Ezekiel 34:4
You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bound up the injured, brought back the strays, or searched for the lost. Instead, you have ruled them with violence and cruelty.
Sermons
Gospel Ministers ShepherdsJ. Burns.Ezekiel 34:1-10
Hospital SundayA. G. Maitland.Ezekiel 34:1-10
The Human Shepherds of the FlockJ.R. Thomson Ezekiel 34:1-10
The Unfaithful ShepherdsA London MinisterEzekiel 34:1-10
The Use and the Abuse of OfficeW. Clarkson Ezekiel 34:1-10
God's Verdict Upon Self-Serving RulersJ.D. Davies Ezekiel 34:1-16














It is a comparison as old, yes, older than literature, this of the people to a flock of sheep, and of their rulers, leaders, and spiritual instructors to the shepherds whose vocation it is to protect, care for, and feed them. Both in the Old and New Testament Scriptures we meet with passages in which unfaithful, careless, selfish, and grasping religious teachers and leaders are denounced as hirelings who have nothing of the true shepherd's heart - no watchfulness, commiseration, and self-sacrifice. In the time of Ezekiel there were throe who, called to be pastors and reputed to be pastors, were nevertheless destitute of the pastoral character and habits.

I. THEIR CONDUCT. This is very graphically and (after Ezekiel's manner) with outspoken plainness described in these verses.

1. The shepherds' neglect of the flock. They neither feed them upon suitable pastures, nor strengthen the weak, nor heal the sickly, nor recover the lost, nor deliver the defenseless sheep from the wild beasts of the field. On the contrary, they treat them with violence and with rigor.

2. The shepherds' care for themselves. They use the flock merely for their own pleasure and advantage, eating of the flesh of the sheep, and clothing themselves with their wool.

3. The consequent condition of the flock. Neglected by their custodians, they are scattered, they wander upon every high hill, they fall a prey to the beasts of the field. In all these respects there is a parallel between the conduct of careless, hireling shepherds and the conduct of those in Israel who claimed to be the spiritual pastors of the people. These, whether priests or prophets by profession, simply used their position as a means towards their personal wealth, ease, pleasure, and aggrandizement. And no wonder that the sons of Israel, so neglected by those who should have made their highest welfare their care, were abandoned to every enemy, and sank into a state of degeneration, debasement, and hopelessness.

II. THEIR CONDEMNATION. That such flagrant neglect, of duty could not pass unnoticed and unpunished may be presumed by the least thoughtful. Under the rule of a Governor of infinite justice, those placed in a position of eminence and of influence, if they neglect to fulfill the duties of their position, must surely be called to an exact account of their trust. The prophet tells us concerning the unfaithful shepherds that:

1. God is against them. He, whose help and countenance would have been vouchsafed had they honestly and earnestly set themselves to do the work which they professed to undertake, now sets himself against the unfaithful.

2. They are held responsible for the flock. "I will require," says God, "my sheep at their hand."

3. The custody of the flock is taken away from them. And at the same time, they are prevented from any more feeding themselves. It cannot be that the flock should be punished for wandering, and that the careless shepherds, through whose neglect they wandered, should be suffered to go free. - T.

And ye My flock, the flock of My pasture, are men, and I am your God.
Every breath of the autumnal wind brings down hundreds of faded leaves: they lie thick under the fast baring trees in thousands. Perfect in form, wonderful in construction, beautiful in hue, they are crushed down in myriads under every passing foot of man or beast. And what is the fall of one leaf among so many? Yet we are told by those who have studied the vast distances and proportions of this marvellous universe, — the fall of our world from the sphere of creation would be but as the fall of a leaf in the midst of a great forest. And our text does not even concern itself with the earth in its entirety, but speaks only of the members of the race that inhabits it, creatures of a moment, dying fast as the leaves of the autumn wood, and swept like them to decay.

