Ezekiel 34:23-31 And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them… Predictions of Divine retribution, added to bitter experience of misfortune, had well-nigh filled the souls of the people with despair. And despair is a critical condition for man. It may lead to self-abandonment, to the wildest excesses of vice and devilry. Will God make no interposition on their behalf? Must their only prospect be midnight, unrelieved by a single star? No! over the black cloud God again flings the bow of gracious promise. Black midnight shall be followed by a roseate dawn. The old order shall give place to a new. A nobler kingdom shall be set up. I. A NEW KING. He is described as "my servant David." This description is not to be accepted literally, but symbolically. The people could not understand the magnificent purpose of God by any other language. As God stoops to our infantile state by describing heaven to us in language borrowed from earth, so did he portray the era of Messiah's reign by language borrowed from the most prosperous events in their past career. Despite all his failings, David had been their most illustrious sovereign. His reign had brought them prosperity and honor and great enlargement. They shall have another David - a better David. In reality, as well as in name, he shall be the "Beloved," even "the Man after God's own heart." God shall make the appointment, therefore questions touching its wisdom may well be silenced. The King of their King is God, therefore the new Monarch shall be a true Shepherd, viz. one who will care more for the flock than for himself. The spirit of his reign shall be love. II. A NEW CHARTER OF INCORPORATION. "I will make them a covenant of peace." For centuries past they had tasted the horrors and the misery of war. Civil strife and foreign invasion had made the beauteous land a desolation. War between man and man had been incessant, because the whole nation was at war with God. The influence, the virtue, the spirit of the new King were designed to spread until they had permeated the whole nation. Love to God would produce benevolence to each other. Further, it was an act of incomparable condescension on the part of God to make such a covenant with men, particularly with such rebellious men. For a covenant is a contract which brings' obligation on both parties entering into its and which deprives them of a portion of their liberty. So, in amazing kindness to men, and that he may lift them up, God freely brings himself under obligation, and gives to undeserving men a right they did not before possess. This gracious covenant embraced the most precious interests of the true Israel, and was appointed as a root of prosperity and joy. And the conclusion of the covenant was guaranteed. "I," said God, "I will make" it. Hence it included the solution of men's opposition. It deals with men in their internal nature as well as in their outward conduct. Divine love will gradually melt all hostility, and will fertilize human nature with heavenly grace. "They shall be my people." III. A NEW ERA OF PROSPERITY. A long catalogue of beneficial effects are specified. 1. Civic concord. "I will cause the evil beasts to cease." By evil beasts we may properly understand unprincipled and oppressive men. A gracious influence shall touch and remodel the characters of men. "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid." Instead of an instinct to injure, there shall be an instinct to benefit each other. 2. Personal security. "They shall dwell safely even in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods." The security shall be perfect. The former haunts of robbers shall become the abodes of peace. The very deserts shall resound with the merry laughter of children and with the songs of honest swains. 3. Agricultural fertility. "The tree of the field shall yield its fruit, and the land shall yield her increase." Often in the olden time they sowed a bushel and reaped a peck; but this resulted from God's displeasure. Now crops shall be prolific. The barren hills shall smile with the olive and the vine. The valleys shall be robed with russet corn. The table of every cottager shall be laden with plenty. 4. Seasonable communications of good. "I will cause the shower to come down in its season." As in most lands rain is essential to fertility, so in Messiah's kingdom the descent of spiritual influence is essential to a fruitful piety. The windows of heaven shall in due season open, and plentifully irrigate the souls of suppliants. Out of the inexhaustible storehouse a gracious supply shall, come. 5. Unprecedented, blessing shall be given. "I will raise up for them a plantation of renown. This seems to indicate some useful product of a most beneficent kind - "a plantation" remarkable, and that shall bring them high renown. Without question, gifts and graces have been bestowed upon men in this gospel age unheard of in former years; and richer donations of grace are yet in store. 6. Honor. For long and dreary centuries they had borne the reproach of the heathen. They had been the tools of rival kings - the laughing-stock of the Gentiles. Now this shall be reversed. In proportion to the depth of their dishonor shall be the height of their exaltation. Not false and meretricious honor shall they have, but that tame honor which is the fruit of righteousness. 7. Intimate friendship with God. Their knowledge of God shall be deep and experimental. They shall have something better than theoretical and speculative knowledge. They shall have the full assurance that God is among them. They shall feel that God has a proprietorship in them, and that they have a proprietorship in God. God is their God. "The house of Israel are my people, saith the Lord God." This is supreme joy, the beginning of heaven, when God dwells in us and we dwell in God. The union is organic, inseparable. - D. Parallel Verses KJV: And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. |
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