The Good Shepherd and His Work

Next Part The Good Shepherd and His Work 2

Ezekiel 34:1-16 Then this message came to me from the Lord: "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds, the leaders of Israel. Give them this message from the Sovereign Lord – Destruction is certain for you shepherds who feed yourselves instead of your flocks. Shouldn't shepherds feed their sheep? You drink the milk, wear the wool, and butcher the best animals, but you let your flocks starve. You have not taken care of the weak. You have not tended the sick or bound up the broken bones. You have not gone looking for those who have wandered away and are lost. Instead, you have ruled them with force and cruelty. So my sheep have been scattered without a shepherd. They are easy prey for any wild animal. They have wandered through the mountains and hills, across the face of the earth, yet no one has gone to search for them.

"Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord – As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, you abandoned my flock and left them to be attacked by every wild animal. Though you were my shepherds, you didn't search for my sheep when they were lost. You took care of yourselves and left the sheep to starve. Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord says – I now consider these shepherds my enemies, and I will hold them responsible for what has happened to my flock. I will take away their right to feed the flock, along with their right to feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths – the sheep will no longer be their prey.

"For this is what the Sovereign Lord says – I myself will search and find my sheep. I will be like a shepherd looking for his scattered flock. I will find my sheep and rescue them from all the places to which they were scattered on that dark and cloudy day. I will bring them back home to their own land of Israel from among the peoples and nations. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel and by the rivers in all the places where people live. Yes, I will give them good pastureland on the high hills of Israel. There they will lie down in pleasant places and feed in lush mountain pastures. I myself will feed my sheep and cause them to lie down in peace, says the Sovereign Lord. I will search for my lost ones who strayedaway, and I will bring them safely home again. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak. But I will destroy those who are fat and powerful. I will feed them, yes—feed them judgment!

The Lord in this chapter brings some heavy charges against the false shepherds of Israel. His accusations against them may be summed up under two leading heads–
1. Their sins of commission.
2. Their sins of omission.

Greediness, selfishness, cruelty, and violence were stamped on all their actions. They fed themselves – they ate the fat and clothed themselves with the wool – and with force and with cruelty they ruled the flock. These were their sins of commission.

And to them they added, sins of omission. The diseased they did not strengthen, neither did they heal those who were sick, neither did they bind up those who were broken, neither did they bring again those who were driven away, neither did they seek those who were lost.

And what was the consequence of these sins of commission and omission on the part of the shepherds? That the sheep were scattered – that they became prey to all the beasts of the field – that they wandered through all the mountains and upon every high hill – and that none did search or seek after them.

But the Lord does not confine himself to the false shepherds – he also files a bill of charges against a portion of the flock itself– "As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet? Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says to them: See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another." Ezekiel 34:17-22

But because the shepherds have neglected their duty – and because the fat and the strong among the flock themselves have thrust with side and with shoulder, trodden down the good pastures, and polluted the streams, shall the sheep be mortally injured? Shall they perish through the neglect of the one and the violence of the other? True, they are scattered upon every high hill – true, they have no shepherds to take kindly notice of them – true, they are sometimes gored and sometimes starved. But when man forsakes, the Lord takes them up. No! they shall derive benefit from their very loss– they shall have God for their Shepherd instead of man. Blessed exchange of Creator power for creature weakness, of divine love and faithfulness for human neglect, cruelty, and worthlessness!

"I myself will feed my sheep and cause them to lie down in peace, says the Sovereign Lord. I will search for my lost ones who strayed away, and I will bring them safely home again. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak. But I will destroy those who are fat and powerful. I will feed them, yes—feed them judgment!" (verses 15,16).

Our text falls of itself, so to speak, under two leading divisions–
I. The promisesthat God makes to his people generally, and in an especial manner to the diseased portion of them.
II. His threatenings and denunciations against the fat and the strong.

I. The PROMISESthat God makes to his people generally, and in an especial manner to the diseased portion of them. If we look at this cluster of promises made to the flock of slaughter, (for it is to the flock of slaughter that the Lord God here speaks), we shall find that the first two have a more general and comprehensive bearing than the rest: "I will feed my flock, and cause them to lie down, says the Lord." Food and rest are needful for every sheep and every lamb – indispensable for the sustentation of life itself – and therefore promised alike to all. "His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness;" and therefore food, without which there is neither life nor godliness.

