Saturday, August 23, 2008

God Tends His Own Flock

Since the shepherds who were supposed to take care of the sheep of God's flock failed to faithfully discharge their duty, and instead used it as a way to fatten themselves, God takes more direct action to care for His sheep.

I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.

“For thus says the Lord God:

Behold,

I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.

As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and

I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.

And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land.

And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country.


I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel.

I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and
I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord
God.
I will seek the lost, and
I will bring back the strayed, and
I will bind up the injured, and
I will strengthen the weak, and
the fat and the strong I will destroy.


I will feed them in justice.

Ezekiel 34:10-16
Repeating something was an Old Testament way to denote emphasis or certainty. When God states that He "will do" something, it has the absolute certainty of the sun rising tomorrow that it would take place. So, in this passage, when God says He "will" do something fourteen times in a single passage, one can can be absolutely assured that what He said would come to pass actually would.

This citation also hints at what's to come when He says "the fat and the strong I will destroy."

More on that with the next installment.

All citations from The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We are faithless...He is faithful.

Although we wander, time after time...He comes looking for us and carries us back home.

What a wonderful God we have!