As young children, many of us have at some point became lost and unable to find our way back to our parents or where we needed to be. Maybe it was our own fault that we had become lost, as we had wandered off and had not listened to or obeyed our parents. For most of us, thankfully, there were people looking for us - our parents, other caring adults, perhaps the police, and eventually we were found, and carried home in strong, loving arms.
In our passage of Scripture today we see that God desires to seek out and rescue His lost sheep (vs. 11). All humans since the time of Adam are like lost sheep, and He is seeking us, to bring us back into His fold. God loves everyone, regardless of race, nationality or color, and He seeks the lost, just as a Good Shepherd will seek the lost sheep.
The people of Israel, whom God had chosen as His own, and chosen to bring His message and truth to the world, had sinned against Him, primarily by worshipping false gods and idols. As punishment they were taken into captivity, and here Ezekiel gives the prophetic Word from God that He will bring the people of Israel back into their country. This prophecy was fulfilled a few decades after Ezekiel prophesied, when King Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to their homeland around 539 BC.
Just as God sought them out, like a Shepherd does His lost sheep, wishing to return them to His fold, so God seeks everyone out. One of the most beloved titles for Jesus has been that of the Good Shepherd. In John 10:11-16, in Jesus’s own words, He tells how, as the Good Shepherd, He seeks out everyone, wishing to bring them into His fold.
In his epistles, Peter also speaks of Jesus as being the Shepherd. In I Peter 2:25, he gives Jesus the title of Shepherd and Overseer (or bishop) of our souls. Peter says that we, both Jews and Gentiles, were going astray, but Jesus, as the Good Shepherd sought everyone out to bring them back to Himself.
Before we accept Jesus as our personal Savior, we are those lost sheep, having strayed away from God. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, seeks us out, to bring us back into the fold. If we turn to God in genuine repentance, He will forgive and restore us (vs. 16). God will mould Hearts that are yielded to Him to become more like Himself.
Have we come to the Good Shepherd who is seeking us out? When we hear His voice calling to us, like the lost child, do we come to His voice? Do we run to Him like a lost child who finally sees their parents, after having been lost for awhile? Or are we like the lost sheep who keeps wandering farther and farther away? Are we the lost child who keeps wanting to hide and stay away when those seeking them call out their name? Jesus is the Good Shepherd who seeks the lost. Come to Him without delay.
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