September 10 ... Ezekiel 34 - 36 "I Myself Am Your Shepherd"

Does Ezekiel have any friends?  Does Ezekiel care?  Wonder what he thought about every time he received a prophesy of doom?  Did He welcome it?  I've thought a lot today about how I have spent way-too-much of my life looking for a God Who was on my side, watching my back, answering my cries for help.  The question isn't is God for me and on my side, the question is am I truly on His side.  The question is not is He listening to me but am I responding back to Him?  Dwight Edwards calls it:  "The furthering of God's glory not the fixing of our lives."

Ezekiel 34
1 -6 God's Message came to me: "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherd-leaders of Israel. Yes, prophesy! Tell those shepherds, 'God, the Master, says: Doom to you shepherds of Israel, feeding your own mouths! Aren't shepherds supposed to feed sheep? ... You don't build up the weak ones, don't heal the sick, don't doctor the injured, don't go after the strays, don't look for the lost. You bully and badger them. And now they're scattered every which way because there was no shepherd—scattered and easy pickings for wolves and coyotes. Scattered—my sheep!—exposed and vulnerable across mountains and hills. My sheep scattered all over the world, and no one out looking for them!"
   This passage so makes me want to find and shepherd those who are lost and hurting in my city this night.

So listen to what God says about this:
10 "'Watch out! I'm coming down on the shepherds and taking my sheep back. They're fired as shepherds of my sheep. No more shepherds who just feed themselves! I'll rescue my sheep from their greed."  That's something!

11 - "God, the Master, says: From now on, I Myself am the Shepherd. I'm going looking for them. As shepherds go after their flocks when they get scattered, I'm going after my sheep. I'll rescue them from all the places they've been scattered to in the storms....and bring them back to their home country."
Okay, in light of my life, this passage just reduced me to tears.  God is my Shepherd!

 Again, I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep. I myself will make sure they get plenty of rest. I'll go after the lost, I'll collect the strays, I'll doctor the injured, I'll build up the weak ones and oversee the strong ones so they're not exploited.

23 -24 "'I'll appoint one shepherd over them all: my servant David. He'll feed them. He'll be their shepherd. And I, God, will be their God. My servant David will be their prince. I, God, have spoken.

Ezekiel 35
And there's more people for Ezekiel to confront.  Did this overwhelm Ezekiel?  Go after Mount Seir because they've kept this age-old grudge going against Israel: You viciously attacked them when they were already down, looking their final punishment in the face.

...and here's what God will do:  UNBELIEVABLE...."I'll give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you. I'll remove the stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart that's God-willed, not self-willed. I'll put my Spirit in you and make it possible for you to do what I tell you and live by my commands.  Dwight Edwards in his book Revolution Within wrote:   "The key to the Christian life is not obedience to God's standards.  That statement may sound like out-and-out heresy to you, so let me hasten to say that obedience to God's standards is a hugely important part of Christian living."  Of course, you cannot read the Bible without coming to that conclusion.  However, "in true spirituality, obedience to God's standards is the by-product and inevitable result of something that's centrally more important."  Only God can make it possible for me to obey.