Ezekiel 34 · The Lantern

A Prophecy against Israel’s Shepherds

And the word of the LORD came to me, saying:

Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and say to them, to the shepherds: Thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who have been shepherding themselves! Should not the shepherds shepherd the flock?

Quite clearly he states that they have caused the sheep to be lost and to be devoured by the beasts of the field; nor, if they are abandoned, could they avoid being lost in death and devoured. But he does not say that they should be restored after they have been lost in death and devoured.

But the word is directed to the shepherds of Israel, whom we must understand as either kings, or princes, scribes and Pharisees, and teachers of the Jewish people. Or certainly in the Gospel people, the bishops, presbyters, and deacons: or according to mystical understanding, the Angels of the individual Churches, to whom John wrote in his Apocalypse (Apoc.

You see, we whom the Lord has deigned, thanks to no merits of ours, to set in this high station (about which a very strict account indeed has to be rendered) have two things about us that must be clearly distinguished: one, that we are Christians, the other, that we are placed in charge. Being Christians is for our sake; being in charge is for yours.

The fat you eat, and the wool you wear; the fattened one you slaughter — the flock you do not shepherd.

Let him use those tenths and first-fruits, which are given according to the command of God, as a man of God; as also let him dispense in a right manner the free-will offerings which are brought in on account of the poor, to the orphans, the widows, the afflicted, and strangers in distress, as having that God for the examiner of his accounts who has committed the disposition to…

In the same way, everyone who leads a bad life for all those to see whom he has been put in charge of, as far as he is concerned is killing even the strong ones. Any who imitate him die; whoever does not imitate him lives.

Hasten then to increase the flock of your master! Do not turn aside to relaxations or pleasures of the body or vilely squander the wool and the fat of Christ's sheep by hoarding up the goods of the monastery for your own benefit rather than of the brothers, so that you may enjoy yourself.

The weak you have not strengthened, and the sick you have not healed, and the broken you have not bound up, and the driven away you have not brought back, and the lost you have not searched for; but with strength you have ruled them, and with harshness.

If we scorn the repentance of those who have in some degree the assurance of a bearable conscience, immediately they are drawn by the devil's invitation into heresy or schism with their wife and children, whom they had kept unharmed.

Since we have been appointed by the Lord to direct the ship of his church, let us with his help and the direction of the two Testaments so govern the ship of his church that we may not through some negligence turn aside either to the right or to the left but may without effort keep a straight course of life in the midst of the great dangers of this world.

For one who had been cast away is brought back, when any one who has fallen into sin is recalled to a state of righteousness by the vigour of pastoral solicitude. For ligature binds a fracture when discipline subdues a sin, lest the wound should bleed mortally for want of being compressed by the severity of constraint.

And they were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every beast of the field, and they were scattered.

My flock strays on all the mountains and on every high hill; and over all the face of the earth my flock is scattered, and there is none seeking and none searching.

Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:

As I live, the utterance of the Lord GOD, surely because my flock became plunder, and my flock became food for every beast of the field for lack of a shepherd, and my shepherds did not seek my flock, and the shepherds shepherded themselves and did not shepherd my flock —

therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the LORD.

Thus says the Lord GOD: See, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my flock from their hand and make them cease from shepherding the flock; and the shepherds will no longer shepherd themselves. And I will deliver my flock from their mouth, and they will not be food for them.

The Good Shepherd

For thus says the Lord GOD: See, I myself will seek my flock and look after them.

As a shepherd looks after his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so I will look after my flock; and I will deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of cloud and thick darkness.

And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the lands and bring them to their own land; and I will shepherd them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the dwellings of the land.

In good grazing land I will shepherd them, and on the mountain heights of Israel their fold will be. There they will lie down in a good fold, and on rich grazing land they will graze, on the mountains of Israel.

I myself will shepherd my flock, and I myself will make them lie down, the utterance of the Lord GOD.

The lost I will search for, and the driven away I will bring back, and the broken I will bind up, and the sick I will strengthen; and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd them with judgment.

And you, my flock, thus says the Lord GOD: See, I am judging between sheep and sheep, between the rams and the goats.

We who desire to be flocks of the shepherd must never try to escape from being fed even by the very things that seem to diverge from Scripture and are trampled on because of the discordance of what is said by those who neither want nor can use the nourishment that Scripture gives in all its fullness.

(Verse 17 onwards) But you, my flock (or sheep), this says the Lord God: Behold, I judge between the sheep, and between rams and goats. Was it not enough for you to graze on good pastures? Moreover, you trampled the remnants of your pastures with your feet, and when you drank the purest water, you disturbed the rest with your feet.

I am judging. What a relief, what reassurance! [The Lord] is judging; the good can be reassured. No opponent can corrupt their judge, no counselor twist him round their little finger or witness play fast and loose with him. But just as the good can be reassured, so to the same extent the bad should be afraid. He is not the sort of judge things can be kept hidden from.

Is it too small a thing for you that you graze the good grazing land, and the rest of your grazing lands you trample with your feet? And you drink the settled water, and the remainder you foul with your feet?

And my flock — what your feet have trampled they graze, and what your feet have fouled they drink.

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD to them: See, I myself will judge between fat sheep and lean sheep.

Because with side and with shoulder you thrust, and with your horns you gore all the weak, until you had scattered them abroad —

I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plunder; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.

And I will raise up over them one shepherd, and he will shepherd them — my servant David. He will shepherd them, and he will be their shepherd.

David also is called the Christ, as when Ezekiel prophesied to the shepherds and added, in the person of God, "I will raise up David my servant, who will shepherd them." For the patriarch David will not be raised up to shepherd the saints, but Christ.

(Verses 23-24) And I will raise up over them (here and elsewhere) (or over them) one shepherd who will feed them (or him), my servant David: he will feed them (or him): and he will be their shepherd. But I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I, the Lord, have spoken.

You will readily understand, brothers, that it is a prophecy of Christ coming to people from the seed of David, if you realize the dates. This prophet Ezekiel lived in the time of the captivity, which resulted from the exile of the people to Babylonia. From the time of David to the time of the exile there are fourteen generations.

And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a leader among them. I the LORD have spoken.

The Covenant of Peace

And I will cut with them a covenant of peace, and I will make the evil beasts cease from the land; and they will dwell in the wilderness in security and sleep in the forests.

And I will make them and the places around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the rain in its season; showers of blessing they will be.

And the tree of the field will give its fruit, and the land will give its yield, and they will be on their own land in security. And they will know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke and deliver them from the hand of those enslaving them.

And they will no longer be plunder for the nations, and the beast of the land will not devour them; and they will dwell in security, with none making them afraid.

And I will raise up for them a planting of renown, and they will no longer be swept away by famine in the land, and they will no longer bear the humiliation of the nations.

And they will know that I the LORD their God am with them, and that they are my people, the house of Israel, the utterance of the Lord GOD.

And you are my flock, the flock of my grazing land; you are mankind, and I am your God, the utterance of the Lord GOD.

Ezekiel34

A Prophecy against Israel’s Shepherds

The Good Shepherd

The Covenant of Peace