Ezekiel 34:8
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;
The shepherds are ministers and leaders entrusted with God's people, and the flock are the people themselves. The flock became a prey and meat to every beast because there was no true shepherd to search for them, but those charged with their care fed themselves and fed not the flock, leaving them exposed and perishing for lack of proper instruction, wounded and torn. God holds such unfaithful shepherds accountable, charging the blood of souls lost through their neglect upon them and judging them in the great day according to their works. Their unfaithfulness lies chiefly in disregarding God's law and withholding the truth that works by love and purifies the soul, confusing the people with their own interpretations and reading God's Word in the light of transgression instead of feeding the flock with it. Faithful shepherding therefore requires personal, searching care for every sheep, visiting from house to house and strengthening the weak with comforting, establishing truth, rather than self-indulgent ease, criticism and strife, or silence when correction is needed.
Shepherds Neglect Condemned
The shepherds in the verse are ministers and leaders, and the flock are the people. The flock became a prey and meat to every beast of the field because there was no shepherd, because the shepherds did not search for the flock, but fed themselves and fed not the flock. Neglect and self-serving leadership are the cause of the flock's vulnerability, and failure to seek, protect and care for it leaves it prey to danger.
When shepherds serve themselves instead of feeding and caring for the flock, the people are left exposed and perish for lack of proper instruction. The flock is then wounded and torn and left bleeding, torn to pieces and made a prey. The shepherds are held accountable for this neglect, for leaving the flock exposed to destruction. Souls that perish through their unfaithfulness have their blood charged to the shepherds.
In the great day unfaithful shepherds are judged and receive according to their works, whether obedient to the law of His kingdom or transgressing to the last. The whole chapter is a warning to be read carefully. It calls God's people to guard against acting under the great deceiver's power and to avoid deception and unfaithful shepherding.
Truth Withheld From Flock
The failure condemned is disregard for God's law, rejecting truth that demands self-denial while accepting only what suits practice, whereas faithful shepherds receive truth that feeds and helps and share it with the flock. To exploit the flock for self instead of caring for it leaves the people exposed and neglected. Applied to ministers, this means accountability for not teaching the binding claims of God's law clearly and for confusing people with their own interpretations, leaving the flock exposed to destruction. Souls may perish through such unfaithfulness, and their blood is charged to the shepherds, yet that failure does not excuse those who listen to false teaching and reject God's Word.
The shepherds described knew the truth about keeping God's commandments just as written, yet fed themselves and fed not the flock. They made no personal effort to save souls and failed to use persuasive influence to show that obedience is a life-or-death question that makes every difference. They treated obedience as a subject every man is at liberty to regard as he pleases with no denominational bounds, acted a lie so they could link with the disobedient, and did not lay hold of souls in intense earnestness exalting righteousness and truth as a life and death principle. Therefore the lost turn on them as deceivers who were not in earnest, and in the great day they are judged and receive according to their works, whether obedient to the law of His kingdom or transgressing to the last.
Shepherds who lack the truth that works by love and purifies the soul become self-indulgent, use their God-given powers for their own interests, and fail to strengthen the flock with the truths of God's Word. When shepherds neglect to care for and feed God's flock, the flock is left vulnerable and destroyed. Churches under shepherds who reject God's Word and refuse to obey His commandments become backslidden. False shepherds read God's Word in the light of transgression and try to persuade people to reject the truth, and by failing their trust as shepherds they serve themselves instead of caring for God's people, making them responsible for the people's spiritual harm.
When watchmen feed themselves instead of feeding the flock, they mislead the people and let the standard of truth of the first, second, and third angels' messages trail in the dust, so the flock is left without true shepherding to become a prey. The Lord is insulted by this unfaithfulness. Those who ignore all the evidences God has given change blessing into a curse and endanger their own souls. God holds souls responsible for lacking keen discernment to discover what kind of provender is being given to His flock, and their candlestick will be removed out of its place unless they repent.
Pastoral Care Neglected
In Iowa the neglect took the form of two self-feeding shepherds whose months of preparation for determined rebellion wounded and tore the sheep and left them bleeding and torn to pieces as a prey, so that faithful labor was required to save the poor wounded sheep and keep the honest from being deceived. In the cities and valleys of Italy the same self-feeding left the higher classes shut away from truth, because denominational ministers refused their churches to anyone who would preach any doctrine other than their own, so the very ones needing the warning message were not reached even when halls drew numbers to hear, yet the Lord of heaven still has care for His own, the purchase of His blood. In Maitland the people were left without a true shepherd and had not had a fair chance, because the ministers fed themselves instead of feeding the flock, killing those that are fed instead of reforming them.
A gospel minister who preaches but neglects personal house-to-house visiting is an unfaithful shepherd under rebuke, since visiting every accessible family in their homes cannot be supplied by proxy nor shifted upon wives or any other person and must be done even if far less preaching has to be done. Such neglect leaves the work only half done and without excuse, failing to bind off the work and to bind the messenger to the sheep and lambs, failing to identify with the people and be a channel of light to them, and failing to strengthen the weak at the right time with words that comfort, strengthen, establish, and root them in the faith. That shrinking from unpleasant personal labor loses places and souls that faithful personal work would have gathered. The warning likewise falls on ministers who damage the church through criticism and strife rather than giving the flock healthy spiritual care, and those who appoint shepherds bear responsibility for protecting the flock. It also reaches laborers who consume without producing fruit, who fail to receive God's grace to share with others, and who do not do the work their knowledge of the truth requires.
The rebuke includes ministers who let one man bear too many burdens alone instead of taking their share, who stand back and excuse themselves while he is weighed down and crushed beneath censure until God vindicates him, and whose course creates more burdens than all the people do, so that the poor sheep suffer from unwise shepherds as well as from false shepherds. Leading men who dishonor the Lord are false shepherds who lead God's flock astray, and teachers and rulers in that condition must be disciplined by disappointment, hardship, and affliction. Unless they learn Christ's meekness and lowliness they are not fitted to teach, and their example of self-righteousness will do nothing to advance God's work. Faithful shepherds must tell a leader his mistake when they know his actions are not right and must feed the flock rather than spare themselves. Keeping silent because the one in error will not acknowledge wrong and will not receive anything that does not harmonize with his ideas is unfaithful shepherding, and withholding correcting instruction leaves associates in darkness about his being out of the way and lets them be led astray.