After setting the watchman, God Himself came in to be the Shepherd (34:11-31). After the warning of the watchman, God did not send an angel or another person; He Himself came as the Shepherd. How wonderful! We see this not only in Ezekiel but also in the New Testament. After John the Baptist sounded the trumpet of repentance, the Lord Jesus came in as the Shepherd (Matt. 9:36; Luke 15:1-7; John 10:11).
In God’s recovery by life, He first sends the watchman to His people to repent, turn, and live, and then He Himself appears as the Shepherd. In our own personal experiences it is exactly the same. First we may hear a warning from the Lord causing us to repent. Then we realize that the Lord Jesus is not only our Savior but also our Shepherd, seeking and searching us out.
Ezekiel 34:11 says, “For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.” As the Shepherd, the Lord not only seeks but also searches. Because of our fallen condition, we were all buried under many evil things, so we needed God to search for us. In Luke 15 we have both the shepherd (signifying Christ as the Shepherd) seeking the lost sheep and the woman (signifying the Spirit) lighting the lamp and searching within the house for the lost coin. The prodigal son then was drawn home by the searching of the Spirit.
The Lord has done the same thing with us. He searched for us in order to save us and recover us. Before we were saved, we were buried under many sins, but the Lord Jesus sought us. Then after we were saved, we backslid into degraded Christianity, and we were buried under many things, such as doctrines, forms, and gifts. However, once again the Lord Jesus searched for us; He sought us out and brought us out. Now we are the ones who have been sought out by the Lord Jesus as the Shepherd. How is it possible for us to be here in the church life? This is not of us but absolutely of Him. We are here because as the Shepherd He sought and searched for us.
Ezekiel 34:12-13a says, “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. And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries.” Here we see that Ezekiel prophesied that as the Shepherd the Lord would bring His people, His sheep, out of the nations.
This also has been our experience. When we were fallen as sinners or when we became backsliders, we were among the nations living like Gentiles. Although we were living like unbelievers among billions of others on earth, the Lord Jesus sought us out and brought us out of the nations, out of the unbelievers. You might have been a school teacher among many others, but you alone were sought out and brought back by the Lord Jesus, who then caused you to be different from the Gentiles. Formerly you were the same as the unbelievers, but one day the Lord Jesus as the Shepherd sought you and brought you out from among the unbelievers and brought you to Himself.
In verse 13b the Lord went on to say that He would bring His people back to their own land. They were in captivity in heathen countries, but the Lord promised to bring them back to their own country, to the good land of Canaan. Our good land is Christ. Before we were saved or after we backslid, we were separated from Christ. But the Lord sought us out and brought us back to Himself and even into Himself as our good land. Today we are in Christ as the good land. The good land today is also in the church life. Thus, when we were brought back to Christ, we were also brought to the church life, where we have the riches and the enjoyment of the good land.
The Lord promised to bring His people back not only to their own land but also to the high mountains (vv. 13-14). Since the high mountains signify the resurrected and ascended Christ, this indicates that the Lord Jesus brings us back to the experience of the resurrected and ascended Christ. Thus, in the Lord’s recovery today, we do not enjoy a Christ merely on the level of the plain but on the highest mountains as the resurrected and ascended Christ.