Ezekiel 34:11, 12 For thus said the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.… We learn of the interest God takes in us that he is - I. UNAFFECTED BY OUR SOCIAL DISTINCTIONS. The great ones of the land regarded those who were at the bottom of society as beneath their consideration. What mattered it if they lived in privation and in ignorance, so long as the royal palace, so long as the costly castle, was well furnished? But this distinction between the worth of men on the ground of social rank or of circumstance finds no place at all in the mind and heart of God. He cares for men as they are; possessed as they are with a nature that is capable of great things - great sufferings, sorrows, degradation, iniquities, on the one hand, and great joys, hopes, nobilities, achievements, on the other hand. Not where we stand or what we hold, but what we are and what we may become, is the Divine consideration. II. DRAWN TOWARDS THE NEGLECTED. It is the guilty neglect of the flock by the selfish shepherds that drives the sheep to the notice of the Divine Shepherd, and that draws out his pitiful pastoral affection (vers. 8-11). And we may infer that the neglected, because they are such, are the objects of the Divine sympathy. The neglected child in the home, member of the Church, pupil in the school, student or toiler in the world of art and industry, citizen in social circle or the broader sphere of the nation, is the object of the pitiful regard of One who never overlooks, who understands how that heart feels which is wounded by the disregard of men, who "lifteth up the meek," who "hath respect unto the lowly." III. CONCERNED FOR THE LOST AND SCATTERED. Those who are far away from Zion and from all its sacred and hallowing influences are still "my sheep" (ver. 11); and the strain of the twelfth verse is one of tender sympathy and earnest solicitude for those who "in the day of clouds and thick darkness" have been "scattered on the wild." We have wandered away from the home of the Father; some of us into a very "far country;" it may be that of almost entire forgetfulness; or of an utter shameless indifference; or of a deliberate disobedience of his known will; or of an absolute denial of his existence; or of a wanton endeavor to corrupt and destroy the character of his children. And yet, however far we have gone astray, in all the emptiness and spiritual poverty of our distance from home, in all our misery and aching of heart, in all our hopelessness, our Divine Father follows us and pities us; his heart is filled with a parental solicitude for us. "For though deceived and led astray, We've traveled far and wandered long, Our God hath seen us all the way, And all the turns that led us wrong." IV. ACTIVELY ENGAGED IN THEIR REDEMPTION. "I will seek out my sheep, and deliver them." 1. The restoration of the exiled Jews may be one part of the fulfillment of this promise. 2. The coming of the Son of man "to seek and to save that which was lost" was a later and better fulfillment. And we find a further, a perpetual Divine redemption of this ancient word of promise in: 3. The putting forth by the Church of Christ of all its redeeming energies. Whenever and however any one that, filled with the spirit of his Savior, seeks to raise the fallen, to bring back to truth and piety those that have gone away in the darkness, to heal the stricken and suffering spirit and to enrobe it with "the garment of praise," there God is himself "searching out his sheep," and "delivering them from the places whither they have wandered." How excellent is the portion of those who are his agents in this gracious work! - C. Parallel Verses KJV: For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. |
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