Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezekiel 34-36.

Today’s passage begins with a prophecy against leaders who use their positions of leadership solely for their own benefit with no concern for the well-being of those whom they lead.  Leaders who failed to strengthen the weak, or bind up the injured.  God promises to remove such leaders from positions of authority and replace them Himself.  God will care for His people and seek out those who were scattered by the lack of care by the shepherds He had appointed.  However, Ezekiel is not finished after condemning the bad leaders who had led God’s people into sin.  He goes on to condemn those who made life difficult for others, those who drove people from God.  We cannot absolve ourselves of blame just because we were not in a position of leadership.  If we drove others from God because we made their life difficult, God will hold us accountable.  Ezekiel goes on to write about how God would gather Israel to Himself, gather His people.  He does do this because of the goodness of His people, but rather so that nations will see that He is Lord.  God has not called us because we have conducted ourselves in good and holy ways.  He has called us and put His Spirit in us in order to move us to follow His decrees and show people everywhere that He is Lord.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezekiel 34-36.

Through Ezekiel God condemned those leaders who fail to take care of the people over whom God has given them charge.  Ezekiel speaks of God’s anger at those who use the position of leadership, which God gave them, to benefit themselves without taking care of those whom God has put into their care.  Ezekiel makes it very clear that leaders’ first concern should be caring for those who have been put in their charge.  But Ezekiel does not stop with condemning the leaders who failed to care for God’s people.  He extends the same metaphor to the abuse of our fellow man by those of us who have not been given positions of leadership.  In a way, this is an extension of his condemnation of leaders, because the leaders should be preventing one person from bullying others.  In another way, Ezekiel tells us that we have the leaders who fail to care for us because the stronger among us bully the weak.    Those who have been given positions of leadership among us should be gathering the weak together into God’s flock and protecting them from abuse.  The strong among us should use their strength to shelter the weak and to help them gain the sustenance they need.  Instead, all too often, our leaders prey upon the weak, while the strong among us crush them.  Both scattering God’s people rather than drawing them together in safety.  Some who see in the Church today the situation Ezekiel is describing, and it does exist all too often in the Church today, use it as an excuse to go their own way.  But that is not God’s prescription.  God says through Ezekiel that He will gather the weak and care for them.  He will protect the weak against the strong.  If we are strong enough to faithfully serve the Lord on our own, we should never-the-less gather with others so as to protect the weak when others attempt to shoulder them aside.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezekiel 34-36.

God gave Ezekiel a prophecy against those who had taken positions of leadership over His people.  This prophecy came in the metaphor of shepherds over a flock of sheep.  It is a very appropriate metaphor for many reasons, but I want to focus on the idea that shepherds profit from their position of leadership over the flock.  A careful reading of this passage reveals that God intends for those He appoints as shepherds over His flock, those to whom He gives positions of leadership, to profit from caring for the people over whom He has put them in charge.  The condemnation of the shepherds in this passage comes not from the fact that they profited from being over the flock, but that they did so without doing the job for which they had been appointed.  The shepherds profited from the flock, but did not take care of the sheep.

This prophecy should be a warning for many of those in positions of leadership today.  All too many of them use their positions to get rich and get into ever more powerful positions without making any effort to care for those under their power, those who should be under their care.  However, those of us who are not in positions of leadership do not get off easy in this prophecy, because Ezekiel goes on to condemn the rich and powerful who are not leaders for abusing the poor and weak.  So, each and every one of us, whether we are in positions of authority or not, need to examine ourselves and how we live our lives.  Are we doing things which interfere with others receiving the good things in life which we have already received?  Do we find ourselves spoiling other people’s happiness?  Moreover, do we use whatever power we do have, however limited it might be, to care for those less fortunate than ourselves?

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

In the year 2000, on the 23rd day of this month, my wife married me.  So here we are on day 5 of the 20 days that I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary for 20 years of marriage.  Happy Anniversary Darling!

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 34-36.

Ezekiel condemned the leaders of Israel who used their position to feed themselves without caring for the people, the sheep, placed under their care.  The same can be said of many of the political and religious leaders of today.  I want to focus on the religious leaders of today.  God’s people have been scattered and become easy prey to those who seek to lead them astray.  No one from the Church has gone out looking for them.  Rather than seek the lost our churches have sought to become places where they will come, but that just makes them susceptible to any pretty face.  Even with the model of God’s Good Shepherd to follow we have failed to seek out His lost sheep in order to bring them home.  God is looking for people who will go seeking His lost sheep, people who will guide others back to Him. Oh Lord show me how to bring your lost sheep back to you!

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 34-36.

Today’s passage begins with a condemnation of the shepherds of God’s people.  I believe it was intended for both the secular and religious leaders of Israel, but I think it applies very well to the religious leaders of today (there are exceptions, just as there were probably exceptions in Ezekiel’s day).   Ezekiel describes leaders who are perfectly happy to profit off of their position as leaders, but unwilling to do anything to help those whom they lead.   Ezekiel addresses the failure of leadership to care for the weak, tend the sick, and bind up the injured.  Perhaps his greatest condemnation is that they have failed to go looking for those who have wandered away and become lost.  All too many of those whom God has called to be leaders of His people put more emphasis on taking care of themselves rather than on taking care of the people who have been placed in their care.  When this happens God takes away His people away from these leaders and provides for them Himself.  We can see this happen again and again throughout history.  The failure of the leadership of the Catholic Church to care more about their own comfort than about caring for the common people led to the Reformation.  We see it today in the decline of many denominations in the United States where the leadership is more concerned with their political agenda than with the needs of the common person.  You also see it today in the rise of psuedo-religions which prey on those whom Church leaders have failed to reach out to and guide back to God’s love.