This year I’ve been doing a deep dive in Ezekiel for my personal Bible study. I’m sure I’ll end up teaching it on Wednesday night one of these days, but in the meantime I recently came across a text in chapter 34 that powerfully described Jesus as one who seeks out the lost.

Earlier in Ezekiel 34 the prophet rebukes the so-called shepherds of the people (Judah’s rulers and kings) whom He appointed to watch over the nation. When they failed, the sheep of His people ended up scattered. The point was made then that since God appointed those rulers, who then failed to live up to it, that it is wrong to blame God for the failure. And yet, many are quick to do just that: People blame God when the world lets them down, as though people don’t have free will and the means to hurt others.

As a matter of fact, it’s not only wrong to blame God when someone wrongs you, it’s also wrong to paint God as inactive. In this very text, not only does God scold the shepherds for not doing their jobs, He also fires them and leaves their positions vacated, needing to be filled by Someone else…

Eze 34:10  Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them. 

Whenever God says something as simple as “behold, I am against you,” you should be afraid, be very afraid. That’s gotta be the scariest thing He could ever say. It’s just so subtle and understated that you can’t help but read into it so many terrifying possibilities.

God is going to force His shepherds to give an account for how slothful and unfaithful they were in their duties. It’s very much like a parable of Jesus come to life:

A master goes away and leaves his flock in the care of some shepherds, and while He’s away the shepherds neglect the sheep and spend their days feasting on the master’s food. In the meantime, wild beasts sneak into the sheepfold and devour the innocent animals. When the master returns, He finds the servants negligent in their responsibilities and derelict in their duties and sentences them to outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Something like that.

Because of the shepherd’s failure, God will fire them from their jobs. That means they won’t have the means to feast and indulge as they had been, He will rescue His sheep from the faithless shepherds, so they will not have to worry about being meat for them to eat.

Eze 34:11  For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. 

 So with the shepherds fired, who will care for the sheep? It is now that God steps in to do it Himself. He did not do it before because He tasked the shepherds with that job. When they failed, He took the task for himself.  To best appreciate this text (this verse and the next, in particular), I would point out two things, one looking backward and one looking forward:

First, looking back let’s remember that the nation wanted an earthly King. And, despite things starting out relatively well with Saul (at first). then David and Solomon, it didn’t stay good for long. Israel and Judah’s Kings, more often than not, were weak and faithless, prone to succumbing to all the worst impulses you can imagine from a ruler.

Had the people never asked for a King (this is just a theoretical, since it was always in the plan for a King to come, as the Messiah is of a Royal lineage), then God would have remained their only clear ruler. Instead, they asked Him to cede that role to mere men and, being human, those men all failed. So now here we are, with God having to step in and fire the earthy King and take over the role of shepherding the people Himself…

 Eze 34:12  As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. 

Which takes us to the forward-looking side of this text: The Messiah is the fulfilment of the promise made in these two verses. Men proved themselves flawed and incapable of shepherding the souls of God’s people. So what does God do? With the point now illustrated that mere men can’t get the job done, He steps in to do it Himself, coming in the form of a God|Man to be the Good Shepherd the people always needed.

When the people return from exile do they organize with an earthly King? No. In fact, they remain in subjection to other nations up to and within the days of Jesus. But when Jesus comes, in what form does He take? He comes as a King, though not one of this world. The Jews’ King of this world was the Caesar. Their true King—the one promised here—is God (Jesus), and He is the King that is not of this world.

Jesus is the King that searched for His flock and found His scattered sheep. That was His mission statement, to seek for the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 15:24). Where do you think Jesus got that phrase? It was from this very text in Ezekiel! He came to deliver the sheep from the dark places to which they had foolishly wandered.

That’s our Master, the seeker of lost sheep.

~ Matthew