The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them.
Ezekiel 34 speaks to the shepherds of Israel, the men God trusted with His people. Verse 4 lists, one by one, the things they never did. The charge is not vague corruption. It is neglect you can count: five needs left unmet, and then a way of ruling that made everything worse.
The Five Things Left Undone
The verse works through the flock case by case. Each case names a real sheep the shepherds walked past.
Hamilton SmithThe charge against the shepherds is that they completely neglected the flock. There were weak sheep, but they had not strengthened them. There were sick sheep, but they had not healed them. There were wounded sheep, but they had not bound up their wounds. There were sheep driven away from the flock, but they made no effort to get them back. There were wandering sheep, but they had not gone after the lost. They were taken up with themselves, and they completely neglected the good of the sheep.
Force and Harshness
The second half of the verse adds a separate charge. Neglect was not the whole of it. The ESV says "with force and harshness"; the older wording quoted here is "with force and with cruelty."
Hamilton SmithThe charge against these shepherds is that they ruled God's flock "with force and with cruelty." They had not only neglected the sheep. They had crushed and oppressed them for their own selfish ends.
Behind the cruelty lay a false idea of ownership.
William KellyLike the kings of the nations around them, they treated the people they governed as their own, not as the flock of God. So came confusion and every evil work… They ruled harshly and severely. They scattered the sheep and left them as prey to wild animals, with no shepherd's care.
The Root of It
Where does neglect like this start? One writer traces it back to self.
A J PollockMay it be a warning to us all! When we think more of ourselves than of the great Shepherd, then we shall think more of ourselves than of the sheep. Christianity consists of self-giving, not in self-getting.
The Shepherd Who Did It All
When Jesus began His public ministry, He took up the very list these shepherds ignored.
The Bible TreasuryThen light sprang up for those who sat in the region and shadow of death. Then the Shepherd of Israel began to feed the flock. Unlike those who had come before Him, He began to strengthen the diseased, to heal the sick, to bind up the broken, and to seek the lost.
Among the Scattered
God Himself takes up the shepherd's work, and where He does it matters.
Hamilton SmithHe does not do it from far off, from some high position, sending down directions for the care of the sheep. He does it as a shepherd "among his sheep that are scattered." … If we have driven them away, will He desert them? Never. If we have scattered them, will He forsake them? Never.
The Pattern Repeated
Commentators apply the verse well past ancient Israel.
Georges AndréTimes and places differ. Even so, has the Church not repeated similar practices through its history, at times even inside local churches? Harshness and severity have scattered people. Sheep end up sick, wounded, and wandering when no one gives them proper care, and when only "the fat and the strong" get attention.
This kind of cruelty seldom looks like cruelty. It often comes dressed as faithfulness.
A J PollockIs there not a tendency to treat with coldness and severity those we would class as "diseased" — to keep our distance from those we might class as weak and feeble? … What cruelty and injustice people have done in the name of Christ, perhaps not willingly or on purpose, but often through mistaken ideas of faithfulness!
The Test Today
Harsh rule drives the sheep away. That gives a simple test for anyone who cares for others.
A J PollockDo we seek after the lost sheep today? Do we bring back those who have been driven away? Do we bind up the broken and strengthen the sick? How much of the scattering there has been, and how little of gathering. The flesh scatters. It is the Spirit who gathers. Anyone can scatter, but it takes divine power to do the gathering.
Summary
- Self. The shepherds were taken up with themselves. Every failure in verse 4 grows from that one root: self-getting instead of self-giving.
- Neglect. Five kinds of sheep went untouched: weak, sick, wounded, driven away, lost. The sin shows in the list of who got no help.
- Force. A second charge follows the first. The rulers treated God's people as their own property, so they crushed the flock as well as ignored it.
- Contrast. Christ took up the same list and did it all: strengthening, healing, binding up, seeking. He tends His sheep from among the scattered, and never deserts those others drove away.
- Test. Scattering is the fruit of self. Gathering takes the Spirit. Anyone can scatter, so ask a hard question: are we calling coldness toward the weak faithfulness?