Ezekiel 34:15

_I WILL FEED MY FLOCK, AND I WILL CAUSE THEM TO LIE DOWN, SAITH THE LORD GOD._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

7-16 The Lord declared that he intended mercy towards the scattered flock. Doubtless this, in the first place, had reference to the restoration of the Jews. It also represented the good Shepherd's tender care of the souls of his people. He finds them in their days of darkness and ignorance, and brings them to his fold. He comes to their relief in times of persecution and temptation. He leads them in the ways of righteousness, and causes them to rest on his love and faithfulness. The proud and self-sufficient, are enemies of the true gospel and of believers; against such we must guard. He has rest for disquieted saints, and terror for presumptuous sinners....

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 34:1 AND THE WORD OF THE LORD, etc. As no date is given, we may infer that what follows came as an almost immediate sequel to that which precedes it. The kernel of the chapter is found in the Messianic prophecies of Ezekiel 34:23, Ezekiel 34:24, as the first stage in the restoration of Israel which is beginning to open to the prophet's gaze. We can hardly avoid seeing in it the deliberate expression of words that had been spoken by Ezekiel's master (Jeremiah 23:1), and which in his case also were followed by a directly Messianic announcement. In...

I WILL FEED MY FLOCK,.... This is repeated for the further confirmation of it, that it might be depended upon that the Lord would feed his people in the manner before promised; and it gives a reason why he would do it, because they were his flock; he had a right unto them, a property in them; they were separated and distinguished from others by him, as the church of God is; and which is also purchased by Christ, and gathered out of the world by his Spirit and grace; and therefore he will feed them, or take care that they shall be fed, Acts 20:28: AND I WILL CAUSE THEM TO LIE DOWN, SAITH THE LORD; in the good fold provided for them; where they have both rest and safety, and also plenty of suitable food; Ezekiel 34:14. The Targum is, "I will govern my people, and wi

Ezekiel 34:11. _For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day._ What a glorious promise! Christ's elect run hither and thither, in the darkness of their ignorance, into sin of every kind, but he will find every one of them out. There is no jungle so thick but Christ will track his own through it; There are no bogs of sin so dangerous but Christ will traverse them and find every lamb of his flock. And if through your backslidings, O people of God, you have wandered far from him, yet he perceives you with that eye which sees in the dark as well us in the light; and he will follow after you and bring you back. Bles

Ezekiel 34:1. The shepherds of Israel were the kings and princes and all who had authority over them. The prophet Jeremiah had received a similar message Jeremiah 23:1. These shepherds of Israel were responsible for the deplorable condition of the flock. Utterly selfish, they cared not for the sheep of His pasture; they feared not God nor did they have a heart for God's people. The flock was scattered and spoiled. Such was the sad condition of the people Israel. And when the Lord Jesus appeared in their midst to seek the lost sheep of the house of Israel, He found them as sheep without a shepherd, and He had compassion upon them Mark 6:34. But they rejected Him and the Shepherd was smitten. Zechariah's prophecy was fulfilled

Therefore these evil shepherds must be replaced by none other than Yahweh Himself, the great Shepherd of the sheep, who will lovingly tend them, and seek them out on the dark and cloudy day, and bring them back (_i.e._ from exile) to their own true pasture-land. (In Ezekiel 34:16 for destroy read, with LXX watch over.)...

Jehovah himself will undertake the care of his flock...

B. The Divine Shepherd 34:11-22 TRANSLATION (11) For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, Here am I, and I will search for My sheep, and seek them out. (12) As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day he is in the midst of his flock that are separated, thus I will seek out My sheep; and I will deliver them from all the places to which they have been scattered in the day of clouds and thick darkness. (13) And I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the lands; and I will bring them unto their land; and I will feed them upon the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the habitable portions of the land. (14) In a good pasture I will feed them, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be; there shall they lie down in a good fold, and in a lush pasture shall they graze upon the mountains of Israel. (15) I will feed My sheep, and I will make them to lie...

THE NEW ISRAEL (EZEKIEL 33-48) So long as the Jewish kingdom remained in existence Ezekiel's prophecies (those in Ezekiel 1-24) dealt almost exclusively with the nation's sin, and with the certainty of its overthrow. But when these prophecies were fulfilled by the fall of Jerusalem his message assumed a new and hopeful character. God's punishment of Israel's sin was not the end of His dealings with His people. The destruction of the old sinful Israel would be followed by the establishment of a perfect kingdom of God. The humiliation of the foreign nations (described in Ezekiel 25-32) would prepare the way for this, and would be succeeded by the restoration of the exiles. The new kingdom would be set up under new conditions of worship and fellowship with God. This concluding part of the book falls into two sections, the first dealing with the restoration from captivity (Ezekiel 33-39), an...