Ezekiel 34:1

THE SHEPHERD OF ISRAEL; THE MESSIANIC KINGDOM

(Note: The headings for this chapter were suggested by F. F. Bruce and John Skinner respectively.

In view of what Our Lord Jesus Christ and his inspired apostles and writers have stated in the New Testament, little other comment is needed. The identity of this Good Shepherd who will destroy the evil shepherds and rule over the united Israel (the Northern and Southern Israels, as well as all the Israelites and Gentiles combined in God's New Israel) are fully and dogmatically answered in the sacred New Testament. All of the doubts and quibbles, and all of the picayune allegations and criticisms that one finds in the writings of commentators who apparently have no extensive knowledge whatever of the New Testament are gloriously solved and explained in the New Testament.

"What we have to do with in this chapter is a Messianic prediction in the fullest sense of the term."[1]

The quibble regarding whether a single individual is meant, or if the restoration of the old Davidic dynasty of successive rulers is intended, is forever decided by the Apostle Peter who applied all intimations of some descendent of David "sitting upon his throne," to "the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his elevation to the right hand of God" (Acts 2:30-32), who was universally known by all the Jews of that generation as "The Son of David." Furthermore, the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, was the total fulfillment; he would never be succeeded by any other. It was not a "line of Davidic kings," but the one Great and Only King Jesus who is foretold here. Ezekiel himself was also aware of this and said so, although it seems that many have overlooked his message. "David my servant shall be my prince forever." (Ezekiel 37:25). As Paul put it, "He must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet; and the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (1 Corinthians 15:25,26).

It is impossible to escape the implications of this chapter that the one prophesied here is "the Personal Messiah," even the Son of God Himself.

GOD HIMSELF TO BE THE GOOD SHEPHERD

As Bunn noted, "We find here a unique emphasis upon the personal pronoun. The word `I' is used no less than fifteen times as Jehovah speaks in the first person. Also `my' and `myself' are used three times, all within the space of six verses."[2] Therefore when God Himself said. "I myself will be the shepherd of the sheep" (Ezekiel 34:15), it means, undeniably, that, in some sense the Coming Messiah will not be a mere human being. These words cannot be applied to any mortal descendent of David who ever lived, except Jesus Christ our Lord.

We have noted that two or three commentators have found what they called "a contradiction" in some of Ezekiel's statements that this coming "Servant David" would be a man. Every Christian knows that Christ was indeed both God and Man. "He was the Son of David and at the same time The Lord of David" (Matthew 22:42-45). The scholars who do not see this today are still working in the same ignorance that blinded those ancient Pharisees who stood speechless before Christ when he probed their minds with this same dilemma of how Jesus Christ is both God and man.

Other alleged objections to the obvious interpretation here will be noted in the text below.

The historical background against which this chapter appears was pitiful indeed. Israel's ancient request for God to allow them to have a king was illegal and sinful to begin with; and Samuel warned them of the kind of kings they would get; and the complete and utter failure of the monarchical system had finally worked its total ruin and destruction upon the Chosen People; and, at this stage, God would begin all over again to teach them the spiritual nature of his kingdom. Not a small part of this chapter rehearses the unprincipled wickedness of Israel's kings. As their history revealed, "The native kings were no better than the heathen despots."[3] All of them were heartless, cruel, greedy, selfish monsters of tyranny and oppression who cared nothing at all for their subjects. They exploited, robbed, murdered, enslaved and abused their subjects in every conceivable manner.

The mystery still exists as to why Israel, even as late as the times of the apostles, desired nothing either in heaven or upon earth as passionately as they desired the restoration to them of their scandalous old monarchy which God finally and irrevocably destroyed in the events of Ezekiel's generation. There would yet be required to pass nearly half a millennium before God would be able to change the hearts of enough of them to allow the Advent of that Glorious Messiah prophesied in this chapter; and even at that late date, there were only a small handful, in the relative sense, who "waited for the kingdom of God," who were "true Israelites," who were entitled to be called "the seed of Abraham," and who would form the nucleus of that higher and better Israel of God.

DENUNCIATION OF THE FALSE SHEPHERDS

Ezekiel 34:1-6

"And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, even to the shepherds, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Woe unto the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the sheep? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill the fatlings, but ye feed not the sheep. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought back that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with rigor have ye ruled over them. And they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field, and were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill; yea, my sheep were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and there was none that did search or seek after them."

This is a graphic picture of an utterly worthless shepherd who had no concern whatever for the flock, except as he might have been able to feed himself and clothe himself from what they provided. No better composite of the whole list of Israel's kings, northern and southern alike, could be written than this.

Some attention should be given to the term "shepherd." This comparison of the evil rulers of God's people is also found in Jeremiah 23ff, and in Zechariah 11:1-11. Also, Jesus' words in John 10 carry the same message.

"The word `shepherd' in the Old Testament, as in Homer's Iliad is always a reference to kings and rulers."[4] Cook stated that, "The first king upon earth wore this title; his name was Aloms. The title was adopted into the Assyrian language as RIU (shepherd) and persisted to the latest times of the Assyrian monarchy."[5] The evil shepherds which had mined Israel were nothing else except the kings who disgraced it, from the first of them to the last. This appears in the truth that even the best of them, namely, "a man after God's own heart," was an adulterer, a murderer, and an innovator who tried to move the ark of the covenant with a new cart!

"On every high hill ..." (Ezekiel 34:6). Despite the fact of Keil's disagreement, we believe that Jamieson was correct in seeing in this statement, "A reference to the sinful idolatrous worship practiced upon 'every high hill' at those shrines and `high places' set up and sponsored by those evil shepherds."[6] Jesus spoke of the `scattering' mentioned here in Mark 6:34.