Ezek — Capítulo 34

34:1–37:28 These chapters show us the blessings that would flow from the Lord’s return to his people. He would be their shepherd and provide them with better leadership (ch 34); he would restore the fruitfulness of the land and thus vindicate his own honor (chs 35–36); he would restore his people to life and unity (ch 37). 34:1-24 This chapter contains declarations of judgment and salvation. There would be judgment on the shepherds (the former kings of Judah) because they failed to care for their flocks (the people of Judah). The Lord would also judge the fat sheep, but he would intervene as a good shepherd to feed the remainder of the flock. The image of the shepherd perfectly conveys the toughness and tenderness of God’s dealings with his people. The shepherd was also a common metaphor for a king in the ancient Near East. The earthly king was understood to represent the divine shepherd who had set him over his people. Shepherds had to protect their flocks against beasts, including lions and bears, while also knowing their sheep by name and tenderly leading them to good pasture and quiet waters. They had to endure cold, heat, wind, rain, and snow out on the hills with their charges. Good kings who led their people strongly and wisely resembled shepherds. The same image is used in the New Testament to describe pastors and elders, who are to oversee the flock assigned to their care without lording it over them (1 Pet 5:2-4). Jesus perfectly combines toughness and tenderness as the “great Shepherd of the sheep” (Heb 13:20).

34:2-6 What sorrow awaits you shepherds: Israel’s leaders had not taken care of the weak or gone looking for those who had wandered away and were lost. They had pursued their own interests, feeding themselves at their flock’s expense. They ruled the sheep with harshness and cruelty, recalling how the Egyptians treated the Israelites in Moses’ time (Exod 1:13-14). The neglect and abuse of these cruel shepherds had scattered the Lord’s flock across the face of the earth.

34:7-11 The Lord vowed to hold the self-serving shepherds responsible for the consequences of their actions. He would remove them from their pastoral office and rescue his flock from their clutches so that they were no longer their prey. The Lord would go looking for his scattered flock (34:12) and bring them home.

34:12-16 The dark and cloudy day, the day of judgment (cp. 32:7-8), was completed. Now God would bring his people back to the mountains of Israel, the center of the land promised to the patriarchs, and tend his sheep (see Ps 23).

34:17-19 The goats were the powerful, unrighteous members of the community.

34:20-22 the fat sheep and the scrawny sheep: Those with power and influence in society had taken all the good things for themselves and had left others without resources. God would judge between them and set things right.

34:23-24 one shepherd, my servant David: God planned to raise up David’s offspring to succeed him (2 Sam 7:12-16). This “new David,” like the first one, would be the Lord’s servant, a man after God’s own heart, and a good shepherd of his people.

34:25-26 God planned to provide his people with a new and better ruler and to make a covenant of peace with them. Their present experience of dangerous animals, drought, famine, and sword was the outworking of the curses of the covenant made at Sinai (see Lev 26:14-35). From now on, they would camp safely, experiencing the blessings of that covenant; God would send the showers they needed for fruitfulness and peace (see Lev 26:4-13).

34:27-31 In this covenant of peace, God’s people experience the blessings that flow from wholeness of relationship with God. This covenant was not essentially different from the original covenant established at Sinai. It offered the experience of genuine, lasting peace that the Sinai covenant offered but never delivered because of the sin of God’s people. In place of the failed kings of the past, they would receive a new and perfect king. In place of the relationship with God that had been repeatedly broken by sin, they would once again be God’s people, the sheep of his pasture. Then they would achieve the goal of the covenant in that the Sovereign Lord would be their God and once again dwell in their midst.