I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD.
The promise is that God Himself will feed His flock and cause them to lie down in rest. He cares for His flock by providing what they need and giving them rest. Sheep are a symbol of the people of God, and the promise is to those scattered in the cloudy and dark day. Whom He will search out and deliver out of all places where they were scattered, bring out from the people and gather from the countries. He will feed them in a good and fat pasture by the mountains of Israel, by the rivers and in all inhabited places, with a good fold to rest in.
The feeding includes seeking the lost, bringing back the driven away, binding up the broken and strengthening the sick. It includes gathering the sorrowful and outcast, saving her that halteth and her that was driven out, and bringing them again. It includes destroying the fat and the strong, feeding with judgment, and judging between cattle and cattle. The promise is fulfilled in Christ as the good Shepherd and reveals the relation in which He stands to the human family. The word is spoken by God as the great Teacher to stir the indolent to obtain a living connection with the Source of all power and to become laborers together with God.
Feeding the flock means giving nourishing truth, the living bread from heaven. The chapter sets this care of God against unfaithful shepherds. It exposes the Jewish rulers who as expositors understood Christ's relation to humanity yet should have blessed the needy and helpless with comfort, sympathy and tender regard but neglected the work, had no true commission, and did not minister to those needing help. Ministers should receive the nourishing truth and share it rather than reject it when it calls for self-denial.
The word means God will save His beautiful flock from the man He chose to be His physician on condition of heeding admonition, but who exalted self to be as God and repeated Satan's suggestions. God will not let the flock be spoiled but will take them out of his hands, keep and feed them, cause them to lie down in rest, and appoint over them true teachers and faithful physicians. This is because that man made it hard for ministers, brought confusion, neglected the vineyard, discouraged ministers for many years, and created dissension and strife by his crooked course while refusing increased light and reform. The promise belongs to the colored people of the South who have been scattered, oppressed and injured. Through multiplied missionaries bringing souls out of darkness and ignorance into marvelous light, the desert places of the South where the outlook appears forbidding will become as the garden of God, the past will be redeemed and the injury repaired. God will pour out His Spirit on those who respond, make with them a covenant of peace, make them and the places round about them a blessing with showers of blessing in season, be with them as their God, and fill heaven with rejoicing over the work done in the strength of Christ.
The flock includes people in Sydney, Maitland, Newcastle and the suburban towns, and the larger companies at Brisbane and Newcastle, who are starving for the bread of life, stretching out their hands imploringly, some praying and some weeping, as sheep without a shepherd. The feeding happens when they are gathered and taught, with great interest manifested, as seen in crowded camp meetings where over a thousand attended. The picture of the great Shepherd connects with Moses' training to care patiently for the afflicted, straying, unruly, young and feeble, preparing him to lead people while depending on Christ. The verse gives a special call from the Lord Himself to the erring, the weak and trembling, and even those who have apostatized from the truth to come fully into the fold, and lays on His people a special duty to go and search for these lost sheep.
The shepherd's work belongs as an individual responsibility to ministers and to everyone who labors for souls, to care for church members, seek the lost and straying and bring them back to the fold. To be a wise shepherd means to be a faithful and tender guardian in the home and in all dealings with others and wherever one labors. It means not driving the sheep with an uplifted whip but feeding them by hand and ministering comfort and help with a heart full of tenderness and love. The care belongs to those who seek an individual knowledge of what the Lord requires, since spiritual things must be spiritually discerned. It calls for watching and praying, trusting in the living Word, being daily converted to God, forming a character after the divine similitude in earnest preparation for the scenes that shall shortly take place, so as to meet the Lord with joy when He comes in the clouds of heaven with power and glory, and for refusing to place oneself under apostate influence.
The promise is that God Himself will feed His flock and cause them to lie down in rest. He cares for His flock by providing what they need and giving them rest. Sheep are a symbol of the people of God, and the promise is to those scattered in the cloudy and dark day. Whom He will search out and deliver out of all places where they were scattered, bring out from the people and gather from the countries. He will feed them in a good and fat pasture by the mountains of Israel, by the rivers and in all inhabited places, with a good fold to rest in.
The feeding includes seeking the lost, bringing back the driven away, binding up the broken and strengthening the sick. It includes gathering the sorrowful and outcast, saving her that halteth and her that was driven out, and bringing them again. It includes destroying the fat and the strong, feeding with judgment, and judging between cattle and cattle. The promise is fulfilled in Christ as the good Shepherd and reveals the relation in which He stands to the human family. The word is spoken by God as the great Teacher to stir the indolent to obtain a living connection with the Source of all power and to become laborers together with God.
Feeding the flock means giving nourishing truth, the living bread from heaven. The chapter sets this care of God against unfaithful shepherds. It exposes the Jewish rulers who as expositors understood Christ's relation to humanity yet should have blessed the needy and helpless with comfort, sympathy and tender regard but neglected the work, had no true commission, and did not minister to those needing help. Ministers should receive the nourishing truth and share it rather than reject it when it calls for self-denial.
The word means God will save His beautiful flock from the man He chose to be His physician on condition of heeding admonition, but who exalted self to be as God and repeated Satan's suggestions. God will not let the flock be spoiled but will take them out of his hands, keep and feed them, cause them to lie down in rest, and appoint over them true teachers and faithful physicians. This is because that man made it hard for ministers, brought confusion, neglected the vineyard, discouraged ministers for many years, and created dissension and strife by his crooked course while refusing increased light and reform. The promise belongs to the colored people of the South who have been scattered, oppressed and injured. Through multiplied missionaries bringing souls out of darkness and ignorance into marvelous light, the desert places of the South where the outlook appears forbidding will become as the garden of God, the past will be redeemed and the injury repaired. God will pour out His Spirit on those who respond, make with them a covenant of peace, make them and the places round about them a blessing with showers of blessing in season, be with them as their God, and fill heaven with rejoicing over the work done in the strength of Christ.
The flock includes people in Sydney, Maitland, Newcastle and the suburban towns, and the larger companies at Brisbane and Newcastle, who are starving for the bread of life, stretching out their hands imploringly, some praying and some weeping, as sheep without a shepherd. The feeding happens when they are gathered and taught, with great interest manifested, as seen in crowded camp meetings where over a thousand attended. The picture of the great Shepherd connects with Moses' training to care patiently for the afflicted, straying, unruly, young and feeble, preparing him to lead people while depending on Christ. The verse gives a special call from the Lord Himself to the erring, the weak and trembling, and even those who have apostatized from the truth to come fully into the fold, and lays on His people a special duty to go and search for these lost sheep.
The shepherd's work belongs as an individual responsibility to ministers and to everyone who labors for souls, to care for church members, seek the lost and straying and bring them back to the fold. To be a wise shepherd means to be a faithful and tender guardian in the home and in all dealings with others and wherever one labors. It means not driving the sheep with an uplifted whip but feeding them by hand and ministering comfort and help with a heart full of tenderness and love. The care belongs to those who seek an individual knowledge of what the Lord requires, since spiritual things must be spiritually discerned. It calls for watching and praying, trusting in the living Word, being daily converted to God, forming a character after the divine similitude in earnest preparation for the scenes that shall shortly take place, so as to meet the Lord with joy when He comes in the clouds of heaven with power and glory, and for refusing to place oneself under apostate influence.