Ezekiel 34:31 And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord GOD
In January it has been cold pretty much everywhere. At the Bill Rice Ranch we got down into single digit temperatures, and whenever that happens, I think about a lot of things. I think about pipes freezing up and the safety of people walking on slick surfaces up at the college and camp. I also think about our horses. We have more than forty head of horses right now and they are stoic and tough. I have seen them in the hottest afternoons and the most frigid evenings and mornings. On occasion I have helped our head wrangler care for the horses during the winter when he has been gone for Christmas break. So, I know a little bit of what it is like to care for horses in severe weather. If you are a farmer, rancher, or shepherd, you think about such things. You think about the sheep, cattle, and horses. Does God think of the horses? I think He does, but not nearly as much as He thinks of you.
In Ezekiel 34 God is talking about shepherds and sheep, the leaders of the people and the people themselves. In verse 31 God says, “And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord GOD.” God is using the picture of a shepherd and sheep to picture the leaders of His people, both civic and religious, and the people themselves. In Ezekiel 34 God judges these shepherds. He says, “Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?” So many times, leaders take advantage of their power and opportunity to enrich themselves and do not care for the people who are under their leadership. One thing we learn from reading Ezekiel 34 is that God holds His shepherds accountable for how they shepherd His sheep, His people.
God is the owner of the sheep. God says in verse 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.” God is saying, “My people were in need of someone who loved and led and sacrificed, but those leaders were not to be found among the religious leaders or the civic leaders.”
Sometimes I am more worried or smug than I ought to be because I get the impression that I am the one who is leading, in charge, and owns. I am not. God is the owner. He holds His shepherds accountable for how they shepherd His sheep because ultimately God is the owner. We are but stewards, and God is the owner of anything worth anything. I have often thought, “The more God owns, the less I worry.” For that matter, the more God owns, the less I brag. God says, “They are my sheep. They are my flock.”
God is also the example. In verse 11 the prophet says, “For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.” God is the Good Shepherd and the ultimate shepherd. Whenever you see a leader, whether religious, civic, or some other way, use their power and position to enrich themself instead of guiding and guarding the people, that is a sin, not against the people, but against God.
In Acts 20:28 Paul is talking to the Ephesian elders and says, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” I didn’t purchase the church, the Lord Jesus did. I Peter 5:3 says, “Neither as being lords over God’s heritage but being ensamples to the flock.” Verse 2 says, “Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind.” It is for the benefit of God’s people, not for the benefit of the leader. Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd.” If you are going to be a good leader, you need to be a good follower of the Shepherd, the Lord Jesus.
The Lord is the owner, the example, and He is also the judge. Verse 20 says, “Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle.” There is coming a day when God will judge His people and God will judge those who have led them. That makes what I do today so very important because at the end of the day, I am not the leader; I am the steward of the one who is the leader. God holds His shepherds accountable for how they shepherd His sheep.