November 16, 2020: Day 86 – Ezekiel 34

You can’t really read this chapter without reading Matthew 25:31-46.  The beginning of the chapter speaks about the bad shepherds, the pastors who refused to speak the word of the Lord and only spoke what the people wanted to hear.  These are the pastors who were only looking out for themselves and feeding themselves so completely overlooking what God had commanded them to do. 

God says in vs.11 that he is going to have to intervene personally and that there will be a judge, his servant David, who will come and separate the sheep from the sheep.  He was furious with his people because they did not feed the sheep, nor strengthened the weak, nor healed the sick, nor bound up the injured, nor brought back the strayed or sought the lost.  As you read through Matthew 25 you can see a parallel as Jesus comes back, the son of David, and separates the sheep from the goats.

How does this separation take place?  It all depended upon who fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger, clothed the naked, took care of the sick, and visited those in prison.  There is a direct parallel between these verses in Ezekiel and Matthew 25.  You have to think that when Jesus told the parable he was thinking about this Ezekiel Scripture and just gave his own bent to it.