The Wednesday after Misericordias Domini Sunday
Posted on May 7, 2025 by under
Scripture: Ezekiel 34:23-31 (NKJV)
34:23 I will establish one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them—My servant David. He shall feed them and be their shepherd. 24 And I, the Lord, will be their God, and My servant David a prince among them; I, the Lord, have spoken.
25 “I will make a covenant of peace with them, and cause wild beasts to cease from the land; and they will dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. 26 I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing; and I will cause showers to come down in their season; there shall be showers of blessing. 27 Then the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase. They shall be safe in their land; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them. 28 And they shall no longer be a prey for the nations, nor shall beasts of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and no one shall make them afraid. 29 I will raise up for them a garden of renown, and they shall no longer be consumed with hunger in the land, nor bear the shame of the Gentiles anymore. 30 Thus they shall know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and they, the house of Israel, are My people,” says the Lord God.’”
31 “You are My flock, the flock of My pasture; you are men, and I am your God,” says the Lord God.
Devotion
“You are My flock, the flock of My pasture; you are men, and I am your God.” Here God shows what it means to be a man. Man was created to relate to God as a sheep relates to a shepherd. In fact, we can conclude that God created sheep to teach us about ourselves, that we were meant to be gathered together, protected, and nourished by our God.
Before the fall into sin, Adam and Eve enjoyed all of the blessings described in the first part of this reading. But Satan, the father of all spiritual thieves, infiltrated Paradise. He led Adam and Eve away from the door of the Word of God and convinced them to follow the voice of a stranger. As a result, they found themselves outside the safety of the sheepfold.
In today’s reading, our Lord promises a restoration of man’s original state, to raise up for us a “garden of renown” and to make us His sheep once again. This is accomplished by His servant David, that is, our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Door by which we are brought back into Paradise. Through faith in Him we become the kind of men we were supposed to be, as we sing in the Venite, “For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand” (Ps. 95:7).
Collect: God, Who, by the humiliation of Thy Son, didst raise up the fallen world: Grant unto Thy faithful ones perpetual gladness, and those whom Thou hast delivered from the danger of everlasting death, do Thou make partakers of eternal joys; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
