turn in mercy to His people Israel and these promises given by Ezekiel will be fulfilled.

Eze 34:20-26. Some have applied this to Zerubbabel, the head of Judah at the return from, the Babylonish captivity; this is done by those who deny a future restoration of Israel. Others take these words in a strictly literal sense and teach that David the King will become the head of the nation once more, and raised, from the dead, will be the one shepherd over His people. It is not David, but He who is according to the flesh the Son of David and Davids Lord as well. The one Shepherd can only be the Messiah. Numerous passages show that Davids name is used in a typical sense. Jeremiah announced, They shall serve the Lord their God, and David their King, whom I will raise up unto them Jer 30:9. Here David stands typically for Christ, the Messiah of Israel, for He is raised up unto them when Jacobs trouble is ended (Eze 34:1-7). Of Him Jeremiah speaks more fully in Eze 23:5-6 : Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is the name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. The two, Judah and Israel, will be reunited by the one Shepherd. The Messiah of Israel is also mentioned by Hosea as David: Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God and David their King, and shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the latter days Hos 3:5. Isaiah speaks of the sure mercies of David, and adds, Behold I have given Him for a witness to the people, a leader (prince) and commander to the people. It is therefore not David, raised from the dead, but the Prince of Peace, who was here once to seek the lost sheep of the house of Israel and who comes again to save the remnant of His people Israel and to receive the Throne of David Isa 9:6-21.

When the Lord is doing all that is promised here and the remnant has accepted the long rejected Messiah-King, a covenant of peace and blessing will follow. And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land, and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. Peace will come to the land and to the whole earth with His coming. The evil beasts, the Gentile world powers Dan 7:1-28 will no longer devastate the land. All will be peace and safety, so that they can sleep peacefully in the woods. There shall be showers of blessing (Eze 34:26). How often a hymn is sung based upon this promise:

There shall be showers of blessing, This is the promise of love.

But how few who sing it know that the promise belongs first of all to Israel. When the Lord comes, the showers of blessing will be poured forth upon His people and upon all nations. It will be the times of refreshing Act 3:19.

Eze 34:27 and Eze 34:28 give a brief description of the millennial kingdom. Groaning creation will then be delivered and the wild beasts will have their natures changed (compare Eze 34:28 with Isa 11:6-9 and Rom 8:19-22. There is no need to speculate on the meaning of the plant of renown, which will be raised up. It is none other than He, who, as to His humiliation, is described as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground Isa 53:2. But now He appears in all His glory, and becomes the plant of renown. Their shame and suffering will then be over. He will be their God and they will be His people.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

Reciprocal: Jer 29:14 – and I will turn Eze 26:20 – I shall bring Eze 35:1 – General

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

A Prophecy against the Shepherds

Eze 34:1-15

INTRODUCTORY WORDS

We have a pleasant task before us. We have been asked to present Christ as the Good and Great and Chief Shepherd of the sheep, as over against the false shepherds.

1. Christ the Shepherd. This is the message of Psa 23:1-6. With it we are familiar: “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.” How delightfully the Psalm opens. Thank God that this is a personal matter. Each of us can say, my Shepherd.

Next we have some blessed conclusions:

(1) “I shall not want.” How can we want with such a Shepherd to lead us?

(2) “He maketh me to lie down.” Here is perfect rest, in the place of plenty; for we lie down in green pastures-food everywhere.

(3) “He leadeth me beside the still waters.” He giveth rest and quietness. “Come unto Me, * * and I will give you rest.”

(4) “He restoreth my soul.” Here is the story of restoration when sick, or wounded by the way.

(5) “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness.” How precious are these words. No ways of wickedness are His; no paths of sinful pleasures.

(6) “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” Sometimes, even the paths of righteousness may lead through sorrows and sighings. He, Himself, had His Via Dolorosa, and so may we. However, we need fear no evil, for He is with us.

(7) “Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.” Here is the needed supply of aid and assistance. We are not journeying unpanoplied for the way.

(8) “Thou preparest a table before me.” He gives us more than green pastures-He also furnishes us with a table of good things, and does it in the presence of our enemies. The foe cannot prevail against us, for in their very presence we sit down to eat.

(9) “Thou anointest my head with oil.” Here the gift of the Spirit is emphasized. He would not have us to travel alone. He sends the Paraclete to walk at our side. This Paraclete gives us His love, joy, and peace.

(10) “My cup runneth over.” Now we have the suggestion of those extra things, the blessings we cannot retain. The excesses of grace, the grace more abundant; the exceeding abundantly more than we can ask or think.

(11) “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me.” In these words we discover the delightful shepherd dogs which bring up the rear. With Christ the Shepherd going before, with the Holy Spirit going by our side, and with the faithful dog’s at the rear, we are well protected for our journey. Best of all, these dogs are with us always, “all the days of our life.” They never leave us nor forsake us.

(12) “And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” This brings us to the great climax-the Heavenly Home, with the many mansions all prepared for habitation.

2. Christ the Good Shepherd. This is found in Joh 10:1-42. He is the Good Shepherd, because He giveth His life for the sheep. It is for this cause that the Father loves Him with a new love; and for this cause we also love Him.

3. Christ the Great Shepherd. He is our great Shepherd because he brings us up through the valley of the shadow of death in the resurrection glory of His risen life. Even death cannot prevail over His own.

4. Christ the Chief Shepherd. This expression carries us past the resurrection of our bodies, and up into the air when He comes again for His sheep.

Such is the Scriptural story of the “Lord our Shepherd” epitomized. We praise God for such a Shepherd, and we praise Him that we are among the sheep of His pasture.

I. WOE TO THE SHEPHERDS OF ISRAEL (Eze 34:2)

1. The duties of shepherdhood. The shepherd is given charge of the sheep that he may feed the flock. This is the command of the Lord in Peter’s Epistle. “Feed the flock of God which is among you.”

When the Lord Jesus Christ, that Good Shepherd, was among men, He went about doing good and healing all who were sick, etc. He lived for the good of others-sought out their needs, and supplied them.

2. The shepherds of Israel fed themselves. Here is God’s charge against them in our key verse. “Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?”

