For thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Behold, I myself, even I, will search for my sheep, and will seek them out.”
Ezekiel 34:11 (WEB)
in its setting: Ezekiel 34:7-16
1 Where we are
Desmond has rescheduled the same counselling appointment three times. The card sits in his wallet behind his EZ-Link, soft at the corners. He is not refusing. He means to go when the shifts settle, when he has something better to report. Thursday he stood at the sink rinsing milk jugs beside a nineteen-year-old and talked him through the worst week of that boy's year. Not once at a loss.
2 What the passage is doing
Ezekiel wrote to exiles. His charge is against Israel's shepherds — kings and priests who fed themselves and left the flock scattered on the hills, unsought. Then the sentence turns. God stops naming the failure and speaks for himself: I myself, even I. In that chapter no sheep finds its own way home.
וְדָרַשְׁתִּי
wedarashti · and I will search for, inquire after
Darash is the word used elsewhere for seeking God — enquiring of him, consulting him, coming to him with a question. Here it is reversed. God is the one enquiring, asking after his scattered sheep, following up. English "search for" sounds like scanning a horizon. Darash is attentive, deliberate, personal care.
3 Taking it with you
Jesus took that title and went out with it — to wells, roadsides, tax booths, a pool where a man had lain for years without once getting in. Desmond is good at going to people. He has not yet believed that someone came for him first. The search was never his to begin. Ask the boy at the sink to sit with you in the waiting room. Being brought is not weakness. It is how nearly everyone arrives.
A prayer you can pray
Lord, I have put this off again. I am better at helping than being helped. Thank you that you came looking for me before I ever went looking for you. Give me the nerve to keep the appointment, and someone to walk in with me. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria — to God alone be the glory.
