Ezekiel 33-34: The Good Shepherd and an Unruly Flock

In case there was any doubt about the cause of Jerusalem's downfall, it is laid out very clearly in these chapters. It is an indictment against both the sheep and the shepherds...the people for caring only about their own self interest....

My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice. With their mouths they express devotion, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice. - Eze. 33:31-32 NIV

...and the shepherds, the rulers and priests, for caring only about their own self interest as well.

'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? 3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them. - Eze. 34:2-6 NIV

But for those who would hear His voice, for those who would follow, there was great promise: The promise given through Ezekiel and the promise given by the Good Shepherd.

I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. - Eze. 34:22-23

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. - John 10:27-28 KJV