Now we can comprehend the words in the Epistle of Peter, “Feed the flock of God * * taking the oversight thereof * * not for filthy lucre.”

The shepherd’s question should never be, What can we get? but, What can we give? The true shepherd is not an hireling, serving at so much per day; he is the lover of his sheep.

Isaiah gives a sad and pathetic picture of the shepherd dogs, who are supposed to watch the sheep with sleepless eyes. He says in the Spirit, “His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, * * sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.”

God pity the shepherds who are always saying, “Come ye * * I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.”

II. A SAD CONTRAST (Eze 34:3-4)

1. The first statement. “Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.”

We look deep into our own heart. Have we ever been such an one as is herein set forth? Have we done as these shepherds of Israel did?

May God help us to remember the words spoken of the Spirit in Malachi: “Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? neither do ye kindle fire on Mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of Hosts.”

2. The second statement. “The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost.”

Such charges against the shepherds of Israel are also sadly true of many church shepherds at home and abroad.

The saints at home give their money, oftentimes money of real sacrifice, to send forth the shepherds; and then the shepherds pamper their flesh, and fail to do half the work, or even a third of the work, for their flock that the ones who support them do for their earthly masters.

God pity the shepherds who are guilty of such neglect.

III. THE SHEPHERDS RULING BY FORCE (Eze 34:4, l.c.)

1. Sheep should be called by love. Christ said, “My sheep hear My voice, and * * they follow Me,” and “a stranger will they not follow.” He also said, “I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.”

The picture of the Lord Jesus as a Shepherd is that of Him holding the lambs in His bosom. He goes after the sheep which is lost, and bringeth it back upon His shoulders. In the first picture we have the story of His arms, the place of His love; in the second, of His shoulders, the place of His strength.

2. The shepherds of Israel were different. Here is our Scripture: “But with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.”

When the Lord spoke of the Scribes and Pharisees of His day, He said, “They bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.”

In First Peter we read, “Feed the flock * * not by constraint * * neither as being lords over. God’s heritage.”

Some delight to have authority invested in them, and they like to exert that authority arbitrarily. They seem to assume some headship and rulership which God never gave them.

How different was the spirit of the Apostle Paul. When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he said: “My brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown.” When he wrote to the Thessalonians, he said: “We were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children: so being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the Gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us.” That is the true attitude of a shepherd toward his sheep.

God grant that every one of us may forever cease to exert the spirit of lordship which Christ so thoroughly condemns. We have but one Master, and He tells us that His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

IV. THE RESULTS OF HIRELING SHEPHERDS (Eze 34:5-6)

1. Christ held the shepherds responsible for the scattering of His sheep. We see Israel today scattered among the nations as corn is scattered in a sieve, all because there was no shepherd to love them, to care for them, and to lead them in the way.

God always holds the shepherd responsible for the flock. Take the letters to the Seven Churches of Asia, and in each instance God addresses the angel of the Church. The angels are His messengers, commonly known as pastors. We are looking at them today under the name of shepherds.

To each of the seven Churches the cursings and the blessings against the Church are addressed to the messenger of the Church, because the messenger is responsible before God for his members.

If a church is worldly the shepherd is to blame for it all. One cannot shift his responsibility. The truth is that the average pastor has but little concern as to his flock.

2. The sheep became meat to all the beasts of the field. This is a terrific charge. The shepherds were so interested in themselves, in eating the fat, and clothing themselves with the wool, that they allowed the sheep to be scattered. When they were scattered from the fold, the wild beasts devoured them. As we see it, the laxity of the pulpit in putting up bars to safeguard the sheep and to keep them within the fold, has allowed them to become the prey of many and varied beasts which lie in wait to destroy. Satan himself is a lion going about.

3. Being scattered there were none to search for them or to seek after them. Preachers, deacons, and all the rest of them-Sunday School superintendents, and Sunday School teachers, for the most part-let the scattering sheep go on their way unsought for.

“Have you sought for the sheep that wandered

Far away on the dark mountains cold?

Have you gone like the tender Shepherd

And brought them again to the fold?”

V. GOD SPEAKS PLAIN WORDS TO UNFAITHFUL SHEPHERDS (Eze 34:7-10)

1. A call to hear. “Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the Word of the Lord.” The difficulty lies in the fact that many of the idle shepherds do not care for the Word of the Lord. Their ears are closed to everything which He has to tell them.

We remember reading of when Micaiah spake unto Ahab and Jehoshaphat warning them of God’s judgment, if they went forth to battle; then Zedekiah came near and smote Micaiah upon the cheek, and said: Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee?” Zedekiah utterly refused to listen to the voice of God.

Thus God said: “As I live, saith the Lord God, surely because My flock became a prey, and My flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did My shepherds search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not My flock; therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the Word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against the shepherds.”

2. God holds the shepherds responsible for the sheep. When the shepherds refused the voice of God, and they fed not the flock, neither searched them out, then God said: “I will require My flock at their hand * *, neither shall the shepherds feed themselves anymore; for I will deliver My flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.”

This is not the only place in the Bible that God takes His stand against the false shepherds. Listen to the word in Jer 23:1-40 : “I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness.”

God goes on to say: “Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.” These prophets were telling the people that they should have peace, and that no evil should come upon them. They were speaking, however, and the Lord had not sent them.

Let me quote Jer 23:21 : “I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.”

We fear that there are many false shepherds and false prophets among us today, and God is still speaking against those who are prophesying dreams from their own heads, and are not preaching the preaching which He bids them.

VI. CHRIST HIMSELF WILL BECOME SHEPHERD TO HIS SHEEP (Eze 34:11-15)

1. The Lord says: “I, even I, will both search My sheep, and seek them out.” We now have in prospect the day of Israel’s deliverance. The false shepherds have failed Him. He Himself will go forth in that day, in the day of His Return, and will “deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.”

Where are the priests of Israel today? They are standing still in their synagogues, and reading from the Word of God, but they are speaking their own thoughts. They have no light in them. They have no message of deliverance. It is indeed a cloudy and a dark day. Even now, methinks, we can hear the Lord, as He says: “I will seek out My sheep.”

