Ezekiel 34:16, commentary and pictures

After Israel's shepherds failed to care for the flock and let it scatter, God Himself promises to search out His people and shepherd them as His own sheep. That searching means delivering them from every place where they were scattered in the cloudy and dark day, gathering them to their own land, feeding them in good pasture and causing them to lie down in a good fold, by seeking the lost, bringing back the driven away, binding up the broken and strengthening the sick. Christ claims these words as His own, who after the fall saw His sheep doomed to perish in the ways of sin and left the honors and glories of His Father's house to save the wandering with diligent and tender compassion. He will also destroy the fat and the strong and feed them with judgment, judging between flock and flock because they ate the good pasture and fouled what remained, and these are the priests and rulers who should have blessed and helped the needy and helpless but exploited them instead. His people are therefore called to connect with Him and share His work by seeking the lost and straying and bringing them back to the fold, binding up and healing rather than bruising and wounding, prevailing by love and not by severity.

God Himself Seeks His Flock

When the shepherds of Israel failed to care for the flock and let it scatter, God Himself promised to search out and shepherd His people, who are pictured as sheep, caring for His human flock as a shepherd by seeking the lost, bringing back those driven away, binding up the broken, and strengthening the sick. The promised search means delivering the scattered sheep out of all places where they were scattered in the cloudy and dark day. It means bringing them out from the peoples and gathering them from the countries to their own land, feeding them in good pasture by the mountains of Israel by the rivers and in all inhabited places, and causing them to lie down in a good fold and in good pasture.

Christ speaks these words as shepherd in relation to His people. After the fall He saw His sheep doomed to perish in the dark ways of sin, and to save these wandering ones He left the honors and glories of His Father's house. He does this work with diligent, unwearied, tender compassion for helpless creatures entrusted to His charge, searching for the lost, bringing back those driven away, healing the broken, and making the sick strong.

God will also destroy the fat and the strong and feed them with judgment. He 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 of the deep waters and fouled the residue with their feet, leaving the flock to eat that which was trodden and to drink that which was fouled. The fat and the strong are the priests and rulers who should have acted as shepherds. They should have been a blessing to the needy and helpless and to those needing comfort and sympathy and tender regard, but they exploited the flock, did not give what was needed and did not minister to those needing help, having no fear and love of God and no true commission, so their neglected work bears no seal of heaven.

The sheep figure in the Old Testament Scriptures was understood by expositors, who recognized Christ's claim to fulfill it as the good Shepherd come to heal. He applies this shepherd's work to Himself, as the true Shepherd who seeks the lost, restores those driven away, binds up the broken, and strengthens the sick. He does so in contrast with Israel's leaders, who drove a man away from the fold even as the true Shepherd was drawing him to Himself.

Rescue Promised to the Oppressed

The promise belongs to the colored people of the South, who are to be brought out of darkness and ignorance into marvelous light through multiplied missionaries and volunteers repairing past injury. God will pour out His Spirit on those who respond, and will turn the forbidding desert places of the South into the garden of God. He will make with them a covenant of peace, will make them and the places around His hill a blessing with showers of blessing in season, and will cause them to know that He their God is with them as His pasture flock. This rescuing work is done in the strength of Christ and fills heaven with rejoicing.

God claims His people as His flock, His beautiful flock, and declares they shall not be spoiled but He will take them out of the hands of a man He chose as His physician on condition he would heed divine admonitions. That unfaithful shepherd exalted self to do a wonderful thing and to be ambitious to be as God, listened to the father of lies and repeated the suggestions of Satan, made it exceedingly hard for God's ministers, brought confusion where there were no difficulties, and neglected God's vineyard. He discouraged ministers for many years and created dissension and strife by crooked action and presentations, refusing increased light and evidence and refusing to reform, changing his way when it did not succeed only to work to the same object in a different way. God will keep His flock, will appoint over them true teachers and faithful physicians, and will greatly humble that unfaithful shepherd unless he breaks away from the father of lies.

God Himself opens His arms to receive the one who has lost all confidence in men and has no hope in God. He speaks loving-kindness toward the lost sheep, and as Redeemer promises to seek him and bring him back. He will take him into favor and comfort him because he has been driven away from the fold, and will lay open before him the treasures of His grace. The Lord is giving a special call to the erring, the weak and trembling, and even those who have apostatized from the truth to come fully into the fold. The shepherd's work of caring for the afflicted, patiently seeking those who stray, bearing with the unruly, and tending the young and feeble reflects God's care for His people and shows how Moses learned to serve as a faithful shepherd.

Working as Faithful Shepherds

The words are a call to the indolent to connect with God as the source of power and to become laborers together with Him in caring for the human flock as a shepherd does, seeking the lost, bringing back those driven away, binding up the broken, strengthening the sick, while judging the fat and the strong. The Lord gives a special call to the erring, the weak and trembling, and even those who have apostatized from the truth to come fully into the fold, and His people have a special duty to go and search for these lost sheep. Ministers are to follow the shepherd pattern of seeking the lost and straying, bringing them back to the fold, and caring for the weak, by searching out church members who have wandered and helping them return, while tending every member's spiritual needs with kindness, faithful counsel, warning, and encouragement.

Shepherding the Lord's flock means tender, loving guardianship and not driving, and those entrusted with the sheep bear individual responsibility to become wise, faithful shepherds who feed the flock and minister comfort and help with a tender heart. Tenderness and love are to govern the heart, the home, and all dealings with others wherever they labor. God's work toward the lost, driven away, broken, and sick is to bind up and heal, not to bruise and wound, so correction of one at fault must be done with wisdom and grace sought from the Lord. It must be without severity, needless censure, and unkind criticism that humiliates, discourages, destroys self-respect, and makes life sunless and unhappy, but by prevailing by love rather than by severity, with care toward souls under stress of temptation and conscious of their error, which is the binding up and healing described.

God's work is to hunt for straying sheep and bring them back to the fold to heal, restore, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick in order to save them, and this rescuing work is done in close union with Jesus Christ and in His lines, putting on Christ's righteousness instead of condemnation. Accusing, censuring, crushing, destroying, and cutting off erring souls is the opposite of this work. Those given this work who neglect it are unfaithful servants, while those who take it up without delay will receive a rich harvest as reward, and they themselves need Jesus to restore them with mercy rather than cut them loose when they make mistakes and dishonor Him.

God condemns shepherds who fail to care for the flock and calls them to return to faithful service, and Isaiah 58 explains this failure as disregard for God's law and the harm done when leaders reject truth that requires self-denial. By returning to loyalty, including honoring the Sabbath, the shepherds can become repairers of ruined places and restorers of right paths. The chapter is to be studied by one deciding whether to remain under the influence of a person who has apostatized, even for a relative's sake, calling for knowing individually what the Spirit says to the churches, watching and praying, daily conversion and forming a character after the divine similitude, and preparing with joy to meet the Lord when He comes in the clouds of heaven with power and glory.