Ezekiel 34:31

Ezekiel 34 speaks of the sheep of that day being scattered. But the Lord said, "I will deliver them out of all the places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. I will feed them. I will save My flock and they shall be no more a prey." … There was no one shepherding them, for those who should have done so "fed themselves and did not feed the flock." Just as in our day, however, some fed themselves and others scattered the flock abroad. The Lord Himself alone could gather the sheep. … He watches over them all, and He never overlooks the feeblest.

What does this mean? — that we are men. The word is "adam": God "called their name Adam, in the day that He created them" — a name which comes from adamah, "the ground." Yes, just to learn that we are men! Have we learnt it? … It is the fitting word to keep us humble. Yet it is also a word of triumph, of God's triumph, for in them He makes the dust of the ground shine with a new glory. … The dust of the ground has become man, and God Himself has met us in Christ, claiming man, even man's flesh as His, of which He is not, and never will be, ashamed.

So they need not fear to admit the weakness that must belong to them as creatures. It is the healthy lesson they have taken so long to learn. We are all slow to learn it, though it is a very simple one.

He is to take up David's place and office in a far more glorious way. David's Son is also David's Lord, "the Beloved," which is what His name means. Our hearts recognise Him in these words: "He shall feed them, and He shall be their Shepherd." Only in this way will Jehovah be their God.

He was the door Himself. Every way out of the fold, and every way into the new place of blessing yet to come, must be through Him. … He is still speaking in picture language, as the word "pasture" shows. Yet in saying, "if any man enter in," Jesus showed that He was speaking in line with that great Old Testament chapter which ends, "You My flock, the flock of My pasture, are men" (Ezek. 34:31).

It is of Israel above all that the Lord says, "You, My flock, the flock of My pasture, are men; and I am your God." So we should not apply the words "entering in by the door into the sheepfold," or "climbing up some other way," to a sinner's coming to Christ. Still more common is to apply them to some supposed entrance into the church. Either use is at the very least a misunderstanding and a misuse of a most important and instructive passage.

In Ezekiel's day the Lord said, "And you, My flock, the flock of My pasture, are men: I am your God, says the Lord Jehovah." Yes, and when Jesus rose from among the dead, He said to Mary, "Go to My brothers and say to them, I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God." They too were men, and to them He sent this new message of oneness with Himself, in risen life and relationship. So are we today, and He is not ashamed to call us brothers.