2. The Lord says: “I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the country.” What a wonderful day it will be when the Lord Jesus sets Himself, the second time, to bring the Children of Israel to their own land, that He may feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country!

In that day, it will no longer be said: “The Lord that brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt,” but “The Lord that brought them out from all nations whither they have gone.”

3. The Lord says: “I will feed them in a good pasture.” This is the time when Psa 23:1-6 will be fulfilled. The Lord will indeed cause them to lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. He says: “I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God.” “I will feed My flock.”

VII. A WONDERFUL FUTURE FOR THE FLOCK (Eze 34:22-31)

There are so many wonderful things in the final verses of our study that we will have to pick out only a few of the statements.

1. David shall shepherd the sheep (Eze 34:23-24). There are some who may teach that the David here refers to Christ, and it may. But for our part we believe that David, himself, will reign with Christ as a Prince over Israel. Jesus Christ Himself will be King of kings and Lord of lords; but David will be the Lord’s prince and Israel’s shepherd.

How fitting for the one who wrote, “The Lord is my Shepherd” to be, himself, a shepherd. How fitting that he who once tended the sheep of his father Jesse, shall tend the greater flock of the Lord.

2. The Lord will make a covenant of peace. That covenant will mean that the evil beasts which have devoured Israel in the past shall cease out of the land; and that His people will dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. In that day the places round about His Hill will be a blessing. The tree will yield her fruit, and the earth her increase.

3. Israel will know the Lord. She who has rejected Him through the centuries will know Him when He shall have broken the bands of her yoke and delivered the people out of the hand of those that rule them. In that day, Israel shall no longer be a prey to the nations but they shall dwell safely and none shall make them afraid. They shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the nations any more.

The last two verses of Eze 34:1-31 give a beautiful closing: “Thus shall they know that I the Lord their God am with them, and that they, even the House of Israel, are My people, said the Lord God. And ye My flock, the flock of My pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God.”

AN ILLUSTRATION

We need to keep our lives centric in Christ, the Good, the Great, the Chief Shepherd. Then shall we as undershepherds prove worthy of His Name and of His cause, which we represent.

Most people go forward in life, but they do not go upward. Life with most is horizontal. There is plenty of ambition, but little aspiration; plenty of “go.” but it is rarely a going upon the knees. “Forward on your knees,” is a phrase which rarely enters into the thoughts of the multitude. And yet it is life lived in the spirit of prayer that is moving vertically and going up in its movement.

Men do not care for it to be thought that they are praying men. They have a hatred of being labeled singular or eccentric. But what is the ground of such fear? Do you know what “eccentric” means? The dictionary says: “Not having the same center as another.” That is all. But that is everything. The Christian man moves with a motion which is not from the man himself. And if a man moves at the impulse of Christ, it is clear that there can be nothing fixed and stereotyped in such a life.

You cannot tell what Christ will do next with any man. And the church would be the wonder of the world were it Spirit-filled. The world would be all agog for our next effort, our next work. Christ in a man always makes a man different in some way from other men. It is bound to be so; it is the introduction into this world of the life of another and sweeter world.

Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water

Eze 34:1-2. Shepherd is from baah, which Strong defines as follows: “A primitive root; to tend a flock, l.e. pasture it; intransitively to graze (literally or figuratively); generally to rule; by extension to associate with (as a friend). The word has such a wide range of meaning that it will apply to the kings and prophets and priests in Israel because of their post- iton of leadership among the people. In such a relationship they could and should have guided them aright, and have instructed them in the right ways of the world by feeding them on the proper spiritual food. But Instead, they looked to their personal interests and made use of the advantages that were intended for all the congregation and thus “fed themselves instead of the flock.”

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Eze 34:1. The word of the Lord came unto me, saying It is probable that this prophecy immediately followed the preceding; and that at, or immediately after, the arrival of the news that Jerusalem was conquered, the prophet was commissioned to speak of the tyranny and carelessness of the governors and teachers, and to point out their negligence as a principal cause of the incredulity and wickedness of the people. Thus the transition appears to be natural, and the connection close, between this prophecy and the foregoing one, as also between the beginning of this prophecy and its conclusion. For considering that, in parts at least, the people suffered for the faults of the shepherds, mercy now urged the prophet to declare, from God, that he would judge between them, save the flock, and set up one shepherd over them, who should feed them, even his servant David.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Eze 34:2. Woe to the shepherds of Israel. The character of the pastors which follow, distinguishes the industrious from the idle shepherds: the words apply to magistrates and ministers. A magistrate, says Plato in his republic, should regard himself as sustaining the office of a shepherd, who makes the care of the flock his chief profession, and not as a man who goes to a feast to indulge in appetite, or to a market for gain.From Eusebius. See on Isa 56:11.

Eze 34:12. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock, scattered and dispersed by the calamities of war, so will I seek out my sheep. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. The Lords portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He extended his particular care to the captive jews. None of the conquered nations of western Asia, were restored with munificence like the jews. He calls them his people, his sheep, his children. In all their afflictions, he was himself afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. Isa 63:9.

Eze 34:15. I will feed my flock. Augustine remarks here, (Tract. de pastoribus, caput 2.) The Lord does not say, I will appoint over them other good shepherds, who shall do this, but I will feed my sheep, and never commit them to the care of others. Else what would become of those who have idle shepherds? Christ is the great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls; and a shepherd who never slumbers, nor leaves his flock. The idle shepherds have trampled your pastures; they have scattered and slaughtered the sheep.

Eze 34:22-23. I will save my flockand will set up one shepherd over them, even Christ the good shepherd. The Mazoretic Jews contend that this means Zerubbabel; but rabbi David says that the ancient jews understood it of the Messiah, of whom Zerubbabel was only a figure. Such also is the sense of all the christian fathers. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that shall burn as an oven, and all the bad shepherds, and all that do wickedly shall be as stubble. Mal 4:1. This shepherd must be Christ, because he lives with the flock throughout all ages.