The shepherds did not, or could not feed them. They feasted while the flock fasted – they ate the fat in the parlour, while the sheep could not get a nibble upon the mountain. Shall the sheep then die of malnutrition? Shall first wool, then fat, and then flesh waste off their bones, until at last they drop down dead under the hedge with nothing but their sunken eyes to feed the ravens? No, says the Lord, "I will feed them."

1. "I will FEED my flock."This implies that the flock is hungry – no more, that it hungers after that peculiar food which alone can satisfy it. Spiritual hunger is a sure mark of life. The Lord's own words are, "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness" (Matt.5:6). Hunger, we may observe, has a peculiar relation to suitable food. The lion does not hunger for the food of the lamb, nor the dove for that of the eagle. "Feed me with food," prays Agur, "convenient for me" (Prov.30:8), literally, "appointed," that is, suitable to my appetite, ordained by yourself to satisfy it. Thus, a soul spiritually hungry cannot eat trash. God's own mark against "a deceived heart" is, that it "feeds upon ashes" (Isa.44:20).

A living soul cannot, then, feed upon the ashes of its own righteousness – for ashes indeed they will be found when the lightning stroke of God's righteous law has burnt up all creature loveliness. Nor can it feed upon superstitious ceremonies, or the mummeries of Popish Paganism, either in the full court dress of the Catholic chapel, or the undress of the Puseyite church. Nor can it feed upon the, "form of godliness"--upon the barren mountains of dead, dry Calvinism--any more than as it grows on the heaths and wilds of erroneous Arminianism. No, the Bible itself, that sweet and sacred record, that blessed revelation of the mind of God--even upon the letter of that the soul cannot feed unless God himself turns it into food. For the promise runs, "I will feed my flock."

The food, the only real food of the soul must be of God's own appointing, preparing, and communicating. The babe on the mother's lap must be fed spoonful by spoonful, and that by the hand of the parent. The food must be put into the mouth, and such food only as is suitable for the growth of the babe. You can never deceive a hungry child. You may give it a plaything to still its cries, it may serve for a few minutes – but the pains of hunger are not to be removed by a doll. A windmill or a horse will not allay the cravings after the mother's breast.

So with babes in grace. A hungry soul cannot feed upon playthings. Altars, robes, ceremonies, candlesticks, bowings, mutterings, painted windows, intoning priests, and singing men and women--these dolls and wooden horses--these toys and playthings of the religious babyhouse, cannot feed the soul that, like David, cries out after the living God (Psalm 42:23). Christ, the bread of life, the manna who came down from heaven, is the only food of the believing soul: "He who eats me," says the Lord, "even he shall live by me." "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eats of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (John 6:51).

A living soul knows when it hungers as much as the babe in the mother's arms knows when it hungers – and knows also when it drinks down the pure milk of God's Word as sensibly and as truly as the natural child knows when its hunger is allayed by the mother's breast. The Lord says, "I will feedmy flock." They shall indeed suffer first the pangs of hunger to teach them to value it – for "the full soul loaths a honey-comb" (Prov.27:7).

No more, generally speaking, a certain painful experience is required to produce this appetite. Look at the laborer. What an appetite he has! How he relishes his food, coarse though it is! What gives him this appetite? Why, hard work. He is not your 'delicate invalid', or your 'fine lady', that lolls upon the sofa all day long, and whispers at dinner, "I think I can just pick the wing of a chicken;" but he has well earned it, for he has been working while you have been sleeping. So with the spiritual laborer, for such there are in the kingdom of God. "Come unto me, all you who labor" (Matt 11:28) – "Labor not for the food which perishes, but for that food which endures unto everlasting life" (Jn.6:27)

"In all labor there is profit" (Prov.14:23). To labor under a burden of sin, against powerful temptations, a body of sin and death, and a whole host of lusts and corruptions, will make a man hunger after a righteousness better than his own. We rarely cry out for the living bread until brought down to the starving point. Then, when nothing will satisfy but Jesus, God steps in with this Word, "I will feed." Sometimes it shall be a promise – sometimes a glimpse of Jesus – sometimes a sweet assurance of a saving interest in his blood and righteousness – sometimes a smile – sometimes a sip or taste of his mercy, goodness, and love.

When any gospel truth is applied to the heart – when faith embraces it, hope anchors in it, and love flows toward it, then the soul is divinely fed. Hunger is then sensibly allayed--the Word of God tastes sweet – Jesus is received into the heart – and as the sheep lies and chews the cud, so the soul meditates and ruminates on the truth of God, and enjoys it over and over again.