1. "The Lord God." This holy name meant much to the devout Israelite in Ezekiel's time. The Jew had been taught to ascribe all around him — from the tiny herb on the wall to the cedars of Lebanon, from the raindrop against his easement to the blue waters of the Mediterranean that washed the shores of his beloved land, from the minute insect on the leaf to the lion roaring for his prey, from the lowest among the people to the majestic figure of a Moses or an Elijah — to the power and will of the Lord God. "For Thy pleasure they are and were created" was a fundamental article of his faith. And he associated with the holy name the conception of the Lawgiver. Yet what was his knowledge of the power and majesty of the Lord God compared with that we now possess? The power, the wisdom, and the greatness of the Lord God as creator have been magnified a thousandfold by the scientific research of later days. And certainly the discoveries of science have tended to magnify the idea of Law. We meet it everywhere, inflexible, unbending, supreme. If, then, it is dominant in the physical universe, and certain to justify itself upon the disobedient, must not we, who acknowledge the God of the Israelites, feel what an argument we thus have for the fact that the moral law is equally stern and unyielding in its demands on our obedience? Thus are we prepared to understand our need of the Gospel, and to comprehend in some degree the absolute necessity, of the perfect obedience and of the great Atonement which is set forth in the life and death of Jesus Christ. The first duty required of man — the initial duty, if he is to receive blessing and acceptance, is that he should bow down in humility and adoration before the Lord his God.

2. He, then, the High and Holy One that inhabiteth eternity, is the speaker. And looking down upon this little globe, a mere speck in His vast universe, He says of its inhabitants, "Ye My flock, the flock of My pasture, are men, and I am your God." And what has science to tell us of man? It has been busy with his origin, with his capabilities and his destiny, and every step in its progress has tended to do away with any special dignity as connected with our humanity. We are asked to believe that by a gradual process man has been developed from the lowest scale of organism to his present state of physical and intellectual power; we are told that all the researches of science go to prove that the difference between his mental capabilities and those of the higher animals is one of degree, not of kind; we are confidently assured that as they die so he dies. Science can find no trace of the spirit of man that goeth upward, and it can only pronounce upon what it sees, and the lofty conceptions of man's immortality it dismisses to the region of dreams.

3. And has our experience a more flattering tale to tell of human capabilities and destinies? A few years of bright hope and vigour, a narrow span of time which is utterly insufficient to fulfil one half of man's aspirations and purposes, a training which is suddenly arrested, an education broken short, a sharp discipline of sorrow and pain — and then the darkness and decay of death. Man's very work outlives him. The labours of his brain and hands have a vitality beyond his own. If we look at man morally, have we greater reason for speaking of his dignity? There is much that we may call noble, but how much that is unutterably mean and degrading! There is a gradual advance in civilisation and outward refinement, but the thin veneered surface covers a depth of moral defilement and evil.

4. Yet it is of man, of whom science and experience have but a mournful tale to tell, that the Lord God says, "Ye, the flock of My pasture, are men, and I am your God." And this is surely the point to which we are brought. Talk as we may of the dignity and destiny of humanity, we search in vain for any real proof of it till we come to the Revelation of God's Word. The Bible, which throws the clearest light on man's weakness and sin, exalts him to a height above all we could hope or desire. It marks out man from the rest of creation by the fact that he is capable by grace of hearing God's voice, of following after and of loving Him. The Lord takes one of the tenderest relations of pastoral life when He says, "Ye are My flock"; and in the fulness of time we have the clear explanation of these words in those of Christ Jesus our Lord, "I am the Good Shepherd: My sheep hear My voice and follow Me." He who believes that this world has been trodden by the human steps of the Son of God, that His prayers have ascended from it, that He shed His blood to redeem it, that He shared our humanity even unto death, and lives again at God's right hand, can receive with joy unspeakable the marvellous promises of the destiny of those who are Christ's. The love of God becomes a reality, life earnest, restoration to holiness possible.

(D. Reith, M. A.)

I. THE DIVINE METHOD IN CREATION SHOWS THIS. In so far as we know creation generally, and the earth in particular, this is the case. Scientific research has landed us near impassable gulfs between period and period, genus and genus, species and species; and a still wider gulf between matter and mind, which the Creator's hand alone can span. By the impetus of His will God has sent forth matter and life, travelling through immeasurable distances, and they exhausted their strength. Then another breath of inspiration from Him sent them still further; and from stage to stage they have come to our own day, which appears to be the consummation of all the former processes; we will not say that it is the last, because a new heaven and a new earth are in prospect. And why do we mention these things? Because that the highest steps yet taken by both matter and life known to us are seen in the constitution of man. Call it evolution, but it means development; call it discovery, but it is as old as Genesis. It is a grand truth that an unseen hand has guided the steps of matter and life through countless ages to find a resting place today in the being of man.