Eze 34:24. My servant David, that is, beloved, or by a metonymy which puts one name for another, Jesus Christ the son of David, and of the seed of Abraham. The ancient jews allowed that the Messiah was meant in this place. Zerubbabel was a pastor and a prince, but he did not do for Israel what is here promised.

Eze 34:25. I will make with them a covenant of peace, comprising all the glorious things spoken of the city of God, in the latter day; even the everlasting covenant, confirmed both to jews and gentiles. Isa 54:4-5.

Eze 34:29. I will raise up for them a plant of renown. matta leshem, a plantation to the name: so our unitarians read, for with them any construction is pure which obliterates the name of Christ from the Hebrew scriptures. But the LXX read, , a plant of peace, alluding to the Messiahs title, the prince of peace. In Eze 19:14, it is said, she hath no strong rod (matta) to be a sceptre. Behold, I will smite with the rod (matta) that is in my hand. Exo 7:17. Jonathan put forth the end of his rod (matta) and tasted the honey. 1Sa 14:27. Oh Assyrian, the staff (matta) of my indignation. Isa 10:5; Isa 10:24. In Job the word is applied, not to a plantation, but to a single tree, which when cut down will bud from the root like a plant: Job 14:9. These texts sufficiently prove that Messiah is the plant, whose name is above every name. He is the good shepherd of the flock, who bears the crozier in his hand, and is, like Moses and Jonathan, invested with the princely rod. He is the stem of Jesse, glorious among the converted gentiles. The flock flourishes in his green pastures, and reposes under his shadow. But alas, they droop and die when fed with unitarian philosophy.

Eze 34:31. The flock of my pasture are men; and I am your God. I beg leave to translate rabbi Abarbanels comment on this passage. This prophecy was not fulfilled during the second house, [temple] but it shall be fulfilled in the future days of the Messiah. These things I will fully prove; first, because the Lord says, I will lead them from the nations, and will gather them from all parts of the earth. But during the second temple, none came, except from Babylon, and the rest of the people were not gathered from their dispersions in the earth.

Secondly, I prove it from what is said; David my servant shall be a prince in the midst of them.

Thirdly, from the words of the promise. I will plant them, or make with them a covenant of peace; and they shall no more be scattered among the nations, nor be any more a reproach among the heathen. But during the second temple, there were incessant wars, and no covenant of peace. Now they were under the Persians, now under the Greeks, now under the Romans; so that those promises were not fulfilled, I will break off their yoke, and deliver them from their hand; and from the servitude to which they had studiously been reduced. Then shall they afterwards be delivered from the Roman captivity, in which they have been made to suffer. All those events prove, that the prophecy regards the future, in which all these promises shall be accomplished.

REFLECTIONS.

The idle and wicked shepherds, here denounced by the Lord, were collectively the magistrates, priests, and prophets of Judah. Against these Jeremiah was directed to level hard strokes, as we have before explained. Jer 2:8; Jer 3:15; Jer 10:21. They took no care of the flock so solemnly committed to their charge; they suffered them to stray on all the mountains to worship idols, and afterwards to dance, drink, and plunge into all the mysteries of pagan impurity; but they wrung from them with an iron hand all the revenues of office.

We have the judgment denounced against the idle shepherds. As God required the life of the people at the hand of the slumbering watchmen, so he required the flock at the shepherds hands. He is Lord of the inheritance, and the higher servants must give a more particular account. Men must not only give an account for their own souls, but in a relative sense, for all the souls committed to their care. What then must be the hell of those unhappy shepherds! Let us imagine for a moment, that we see this noble and ignoble crowd go down alive to Tophet, reeking under the bloody sword of the Chaldeans; and let us ask what sort of looks would the poor make to those priests who had kept back the law, and whose consecrated hands had assisted to set up Venus in the house of God. What sort of reproaches would the horrors and anguish of hell inspire them to make; and what sort of torments would the desponding malice of their state urge them to inflict. What a portrait for all future magistrates and ministers to contemplate. What a sermon to the conscience, which says, oh man, be what thou oughtest, and faithfully discharge thy duty, or altogether renounce thy office and thy gain. After removing the idle shepherds, the Lord will place his flock in faithful hands. David his anointed, David his beloved Son, who laid down his life to deliver the lamb out of the teeth of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, shall be their good shepherd for ever. Yea, and he shall have the sole nomination of all the helping shepherds, who shall feed his flock with knowledge and with understanding. All this began to be accomplished when Jesus went about doing good, and when he sent his servants into all the world to preach the gospel to every creature.

The Lord also promises more fully to heal and to gather his scattered flock under the abundance of millennium glory. There shall then be no evil beasts in the land, for the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and no persecutor shall devour the flock. The earth shall then bring forth its original encrease, to nourish the people with bread; and Israel, the true Israel, shall no more be a prey to the heathen, either by the Babylonian captivity, or by the Roman dispersion. This must be the fair import of the promise; for all favourable periods to which it may be applied, were but as drops before the shower. See the general Reflections at the end of Isaiah.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Eze 34:1-10. Importance of Good Government.But besides moral excellence on the part of its citizens (Ezekiel 33) a state needs good government. This chapter is a very severe indictment of the rulers or kings of Israel in the past, who are compared to shepherdsand the figure is maintained throughout the chapterthat have neglected or abused the flock. Governors should govern in the interests of the governed; but those shepherds had used their power to feed themselves and not the flockthey are even compared in Eze 34:10 to ravenous beasts (notice mouth). It was this misgovernment that in part accounted for the miseries, the defeats, the exile of Israel.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

The accusation against Israel’s unfaithful rulers 34:1-6

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The Lord gave Ezekiel a message for the shepherds (leaders, rulers, cf. Psalms 23) of Israel. Ancient Near Easterners often referred to kings and leaders as "shepherds" (e.g. Num 27:17; 2Sa 5:2; 1Ki 22:17; Isa 44:28; Jer 3:15; Jer 10:21; Jer 23:1-6; Jer 25:34-38; Mic 5:4-5; Zec 11:4-17). Prophets and priests were also called "shepherds," but here kings are also in view. God pronounced judgment on them for three reasons. First, they fed themselves rather than the people; they were selfish. They were more interested in providing for themselves than for the people whom God had placed in their care (cf. Joh 10:11-13; Joh 21:15-17). They exploited their followers.

