CHAPTER 34

(587 B.C.)

PROPHECY AGAINST THE SHEPHERDS (LEADERS) OF ISRAEL; THEIR SINS

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

²Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus says the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel who do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? (Shepherds in this Chapter refer to rulers, more specifically, the four last kings of Judah; however, the general meaning definitely includes spiritual leaders of any stripe.)

³You eat the fat, and you clothe yourself with the wool, you kill them who are fed: but you feed not the flock. (The only motive of these false shepherds is to get, instead of to give.)

⁴The diseased have you not strengthened, neither have you healed that which was sick, neither have you bound up that which was broken, neither have you brought again that which was driven away, neither have you sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have you ruled them. (The diseased refers to weak sheep, while the sick refers to those who are suffering from more definite maladies. The broken are those which have fallen from a rock, or from some such precipice and thus, maimed themselves. Each case required the appropriate treatment.

As well, the fourfold neither should be noticed. The idea is: the Holy Spirit notes each particular need and the required care for that need by true shepherds, which these were not!)

⁵And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. (They had no true shepherd to protect them [Mat. 9:36].)

⁶My Sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yes, My Flock was scattered upon all the face of the Earth, and none did search or seek after them. (Of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, not a single shepherd, i.e., king, was Godly. Thankfully, several in Judah were Godly, but the last four, as stated, were anything but Godly. These four were: Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah.)

THEIR JUDGMENT

⁷Therefore, you shepherds, hear the Word of the LORD (Ezekiel had been told to hear the Word at My Mouth and warn them from Me [33:7], and now that warning will come, as delivered faithfully by the Prophet);

⁸As I live, says 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 (As I live, says the Lord GOD, is strong indeed! It is actually an oath taken by the Lord that the shepherds would be destroyed, inasmuch as they destroyed the sheep. The modern money gospel fits this description!);

⁹Therefore, O you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;

¹⁰Thus says 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. (This will not come to pass until the coming Kingdom Age, when Israel will finally accept the Great Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ [Zech. 13:1].)

RESTORATION OF THE FLOCK

¹¹For thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search My Sheep, and seek them out. (The action, the love, and the unselfishness of the True Shepherd are set out in Verses 11 through 16.)

¹²As a shepherd seeks 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. (The cloudy and dark day refers to the coming Great Tribulation, when Israel will come close to annihilation. Zechariah said that two-thirds of the people will be destroyed [Zech. 13:8].)

¹³And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. (To their own land, refers to the country promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and this is to be theirs forever the Land of Israel.)

¹⁴I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. (The repetition given in Verses 13 and 14 is done by design. The Holy Spirit seeks to bring out the truth of sincerity, peace, satisfaction, fulfillment, and acceptance. All this is finally done because of a right relationship with Christ. This will take place, as stated, during the coming Kingdom Age.)

¹⁵I will feed My Flock, and I will cause them to lie down, says the Lord GOD. (I will feed My Flock, refers to the tender care of the Shepherd watching with an individualizing care over each sheep that has been brought back. Every broken limb will be bound up. Every sickness will be treated with its appropriate means of healing.

And I will cause them to lie down, refers to total serenity, peace, safety, protection, dependence, trust, and reliance upon the Lord, the Great Shepherd.)

¹⁶I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with Judgment. (In this Verse, The fat and the strong are contrasted with the broken and the sick. The idea is this: When He comes, the Great Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, will destroy the fat and the strong, which refers to the nations of the world which threw in their lot with the Antichrist, attempting to destroy Israel. They will be fed with Judgment, and given no more place and position regarding supremacy.)

THE LORDS CARE FOR HIS FLOCK; FALSE LEADERS SEPARATED FROM THE FLOCK

¹⁷And as for you, O My Flock, thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats. (This Passage actually has to do with the Judgment of the nations, which will take place immediately after the Second Coming of Christ [Mat. 25:31-33].)

¹⁸Does it seem a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but you must foul the residue with your feet? (This pertains to the nations of the world which, during the time of the Great Tribulation, tried to harm Israel.)

¹⁹And as for My Flock, they eat that which you have trodden with your feet; and they drink that which you have fouled with your feet. (In other words, the Jews, at least in the minds of many, were looked at like refuse.)

²⁰Therefore thus says the Lord GOD unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle. (At the beginning of the Kingdom Age, the Lord will judge all nations, and the Judgment will be according to how they treated Israel.)

²¹Because you have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till you have scattered them abroad (whether nations which lorded it over the Jews, or even the false shepherds of Israel, all will answer!);

²²Therefore will I save My Flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle. (Between cattle and cattle, probably would have been better translated, between sheep and sheep.

In the coming Kingdom Age, and after Israel has accepted Christ, they will no longer be at the mercy of the world, as they, in fact, have been for so many centuries.)

RESTORATION; DAVIDIC KINGDOM SET UP

²³And I will set up One Shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even My Servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their Shepherd. (The Hebrew Text reads, A Shepherd, One, that is, One Preeminent and Unique Shepherd the Only One of His Kind, to Whom none other is comparable. The word David here means The Beloved One, i.e., the True David, the Messiah [Isa. 55:3-4; Jer. 30:9; Hos. 3:5].

However, as it refers to the Son of David, it also refers to David, the same David who was chosen by God and anointed by Samuel. He will rule Israel under Christ!)

²⁴And I the LORD will be their God, and My Servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it. (The phrase, And My Servant David a prince among them, fulfills the Promise made to David by the Lord, as recorded in II Sam. 7:8-29.)

²⁵And I will make with them a Covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. (And I will make with them a Covenant of peace, will be carried out, and can be carried out, because of Israels acceptance of Christ.

And will cause the evil beast to cease out of the land, is a euphemism referring to demon spirits as beasts.)

²⁶And I will make them and the places round about My Hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. (The phrase, There shall be showers of blessing, refers to Spiritual Blessings which will generate economic, physical, and domestic Blessings as well!)

²⁷And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the Earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those who served themselves of them. (There are two particulars that are noted in this Scripture: the first is, fruit, increase, and safety; the second is, broken bands and deliverance. The former is the result of the latter.)

²⁸And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid. (At long last, Israel will be what the Lord intended all along. As stated, it will be during the coming Kingdom Age!)

²⁹And I will raise up for them a Plant of Renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more. (The Plant of Renown is none other than Jesus Christ, Whom they rejected, but will now accept. That Plant will be so rich with nourishment that they who feed upon it shall be no more pinched with hunger, and their happy condition will secure Renown for the Plant and not for themselves. However, in securing it for Him, they, at the same time, will secure it for themselves.)

³⁰Thus shall they know that I the LORD their God am with them, and that they, even the House of Israel are My People, says the Lord GOD. (Even though they are the People of God, still, they forsook the Lord; consequently, He has not been with them, except from afar, for some 2,000 years. Now, upon their acceptance of Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, this Plant of Renown, this Branch [Isa. 4:2; 11:1; Jer. 23:5; 33:15], they will know that He is with them. Then the Lord can truly say of them, They are My People.)

³¹And you My Flock, the Flock of My Pasture, are men, and I am your God, says the Lord GOD. (The idea of this Verse is that even though the word sheep was used as a metaphor, still, the Lord is speaking of men, and not merely just sheep. But there is here also a deeper meaning. Helpless, sinful men could never do such marvels, only the God Who is Adonai-Jehovah.)