Inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance.-After Jerusalem had been sacked and King Zedekiah captured, as related in 2 Kings 25, "the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be vine-dressers and husbandmen." These ("those inhabiting those wastes of the land of Israel") imagined that "the land is given to us for an inheritance." They thought they would be left in undisturbed possession, but certain of them came into further conflict with the Assyrians. Then the land was made utterly desolate. This signifies, in fulfillment, that while the revolution overthrowing ecclesiasticism will make quite a clean sweep, there will still remain some of the more lowly adherents of ecclesiastical systems, who will imagine that they and their ideals are to prosper and spread even to the control of the revolutionary order of things. 33:25, 26. Wherefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Ye eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols, and shed blood; and shall ye possess the land? Ye stand upon your sword, ye work abomination, and ye defile every one his neighbor's wife; and shall ye possess the land?-But God knows their hearts, and is against them, for their continuance in the evil ways of ecclesiasticism. 33:27. Say thou thus unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; As I live, surely they that are in the wastes shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and they that be in the forts and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.A sad awakening awaits them. As Jehovah lives, those tares then surviving the ravages of revolution shall be slain by the sword of anarchy, and shall have taken away all pretense of being Christians. Those that have the spirit of earthly ambition shall be given to be destroyed by the savagery of anarchy; and those in the strongholds and in the protected conditions of revolution shall die literally of pestilence and be destroyed religiously by the pestilential teachings of those evil days. 33:28. For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and, the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through.— God purposes to utterly desolate this evil order of things and to completely abase the last vestiges of its pride and pomp, and to cause the governments of this Age, even in their changed forms of revolution, to pass away. 33:29. Then shall they know that I am the Lord, when I have laid the land most desolate, because of all their abominations which they have committed. Then at last the people that remain will realize that the war, revolution and anarchy, were the righteous judgments of the Almighty against the spiritual, political and economic abominations of Christendom. 33:30. Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the Word that cometh forth from the Lord.-Reverting to the present time, about contemporary with the realization that Christendom is smitten, the hypocrisy of professed Christians is spoken against. The tares in their churches (houses) will talk of Pastor Russell and his works and words-they will read this book, and will urge one another to "hear what is the Word that cometh from the Lord." 33:31. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as My people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them; for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.-They will come in numbers, apparently "as My people;" and like all tares, imitation Christians, they will listen respectfully to God's Words urging haste in consecration for the coming Kingdom; but they will not do the things they hear. They will manifest with their mouths great love for God, but will at heart be the selfseekers they always were! 33:32. And lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not.To these people, in their insincerity and hypocrisy, Pastor Russell's works will be scarcely a grade higher than an entertainment, a beautiful song, "the song of Moses and the Lamb," well played on the many-stringed harp, the Bible, but not heeded as of solemn import. 33:33. And when this cometh to pass (lo, it will come), then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them. But when the things predicted in the entire seven volumes of the Studies in the Scriptures come to pass, then shall the tares, too late, realize that a great and Divinely ordained preacher "hath been among them." "Master, speak! Thy servant heareth, I am listening, Lord, for Thee; EZEKIEL 34 THE UNFAITHFUL SHEPHERDS 34:1, 2. And the Word of the Lord came unto me, say Ing, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?-God is against the clergy. Chapter 34 is a burning arraignment of ecclesiasticism. It is to be taken in a dual sense as concerning the clergy's treatment of God's true people, the true Church on the spiritual plane, and of the Jews on the earthly plane, both of whom the self-appointed shepherds, the clergy, have neglected, abused and scat tered. (34:1-8, 17-21.) God will judge ecclesiasticism (34:9, 10, 16, 17, 20, 22), and will Himself, through His own agencies, regather and bless His true flock, Jewish and Christian. (34:10, 11-17, 22-31.) The words "shepherd" and "pastor" have the same meaning (D62; F287). Thus saith Jehovah God to the clergy, from Pope to preachers, Woe in the revolution and anarchy, from 1918 on-woe to the clergy that selfishly look out for "No. 1," that seek big salaries, live in tax-free and rent-free parsonages and rectories, that apply to themselves every promise of the Divine Word. Should not the clergy, the pastors, unselfishly feed the flock of God? 34:3. Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.Ye live on the choicest offerings of the people. Ye "fleece" the sheep of their golden fleece. Them that are fed to fatness with the Word of God, ye kill spiritually if ye Ye have literally killed over fifty millions in bloody persecutions. Ye have preached millions into a dreadful death in the trenches. Ye do everything to the sheep but feed them. Did I not command you thrice, "Feed My sheep?"-John 21:17; 1 Pet. 5:2. can. 34:4. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. Those weakened by spiritual disease-by the pestilence of false doctrines-ye have not strengthened with the pure Word of God, the Bread of Life. Rather ye have thrown them poisonous, death-dealing doctrines (1 Cor. 10:21) from the "table of devils." Ye have not healed with the Divine Word of comfort (2 Cor. 1:3-7; Rom. 15:4) those spiritually sick with temporary ailment of the soul. Ye have not bound up, with the strong promises of God, the broken in spirit. (Isa. 61:1.) Neither have ye brought back into renewed faithfulness those driven away by your treatment, nor sought to find and bring to renewed relation to God those sheep that have strayed from him in life and doctrine. Rather than feed them, serve and shepherd them, ye have ruled them, lorded over God's heritage (1 Pet. 5:3), as concerns both God's true Christian sheep and His sheep of the Hebrew race. 34:5. And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered.-"My sheep know My voice [of love], and a stranger will they not follow." (John 10:4, 5.) They were not kept together, cared for and cherished in the bonds of Christian love. There were not among you the true under-shepherds having My Spirit of Divine Love; and you, adulterous priests of Baal, and of Molech-the cruel, fiery-torment God-none having My Spirit could hear or follow. And when they were scattered, they, the inoffensive, unresisting ones, became the prey of every evil government and of every evil employer and corporation. Ye made them cannon-fodder by the thousands for the blood-guilty kaisers, czars, kings and generals of your evil order of things. 34:6. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, My flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them. My people wandered homeless and friendless throughout all the nations of this evil world. My flock of Apostles, martyrs, sacrificers, was scattered throughout all human society. Not one of the selfish, idolatrous clergy of either Romanism or Protestantism cared for them, or loved My beloved ones enough to seek after them; but rather ignored them, ostracized them, compelled their silence, drove them out from the churches, and stilled their voices in persecution and in death. 34:7. Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the Word of the Lord.-Ye have done this for centuries; and God permitted you to continue, because the time had not come. But now has come the hour of your judgment, ye popes, cardinals, bishops, priests, preachers, revivalists, and clergy of Baal, of every order and grade. Hear ye the Word of Jehovah. THE GOOD SHEPHERD 34:8. As I live, saith the Lord God, surely because My flock became a prey, and My flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did My shepherds search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not My flock.-As I live, saith the Living God, surely because My true flock became a prey, and was exploited by every evil ruler and employer, because there was no true shepherd among you, and you clergy did not love and cherish and seek for My beloved flock, but you loved and fed yourselves, and starved My true people with a famine for the hearing of the Word of God.-Amos 8:11. 34:9. Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. Therefore, ye clergy, hear the Word of the true God, Jehovah. 34:10. Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require My flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver My flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them. Thus saith Jehovah God; Behold, I am against the clergy (H12), great and little, high and low; and I will exact from them an accounting for My beloved people; I will take My flock entirely from them. "Come out of her, O My people, and touch not the unclean thing." (Rev. 18:4; 2 Cor. 6:17.) And I will cause the clergy to cease from feeding or attempting to preach to My flock, or any flock in My name; for in a Time of great Trouble I will deliver My people from the mouths of the clergy (Rev. 9:17-19), that My flock may not furnish them support any more, that My people may not ever again be preached by the clergy into slaughter. 34:11. For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search My sheep, and seek them out.-Jehovah will ignore the hireling, faithless clergy, and through an agency of His own lowly despised, caluminated, ostracised will patiently, persistently, lovingly search for all His "little ones," those having His Spirit, and will seek them out. 34:12. 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. As an oriental shepherd, who knows and loves his sheep and is known and loved of them, seeks them out, when they are scattered (John 10:4-15), so will God seek |