A review of the history of the Northern Kingdom of Israel’s rulers reveals a consistent string of corrupt leaders, and Ezekiel pointed out earlier that Judah was worse than her sister Israel (ch. 23).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

THE MESSIANIC KINGDOM

Eze 34:1-31

The term “Messianic” as commonly applied to Old Testament prophecy bears two different senses, a wider and a narrower. In its wider use it is almost equivalent to the modern word “eschatological.” It denotes that unquenchable hope of a glorious future for Israel and the world which is an all but omnipresent feature of the prophetic writings, and includes all predictions of the kingdom of God in its final and perfect manifestation. In its stricter sense it is applied only to the promise of the ideal king of the house of David, which, although a very conspicuous element of prophecy, is by no means universal, and perhaps does not bulk quite so largely in the Old Testament as is generally supposed. The later Jews were guided by a true instinct when they seized on this figure of the ideal ruler as the centre of the nations hope; and to them we owe this special application of the name “Messiah,” the “Anointed,” which is never used of the Son of David in the Old Testament itself. To a certain extent we follow in their steps when we enlarge the meaning of the word “Messianic” so as to embrace the whole prophetic delineation of the future glories of the kingdom of God.

This distinction may be illustrated from the prophecies of Ezekiel. If we take the word in its more general sense we may say that all the chapters from the thirty-fourth to the end of the book are Messianic in character. That is to say, they describe under various aspects the final condition of things which is introduced by the restoration of Israel to its own land. Let us glance for a moment at the elements which enter into this general conception of the last things as they are set forth in the section of the book with which we are now dealing. We exclude from view for the present the last nine chapters, because there the prophets point of view is somewhat different, and it is better to reserve them for separate treatment.

The chapters from the thirty-fourth to the thirty-seventh are the necessary complement of the call to repentance in the first part of chapter 33. Ezekiel has enunciated the conditions of entrance to the new kingdom of God, and has urged his hearers to prepare for its appearing. He now proceeds to unfold the nature of that kingdom, and the process by which Jehovah is to bring it to pass. As has been said, the central fact is the restoration of Israel to the land of Canaan. Here the prophet found a point of contact with the natural aspirations of his fellow exiles. There was no prospect to which they had clung with more eager longing than that of a return to national independence in their own land; and the feeling that this was no longer possible was the source of the abject despair from which the prophet sought to rouse them. How was this to be done? Not simply by asserting in the face of all human probability that the restoration would take place, but by presenting it to their minds in its religious aspects as an object worthy of the exercise of almighty power, and an object in which Jehovah was interested for the glory of His great name. Only by being brought round to Ezekiels faith in God could the exiles recover their lost hope in the future of the nation. Thus the return to which Ezekiel looks forward has a Messianic significance; it is the establishment of the kingdom of God, a symbol of the final and perfect union between Jehovah and Israel.

Now in the chapters before us this general conception is exhibited in three separate pictures of the Restoration, the leading ideas being the Monarchy (chapter 34), the Land (chapter 35, 36), and the Nation (chapter 37). The order in which they are arranged is not that which might seem most natural. We should have expected the prophet to deal first with the revival of the nation, then with its settlement on the soil of Palestine, and last of all with its political organisation under a Davidic king. Ezekiel follows the reverse order. He begins with the kingdom, as the most complete embodiment of the Messianic salvation, and then falls back on its two presuppositions-the recovery and purification of the land on the one hand, and the restitution of the nation on the other. It is doubtful, indeed, whether any logical connection between the three pictures is intended. It is perhaps better to regard them as expressing three distinct and collateral aspects of the idea of redemption, to each of which a certain permanent religious significance is attached. They are at all events the outstanding elements of Ezekiels eschatology so far as it is expounded in this section of his prophecies.

We thus see that the promise of the perfect king-the Messianic idea in its more restricted signification-holds a distinct but not a supreme place in Ezekiels vision of the future. It appears for the first time in chapter 17 at the end of an oracle denouncing the perfidy of Zedekiah and foretelling the overthrow of his kingdom; and again, in a similar connection, in an obscure verse of chapter 21. {Eze 17:22-24; Eze 21:26; Eze 21:27} Both these prophecies belong to the time before the fall of the state, when the prophets thoughts were not continuously occupied with the hope of the future. The former is remarkable, nevertheless, for the glowing terms in which the greatness of the future kingdom is depicted. From the top of the lofty cedar which the great eagle had carried away to Babylon Jehovah will take a tender shoot and plant it in the mountain height of Israel. There it will strike root and grow up into a lordly cedar, under whose branches all the birds of the air find refuge. The terms of the allegory have been explained in the proper place. {See Eze 20:24-25 ff.} The great cedar is the house of David; the topmost bough which was taken to Babylon is the family of Jehoiachin, the direct heirs to the throne. The planting of the tender shoot in the land of Israel represents the founding of the Messiahs kingdom, which is thus proclaimed to be of transcendent earthly magnificence, overshadowing all the other kingdoms of the world, and convincing the nations that its foundation is the work of Jehovah Himself. In this short passage we have the Messianic idea in its simplest and most characteristic expression. The hope of the future is bound up with the destiny of the house of David; and the re-establishment of the kingdom in more than its ancient splendour is the great divine act to which all the blessings of the final dispensation are attached.

