34:11-12 The Lord further promised to search for His wandering sheep Himself, to care for them, and to deliver them from the places where they had scattered in the gloomy days of their national distress (cf. Jer. 30:4-7; Luke 15:4-7). There are several references to God as Israel's Shepherd in the Old Testament (e.g. v. 6; Gen. 49:24; Ps. 23:1; 80:1; Isa. 40:11; Jer. 31:10; cf. John 10:1, 16).
34:13-14 He would lead them out from among the peoples where they had gone and bring them back to their own land (cf. vv. 4-6). He would nourish them on the mountains, beside the streams, and in the best (inhabited) places of the land (cf. Ps. 23:1; John 4; 6:31-35). They would enjoy good pasture and would experience rest in good grazing ground, the richest pasture in the land.
"If the scattering were literal, and no one is foolhardy as to deny this, then the regathering must be equally so."439
34:15-16 God Himself would feed His flock and lead the sheep to rest (cf. v. 3). He would seek the lost, return the scattered, heal the broken, and strengthen the sick (cf. vv. 4, 6; Isa. 61:1-2; Luke 4:16-21). He would also destroy the fat, strong shepherds who had failed Him by feeding these leaders judgment.
34:17-19 The Lord announced too that He would distinguish among the members of His flock judging them individually (cf. Matt. 25:31-46). Here the Lord viewed the leaders as sheep among His sheep rather than as shepherds. They were, after all, also His sheep. Some of these leaders had not only eaten good pasture and drunk clear water but had made it impossible for the other sheep to eat good food and drink good water. The ordinary sheep had to get by with trampled grass and muddy water.
34:20 God would judge between the fat and the lean sheep, between those who fed themselves and kept others from eating and those who had to exist on poor food and drink.
34:21-22 Because some of God's sheep suffered at the hands of their fellow sheep who pushed and shoved them around, the Lord would deliver even the weak, but He would distinguish the two types of His sheep. He would deliver His people from poor leaders as well as predatory nations.
34:23-24 The Lord promised to set over His sheep one shepherd, His servant David, who would personally feed them (cf. John 10:9; 14:6; Acts 4:12). Yahweh would be their God, and His servant David would be prince (Heb. nasi', namely, king) among them.440This the Lord assuredly promised (cf. 37:22-26).
In view of the promises that God Himself would shepherd His sheep and the promises that His servant David would shepherd them, it seems clear that a god-man is in view (cf. 37:24-25; Jer. 23:5-6; 30:9; Hos. 3:5; John 10:30; 1 Tim. 2:5). Did God mean that He would raise David from the dead to lead the Israelites again? No, He probably meant that someone from David's descendants would lead them (cf. 2 Sam. 7:12-16; Isa. 55:3-4; Jer. 30:9; Hos. 3:5).441David was the model shepherd of sheep and the model king of Israel (cf. 1 Sam. 13:14).
". . . David was the man whom God chose and in whom He delighted; the king who triumphed against all his foes and who extended his kingdom in all directions; the man of Judah under whose genius the whole nation was for a time united."442
Though the identity of this "David"may have been obscure to Ezekiel's audience, history demonstrated that it was one of David's descendants who proved to be the Good Shepherd, even Jesus Christ (John 10:11, 14).
"In a sense Jesus, the Good Shepherd and the Son of David, is in view here, but the eschatological orientation of the whole passage removes the setting from the period of His earthly ministry in the first century to that of His second advent when He will come to sit on the throne of David."443
