Ezekiel 34:1–6

1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?

3 Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.

4 The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.

5 And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered.

6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.

Ezekiel here receives a message that is for the shepherds. Now, you may think about this and look at this and doctrinally, I know what’s going on here and what’s being talked about. But even devotionally a lot of times,  we look at the word shepherds and we immediately think, oh, ok; So we know the pastors are under-shepherds, the Lord Jesus Christ, of course, is the good shepherd. And so this just applies to preachers. So I’m off the hook, but that’s not the case. You’re not off the hook here, and I will show you why…

It is true, that Ezekiel received a message for the shepherds here, or you might call them the leaders and rulers of Israel. A lot of times In the Bible, Kings were referred to as shepherds.  You see that in multiple places in the Bible:

 

Numbers 27:16–17

16 Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation,

17 Which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in; that the congregation of the LORD be not as sheep which have no shepherd.

2 Samuel 5:1–2

1 Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh.

2 Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the LORD said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel.

Isaiah 44:28

28 That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.

So that just shows you an example there where a king and he, wasn’t even a Jewish king, a gentile king. The Lord referred to him as his shepherd, So, we see here that a lot of times Kings or, those who are leading, the people are referred to as Shepherds.

I’m just showing you real quick. Some, different classifications of people that have been referred to as Shepherds, just, to kind of show you how, devotionally anyway, this passage can apply to us. And it’s going to offer us some challenges here of some things that we ought to make sure that we’re doing, maybe it will be an encouragement if you have been doing these things. But, also a challenge for you to pick up the slack if, you’ve been missing the mark here a little bit.  

Ezekiel 3:17

17 Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.

Watchmen have also been referred to as Shepherds and a watchman is just simply that, a watchman. You know what watchmen were back in the day, they were the guys that would be up in the watch towers or up on the walls and, they’re supposed to be looking for danger and whenever danger would present itself, and they’re supposed to sound the warning and warn folks that danger was coming. And that’s what we as Christians are supposed to do. We are supposed to be watchmen.

If you look, back at Ezekiel chapter 34, we see here three reasons that God was displeased with these shepherds and some responsibilities that they had that they weren’t following through on. And I see as a whole, so-called Christianity; People who claim to be saved, people who claim they put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. I see some things here that the church has, largely been deficient in, compared to our responsibilities that we have to the world at large.

The first thing that we see there in verse number two is that they were, busy and worrying about feeding themselves rather than the people. They were more concerned with themselves. In other words, they were being selfish, they were more interested rather in providing for themselves than they were in providing for the people whom the Lord put under their care.

We need to make sure that, we aren’t just solely focused on ourselves and what’s good for us and what we want, what we think is going to get us to where we want to be. And, we need to make sure that we’re caring for those that the Lord puts in our lives.

The second thing that you see here, it kind of goes hand in hand with the first one a little bit. But the second thing you see there in verse number three is that they weren’t caring for the needy. They had not restored the sheep that needed restoring and they hadn’t sought those that wandered away and needed to be found.

They weren’t concerned about those who, at one time, were part of the flock and had wandered off and gotten lost and they weren’t going after them. They weren’t trying to pull them back in.

The primary responsibility of a leader is to care for the needs of the people that he leads. Even if that requires sacrificing of the leader’s own wishes and wants and desires and hopes and plans and goals and aspirations and everything else.

 The, first and foremost thing on, a leader’s mind ought to be the care for those that have been put under his supervision, so to speak.

The third thing we see here in verse number five is just simply that they were negligent, they were just negligent. He just says that the flock got scattered away because nobody was paying any attention. The people got scattered away and there was nobody to seek them out.

Now, the Lord here uses the three staple products, that the flock, the sheep, would provide here as a metaphor.  He talks about the milk, the fat, the sheep’s wool, the meat, and all these things, what he’s showing here is that these leaders, these shepherds back here, they were gleaning all the benefits from the flock, but they weren’t fulfilling their responsibilities.

Well, look with me real quick over to 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, And here in this passage, we see that we are to be ambassadors for Christ. That’s our responsibility. If you’re saved today, if you put your faith and trust the Lord Jesus Christ, you’re trusting him and only Him for your salvation, then you’ve been given the responsibility of being an ambassador.  

2 Corinthians 5:16–21
16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

We are supposed to be ambassadors for Christ. We are supposed to be leading people to the Lord. That’s our responsibility. We’re supposed to be leading people to the Lord.

The first issue that the Lord said that they had was they were taking all the, benefits for themselves and they weren’t sharing it.  We, need to share what the Lord has shown us.

• Don’t hoard it for yourself. Share it, share the good news.
• You know, there’s enough good news to go around,
• there’s enough gospel to go around.
• There’s enough forgiveness to go around.

You don’t have to, hoard it away. You don’t have to act like You know, it’s your own little personal gold claim that nobody else can have you don’t want anybody else to know about. We’re supposed to share it. We’re supposed to care for those in need.

Secondly, Seek for those who’ve gone astray and try to bring them back into the fold. Don’t give up on people, try to bring them back into the fold

Thirdly, ensure that you don’t neglect your responsibility as a watchman. We’re watchmen. We’re supposed to be warning people, about the judgment to come and how it is that they can escape that judgment.

All around us are people who are lost and separated from their heavenly father. And we have a responsibility to tell them about the Heavenly Father. And we have a responsibility to share the gospel with them.

Billy Graham

That’s our responsibility as leaders in the community. You ought to be a leader in the community. You ought to be a change agent for all those that you come into contact with and share the gospel with them.

That’s our responsibility.

Our hope at Irvington Bible Baptist Church is that this podcast provided some encouragement and helped you develop a closer relationship with the LORD Jesus Christ.