But it is in the thirty-fourth chapter that we find the most comprehensive exposition of Ezekiels teaching on the subject of the monarchy and the Messianic kingdom. It is perhaps the most political of all his prophecies. It is pervaded by a spirit of genuine sympathy with the sufferings of the common people, and indignation against the tyranny practised and tolerated by the ruling classes. The disasters that have befallen the nation down to its final dispersion among the heathen are all traced to the misgovernment and anarchy for which the monarchy was primarily responsible. In like manner the blessings of the coming age are summed up in the promise of a perfect king, ruling in the name of Jehovah and maintaining order and righteousness throughout his realm. Nowhere else does Ezekiel approach so nearly to the political ideal foreshadowed by the statesman-prophet Isaiah of a “king reigning in righteousness and princes ruling in judgment” {Isa 32:1} securing the enjoyment of universal prosperity and peace to the redeemed people of God. It must be remembered of course that this is only a partial expression of Ezekiels conception both of the past condition of the nation and of its future salvation. We have had abundant Evidence(cf. especially chapter 22) to show that he considered all classes of the community to be corrupt, and the people as a whole implicated in the guilt of rebellion against Jehovah. The statement that the kings have brought about the dispersion of the nation must not therefore be pressed to the conclusion that civic injustice was the sole cause of Israels calamities. Similarly we shall find that the redemption of the people depends on other and more fundamental conditions than the establishment of good government under a righteous king. But that is no reason for minimising the significance of the passage before us as an utterance of Ezekiels profound interest in social order and the welfare of the poor. It shows moreover that the prophet at this time attached real importance to the promise of the Messiah as the organ of Jehovahs rule over His people. If civil wrongs and legalised tyranny were not the only sins which had brought about the destruction of the state, they were at least serious evils, which could not be tolerated in the new Israel; and the chief safeguard against their recurrence is found in the character of the ideal ruler whom Jehovah will raise up from the seed of David. How far this high conception of the functions of the monarchy was modified in Ezekiels subsequent teaching we shall see when we come to consider the position assigned to the prince in the great vision at the end of the book.

In the meantime let us examine somewhat more closely the contents of chapter 34. Its leading ideas seem to have been suggested by a Messianic prophecy of Jeremiahs with which Ezekiel was no doubt acquainted: “Woe to the shepherds that destroy and scatter the flock of My pasture! saith Jehovah. Therefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, against the shepherds that tend My people, Ye have scattered My flock, and dispersed them, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith Jehovah. And I will gather the remnant of My flock from all the lands whither I have dispersed them, and will restore them to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and multiply. And I will set shepherds over them who shall feed them: and they shall not fear any more, nor be frightened, nor be lacking, saith Jehovah”. {Jer 23:1-4} Here we have the simple image of the flock and its shepherds, which Ezekiel, as his manner is, expands into an allegory of the past history and future prospects of the nation. How closely he follows the guidance of his predecessor will be seen from the analysis of the chapter. It may be divided into four parts.

1. The first ten verses are a strongly worded denunciation of the misgovernment to which the people of Jehovah had been subjected in the past. The prophet goes straight to the root of the evil when he indignantly asks, “Should not the shepherds feed the flock?” (Eze 34:2). The first principle of all true government is that it must be in the interest of the governed. But the universal vice of Oriental despotism, as we see in the case of the Turkish empire at the present day, or Egypt before the English occupation, is that the rulers rule for their own advantage, and treat the people as their lawful spoil. So it had been in Israel: the shepherds had fed themselves, and not the flock. Instead of carefully tending the sick and the maimed, and searching out the strayed and the lost, they had been concerned only to eat the milk and clothe themselves with the wool and slaughter the fat; they had ruled with “violence and rigour.” That is to say, instead of healing the sores of the body politic, they had sought to enrich themselves at the expense of the people. Such misconduct in the name of government always brings its own penalty; it kills the goose that lays the golden eggs. The flock which is spoiled by its own shepherds is scattered on the mountain and becomes the prey of wild beasts; and so the nation that is weakened by internal misrule loses its powers of defence and succumbs to the attacks of some foreign invader. But the shepherds of Israel have to reckon with Him who is the owner of the flock, whose affection still watches over them, and whose compassion is stirred by the hapless condition of His people. “Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of Jehovah; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require My flock at their hand; and I will make them to cease from feeding [My] flock, that they who feed themselves may no longer shepherd them; and I will deliver My flock from their mouth that they be not food for them” (Eze 34:9-10).

2. But Jehovah not only removes the unworthy shepherds; He Himself takes on Him the office of shepherd to the flock that has been so mishandled (Eze 34:11-16). As the shepherd goes out after the thunderstorm to call in his frightened sheep, so will Jehovah after the storm of judgment is over go forth to “gather together the outcasts of Israel”. {Psa 147:2} He will seek them out and deliver them from all places whither they were scattered in the day of clouds and darkness; then He will lead them back to the mountain height of Israel, where they shall enjoy abundant prosperity and security under His just and beneficent rule. By what agencies this deliverance is to be accomplished is nowhere indicated. It is the unanimous teaching of the prophets that the final salvation of Israel will be effected in a “day of Jehovah”-i.e., a day in which Jehovahs own power will be specially manifested. Hence there is no need to describe the process by which the Almighty works out His purpose of salvation; it is indescribable: the results are certain, but the intermediate agencies are supernatural, and the precise method of Jehovahs intervention is, as a rule, left indefinite. It is particularly to be noted that the Messiah plays no part in the actual work of deliverance. He is not the hero of a national struggle for independence, but comes on the scene and assumes the reins of government after Jehovah has gotten the victory and restored peace to Israel.

3. The next six verses (Eze 34:17-22) add a feature to the allegory which is not found in the corresponding passage in Jeremiah. Jehovah will judge between one sheep and another, especially between the rams and he-goats on the one hand and the weaker animals on the other. The strong cattle had monopolised the fat meadows and clear settled waters, and as if this were not enough, they had trampled down the residue of the pastures and fouled the waters with their feet. Those addressed are the wealthy and powerful upper class, whose luxury and wanton extravagance had consumed the resources of the country, and left no sustenance for the poorer members of the community. Allusions to this kind of selfish tyranny are frequent in the older prophets. Amos speaks of the nobles as panting after the dust on the head of the poor, and of the luxurious dames of Samaria as oppressing the poor and crushing the needy, and saying to their lords, “Bring us to drink.” {Amo 2:7; Amo 4:1} Micah says of the same class in the southern kingdom that they cast out the women of Jehovahs people from their pleasant houses, and robbed their children of His glory for ever. {Mic 2:9} And Isaiah, to take one other example, denounces those who “take away the right from the poor of My people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the orphans”. {Isa 10:2} Under the corrupt administration of justice which the kings had tolerated for their own convenience litigation had been a farce; the rich man had always the ear of the judge, and the poor found no redress. But in Israel the true fountain of justice could not be polluted; it was only its channels that were obstructed. For Jehovah Himself was the supreme judge of His people; and in the restored commonwealth to which Ezekiel looks forward all civil relations will be regulated by a regard to His righteous will. He will “save His flock that they be no more a prey, and will judge between cattle and cattle.”

