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Time after Pentecost · Proper 19 · Year C

Ezekiel 34:11-24

Shepherds and Sheep

The Good Shepherd, Thomas Cole
The Good Shepherd, Thomas Cole, 1848Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art · public domain

Overview & Insights

“I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord.” (Ezekiel 34:15)

Ezekiel’s Message of Hope and Restoration: Ezekiel 34–48, the second major part of this book, is concerned with a message of hope for the exiles and with the promise of Israel’s future restoration. That message has broken through in a muted sense in chapters 1–33 (11:14–21; 16:53–63; 20:33–44; 28:25–26), but it now becomes the central theme. These fifteen chapters fall into three sections. The first, chapters 34–37, is a series of seven oracles dealing with the restoration of Israel. The second section describes the rise and fall of Gog of Magog, Israel’s last great enemy (chs. 38–39). Finally, chapters 40–48 express a message of hope for Israel’s present and future, grounded in the presence of the Lord. These chapters present Ezekiel’s third great vision of the Glory of the Lord (see chs. 1–3 and 8–11) entering the perfect temple of the prophet’s vision just as it had departed the corrupted temple in Jerusalem.

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Questions preachers ask

How does Ezekiel picture God as king?

Against Israel’s failed shepherds, God promises to be the true shepherd who seeks the lost, binds up the injured, and judges between sheep and sheep, setting over them “my servant David” (Ezekiel 34:11–24), a royal-shepherd image fulfilled in Christ the King.

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