II. THE CARE OF GOD FOR MEN IS EXHIBITED IN THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF LIFE. We sometimes speak of the subordination of all things to the wants and wishes of mankind. When we do this we look through the spectacles of authority. When, however, we regard all these provisions and arrangements as the outcome of that supreme desire in the Divine heart to care for the flock, we have a higher and a clearer vision of the being of man. Man never appears so great and noble as when seen in the light of eternal love. Provision and preservation are the two handmaids which attend to his wants. A glance at man's creation satisfies us that he received a fitness to ascend, by degrees of discipline, into union with God. This fitness needed resources in order to expansion, — Yea, we say pasture for the flock. All things yield their fruit, and even themselves, for the service of mankind. "The earth hath He given to the children of men." No less clear is the hand of God seen in the preservation of His people. He is a wall of fire around them; their sun and shield. The guardianship is so complete that not a moment of time, or an inch of space, is devoid of its presence.

III. THE CARE OF GOD FOR MEN APPEARS MORE DISTINCTLY IN THE APPOINTMENT OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD. The tender care of Jesus Christ was exclusively shown to mankind.

1. That care arose from His heartfelt love to men. It was not mere pity excited by their wants, or commiseration engendered by their helplessness and misery, but affection for their very being. When the Saviour saw the sheep of the lost house of Israel without a Shepherd scattered over the mountains, torn of wild beasts, and no one caring for their life, His compassionate nature was necessarily moved. But there was below that a love which sprang from the old relationship — they were the children of the heavenly Father.

2. The extent of the care of Jesus for men appears in a life of effort, and a death of sacrifice on their behalf. He sought men. He went after them as the shepherd goes after his lost sheep. There were others who searched, some for riches, others for knowledge, others for power, and others for fame, but He sought out men — not the tatters of sin which covered their life, but themselves. He Unsealed the fountains of their being, and made streams of devotion flow God-ward.

IV. LET US BE IMITATORS OF HIM. Let those to whom God has given light flash it on their fellow creatures who live in gross darkness. Be ye leaders of men, to go before the sheep and show them the better pasture. Defend the helpless against oppression. Show charity to them for whom Christ died. To receive Christ into our heart is a glorious state, but to give that Christ to the world is a grade higher.

(T. Davies, M. A.)

I. I shall notice first, what the text rather suggests than declares, namely, our PROFESSION TOWARDS GOD.

1. That we avow Jehovah to be our God. The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob is the God of believers to this day. We do not wish to have any other God, although in these days the carnally wise have set up another. This effeminate deity now occupies the place once given to Apollo or Venus, and he is as much a false god as they were.

2. That we are His people. Our song is, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His." To glorify God in our spirits and in our bodies, which are alike redeemed, is our reasonable service. In Jehovah is our trust, our joy, our glory.

3. Our joyful confidence in our Immanuel — God with us. Leave out the word am, which is in italics, and you get it, "God with them." What is this but "God with us"? Has there not been a Divine nearness between our souls and Christ since that first day when we touched His garment's hem and were made whole?

II. OUR PROOF FROM GOD. If God work among us, then shall even our adversaries say, "Jehovah-Shammah," the Lord is there. A tree is known by its fruit, and the rule applies even to God Himself.

1. The first mark is the gathering in of the scattered (ver. 11). Conversion is the sure sign of the immediate presence of the Lord. Glory be to His name, His hand is stretched out still for miracles of grace.

2. A second token of the Lord's presence is the feeding of the flock. The Holy Spirit seems to lay great stress upon that (ver. 15). Have not your Sabbaths been times of holy festival? Has not the King Himself banqueted with us? At the communion table have we not been transported with such joys as can never be excelled until we behold the Chief Shepherd face to face?

3. Another token of the presence of the Good Shepherd is the healing of the sick; I mean the spiritually sick, for there is this promise given, "I will seek that which was lost," etc. It is a rare joy to restore such as have been overtaken in a fault. The God of our salvation hath devised means to bring home His banished, and therefore He is still in the midst of us. Glory be to His condescending love!

4. A further Drool of the presence of God in a church is when the Lord Jesus Christ is greatly honoured; for here it is written, "I will set up one shepherd over them," etc. If your faith rested anywhere but in the glorious person and finished work of the Son of God it were a worthless faith. If He be indeed the Lord of whom we are the loyal subjects, then the Lord our God is with us, and we are His people.

5. A further evidence of the Lord's presence with a people is found in their prevailing peace of mind. "I will make with them a covenant of peace," etc. Do not many of you realise that deep peace, the peace of God which passeth all understanding, so that you are free from all fear, and happy amid grievous poverty and trial?

