Ezekiel 34:17

The search the Lord begins goes deeper than certain leaders of the people. "Behold," says the Lord, "I judge between sheep and sheep" — not only between sheep and shepherds.

"The rams and the male goats" do not seem to speak of the same kind of people under His judgment. The rams belong to the flock itself, but the male goats are strangers to it. In the Lord's own picture of judgment, the goats stand for those whom the Son of Man puts on His left hand, while He puts the sheep on His right.

Next the Lord would judge between cattle and cattle (the margin of the Bible says: small cattle, that is, lambs and kids), and between rams and male goats (the margin says: great he-goats). It was a question between the strong and the weak. What is the right use of strength but to protect the weak?

How did they use their strength? Sadly, not only to keep the good pasture for themselves. They also trampled the rest with their feet and made it unfit to eat. They drank the deep waters, then fouled the rest with their feet. Does it end there? No. There is One who judges.

Ezekiel 33 teaches us that a person's own state before God will carry a weight in Israel that it never had under the first covenant. The same will be true here, when He judges between sheep and sheep, between the rams and the male goats. He will call up the reckless cruelty of those who destroyed what they could not use, and so harmed the flock. He will judge the living no less than the dead.

These are solemn words! They are not only for false shepherds. They are also for those in the flock who trample the pasture and so spoil it, instead of lying down quietly and enjoying it together with their fellow Christians. Such people stir up and dirty with their feet the still waters of comfort and peace — waters that come from feeding on the "tender herbs" of Scripture.

Do we not tend to treat with coldness and harshness those we can label "diseased"? Do we not keep our distance from those we might call weak and feeble? It is not wise to ignore the facts. What cruelty and injustice people have done in the name of Christ! Not willingly or on purpose, perhaps, but often through mistaken ideas of faithfulness.

What a day that will be, when the troubles, difficulties and divisions are judged rightly, once and for all! What a day that will be! The hard spirit will come under judgment. So will the softness that makes no faithful stand for the truth. We look forward to that day with eagerness.

But God is going to judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. The lean sheep are His concern now — the people who have suffered from these things, and whom He sees suffering. So He will save His flock, they will no longer be a prey, and He will judge between sheep and sheep.