“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock?” – Ezekiel 34:2 (NASB)

I witnessed something unusual during my first combat tour in Iraq while assigned to the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment.  I was in the Regimental Tactical Operations Center (RTOC) and was summoned to the main command center for an awards presentation.  Then I witnessed our Regimental Commander present an Army Commendation Medal to a young staff officer.  This in and of itself was not that unusual.  However, what was unusual was the reason the staff officer received the award.

The staff officer was drafting an Operations Order (OPORD).  At the Regimental level an OPORD is developed by staff plans officers who then present the OPORD to the Commander for approval.  Prior to the Commander’s approval it is a good idea if the staff officer coordinates the details of the OPORD with all those that will be affected by it once it is issued.  This particular order would affect a majority of the Regiment, including hundreds of Troopers, dozens of vehicles, time, and lots of money.  Therefore, like any good staff officer, he sent the OPORD to our subordinate units for coordination.  Apparently, the staff officer did not communicate well that the OPORD was a coordinating draft and not the real thing.  Before long, resources and people were moving to execute the order.  It didn’t take long before the RTOC realized what was going on and put a stop to it.  Then the Commander was informed what happened.

Lesser commanders would at least have given the young staff officer a severe tongue-lashing.  He might have even been relieved of duty.  In this case, our Commander publicly awarded the young man.  Why you ask?  Because part of our Commander’s philosophy was to reward acts of commission while not tolerating acts of omission.

The idea of rewarding acts of commission and not tolerating acts of omission is consistent with God’s message to Jewish leaders found in Ezekiel 34.  The book of Ezekiel was written during the Babylonian exile.  The prophet Ezekiel was sent to Babylon in exile along with Judah’s king Jehoiachin around the year 597 B.C. during a time of international turmoil between the waning Assyrian Empire, the resurging Babylonian Empire, and growing Persian Empire.  Ezekiel’s timeline overlaps that of the prophet Jeremiah in Jerusalem and Daniel in Babylon.  While in exile Ezekiel was tasked by God to prophecy the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.

As we find in Ezekiel 34:10, one of the reasons God is punishing Israel and Judah is because their leaders failed to keep God first in their kingdoms and in their lives (sound relevant?).  In other words they were omitting their duties as shepherds of God’s people and were living lavish lifestyles while committing acts of pure selfishness and abuse.  Ezekiel’s message to the Jewish leaders – God would only tolerate acts of omission for so long before taking matters into His own “hands”.

God’s message to the shepherds of today is as relevant as it was the Jewish leaders over 2500 years ago even though the acts of omission listed in Ezekiel 34:4 manifest themselves differently today.  So here are some things to consider from this particular chapter of God’s Word.

First, who are the sickly not strengthened? To me this translates in modern terms to the spiritually weak that will stay that way if we are constantly feeding them milk (1 Corinthians 3:2), never maturing them to spiritual strength and maturity (Ephesians 4:11-13), and never holding them accountable.

Second, who are the diseased not healed? Diseases must be treated because they have a debilitating effect on one’s own body and can then infect those who come in contact with it.  Likewise, we must keep an eye out for the members of our flock who are suffering the debilitating effects of life’s circumstances, usually brought on by their own poor decisions.   We must “treat” them with love, compassion, mercy, and encouragement to arrest the disease.  We must also be aware of how the disease will impact the rest of the body of believers and how, if left untreated, the disease will spread in the form of division (1 Corinthians 12:25) as “camps” form around the various affected parties.

Third, we have the broken not bound.  Broken bones are symbolic of broken lives, in this case the broken lives of the innocent who are suffering because of the poor decisions of others.   They are the “collateral damage” of relationships gone wrong and like a busted timber on a sailing ship, they must be bound up to heal or they will “sink”.  We like to think of our own congregation as a place where those with broken lives come for healing.  May all our congregations be seen as such.

Fourth, we are reminded of the scattered not gathered.  These are the members who deny themselves a healthy relationship with God by forsaking the assembly and other spiritual practices.  These are also the members who forsake their brothers and sisters for the company of the unrighteous, thus denying us the opportunity of a healthy relationship with them.  It is our responsibility to go after the scattered sheep and gather them back to the safety, security, and relationships of the flock.

Fifth, there are the lost not sought.  These are the members that fall through the cracks because we weren’t involved in their lives.  These are the people whose names come up in meetings or conversation and we say to ourselves “whatever happened to the Lawstwunns?  I haven’t seen them in forever.”  We are taking steps not to commit this act of omission by intentionally visiting all our members over the course of the next year or so in order to become part of their lives so they get to know who their shepherds are outside the context of weekly assembly.

These are just my thoughts on the first part of Ezekiel 34.  Hopefully they have given you something to contemplate while you strive to serve God in whatever role He has for you.  One thing is for certain – God has no tolerance for acts of omission and we had better be about the business of shepherding His people or He will dispense with us and care for His people without us until He finds someone else to take our place.

May your blessings exceed mine today and every day.

-DEM