III. OUR DESCRIPTION BY GOD.

1. God calls His Church His flock. A flock is the shepherd's treasure, it is his living wealth; but it is also the shepherd's care, it is his constant anxiety. A true Church is therefore a very precious thing, it is not a mere human society banded together for certain objects, but it is a community which God Himself hath formed, and over which He doth watch with an unsleeping eye.

2. Observe that it is added, "The flock of My pasture." There is a different idea here. It shows that God's people are not only peculiar in other things, but they are peculiar in their feeding. You may know a child of God by that which his soul lives upon. God's people know their Lord, and they know the kind of food which He gives them. They know the truth from a lie. They will have nothing but clean provender, and the more evidently it comes from the great Shepherd's own hand the better it is to them.

3. It is a very singular thing, but it is added, "Ye My flock, the flock of My pasture, are men." "Ye are men": then God knows what kind of persons we are, whom He has loved with an everlasting love. We are Adams, not angels. God's people are but men; yet they are men and not brutes. There are in human form many who are hardly so good as brutes; but the saints are gentle, compassionate, and gracious. God's people are true men: when the Spirit of God is in them they quit themselves like men; they come to the front and bear the brunt of the battle.

4. But then He adds this blessed assurance, "And I am your God." God is not a man, that He should lie; nor the son of a man, that He should repent. I hear that poor soul seeking after God, say, "Oh, but I am so unworthy." Just so. The Lord knows it. He says you are men. But then He is not unworthy; he is worthy to receive honour and power Divine, for He is our God.

( C. H. Spurgeon.).

People
David, Ezekiel
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Bound, Broken, Brutally, Diseased, Driven, Force, Harshly, Haven't, Healed, Injured, Lost, Rigor, Ruled, Searched, Sick, Sought, Strays, Strengthened, Weak
Outline
1. A reproof of the shepherds
7. God's judgment against them
11. His providence over his flock
20. The kingdom of Christ

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Ezekiel 34:4

     5297   disease
     5346   injury
     5972   unkindness
     8358   weakness, physical
     8413   edification
     8415   encouragement, examples
     8791   oppression, nature of

Ezekiel 34:1-6

     8783   neglect

Ezekiel 34:1-10

     7786   shepherd, king and leader
     9250   woe

Ezekiel 34:2-4

     5885   indifference

Ezekiel 34:2-6

     7735   leaders, political

Ezekiel 34:2-7

     5220   authority, abuse

Ezekiel 34:4-6

     8126   guidance, need for

Library
The Church of Christ
This, then, is the meaning of the text; that God would make Jerusalem and the places round about his hill a blessing. I shall not, however, use it so this morning, but I shall use it in a more confined sense--or, perhaps, in a more enlarged sense--as it applies to the church of Jesus Christ, and to this particular church with which you and I stand connected. "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
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 1: 1855

That None Should Enter on a Place of Government who Practise not in Life what they have Learnt by Study.
There are some also who investigate spiritual precepts with cunning care, but what they penetrate with their understanding they trample on in their lives: all at once they teach the things which not by practice but by study they have learnt; and what in words they preach by their manners they impugn. Whence it comes to pass that when the shepherd walks through steep places, the flock follows to the precipice. Hence it is that the Lord through the prophet complains of the contemptible knowledge
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

Discourse on the Good Shepherd.
(Jerusalem, December, a.d. 29.) ^D John X. 1-21. ^d 1 Verily, verily, I say to you [unto the parties whom he was addressing in the last section], He that entereth not by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. [In this section Jesus proceeds to contrast his own care for humanity with that manifested by the Pharisees, who had just cast out the beggar. Old Testament prophecies were full of declarations that false shepherds would arise to
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Good Shepherd' and his one Flock' - Last Discourse at the Feast of Tabernacles.
The closing words which Jesus had spoken to those Pharisees who followed HIm breathe the sadness of expected near judgment, rather than the hopefulness of expostulation. And the Discourse which followed, ere He once more left Jerusalem, is of the same character. It seems, as if Jesus could not part from the City in holy anger, but ever, and only, with tears. All the topics of the former Discourses are now resumed and applied. They are not in any way softened or modified, but uttered in accents of
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

The Everlasting Covenant of the Spirit
"They shall be My people, and l will be their God. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me."--JER. xxxii. 38, 40. "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye
Andrew Murray—The Two Covenants

