_Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?_ THE UNFAITHFUL SHEPHERDS I. Human rulers stand in the same relation to the people whom they rule as shepherds to their flocks. Therefore the qualifications required are similar. 1. A special kno... [ Continue Reading ]
_I, even I, will both search My sheep, and seek them out._ THE FLOCK SOUGHT AND FOUND Is the Great Shepherd to leave the stray sheep to wander and perish? or is He to pity and reclaim them? In the Crimean War there were two ways, very different from each other, in which heroic deed manifested itsel... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away._ THE GOOD SHEPHERD In reading this verse hastily we are apt to overlook the new and very interesting idea introduced in each succeeding clause of it. Our feeling is that each clause is just meant to teach the idea of the... [ Continue Reading ]
_I judge between cattle and cattle._ SELFISH SCRAMBLE AND CHRISTIAN SERVICE It presents to us the scene, far too often enacted in human life, of a selfish scramble--a scramble for position, for money, for power, for enjoyment. We find this in business, in professions as well as in trade and commer... [ Continue Reading ]
_Even My servant David; he shall feed them._ THE DAVIDIC RULER The meaning cannot be that David would in person revive and reappear. It is more doubtful whether the prophet means that the line or family of David would again occupy the throne or that a single person would be king. It is possible tha... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will make with them a covenant of peace._ GOD’S COVENANT WITH HIS PEOPLE, AND THEIR ASSURED SAFETY IN THE WILDERNESS I. The King’s charter. Observe, the text does not say, “We will make a covenant with one another,” God and man; it says, “I will make them a covenant”; originating in the electin... [ Continue Reading ]
_Shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke._ THE YOKE REMOVED AND THE LORD REVEALED But do not all men know that God is the Lord? They should know it, for He is clearly to be seen in the works of nature. But man by wisdom knows not God. But do not all know God in thi... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will raise up for them a Plant of renown._ THE ETERNAL PLANT The symbolism of the Bible forms one of its most interesting and conspicuous features. As children are oft-times taught the alphabet by the assistance of pictures, so ancient Israel, living amid the dim shadows of patriarchal and mosai... [ Continue Reading ]
_They, even the house of Israel, are My people._ ISRAEL’S PRIVILEGES I. The distinctive appellation here given to the persons addressed--“the house of Israel.” 1. They were a people closely connected with each other. They belonged to the same house, or family. As the descendants from the same pro... [ Continue Reading ]
_And ye My flock, the flock of My pasture, are men, and I am your God._ MAN’S DESTINY 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... [ Continue Reading ]