Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 296 · October 23
The Fat and the Strong
“I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.”
Picture a field the morning after a large flock has been through it. The good grass has been eaten down in patches, the rest has been trampled flat, and the water at the bottom has been churned to mud by the animals that drank first.
Ezekiel lists four things God will mend, and then adds a fifth clause that people rarely quote. "I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick." That is a search, a road home, a bandage and nursing back to strength. Then, in the same breath, God says: "but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment."
The judgment falls first on the shepherds: "Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock." Then the chapter turns, and God begins to judge among the sheep themselves: "Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats." The charge is about feet and shoulders, and nothing else. "Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures?" Then: "Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns." None of those sheep did anything people would call a scandal. They got to the pasture first, ate their fill, and spoiled what was left for whoever came behind them.
That describes a good deal of church life, and the chapter says plainly who it is about: "And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men." God can tell whether you have been the one pushed aside or the one doing the pushing. Yet in the same chapter He makes His flock a promise: "Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey." So make room at the water for the weak sheep behind you, because the Shepherd who judges between His sheep is also the One who feeds them all.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 296 is Temple of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19).