Never be satisfied with the mere letter of truth. Seek to have fulfilled in your own individual and happy experience that declaration of Jesus, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (Jn.6:63).

2. "I will cause them to lie down."Poor things! Restless indeed they were. Not a spot of soft tender grass was there on which they could repose their weary limbs. Did they seek the good pasture? The best was eaten up, and the rest trodden down. Did they long to lie down by the still waters? They were jostled away by the fat and the strong – and the little they could get was fouled. Thus were they ever on the drive, hurried to and fro, far from rest and peace. Lively emblem of a soul that, like Noah's dove, finds no rest for the sole of her foot on the floating carcases of a ruined world!

What a restless being is a tempted child of God! How unable he often is even to rest locally, to take his chair, and sit quietly by his fire-side! It is recorded of the prisoners, who in the first French revolution were awaiting in their dungeons the summons to the 'dread tribunal of blood', that some passed nearly all their whole time in walking up and down their cells. So sometimes under trials and temptations, we pace up and down the room as if we sought to dissipate the exercise of our minds by the exercise of our bodies – or rush into the streets and fields to pour the heart out in sighs and groans, the restless mind acting and reacting upon the body.

And as an exercised child of God often cannot rest physically, so cannot he rest spiritually. He cannot rest in his own righteousness, nor in a sound creed, nor in a form of godliness, nor in the opinions of men, nor in anything that springs from or centers in the creature. There always is something uneasy – either in himself or in the ground on which he would repose. Sometimes it is strewed with thorns and briars – sometimes beset with sharp and rugged rocks. Sometimes the barking dog or howling wolf – sometimes the sturdy ram or butting goat – sometimes the goad of the savage driver – and sometimes the fears and anxieties of his own timid heart, prevent it settling down to rest and sleep.

And yet, but for these restless, uneasy feelings, how many even of the Lord's own family would settle down short of gospel rest? Some would settle down in false religion – others in the world – some would make a god of their own righteousness – and others, like the foolish virgins, would securely sleep while their lamp was burning out.

But there is that restless, painful exercise where the life and grace of God are, that the soul cannot, if it would, settle down in any rest but that of God's own providing. "There remains therefore a rest for the people of God" (Heb.4:9). That rest is Christ – the blood, righteousness, love, and grace of the Lamb of God. The Lord says,"Iwill cause them to lie down." They cannot lie down then when they please. How everything is of grace! Every gracious movement is so from God, that they actually cannot lie down except he causes them. They are like the babe which cannot lay itself down in the cradle. The mother's arms are as needful to lay it down as to take it up. So the Lord is said to cause Israel to rest (Jer.31:2). And David says, "He makesme to lie down in green pastures" (Psalm.23:2). Thus the Lord sometimes leads his sheep in the green pastures and beside the still waters. Then he makes them to lie down.

"I will give you rest," says Jesus. This rest is himself. No more, it is God's rest. "Myrest," he calls it. "If they shall enter into myrest" (Heb.4:5). Jesus is the true Sabbath, the rest of God and the rest of man. God rests in his love – when we can rest in that, we are of one mind with God. All rest short of this is a delusion. Now have you ever found any rest for your soul? If you have ever felt any measure of real rest, however short it may have been, it has only been in Jesus and his finished work, and by the blessed Spirit bringing into your soul some sweet testimony of your personal interest in it. Into this rest we enter only by faith, as the apostle speaks, "We who have believed do enter into rest" (Heb.4:3).

But this cannot be until we cease from self, as Paul speaks, "He who has entered into his rest has ceased from his own works" (Heb.4:10). As long as you are trying to get some comfort from your own works, you will never enter into rest. It is by believing, not by working – by the gospel, and not by the law – by Christ, and not by self, that rest and peace are entered into and enjoyed.

The two promises which we have been considering – food and rest, are applicable to allthe flock, and to each individual member of it, food and rest being alike needful for all.

But we now come to a series of promises, which have a special relation to particular cases. The sheep, through neglect and cruelty, had fallen into a miserable condition. Some were "lost;" others "driven away" – some "broken" in limb, wind, and constitution – and some "sick" and half dead with malady and disease. Must all of these perish, and feed the vulture and the jackal? No! – says the Lord, "I will search for my lost ones who strayed away, and I will bring them safely home again. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak."

When they are abandoned by the shepherds, and in themselves helpless and hopeless, ready to perish, the Lord steps in with his own almighty arm.

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