20221202

I will rescue my flock

Ezekiel 34:7-10 (JDV)

Ezekiel 34:7 ” ‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Yahveh.
Ezekiel 34:8 As I live – this is the declaration of the Lord Yahveh – because my flock, lacking a shepherd, has become prey and food for every wild animal, and because my shepherds do not search for my flock, and because the shepherds feed themselves rather than my flock,
Ezekiel 34:9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Yahveh!
Ezekiel 34:10 ” ‘This is what the Lord Yahveh says: Notice, I am against the shepherds. I will demand my flock from them and prevent them from shepherding the flock. The shepherds will no longer feed themselves because I will rescue my flock from their mouths so that they will not be food for them.

I will rescue my flock

As this passage is about the responsibility of leaders to take care of those they lead, my thoughts today go to the church’s responsibility to train children. Here is an excerpt from Isabelle Horton’s book, “The Burden of the City.”

“But though the church were able to train the child physically, intellectually, and ethically to the limit of his powers, it would fail of the most important part of its mission if he were not brought into vital contact with the Saviour of souls. All training in what is good and useful may be means to this end, and yet all means may fail of the end unless in every way Christ be lifted up. ” 1

Horton argued for the church’s involvement in education, and that it would fail its goal if it did not include evangelization.

I fear that the evangelical church has so neglected this tool that education has become a tool of the enemy, but it does not have to be so. Our educators can be shepherds of the lambs among us.

In Ezekiel 34, God promises to rescue the sheep from the false shepherds. Many of the children among us need such a rescue.

1 Horton, Isabelle. The Burden of the City. New York: F.H. Revell Co, 1904. p. 186.