After setting the watchman, God Himself came in to be the Shepherd. This is wonderful! After John the Baptist sounded the trumpet of repentance, the Lord Jesus also came in as the Shepherd (Matt. 9; Luke 15; John 10). In His recovery by life, God first sends the watchman to warn His people to repent, to turn and live. Following this, the Lord Himself appears as the Shepherd. In our personal experience, it is exactly the same. First, we may hear a warning from the Lord causing us to turn and repent. At that time we realize that the Lord Jesus is not only our Savior but also our Shepherd, seeking and searching us out. After the warning of the watchman, God came in as the Shepherd to search and seek out. God did not send an angel or some other person, but He Himself became the Shepherd.
As the Shepherd He first of all searched. Because of the fall of man, we all were buried under many evil things, so we needed God to search for us. In Luke chapter fifteen there is both the shepherd seeking the lost sheep and the woman 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 of the Lord. Many times the Lord has done the same thing with us. He searched for us so that He could save 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 poor Christianity, and were buried under many doctrines, forms, and gifts, but the Lord Jesus once more searched for us and eventually brought us out. 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? It is not of us; it is of Him. We are here because He as the Shepherd searched for us.
When we were fallen as sinners or when we became backsliders, we were among the nations living like Gentiles. Though we were living like unbelievers among the millions of people on earth, the Lord Jesus sought us out and brought us back. You may have been one schoolteacher among forty or fifty or even a hundred teachers, but you alone were sought out and brought back by the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus caused you to be different from the Gentiles. Formerly, you were the same as the unbelievers. Whatever they did, you did also. But one day, the Lord Jesus as the Shepherd sought you and brought you out from among the unbelievers. Hallelujah!
God promised that He would bring His people back to their own land (34:13). 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. We know that to us the 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. Today we are in Christ, in the good land. The good land today is also the local church. When we were brought back to Christ, we were brought back also to the local church. It is here that we have all the riches and enjoyment of the good land.
The Lord promised to bring them back, not merely to the level of the plains, but to the high mountains. This means that the Lord Jesus brings us back to experience the resurrected and ascended Christ. Today in the Lord's recovery, we do not enjoy a Christ merely on the level of the plain; we are enjoying Him on the highest mountains as the resurrected and ascended Christ. Our enjoyment of Christ is so high! How marvelous!
Furthermore, the Lord said He would bring them back to the rivers (34:13). The rivers indicate the life-giving Spirit, the living water of the Spirit. From the mountains, the rivers flow; from the resurrected and ascended Christ, the living water of the Spirit flows.
The Lord also said that He would feed His flock by the rivers (34:13). In the local churches the Lord Jesus is feeding us daily by the rivers of living water. Many of us have had this sensation. While we were in the denominations, we only had the sensation of dryness and drought. But once we came into the meetings of the local churches, we had the sensation that we had been brought back to the river. Something was flowing there as a river and we were by the side of the river enjoying the riches of Christ. This is not something of man; this is something of our Shepherd. He feeds us richly by the rivers. In all the meetings of the local churches we have the river, the flow, and the watering. It is not a matter of teaching or ministering, but a matter of something flowing and of being watered. When we come into the meetings we can sense this watering.
The Lord brought them back, not only to the rivers, but also to the good and fat pastures (34:14). The rivers signify the life-giving Spirit and the pasture signifies Christ. By the rivers we have the rich Christ as our pasture. The rivers are for drinking and the pasture is for eating. In every meeting of the local churches, we have the sensation that we are by the rivers and in the pasture, that we are drinking and eating. Praise the Lord we are under the care of our Shepherd, drinking by the rivers and feeding in the pastures! If visitors could come to your local church and not have the sensation that they were under the feeding and watering with a river flowing, with pastures fat and good and green, this would mean that the church life there is wrong. If the church life is right, when people come to the meetings, they will have the sensation that they are by the flowing rivers and in the fat pastures.
Ezekiel 34:15 also says that the Shepherd will cause them to lie down. To lie down means not to work so much, not to struggle so much, not to strive. In the Bible, to lie down means to rest. In Song of Songs 1:7, the seeker asked the Lord where He fed His sheep, where He gave His flock rest at noontime. Whenever the Lord feeds us, shepherds us, gives us to drink and eat, He also gives us rest. Many times in the church meetings, we have the sensation that we are lying down to rest. Outwardly we are sitting, but inwardly we are lying down to rest.