#DailyDevotion Jesus Shepherds His People And Gives Them Rest

Ezekiel 34:11-16 ¹¹“The Lord GOD says this: Look! I, even I, will search for My sheep and look after them. ¹²As a shepherd looks after his flock when they are scattered around him, so I will take care of My flock and rescue them from every place where they may be scattered on cloudy and gloomy days. ¹³I will bring them away from those peoples, gather them from those countries, bring them to their own land. I will feed them on the hills of Israel, by the streams, and in all the places of that land where it is so good to live. ¹⁴I will feed them in good pasture, and their grazing land shall be on the high mountains of Israel. There they will rest in a good place and graze in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. ¹⁵I will feed My sheep and let them rest, says the Lord GOD. ¹⁶I will look for the lost, bring back what was driven away, bandage broken limbs and strengthen the sick, but I will destroy the fat and strong ones feeding them with justice.

The context of Ezekiel’s prophecy is important. The LORD God had driven his people out of Jerusalem and Judah because their constant sinning against him through idolatry and breaking his holy law he gave to them through his servant Moses. They lost their distinctiveness as a people and became like the nations around them. They thought they could break God’s law and still trust in his promise to protect them though he had told them through Moses and the prophets this was not the case. The LORD God had sent the wicked Babylonians, he raised them up to power, for the sole purpose of punishing his people and to remove them from the land which they, the Jews, defiled. Now they were spread out and exiled to Babylon.

The LORD now gives a promise to comfort these mourning people who have been exiled. The LORD God promises to be like a shepherd and search for his lost sheep. He makes a promise to gather his sheep who have been scattered and to rescue them. He promises to bring them to their own land and feed them on their own hills in Israel. He promises to give them rest, to heal the wounded, bring back those driven away and to deliver to justice the fat and strong one who got that way through the misery of his people. Now this was partially filled when their time out, 70 years promised through Jeremiah, had run out and the Persians sent the Jews back from Babylon to Judah. But they had never truly entered a rest. The Jewish and the Israelites remain scattered across the world though they now have a homeland again and home rule on that tiny strip of land on eastern end of the sea.

Jesus though begins to bring it to fruition. He is the LORD God who has spoken here. The Israel he gathers are all people from everywhere who will believe in him and in his name. He seeks out the lost, those trapped by sin and are weighed down by its guilt. He accepts them and feeds them with his very own body. He gives them true drink which is his blood. He does this on Mt. Zion which is his Church. On the Last Day, when Jesus reveals himself, he will bring all his people, his sheep into the Promised Land, the New Heavens and New Earth. While we experience Jesus’ rest from our works as we trust in his, we will experience the fullness of that rest in that place. We will no longer struggle against sin, temptation, and the like. We will rest in God’s goodness and we will fully know his peace.

Heavenly Father, may your Holy Spirit continue to gather your people to Jesus their Good Shepherd so they be fed by him, be given rest and enter into his kingdom. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.