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.”
A field the morning after a large flock has been through it. The good grass cropped in patches, the rest trodden flat, and the water at the bottom churned to mud by the animals that drank first.
Ezekiel lists four repairs and then a fifth clause nobody quotes. 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. Lost, driven away, broken, sick: a search, a road home, a bandage, a meal. Then, in the same breath: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment. All ten English versions this app carries offline print destroy there.
Judgment lands on the shepherds first: 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 starts judging between the sheep. Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats. The charge has no theology in it at all, only feet and shoulders. 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? And three verses on: Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns. None of those sheep did anything anybody would call a scandal. They got to the pasture first, ate their fill, and ruined what was left for whoever was behind them, which describes a good deal of church life. And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men. He is not talking about livestock, and he can tell which of them you have been.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 296 is Temple of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19).