Charles Spurgeon Commentary Ezekiel 34

For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.

What a glorious promise! Christ's elect run here and there, in the darkness of their ignorance, into sin of every kind, but he will find every one of them out. There is no jungle so thick that Christ will not track his own through it; there are no bogs of sin so dangerous that Christ will not traverse them and find every lamb of his flock. And if through your backslidings, O people of God, you have wandered far from him, yet he perceives you with that eye which sees in the dark as well as in the light; and he will follow after you and bring you back. Blessed be his name!

For thus says the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.

Here is a divine One come to seek and to save. The shepherds had neglected and scattered the flock. Now God takes it out of their hands, and He says, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.

As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.

He has a chosen people redeemed to himself by blood, and though they have wandered in the cloudy and dark day of their depravity and ruin, yet will he seek for them with ceaseless care, and bring them back with mighty power, until he has put them into his fold again.

For thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.

The shepherds did not do this; they left the sheep to wander, and they were lost upon the mountains; but where men fail, God proves himself all-sufficient. My hearer, are you sitting under an unprofitable ministry? Then look to the Chief Shepherd, and not to the man who is unfaithful as an under-shepherd.

As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.

It does not matter where the place is; the Lord will find out His sheep. If it is the castle of Giant Despair, He will find them there. If it is the worst dungeon in Doubting Castle, He will discover them there. They may have wandered upon the mountains of Despondency and Dejection; they may have been lost in the gorges of some dark valley of Desperation; but the Lord says, I will both search my sheep, and seek them out.

And, be assured, He does not seek without finding. He discovers them, for He knows where they are.

Oh, is not that a "cloudy and dark day" in which we wander from God and do not know how to return to Him? But clouds and darkness are banished when we see the light of His face.