Ezekiel 34:12, commentary and pictures

God Himself, as a shepherd among his scattered sheep, will seek out His sheep and deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered. The cloudy and dark day is a time of darkness, distress and trouble, and His deliverance brings people out of darkness and ignorance into light. When human shepherds are unfaithful and untrue, God Himself takes charge of the flock, so His people are never made wholly dependent on human leaders or instrumentalities. Every soul belongs to Him by creation and redemption and is precious to Him, so even when people wander, err, are weak and trembling, or have apostatized, He still claims them and longs to recover and fully gather them into the fold. Because He is now doing a quick work that will soon be cut short, His people and ministers must share His seeking by swiftly searching out the lost and straying and bringing them saving truth.

Shepherd Seeking Scattered Sheep

God Himself comes as a shepherd into the midst of His scattered flock to search them out and to rescue them from every place where they have been dispersed. As a shepherd seeks out his own sheep on the day he is among those that are scattered, so the Lord personally seeks and gathers His wandering people and delivers them out of all their places of dispersion. The searching shepherd pictures His care for those who are lost or driven away, whom He still claims and longs to recover even when they have turned away and chosen another master.

The cloudy and dark day is a time of darkness and distress and trouble, even a dark and difficult time for the wanderers. Deliverance from that day brings the scattered out of darkness and ignorance into light. The Lord overrules hindrances and opens opportunity for the deceived to hear truth, rescuing them from every place to which they have been driven.

Sheep are a symbol of the people of God, and the promise means bringing them out from the people and gathering them from the countries to feed them in good pasture by the mountains of Israel and to cause them to lie down. That gathering work seeks what was lost and brings again what was driven away, binds up what was broken and strengthens what was sick. At the same time it destroys the fat and the strong and judges between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats, because they ate up the good pasture and trod down the residue with their feet and drank the deep waters and fouled the residue, leaving the flock to eat what was trodden and to drink what was fouled. The scattered sheep described as brought to good pasture are about to be gathered.

The verse belongs to the account of shepherds who failed their flock, a figure with significance for all the people and understood by the priests and rulers who expounded the Old Testament Scriptures. It sets forth the relation Christ holds to the human family as the true Shepherd, in contrast with those who should have acted as shepherds to be a blessing to the needy and helpless and to those needing comfort and sympathy and tender regard, but who did not give what was needed. The same chapter carries the Lord's call for unfaithful shepherds to return to faithful service, connected with the duty to give the people truth and to care for those in need rather than accepting only what suits one's own practice.

Shepherding here means patiently seeking the straying and caring for the afflicted, the unruly, the young, and the weak. Moses learned these duties while tending sheep, and that training drew him nearer to God the great Shepherd. It prepared him to lead Israel while depending on Christ as his invisible Leader.

God Rescues Despite Unfaithful Shepherds

When human shepherds prove unfaithful and untrue, God Himself takes charge of the flock, seeking out His scattered people and delivering them and calling them fully into the fold, so the flock is never made wholly dependent on human leaders or instrumentalities. This carries a special call to the erring, the weak and trembling, and even to those who have apostatized from the truth. Because He thus takes charge Himself, true Christians can exist even where there are no faithful ministers.

That certainty forbids despair amid prevailing moral darkness and failing faithfulness. It stands joined to hastening days of purification and sifting in which God will have a people pure and true. The same personal seeking reaches those kept from hearing Bible truth by unfaithful pastors, whose efforts the Lord can overrule to give the deceived an opportunity to hear the truth, gathering them like a shepherd and delivering them from every place they have been driven during a time of darkness and distress.

The promise means God will seek out His beautiful flock and deliver them when they are in the hands of a chosen physician who becomes self-exalted and ambitious to be as God, repeats Satan's suggestions, and will not heed admonition and reform. Though that man spoils the flock, makes the work exceedingly hard for God's ministers, brings confusion, neglects God's vineyard, works for years to discourage ministers, and creates dissension and strife by crooked action while refusing increased light and evidence, God will not let His flock be spoiled but will take them out of his hands, keep them, and appoint over them true teachers and faithful physicians. Every soul belongs to God by creation and redemption and is precious to Him, so even when people turn away and choose another master, wander from Him, err, are weak and trembling, or have apostatized from the truth, God still claims them, longs to recover them, seeks to deliver them from every place where they have wandered even in a dark and troubled time, and calls them fully into the fold.

God is now doing a quick work on earth that will soon be cut short in righteousness. His messengers must therefore move swiftly and speed on their way to find His scattered sheep who are perishing for lack of spiritual food and bring them the saving present truth that they may be sealed with the seal of the living God. The scattered sheep described as sought and gathered and brought to good pasture are about to be gathered.

Searching for Scattered Sheep Today

The verse lays a special duty on God's people to go and search for the lost sheep, including the erring, the weak and trembling, and even those who have apostatized from the truth, whom the Lord Himself seeks to deliver and call fully into the fold. That shepherd care is applied to ministers, who are to seek out lost and straying church members and bring them back to the fold while caring for each person's spiritual condition. As the shepherd searches for his lost sheep, so scattered sheep must be searched out by house-to-house work in the homes of the people. That means diligent personal effort of equal importance with special public efforts, especially in large cities to reach certain classes that cannot be reached by public meetings, and to follow up the spirit of inquiry awakened in large congregations by teaching those who desire to investigate the truth to study the word of God and build on the sure foundation.

Because God is now doing a quick work on earth that will soon be cut short in righteousness, His messengers must move swiftly and speed on their way to find His scattered sheep who are perishing for lack of spiritual food. They are to bring them the saving present truth that they may be sealed with the seal of the living God. Only God's messengers who have a message are to do this searching, for those who travel with no message from God hinder and dishonor His cause. Such will give an account to God for every dollar used in traveling where it was not their duty to go, for that money might have helped the cause of God and, for lack of it, souls have starved and died for want of the spiritual food that God's called and chosen messengers might have given them if they had had the means.

The chapter is to be individually studied by those who claim to believe the truth when deciding about association with one who has apostatized, to learn what the Spirit says to the churches. It calls them to watch and pray and trust the living Word, to be daily converted and form a character after the divine similitude, and to prepare with joy to meet the Lord when He comes in the clouds of heaven with power and glory, holding that even the apostate may yet repent and live. The chapter belongs to the account of shepherds who have failed their flock and the Lord's call for them to return to faithful service. It is connected with the duty to give the people truth and care for those in need, rather than accepting only what suits one's practice.