God then names himself the Sovereign Lord nine times in this chapter of the Bible. God says in verse two of Ezekiel 34, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock?” These selfish shepherds should have known better. They should have taken care of the people. They should have blessed them, and not because the people deserved it, but because these human shepherds should have loved them. But since these shepherds would not do what any good shepherd needed to do, the Lord was going to take over the flock. The Lord promised to bless the people by becoming their Good Shepherd.
As the Sovereign Lord, God was telling Ezekiel, the Hebrew people, and today’s Bible reader, that he is in total control, and that he is going to act on their behalf by showering them with blessings.
Throughout the Thirty-fourth chapter of Ezekiel, the Lord uses the illustration of shepherds and their sheep to represent God and his relationship with his people. The Lord accused the religious leaders of Israel of being self-seeking and negligent. God told them that he is going to take over as the Shepherd of his flock. “As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep.” (Ezekiel 34:12)
To be honest, we need to ask ourselves, “What kind of a shepherd would we want to look after us?” We could also ask ourselves some other questions: such as, “would we want a shepherd who is only looking out for himself?” Or, “would we want the Shepherd who looks after us do so only because he loves us?” And finally, “which kind of shepherd do we truly deserve; that is, if we have done anything deserving of such a reward?”
In reference to the blessings God is going to bestow upon his people, the Lord continually uses the phrase “I will” throughout the Thirty-fourth chapter of Ezekiel. By using this phrase “I will” twenty-seven times, God wanted the people to know that his blessings are the proof that God was actively involved in their lives. By saying, “I will,” God is proclaiming the identifiable actions and blessings he is going to perform. In this book that follows, we will discuss four specific blessings found in Ezekiel 34. As we discuss these blessings, we need to understand what each blessing is, and also learn how we might be able to share each of these same blessings with others. By knowing what God is promising to his people through these four blessings, we can better answer the question, “What kind of a shepherd would we want to look after us?” We can also decide if we want to believe that God can bless us in these ways, and we can choose to trust him to be our Shepherd and follow him.
As he has identified himself as the speaker, God also identifies the recipients of his blessings. They are his people. One of the specific references made to them is found at the end of Ezekiel 34. The chapter concludes, “Then they will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Sovereign LORD. You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are people, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign LORD.” (Ezekiel 34:30–31) God also refers to his people as “my flock,” or “my sheep” several times in this chapter. By naming himself as the Shepherd, and by calling his people his flock and sheep, God is establishing the type of relationship he wants with his people. This relationship becomes the basis by which God is determined to bless his people.
Why Does God Bless?
Why does God bless people? This question can be answered in three parts. First, God chooses who he will bless. It is not because we deserve it, but it is because God chooses to use his power and authority to bring his people gifts into their lives. God acts in the lives of people because he chooses to act in their lives. It is God’s choice to bless, and not our choice to deserve his blessings.
Second, God blesses because it is his character to do so based upon his love. God’s love is the reason why the people of God receive showers of blessing. We certainly do not deserve them anymore that we deserve his love. God gives his blessings to us because God loves us and wants to bless us. A Christian scholar named Peter Craigie wrote, “The entire pastoral metaphor presupposes God’s care and love. No shepherd can function without participating in that love; no sheep can live without experiencing that love.” Because God first loved us, God’s people need to learn to love others and share God’s blessings with them.
God wants us to love him and the people around us, and we show our love by our willingness to share God’s blessings with the people we meet in life. In the Thirty-fourth chapter of Ezekiel, God looked at the way the leaders of Israel were abusing the people they were supposed to be taking care of, and to paraphrase what God said, “That’s enough! If you will not take care of them, then I will!” God showed himself to be compassionate toward the people.
This compassion is also shown to people during the life of Jesus. The Gospel of Matthew tells us,
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matthew 9:35–38)
Upon seeing the need of the people, Jesus wanted his disciples to pray that God would send his blessing. Jesus was specific about what that prayer request and blessing should be. Jesus wanted his disciples to pray to God to send out workers because the people needed immediate help. Jesus could see their need through his eyes of compassion.
Christians today need to say the same prayer and ask the Lord to send workers. The people are here right now all among Christians. These people need help right now. It is up to Christians to both ask God to bless these people by answering their need for compassion, and the Christian also must get to work and help provide for their physical needs through acts of love.
The way Jesus intended it to be accomplished was for Christians to answer the call and fulfill the need, and thus to become the blessing to the world. We should do this because of our compassion and love for the people. When we become the blessing, then we discover that we in return are also ones being blessed because we become a part of God’s plan to love and help people. Our blessing is we are given a purpose in life to work of God and to bless other people.
This brings us to the third point. God blesses because he wants us to take on his character of love, and to be a blessing to other people. In other words, a blessing is not supposed to stop with the person being blessed. There needs to be a progression of blessing. The showers are not supposed to stop. The person who blessed is to be an extension of the blessing he has receive by blessing other people in the same way. It was God’s intention for the nation of Israel to be a source of blessing to the nations that surrounded them. Their leaders, their shepherds, were negligent in both providing for the people and in guiding the people by example. The result was that the flow of blessing came to an end because their love for each other dried up. In our modern day, it now becomes the ministry of the Christian to take up the love of Christ and to become that blessing to the world around him. Christians must not allow the thought of “Do these people deserve our blessings?” to even enter our minds. We must bless others or risk the condemnation of the worthless shepherds which the leaders of God’s people had during Ezekiel’s time.
Conclusion
Too often, people in America ask, “What’s in it for me?” Unfortunately, this attitude extends into the Christian community. Many people seem to have the attitude that they will only go to church to see what they can get out of it. The Christian should hold a different attitude. Instead of, “What’s in it for me?” our response should be, “What’s in it for others?” And more specifically, we should ask, “How can I bless others?” Our attitude about church should be not what can I get out of it, but what can I put into it.
