The use and the abuse of office.
It is generally agreed that by the shepherd of the text we are to understand primarily the king and princes of Israel, who should have guarded and nourished the people of Israel with the devotedness with which David (see Ezekiel 34:23) once tended his people; but the interpretation need not exclude the "ecclesiastical" officers of the land, those whose practice was to teach and warn the people—priest and Levite and prophet. These strong words of correction will apply to all those, of every time and country, who hold office and undertake public trust. We gather—
I. THAT WE SHOULD ACCEPT OFFICE WITH A DEEP SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY. The Hebrew king held office under God; so also did priest and prophet. And so do we.
1. It is in the providence of God that we are led to take our position, whatever it may be.
2. It is God who has given us the capacity and the advantages which have fitted us for the post we occupy.
3. We are sacredly bound to do everything in every sphere "unto him" and for the glory of his Name. So that the deepest desire as well as the uppermost purpose of our mind should be to do all things which devolve upon us as in his eye, to his approval, in accordance with his expressed will, after the manner and in the spirit of Christ.
II. THAT WE SHOULD HOLD OFFICE WITH A DISTINCT VIEW TO FAITHFUL SERVICE. Not—How shall we please? or, How shall we rise? but, How can we serve? or, How useful can we prove to be? should be the question on our lips because in our minds. The special opportunities presented to us must necessarily depend on the particular post we hold. But, whether it partake of a more secular or of a more sacred character, it is not unlikely that it will embrace the opportunity of:
1. Strengthening those that are weak (Ezekiel 34:4); offering a helping hand or cheering voice to those that are less skilful or less experienced than ourselves.
2. Restoring those that have failed or fallen (Ezekiel 34:4); going to those that have made a mistake, or that may have committed that which is worse than a mistake, and enabling them to regain the confidence and the hope which they have lost.
3. Enlightening those who have not been taught or trained; "feeding' them (Ezekiel 34:2).
4. Sustaining in comfort, in wisdom, in hope, in gladness of heart, in usefulness, those who are walking in their integrity. These services especially apply to the Christian minister; it is his sacred function, his welcome opportunity, in a peculiar sense, to do all this in the spirit of holy, happy service; thus following in the footsteps of the good Shepherd himself.
III. THAT SELFISH NEGLIGENCE IN OFFICE WILL DRAW DOWN THE DIVINE DISPLEASURE. God's high displeasure is revealed against the kings and princes of Israel, who only sought their own honor and enrichment (see Ezekiel 34:2, Ezekiel 34:7-10). And those who profess to teach and to guide in the name of his Son, the chief Shepherd of the Church, and who use their office not to feed, or guard, or save the flock, but to care for their own comfort and seek their own pleasure,—how shall they escape the judgment of God (see Ezekiel 33:1-8)? On the other hand, we may confidently reckon—
IV. THAT THE DEVOTEDNESS OF LOVE WILL MEET WITH A LARGE REWARD. They who seek the wandering, who strengthen the weak, who sustain the whole and healthful in their integrity; they who pray earnestly, and watch vigilantly, and work diligently, and, when the hour comes, strike manfully, shall in no wise lose their reward.—C.
God's interest in men.
We learn of the interest God takes in us that he is—
I. UNAFFECTED BY OUR SOCIAL DISTINCTIONS. The great ones of the land regarded those who were at the bottom of society as beneath their consideration. What mattered it if they lived in privation and in ignorance, so long as the royal palace, so long as the costly castle, was well furnished? But this distinction between the worth of men on the ground of social rank or of circumstance finds no place at all in the mind and heart of God. He cares for men as they are; possessed as they are with a nature that is capable of great things—great sufferings, sorrows, degradation, iniquities, on the one hand, and great joys, hopes, nobilities, achievements, on the other hand. Not where we stand or what we hold, but what we are and what we may become, is the Divine consideration.
II. DRAWN TOWARDS THE NEGLECTED. It is the guilty neglect of the flock by the selfish shepherds that drives the sheep to the notice of the Divine Shepherd, and that draws out his pitiful pastoral affection (Ezekiel 34:8-11). And we may infer that the neglected, because they are such, are the objects of the Divine sympathy. The neglected child in the home, member of the Church, pupil in the school, student or toiler in the world of art and industry, citizen in social circle or the broader sphere of the nation, is the object of the pitiful regard of One who never overlooks, who understands how that heart feels which is wounded by the disregard of men, who "lifteth up the meek," who "hath respect unto the lowly."
III. CONCERNED FOR THE LOST AND SCATTERED. Those who are far away from Zion and from all its sacred and hallowing influences are still "my sheep" (Ezekiel 34:11); and the strain of the twelfth verse is one of tender sympathy and earnest solicitude for those who "in the day of clouds and thick darkness" have been "scattered on the wild." We have wandered away from the home of the Father; some of us into a very "far country;" it may be that of almost entire forgetfulness; or of an utter shameless indifference; or of a deliberate disobedience of his known will; or of an absolute denial of his existence; or of a wanton endeavor to corrupt and destroy the character of his children. And yet, however far we have gone astray, in all the emptiness and spiritual poverty of our distance from home, in all our misery and aching of heart, in all our hopelessness, our Divine Father follows us and pities us; his heart is filled with a parental solicitude for us.
"For though deceived and led astray,
We've traveled far and wandered long,
Our God hath seen us all the way,
And all the turns that led us wrong."
IV. ACTIVELY ENGAGED IN THEIR REDEMPTION. "I will seek out my sheep, and deliver them."
1. The restoration of the exiled Jews may be one part of the fulfillment of this promise.
2. The coming of the Son of man "to seek and to save that which was lost" was a later and better fulfillment. And we find a further, a perpetual Divine redemption of this ancient word of promise in:
3. The putting forth by the Church of Christ of all its redeeming energies. Whenever and however any one that, filled with the spirit of his Savior, seeks to raise the fallen, to bring back to truth and piety those that have gone away in the darkness, to heal the stricken and suffering spirit and to enrobe it with "the garment of praise," there God is himself "searching out his sheep," and "delivering them from the places whither they have wandered." How excellent is the portion of those who are his agents in this gracious work!—C.