Context No. 3903 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Ezekiel 34:17-24: in context

17“As for you, O my flock, the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, the rams and the male goats. 18Does it seem a small thing to you to have fed on the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture? And to have drunk of the clear waters, but must you foul the residue with your feet? 19As for my sheep, they eat that which you have trodden with your feet, and they drink that which you have fouled with your feet.’ 20“Therefore the Lord GOD says to them: ‘Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21Because you thrust with side and with shoulder, and push all the diseased with your horns, until you have scattered them abroad, 22therefore I will save my flock, and they will no more be a prey. I will judge between sheep and sheep. 23I will set up one shepherd over them, and he will feed them, even my servant David. He will feed them, and he will be their shepherd. 24I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David prince among them. I, the LORD, have spoken it.

God, the shepherd of Israel, turns to judge not the false shepherds now but the sheep among themselves, and specifically the strong, well-fed sheep who bully the weak. Is it not enough, he asks, to feed on the good pasture, that you must trample the rest with your feet, and to drink clear water, that you must foul the rest?

The strong sheep took the good pasture for themselves and ruined what was left for the weak, shoving the feeble aside with their horns until they were scattered. And God says: I will judge between the fat sheep and the lean; I will rescue my flock, and they shall no longer be a prey. Here is a God who takes the side of the weak and mistreated. He sees when the strong use their strength to push aside and deprive the vulnerable, and he holds them accountable for it. He is not indifferent to how the strong within his flock treat the weak. And he promises to set over them one shepherd, his servant David, the coming Good Shepherd who would tend the flock rightly. There is both warning and comfort here, a warning to any who use their advantages to trample the weak, and comfort to the mistreated, that God sees, judges, and will save his flock.

Do I use whatever strength or advantage I have to protect the weak rather than trample them, and do I take comfort, if I am among the vulnerable, that God sees and takes the side of his mistreated sheep?

Sources

Ezekiel 34:18: "Does it seem a small thing to you to have fed on the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture?"
Ezekiel 34:22: "Therefore I will save my flock, and they will no more be a prey. I will judge between sheep and sheep."
Ezekiel 34:23: "I will set up one shepherd over them, and he will feed them, even my servant David."