4. Then follows in the last section (Eze 34:23-31) the promise of the Messianic king, and a description of the blessings that accompany his reign: “I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them-My servant David: he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I Jehovah will be their God, and My servant David shall be a prince in their midst: I Jehovah have spoken it.” There are one or two difficulties connected with the interpretation of this passage, the consideration of which may be postponed till we have finished our analysis of the chapter. It is sufficient in the meantime to notice that a Davidic kingdom in some sense is to be the foundation of social order in the new Israel. A prince will arise, endowed with the spirit of his exalted office, to discharge perfectly the royal functions in which the former kings had so lamentably failed. Through him the divine government of Israel will become a reality in the national life. The Godhead of Jehovah and the kingship of the Messiah will be inseparably associated in the faith of the people: “Jehovah their God, and David their king” {Hos 3:5} is the expression of the ground of Israels confidence in the latter days. And this kingdom is the pledge of the fulness of divine blessing descending on the land and the people. The people shall dwell in safety, none making them afraid, because of the covenant of peace which Jehovah will make for them, securing them against the assaults of other nations. The heavens shall pour forth fertilising “showers of blessing”; and the land shall be clothed with a luxuriant vegetation which shall be the admiration of the whole earth. Thus happily situated Israel shall shake off the reproach of the heathen, which they had formerly to endure because of the poverty of their land and their unfortunate history. In the plenitude of material prosperity they shall recognise that Jehovah their God is with them, and they shall know what it is to be His people and the flock of His pasture.

We have now before us the salient features of the Messianic hope, as it is presented in the pages of Ezekiel. We see that the idea is developed in contrast with the abuses that had characterised the historic monarchy in Israel. It represents the ideal of the kingdom as it exists in the mind of Jehovah, an ideal which no actual king had fully realised, and which most of them had shamefully violated. The Messiah is the vice-regent of Jehovah on earth, and the representative of His kingly authority and righteous government over Israel. We see further that the promise is based on the “sure mercies of David,” the covenant which secured the throne to Davids descendants for ever. Messianic prophecy is legitimist, the ideal king being regarded as standing in the direct line of succession to the crown. And to these features we may add another which is explicitly developed in Eze 37:22-26, although it is implied in the expression “one shepherd” in the passage with which we have been dealing. The Messianic kingdom represents the unity of all Israel, and particularly the reunion of the two kingdoms under one sceptre. The prophets attach great importance to this idea. (Cf. Amo 9:11 f.; Hos 2:2; Hos 3:5 Isa 11:13 Mic 2:12 f., Mic 5:3) The existence of two rival monarchies, divided in interest and often at war with each other, although it had never effaced the consciousness of the original unity of the nation, was felt by the prophets to be an anomalous state of things, and seriously detrimental to the national religion. The ideal relation of Jehovah to Israel was as incompatible with two kingdoms as the ideal of marriage is incompatible with two wives to one husband. Hence in the glorious future of the Messianic age the schism must be healed, and the Davidic dynasty restored to its original position at the head of an undivided empire. The prominence given to this thought in the teaching of Hosea shows that even in the northern kingdom devout Israelites cherished the hope of reunion with their brethren under the house of David as the only form in which the redemption of the nation could be achieved. And although, long before Ezekiels day, the kingdom of Samaria had disappeared from history, he too looks forward to a restoration of the ten tribes as an essential element of the Messianic salvation.

In these respects the teaching of Ezekiel reflects the general tenor of the Messianic prophecy of the Old Testament. There are just two questions on which some obscurity and uncertainty must be felt to rest. In the first place, what is the precise meaning of the expression “My servant David”? It will not be supposed that the prophet expected David, the founder of the Hebrew monarchy, to reappear in person and inaugurate the new dispensation. Such an interpretation would be utterly false to Eastern modes of thought and expression, besides being opposed to every indication we have of the prophetic conception of the Messiah. Even in popular language the name of David was current, after he had been long dead, as the name of the dynasty which he had founded. When the ten tribes revolted from Rehoboam they said, exactly as they had said in Davids lifetime, “What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel; now see to thine own house, David.” If the name of David could thus be invoked in popular speech at a time of great political excitement, we need not be surprised to find it used in a similar sense in the figurative style of the prophets. All that the word means is that the Messiah will be one who comes in the spirit and power of David, a representative of the ancient family who carries to completion the work so nobly begun by his great ancestor.

The real difficulty is whether the title “David” denotes a unique individual or a line of Davidic kings. To that question it is hardly possible to return a decided answer. That the idea of a succession of sovereigns is a possible form of the Messianic hope is shown by a passage in the thirty-third chapter of Jeremiah. There the promise of the righteous sprout of the house of David is supplemented by the assurance that David shall never want a man to sit on the throne of Israel: {Jer 33:15-17} the allusion therefore appears to be to the dynasty, and not to a single person. And this view finds some support in the case of Ezekiel from the fact that in the later vision of chapters 40-48, the prophet undoubtedly anticipates a perpetuation of the dynasty through successive generations. {Cf Eze 43:7; Eze 45:8; Eze 46:16 ff.} On the other hand it is difficult to reconcile this view with the expressions used in this. and the thirty-seventh chapters. When we read that “My servant David shall be their prince for ever,” {Eze 37:25} we can scarcely escape the impression that the prophet is thinking of a personal Messiah reigning eternally. If it were necessary to decide between these two alternatives, it might be safest to adhere to the idea of a personal Messiah, as conveying the fullest rendering of the prophets thought. There is reason to think that in the interval between this prophecy and his final vision Ezekiels conception of the Messiah underwent a certain modification, and therefore the teaching of the later passage cannot be used to control the explanation of this. But the obscurity is of such a nature that we cannot hope to remove it. In the prophets delineations of the future there are many points on which the light of revelation had not been fully cast; for they, like the Christian apostle, “knew in part and prophesied in part.” And the question of the way in which the Messiahs office is to be prolonged is precisely one of those which did not greatly occupy the mind of the prophets. There is no perspective in Messianic prophecy: the future kingdom of God is seen, as it were, in one plane, and how it is to be transmitted from one age to another is never thought of. Thus it may become difficult to say whether a particular prophet, in speaking of the Messiah, has a single individual in view or whether he is thinking of a dynasty or a succession. To Ezekiel the Messiah was a divinely revealed ideal, which was to be fulfilled in a person; whether the prophet himself distinctly understood this is a matter of inferior importance.

