This is Faith to Witness 99 Motivating us to leave the 99 and go find the one. 

Ezekiel 34:11-12

11 “‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep.”

It is so illuminating to see our Heavenly Father, the Divine Father as the Shepherd, first. The entire Old Testament is the story of God with his people. Of course His nature would bring shepherding. His people were shepherds. Their days were filled with rods, staff, wandering and all the levels of idolatrous lost. King David was a shepherd. This God, our God laid down a covenant of peace with his sheep. Jesus came to fulfill his Father’s covenant. Stay with us for the conversation. 

e214 God, the Father, Shepherds His People (Like Father, Like Son)

The Spirit lingers for a good long while on what we need to learn, doesn’t it? Here’s what is lingering from our mustard seed conversation. That I cultivate a fine tilth and create space for the Spirit. That I continue to rake the spiritual bed of someone’s heart until the top inch of spirit-soil is free of clods and stones. All to ensure the tiny spirit-seeds don’t fall into deep gaps and suffocate from the luring demands of the world. 

To me this means to return to someone, continue to rake the surface, to breakdown the disbelief, the misconceptions, the barriers to letting love in. To designate an area that reaches far enough into their life to give someone adequate space, autonomy, encouragement and independence to grow in the Spirit. Prepare the person to receive a mustard seed from the Divine Planter, and become part of the Kingdom. I just wanted to cue this again for those who like circling back to inspiration that hasn’t found its way into your actions yet. We must move with the Spirit.

I’m Kathryn Bise, your host. 

Y’all know how I feel about Ezekiel. He was 25, a temple priest, when he was exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon. He had his first vision at age 30. He is known for the divine power expressed in his dreams. This young man carried the “watchman” verdict from God’s mouth to his obedience for fifty years. Age 30 to age 80. He must have been a witness of witnesses. A man who lost his earthly female love to a metaphor. A man that heard God tell about the “river” and a hope for the future. A man that God took further, beyond the exile, to the return, and the exacting nature of his Glory and how he would dwell again with his people. A man that heard God describe his glory. And who showed him what it looked like. A man that heard God prophecy this: “The Lord is there.” 

A man with a prophetic life that makes me feel closer to God. With all my senses. And just when I think I have a decent grasp on the impact of his relationship with God, I return to chapter 34 within the life of this man. Ezekiel was 37 years old, around 585 BC. This message delivered shortly after the fall of Jerusalem, in 586 BC. Nearly six centuries before Jesus. 

Everything I have embraced about our Shepherd, Jesus, was true before he came to earth. God made the commitment to shepherd his flock, and used this point in time to designate the coming of a shepherd, a Messianic King, through David’s blood line.

This feels like a point of origin for the 99. 

King David had already claimed the Lord as his shepherd. Psalm 23 and many others. But I want to go through Ezekiel chapter 34 today. To hear how God defines a shepherd. To hear how God shepherds. And to hear how God provides a shepherd for eternity. God’s timing in Ezekiel’s life.

Let’ s consider this chapter in what I have loosely defined as five parts for a deeper look at how God, our Heavenly Father is the shepherd.

1. A Shepherd Acts Like a Shepherd

Ezekiel 34:1-6

34 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? 3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. 5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. 6 My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.

A shepherd meets the needs of the flocks, not the needs of self. Strengthen the weak, heal the sick, bound up the injured. Pay attention to those who have strayed, not wandered far but will if you don’t bring them back. And the lost. When humans are scattered, not together in what they are doing, they become prey to the wild. To the world. And God says we will wander far from his pasture when not tended to. When left to our human spirit we will wander away from God. 

2. A Shepherd is Accountable for His Sheep

Ezekiel 7-10

7 “‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 8 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 10 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.

When we are found wanting, lacking in our commitment to the flock, the flock will be plundered. When God holds us accountable our self-interest dies of starvation. Can we get this? Can we turn to follow the Shepherd?

3. A Shepherd Searches For His Sheep

Ezekiel 34:11-19

11 “‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. 14 I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.

So, the “sleek and the strong” are those living for their own self-interest and survival. Instead of attending to the flock they have the flock attending to their needs. But God is all about caring at all levels – binding those that are less mobile so they can still walk, and strengthening the weak. In fact, God, the Shepherd thinks of everything his flock could ever need. Accountability brings justice. His flock gets what a flock deserves under his care.

4. The Sovereign Lord Will Judge the Flock and Name One Shepherd

Ezekial 34:17-24

17 “‘As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. 18 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? 19 Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet?

20 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says to them: See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21 Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, 22 I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. 23 I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. 24 I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the Lord have spoken.

When God names David he does so symbolically referring to the royal lineage of David. It is a Messianic prophecy of the birth and life of Jesus. This was in keeping with prophets who often called a future ruler by the ancestral archetype. Fat sheep and lean sheep. The fat sheep are nurtured for the self-interest of the shepherd. The lean sheep are deprived of the shepherd’s care. God has defined what a true shepherd does and names the coming Shepherd. His Son. 

5. God Claims His Sheep with a Covenant

God claims his sheep through a covenant of peace as he describes his pasture. Ours is a covenant God. 

Ezekiel 34:25-31

25 “‘I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of savage beasts so that they may live in the wilderness and sleep in the forests in safety. 26 I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. 27 The trees will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them. 28 They will no longer be plundered by the nations, nor will wild animals devour them. They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid. 29 I will provide for them a land renowned for its crops, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations. 30 Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them and that they, the Israelites, are my people, declares the Sovereign Lord. 31 You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign Lord.’”

Our God commits to our well-being by laying down his eternal nature as ground for us to walk on. That’s called covenant-level commitment. God’s covenants throughout his Old Testament timeline anchor his relationship with his chosen people. 

Like Father, Like Son, Like Shepherd

Act like a shepherd. Be accountable for your sheep. Search for your sheep. Let God be the judge, let our Shepherd find our way to the Father. If you had asked me if God was our shepherd, until now, I would have said that God sent his Son, that his Son was/is the Shepherd. But God, the Heavenly Father, manifested his presence in this role before Jesus came to earth. I know this puts an infinite God and his Son on a timeline only the creation lives by. Our Sovereign Lord does not. Yes, they are one, and yes, they are separate. A divine Father, and a divine Son. This timeline deepens my connection.

So at this point it is so illuminating to see our Heavenly Father, the Divine Father as the Shepherd, first. The entire Old Testament is the story of God with his people. Of course His nature would bring shepherding. His people were shepherds. Their days were filled with rods, staff, wandering and all the levels of idolatrous lost. King David was a shepherd. This God, our God laid down a covenant of peace with his sheep. Jesus came to fulfill his Father’s covenant. 

Like Father like Son. All of a sudden, scriptures are exploding in my head about how the Son comes after the Father, is like the Father, and Jesus came to earth with the shepherd’s rod and staff of His Father. Yes?

John 5:19

“The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”

We’re so not done here. Join us for how this divine following sets the scene for the power of living within God’s family, living by what our Shepherd sees his Father doing. Like Father, like Son, like us. E215

God’s faith to your witness. Go find the one.