How to Make Use of Christ as the Life when the Soul is Dead as to Duty.
Sometimes the believer will be under such a distemper, as that he will be as unfit and unable for discharging of any commanded duty, as dead men, or one in a swoon, is to work or go a journey. And it were good to know how Christ should be made use of as the Life, to the end the diseased soul may be delivered from this. For this cause we shall consider those four things: 1. See what are the several steps and degrees of this distemper. 2. Consider whence it cometh, or what are the causes or occasions
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

The Shepherd of Our Souls.
"I am the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep."--John x. 11. Our Lord here appropriates to Himself the title under which He had been foretold by the Prophets. "David My servant shall be king over them," says Almighty God by the mouth of Ezekiel: "and they all shall have one Shepherd." And in the book of Zechariah, "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts; smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered."
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII

Covenanting Predicted in Prophecy.
The fact of Covenanting, under the Old Testament dispensations, being approved of God, gives a proof that it was proper then, which is accompanied by the voice of prophecy, affording evidence that even in periods then future it should no less be proper. The argument for the service that is afforded by prophecy is peculiar, and, though corresponding with evidence from other sources, is independent. Because that God willed to make known truth through his servants the prophets, we should receive it
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

The Extent of Messiah's Spiritual Kingdom
The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever! T he Kingdom of our Lord in the heart, and in the world, is frequently compared to a building or house, of which He Himself is both the Foundation and the Architect (Isaiah 28:16 and 54:11, 12) . A building advances by degrees (I Corinthians 3:9; Ephesians 2:20-22) , and while it is in an unfinished state, a stranger cannot, by viewing its present appearance, form an accurate judgment
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2

The Eighth Commandment
Thou shalt not steal.' Exod 20: 15. AS the holiness of God sets him against uncleanness, in the command Thou shalt not commit adultery;' so the justice of God sets him against rapine and robbery, in the command, Thou shalt not steal.' The thing forbidden in this commandment, is meddling with another man's property. The civil lawyers define furtum, stealth or theft to be the laying hands unjustly on that which is another's;' the invading another's right. I. The causes of theft. [1] The internal causes
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

That the Ruler Should Be, through Humility, a Companion of Good Livers, But, through the Zeal of Righteousness, Rigid against the vices of Evildoers.
The ruler should be, through humility, a companion of good livers, and, through the zeal of righteousness, rigid against the vices of evil-doers; so that in nothing he prefer himself to the good, and yet, when the fault of the bad requires it, he be at once conscious of the power of his priority; to the end that, while among his subordinates who live well he waives his rank and accounts them as his equals, he may not fear to execute the laws of rectitude towards the perverse. For, as I remember to
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

Covenanting Provided for in the Everlasting Covenant.
The duty of Covenanting is founded on the law of nature; but it also stands among the arrangements of Divine mercy made from everlasting. The promulgation of the law, enjoining it on man in innocence as a duty, was due to God's necessary dominion over the creatures of his power. The revelation of it as a service obligatory on men in a state of sin, arose from his unmerited grace. In the one display, we contemplate the authority of the righteous moral Governor of the universe; in the other, we see
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Jesus Makes his First Disciples.
(Bethany Beyond Jordan, Spring a.d. 27.) ^D John I. 35-51. ^d 35 Again on the morrow [John's direct testimony bore fruit on the second day] John was standing, and two of his disciples [An audience of two. A small field; but a large harvest]; 36 and he looked [Gazed intently. The word is used at Mark xiv. 67; Luke xxii. 61 Mark x. 21, 27. John looked searchingly at that face, which, so far as any record shows, he was never to see on earth again. The more intently we look upon Jesus, the more powerfully
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Second Great Group of Parables.
(Probably in Peræa.) Subdivision B. Parable of the Lost Sheep. ^C Luke XV. 3-7. ^c 3 And he spake unto them this parable [Jesus had spoken this parable before. See pp. 434, 435.] saying, 4 What man of you [man is emphatic; it is made so to convey the meaning that if man would so act, how much more would God so act], having an hundred sheep [a large flock], and having lost one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness [the place of pasture, and hence the proper place to leave
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Ezekiel
To a modern taste, Ezekiel does not appeal anything like so powerfully as Isaiah or Jeremiah. He has neither the majesty of the one nor the tenderness and passion of the other. There is much in him that is fantastic, and much that is ritualistic. His imaginations border sometimes on the grotesque and sometimes on the mechanical. Yet he is a historical figure of the first importance; it was very largely from him that Judaism received the ecclesiastical impulse by which for centuries it was powerfully
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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