The second question is one that perhaps would not readily occur to a plain man. It relates to the meaning of the word “prince” as applied to the Messiah. It has been thought by some critics that Ezekiel had a special reason for avoiding the title “king”; and from this supposed reason a somewhat sweeping conclusion has been deduced. We are asked to believe that Ezekiel had in principle abandoned the Messianic hope of his earlier prophecies-i.e., the hope of a restoration of the Davidic kingdom in its ancient splendour. What he really contemplates is the abolition of the Hebrew monarchy, and the institution of a new political system entirely different from anything that had existed in the past. Although the Davidic prince will hold the first place in the restored community, his dignity will be less than royal; he will only be a titular monarch, his power being overshadowed by the presence of Jehovah, the true king of Israel. Now so far as this view is suggested by the use of the word “prince” (literally “leader” or “president”) in preference to “king,” it is sufficiently answered by pointing to the Messianic passage in chapter 37, where the name “king” is used three times and in a peculiarly emphatic manner of the Messianic prince. {Eze 37:22-24} There is no reason to suppose that Ezekiel drew a distinction between “princely” and “kingly” rank, and deliberately withheld the higher dignity from the Messiah. Whatever may be the exact relation of the Messiah to Jehovah, there is no doubt that he is conceived as a king in the full sense of the term, possessed of all regal qualities, and shepherding his people with the authority which belonged to a true son of David.

But there is another consideration which weighs more seriously with the writers referred to. There is reason to believe that Ezekiels conception of the final kingdom of God underwent a change which might not unfairly be described as an abandonment of the Messianic expectation in its more restricted sense. In his latest vision the functions of the prince are defined in such a way that his position is shorn of the ideal significance which properly invests the office of the Messiah. The change does not indeed affect his merely political status. He is still the son of David and the king of Israel, and all that is here said about his duty towards his subjects is there presupposed. But his character seems to be no longer regarded as thoroughly reliable, or equal to all the temptations that arise wherever absolute power is lodged in human hands. The possibility that the king may abuse his authority for his private advantage is distinctly contemplated, and provision is made against it in the statutory constitution to which the king himself is subject. Such precautions are obviously inconsistent with the ideal of the Messianic kingdom which we find, for example, in the prophecy of Isaiah. The important question therefore comes to be, whether this lower view of the monarchy is anticipated in the thirty-fourth and thirty-seventh chapters. This does not appear to be the case. The prophet still occupies the same standpoint as in chapter 17, regarding the Davidic monarchy as the central religious institution of the restored state. The Messiah of these chapters is a perfect king, endowed with the spirit of God for the discharge of his great office, one whose personal character affords an absolute security for the maintenance of public righteousness, and who is the medium of communication between God and the nation. In other words, what we have to do with is a Messianic prediction in the fullest sense of the term.

In concluding our study of Ezekiels Messianic teaching, we may make one remark bearing on its typological interpretation. The attempt is sometimes made to trace a gradual development and enrichment of the Messianic idea in the hands of successive prophets. From that point of view Ezekiels contribution to the doctrine of the Messiah must be felt to be disappointing. No one can imagine that his portrait of the coming king possesses anything like the suggestiveness and religious meaning conveyed by the ideal which stands out so clearly from the pages of Isaiah. And, indeed, no subsequent prophet excels or even equals Isaiah in the clearness and profundity of his directly Messianic conceptions. This fact shows us that the endeavour to find in the Old Testament a regular progress along one particular line proceeds on too narrow a view of the scope of prophecy. The truth is that the figure of the king is only one of many types of the Christian dispensation which the religious institutions of Israel supplied to the prophets. It is the most perfect of all types, partly because it is personal, and partly because the idea of kingship is the most comprehensive of the offices which Christ executes as our Redeemer. But, after all, it expresses only one aspect of the glorious future of the kingdom of God towards which prophecy steadily points. We must remember also that the order in which these types emerge is determined not altogether by their intrinsic importance, but partly by their adaptation to the needs of the age in which the prophet lived. The main function of prophecy was to furnish present and practical direction to the people of God; and the form under which the ideal was presented to any particular generation was always that best fitted to help it onwards, one stage nearer to the great consummation. Thus while Isaiah idealises the figure of the king, Jeremiah grasps the conception of a new religion under the form of a covenant, the second Isaiah unfolds the idea of the prophetic servant of Jehovah, Zechariah and the writer of the 110th Psalm idealise the priesthood. All these are Messianic prophecies, if we take the word in its widest acceptations; but they are not all cast in one mould, and the attempt to arrange them in a single series is obviously misleading. So with regard to Ezekiel we may say that his chief Messianic ideal (still using the expression in a general sense) is the sanctuary, the symbol of Jehovahs presence in the midst of His people. At the end of chapter 37, the kingdom and the sanctuary are mentioned together as pledges of the glory of the latter days. But while the idea of the Messianic monarchy was a legacy inherited from his prophetic precursors, the Temple was an institution whose typical significance Ezekiel was the first to unfold. It was moreover the one that met the religious requirements of the age in which Ezekiel lived. Ultimately the hope of the personal Messiah loses the importance which it still has in the present section of the book; and the prophets vision of the future concentrates itself on the sanctuary as the centre of the restored theocracy, and the source from which the regenerating influences of the divine grace flow forth to Israel and the world.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary