In my bible reading I have come to the passage in Ezekiel 34.
The first 10 verses (Ezek 34:1-10) is a scathing condemnation of Israel’s kings. They are the shepherds of the people. And while this is about Israel’s history, I feel safe to make the generalisation: no one is righteous and good. For Israel, there was no good shepherd and king who truly cared for his flock. And if we look honestly within ourselves, we have to admit none of us, no human leader, has perfectly led his people justly and unselfishly.
Bringing the matter closer to home, I am not even going to be a good shepherd of myself.
These days I have been falling into despair because certain weaknesses don’t seem to go away despite my best efforts. It is even more despairing when I honestly think I haven’t even been trying hard enough. I have attention deficiency disorder. Compared to the average person, it seems no matter how hard I try, I often will lose track of time, fail to follow through, and forget what I have promised to do. I know it’s still my responsibility to own these as real mistakes on my part, even though I have ADD. I want to lead myself, discipline myself and change myself, to do a good job and be useful and productive. But when I look at how little progress I’ve made I tend to condemn myself.
Yet Ezekiel 33:13b says:
“if he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered, but in his injustice that he has done he shall die.”
If I trust in my own righteousness (i.e. in my own ability to justify myself) I am simply going to die in my injustice. This is exactly right because there is always some good that I know to do that I do not do. If I tell myself that just doing my best is going to have to be good enough, that is simply avoiding responsibility and saying God’s standard is unjust. And that in fact is how the people respond in Ezekiel 33:17. They say God is not just. But it is our own way that is not just.
We simply can’t fix ourselves. We are in fact guilty for we have brought these woes upon ourselves by acting unjustly if we would be willing to admit it. He has constantly pursued mankind ever since we’d turned away in the garden of Eden. He gives his people his law, and lovingly instructs us how to live rightly in order to receive his best. Yet we’ve been unjust by constantly spurning his love toward us. Justice demands that this wickedness of ours should be punished. The reality is: even with the desire to do what is right, we find we do not have the ability to carry it out (Romans 7:18). The Apostle Paul says it right: we are wretched! Who will deliver us from this?
God takes pity upon hopeless mankind, and comes himself to be our Shepherd. Praise him for the intensity of his promise in Ezekiel 34:16. Looking back on history, he has come to be our Shepherd because there is no one who does good. He himself will heal and bind up and promote the cause of the weak and right the wrongs in our world.
He comes to make things right and fulfils his justice in a way that leaves us saved! The Good Shepherd that comes to rescue his flock (Ezekiel 34:22) comes to lay down his life for his sheep (John 10:11), so that even though they should die according to God’s just law, he in his perfect life and sacrificial death fulfils God’s law on our behalf and allows us to be released from that law so we can live in the new life of the Spirit.
The law condemns us in the flesh, but in Christ’s death, I have died to the flesh. So in Christ, we are not condemned even though we fall short. What about keeping God’s law then? The Holy Spirit who effected God’s power to raise Jesus from the dead is now in me. Now the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in those who walk according to the Spirit, who walk following the Good Shepherd. Do not walk according to the flesh: following sinful desires to participate in deeds leading to death. But walk according to the Spirit, who gives us new desires since we started to trust Christ alone for our salvation. And he gives us the ability to do the deeds of righteousness that lead to life. He is leading and empowering.
I will trust the Good Shepherd. Each time I despair because of my weaknesses, not least of which is my debilitating ADD, and because I think that I’m ultimately responsible to make myself good and I don’t see the growth I want, I am sinning against God. I cannot lead myself without the new life. But Jesus my Good Shepherd is here. That is the good news.
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